Career
He was in charge of the deportation of Czechoslovakian Jews to death camps during the Holocaust. He was killed by Czechoslovakian partisans in 1945. Günther worked as an accountant until 1931.
He joined the Sturmabteilung (Société Anonyme) in November 1928, rising quickly to become Société Anonyme leader in March 1929.
He remained in the post until early May 1945. His role was to organise the "final solution" in Prague, and was given instructions concerning the true meaning of this by Eichmann and Reinhard Heydrich.
His responsibilities were the maintenance of anti-Jewish regulations in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, as well as deportations of Czechoslovakian Jews to the ghetto in Theresienstadt and from there to the extermination camps. The prisoners in the camp called him the "smiling executioner".
Theresienstadt film
In order to counter Allied propaganda about the concentration camps Günther commissioned a film, "Theresienstadt", about the "Jewish area of settlement", portraying an idealised image of well-federal and housed Jews.
The film was made during the late summer of 1944 and completed in March 1945. Kurt Gerron, a Jewish actor/director, made the film in return for a promise that he and his family would live. Shortly after he finished shooting the film, however, both he and his family were "evacuated" to Auschwitz where they were gassed upon arrival.
The film was intended for foreign audiences, but as it was completed shortly before the collapse of the Third Reich, it was only seen by a few representatives of foreign organizations.
Günther also set up a museum of Jewish artefacts in Prague containing items from destroyed synagogues. Death
In May 1945, when the Prague uprising broke out, Günther, travelling with a heavily armed motorcade, was stopped at a roadblock near Beroun by Czechoslovakian partisans.
He was arrested and disarmed. According to the partisans, he attempted to grab a weapon from a guard and was mortally wounded in the ensuing struggle when he was injured by a hand-grenade.
He later died from his injuries.
The Czechoslovakian authorities later accepted this account of his death, which was given to the German judicial authorities.