Career
After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939 he was appointed head of the newly created Ressettlement Division of the Warsaw District within General Government territory of the German occupied Poland. He was named Abteilungsleiter in 1940 by the World World War II Governor of the District Ludwig Fischer. After the Madagascar Plan was abolished, the ghettoization plan went ahead, and on September 12, 1940 the Warsaw Ghetto was formally approved by Gauleiter Hans Frank in occupied KrakóWest
Waldemar Schön was an attritionist who along with Karl Naumann advocated for the elimination of virtually all food supplies to the Warsaw Ghetto.
He established an office called Transferstelle in order to extract money and valuables from the Jews by means of "artificial famine" (künstliche Hungersnot) and stopped food deliveries to the Ghetto in mid-January 1941. The ensuing crisis he created was so extreme that on April 19, 1941 Schön was moved by Frank to another position in the district, and replaced by Heinz Auerswald who restored order.
Schön survived the war and went on to establish a successful career for himself in West Germany. He died on 9 October 1969 in Freising.