When Erich Koch (1896 to 1986) reached the peak of his career, he competed with other prominent figures of the Nazi regime, such as Heinrich Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg, for power and influence with Adolf Hitler, who held the short-statured upstart in high regard. The native Rhinelander ruled over East Prussia as a Gauleiter during the Third Reich and, like a "brown czar," served as Reich Commissioner of Ukraine. His power extended from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, making him Hitler's greatest territorial lord. The brutal and ruthless power broker, who even Stalin would have gladly awarded a medal for his inhumanity towards the Ukrainians, is held responsible for the deaths of well over a million people; this does not include the tens of thousands of East Prussians whom he prevented from fleeing in time from the advancing Red Army at the end of the war.