Erich Lachmann

Willie Gustav Erich Lachmann ² ( 6 of November of 1909 - 23 of January of 1972 ) was an assistant police SS - Scharführer (Sergeant) who participated in the Operation Reinhard in the death camp of Sobibor .

Biography

Lachmann was born in Legnica on 6 November 1909 and began his career as a policeman .

Career in the Third Reich

Since September 1941 , Lachmann trained Ukrainians in the Trawniki concentration camp , who had registered as volunteers to be guards in Operation Reinhard. According to Lachmann’s own testimony, he was in Sobibor as commander of the Ukrainian guards since August 1943 ; However, witnesses stated that he had been in the field from exactly one year before. His companion of the SS Erich Bauer called it “a drunk and stealing someone like crows.” Prisoners of Sobibor, as Eda Lichtman and Abraham Margulies , witnessed Lachmann raping young girls.

When Franz Reichleitner took command of Sobibor from Franz Stangl , he sent Lachmann back to Trawniki, because he considered that Lachmann was not fit to fulfill his duties. From there, Lachmann defected with his Polish girlfriend in the winter of 1942 - 1943 . ² He was arrested several months later in Warsaw and was sentenced to six years in prison; however, he was released in April 1945 during the latter stages of the war, captured by the Red Army Soviet and survived the war. ³

Postwar

In the trial of Sobibor in Hagen , which lasted from 6 of September of 1965 to 20 of December of 1966 , he was accused of participating in the mass murder of approximately 150,000 Jews.

At the trial, Lachmann stated:

He had nothing against the Jews. I saw them like other people. Earlier, I bought my Jewish costumes, Max Süssmann, who had a textile company in Liegnitz.

Lachmann court found mentally incompetent and was acquitted by ” coercion putative”. ^{1 2}

References