Lorenz Hackenholt ( Gelsenkirchen , Germany , 25 of June of 1914 - declared dead the 31 of December of 1945 ) was a non - commissioned officer of the SS , active participant in the Holocaust during World War II .
Biography
Hackenholt entered the 1 as April as 1933 the Nazi Party with number 1727962 and SS the year 1934 . He served in the Wehrmacht before the war. He participated in the Program Euthanasia called Action T4 , being highlighted as a driver at Sonnenstein Center. He also served in Grafeneck .
He was incorporated in Operation Reinhard , being one of the favorites of the SS Sturmbannführer Christian Wirth . He participated in the construction and operation of the gas chamber extermination camp of Belzec . He attended the construction of the gas chamber Sobibor . Plans for new gas chambers of Treblinka were prepared by Hackenholt who was serving in Belzec that time, he also attended the installation of piping gas chambers of Treblinka.
Hackenholt is remembered by SS Franz Suchomel: “In Treblinka, the Ukrainians had to consume quantities of alcohol in order to carry out their work and live the life of the camp (concentration), but Wirth, Oberhauser and Hackenholt had an iron hand That with whips and punishments. ” (Tregenza, p. 42)
It was promoted as SS Hauptscharführer in September 1943 , no doubt for their diligent work in the death camps. In Belzec , the gas chambers were a poster where “Stiftung Hackenholt” read (Hackenholt Foundation), which is described by the SS Obersturmführer Kurt Gerstein who witnessed an extermination operation the 18 of August of 1942 and testified that Hackenholt operated the Diesel engine used to kill prisoners. Above the sign was a Star of David, there was another similar sign in Treblinka . (Klee, p.242)
Hackenholt served in Italy in 1944 , in operations to combat partisans and Jews armed, being prominent in the field of San Saba. It is presumed to have survived the war in the Allgäu area near Memmingen-Kempten on the German-Austrian border. He was never brought to trial. In December 1945 , his wife asked to be pronounced dead, which caused her to never be wanted for her activities in the Holocaust .
References
- Tregenza, Michael. Christian Wirth: Inspekteur der Sonderkommandos, “Aktion Reinhard”.
Unpublished article in English. (Published in Polish as: ‘Zessyty Majdanka’, Vol. XV, Lublin 1993)
- Klee, Ernst (ed); The Good old days: the Holocaust as seen by its perpetrators and bystanders.
New York: The Free Press, 1991.