Lorenz Hackenholt
Encyclopedia
Lorenz Marie Hackenholt built and operated the gas chamber at the Bełżec extermination camp. In so doing, he personally carried out the murder of hundreds of thousands of people.
Hackenholt was deeply involved in other Holocaust murders, including other Operation Reinhard
camps, and in particular, the murder of mental patients and the disabled in Action T4
. Hackenholt was a member of the Nazi SS
with the rank of Hauptscharführer
(First Sergeant).
/Ruhr. His father was Theodor Hackenholt and his mother was Elizabeth Wobriezek. He attended the local elementary school until he reached the age of 14. He then became an apprentice bricklayer. After he passed the trade examination he worked on various building sites.
in the motor pool. He also worked as a guard at Sachsenhausen.
orders. In November 1939 Hackenholt was assigned to Action T4, when he was transferred to Berlin for 'special duty'. This special duty was under Viktor Brack
. According to Werner Karl Dubois, another camp guard transferred to special duty with Hackenholt:
There were six T4 killing facilities. Hackenholt served in all of them. He drove a bus with the SS staff from facility to facility. He also removed the bodies from the gas chambers and burned them. For a while Hackenholt was a driver for SS-Untersturmführer Dr. August Becker
, the T4 chemist who was responsible for delivering bottled carbon monoxide gas from I.G. Farben manufacturing plants to the T4 gas chambers. Hackenholt worked primarily in Grafeneck and Sonnenstein.
Poland
where they came under the authority of SS-Brigadeführer Odilo Globocnik
. Hackenholt did return on leave to Berlin to marry Ilse Zillmer, who was then 29 years old. Hackenholt then returned to Poland, where he was sent to Bełżec, then a remote rail station, to conduct experiments to establish a method for the mass killing of Jews by gas. Hackenholt set up three gas chambers in a shed. Using exhaust piped into the chambers from an old Soviet tank engine, Hackenholt killed over 50,000 Jews in one month (mid March to mid April 1942). In August 1942, Hackenholt built and operated newer and larger gas chambers at Belzec. Once Belzec came into operation, he put up a sign over the gas chamber which said "Hackenholt Foundation", with potted geraniums on either side of the entrance. Hackenholt also designed and operated gas chambers at the Treblinka and Sobibor extermination camps.
Hackenholt, who was called "Hacko" by other guards, was a tough, large man who was willing and able to do any task at the extermination camps, although he reportedly balked at cleanup up seeping corruption from bodies rotting in mass graves. At Belzec, where all ages of people were killed, some Jews, because of infirmity or age, could not enter the gas chamber. These people were instead laid down in the mass graves, and, according to the testimony of other guards, shot by Hackenholt. In 1943, when Himmler
ordered the mass graves at Belzec to be reopened and the bodies burned, Hackenholt was in charge of the operation. Himmler considered Hackenholt to be "one of the most deserving men of Operation Reinhard" .
In December 1943, Hackenholt and other personnel from Operation Reinhard
were transferred to northern Italy (Trieste
), where they attempted to find and kill the few remaining Italian Jews. In 1944 Hackenholt was awarded the Iron Cross (Second Class)
for his role in Operation Reinhard.
Hackenholt was supposedly killed in Italy in 1945, possibly by execution for selling guns to the partisans. However this was never quite certain. The West German authorities began an investigation in 1959. They were able to locate Hackenholt's wife and mother. Both certified that Hackenholt had not been heard from since the war, and surveillance of the wife's residence showed there were no attempts by him to visit her there. In 1961, the West German police were able to find one Hermann Erich Bauer
, who had been in the SS with Hackenholt. Bauer claimed that Hackenholt had definitely survived the war, because he had met him in 1946 near Ingolstadt
, Bavaria
. Hackenholt was going under a false name that he had acquired from a dead soldier. Bauer's statement was somewhat corroborated by a former Sobibor guard, who likewise said he had met Hackenholt after the war. The West German police conducted an investigation but were not able to locate Hackenholt, or make a firm determination as to whether he might still be alive.
Hackenholt was deeply involved in other Holocaust murders, including other Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...
camps, and in particular, the murder of mental patients and the disabled in Action T4
Action T4
Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...
. Hackenholt was a member of the Nazi SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
with the rank of Hauptscharführer
Hauptscharführer
Hauptscharführer was a Nazi paramilitary rank which was used by the Schutzstaffel between the years of 1934 and 1945. The rank was the highest enlisted rank of the SS, with the exception of the special Waffen-SS rank of Sturmscharführer....
(First Sergeant).
Early life
Hackenholt's full name was Laurenzius Marie Hackenholt. He was born on 26 June 1914 in GelsenkirchenGelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the Ruhr area. Its population in 2006 was c. 267,000....
/Ruhr. His father was Theodor Hackenholt and his mother was Elizabeth Wobriezek. He attended the local elementary school until he reached the age of 14. He then became an apprentice bricklayer. After he passed the trade examination he worked on various building sites.
Concentration camp guard
In 1933, Hackenholt volunteered for the SS. After joining the SS he was sent to a training school on 1 January 1934. After that he volunteered for service in the army, where he was assigned to the 12th Engineers' Battalion. After two years military service he was discharged, and then joined the SS Death's Head troops. He was a skilled driver and mechanic and, beginning in March 1938, served at Sachsenhausen concentration campSachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
in the motor pool. He also worked as a guard at Sachsenhausen.
Action T4
Action T4, the so-called "Euthanasia Program", lasted from early 1940 until the summer of 1941 when the gassings were stopped on Hitler'sAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
orders. In November 1939 Hackenholt was assigned to Action T4, when he was transferred to Berlin for 'special duty'. This special duty was under Viktor Brack
Viktor Brack
Viktor Brack , was a Nazi war criminal, the organiser of the Euthanasia Programme, Action T4, where the Nazi state systematically murdered disabled German people...
. According to Werner Karl Dubois, another camp guard transferred to special duty with Hackenholt:
There were six T4 killing facilities. Hackenholt served in all of them. He drove a bus with the SS staff from facility to facility. He also removed the bodies from the gas chambers and burned them. For a while Hackenholt was a driver for SS-Untersturmführer Dr. August Becker
August Becker
August Becker was during the Nazi regime in Germany an SS lieutenant colonel and chemist in the Central Reich Security Office...
, the T4 chemist who was responsible for delivering bottled carbon monoxide gas from I.G. Farben manufacturing plants to the T4 gas chambers. Hackenholt worked primarily in Grafeneck and Sonnenstein.
Operation Reinhard and beyond
In the fall of 1941, some the Action T4 personnel, including Hackenholt, were transferred to LublinLublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
where they came under the authority of SS-Brigadeführer Odilo Globocnik
Odilo Globocnik
Odilo Lotario Globocnik was a prominent Austrian Nazi and later an SS leader. He was an acquaintance of Adolf Eichmann, who played a major role in the extermination of Jews and others during the Holocaust...
. Hackenholt did return on leave to Berlin to marry Ilse Zillmer, who was then 29 years old. Hackenholt then returned to Poland, where he was sent to Bełżec, then a remote rail station, to conduct experiments to establish a method for the mass killing of Jews by gas. Hackenholt set up three gas chambers in a shed. Using exhaust piped into the chambers from an old Soviet tank engine, Hackenholt killed over 50,000 Jews in one month (mid March to mid April 1942). In August 1942, Hackenholt built and operated newer and larger gas chambers at Belzec. Once Belzec came into operation, he put up a sign over the gas chamber which said "Hackenholt Foundation", with potted geraniums on either side of the entrance. Hackenholt also designed and operated gas chambers at the Treblinka and Sobibor extermination camps.
Hackenholt, who was called "Hacko" by other guards, was a tough, large man who was willing and able to do any task at the extermination camps, although he reportedly balked at cleanup up seeping corruption from bodies rotting in mass graves. At Belzec, where all ages of people were killed, some Jews, because of infirmity or age, could not enter the gas chamber. These people were instead laid down in the mass graves, and, according to the testimony of other guards, shot by Hackenholt. In 1943, when Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
ordered the mass graves at Belzec to be reopened and the bodies burned, Hackenholt was in charge of the operation. Himmler considered Hackenholt to be "one of the most deserving men of Operation Reinhard" .
In December 1943, Hackenholt and other personnel from Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...
were transferred to northern Italy (Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
), where they attempted to find and kill the few remaining Italian Jews. In 1944 Hackenholt was awarded the Iron Cross (Second Class)
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
for his role in Operation Reinhard.
Post-war disappearance and investigation
Hackenholt disappeared after 1945, and based on an application by his wife was declared dead by a Berlin court on 1 April 1954, with an official date of death of 31 December 1945.Hackenholt was supposedly killed in Italy in 1945, possibly by execution for selling guns to the partisans. However this was never quite certain. The West German authorities began an investigation in 1959. They were able to locate Hackenholt's wife and mother. Both certified that Hackenholt had not been heard from since the war, and surveillance of the wife's residence showed there were no attempts by him to visit her there. In 1961, the West German police were able to find one Hermann Erich Bauer
Erich Bauer
Hermann Erich Bauer , sometimes referred to as "Gasmeister", was a SS-Oberscharführer . He participated in Nazi Germany's Action T4 program and later in Operation Reinhard, serving as a gas chamber operator at Sobibor extermination camp...
, who had been in the SS with Hackenholt. Bauer claimed that Hackenholt had definitely survived the war, because he had met him in 1946 near Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...
, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
. Hackenholt was going under a false name that he had acquired from a dead soldier. Bauer's statement was somewhat corroborated by a former Sobibor guard, who likewise said he had met Hackenholt after the war. The West German police conducted an investigation but were not able to locate Hackenholt, or make a firm determination as to whether he might still be alive.