Herbert Lange (29 September 1909 – 20 April 1945) was a German SS-Sturmbannführer (major) and a key perpetrator of the Holocaust. He played a significant role in the Aktion T4 euthanasia program and the early stages of the extermination of Jews and other targeted groups in occupied Poland.
Born in Pomerania, Lange joined the Nazi Party and the SS in 1933. By 1934, he was part of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police), and in 1938, he became a member of the Gestapo (Secret State Police).
After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Lange was appointed commander of the Sonderkommando Lange, a special SS unit operating in the Reichsgau Wartheland (annexed Greater Poland). This unit was initially responsible for the mass murder of Polish civilians, particularly the intelligentsia, Jews, and psychiatric patients.
Lange's unit became notorious for its pioneering use of gas vans as a method of mass murder. Under his command, the Sonderkommando Lange was responsible for the systematic killing of thousands of psychiatric patients and disabled people in institutions across the Wartheland, including the notorious Soldau concentration camp and facilities in Kochanówka and Owińska. These operations served as a precursor to the larger-scale extermination programs.
From late 1941, Lange was instrumental in the establishment and operation of the Chełmno extermination camp (Kulmhof). He commanded the camp's staff and personally oversaw the gassing of tens of thousands of Jews, Roma, and Soviet prisoners of war in gas vans. Chełmno was the first extermination camp to employ gas vans for continuous mass murder, and Lange's methods were later adopted and refined in other extermination camps.
In 1942, Lange was transferred to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) – the Reich Main Security Office – in Berlin, where he was involved in further SS operations. He was later promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer.
Herbert Lange was killed in action on 20 April 1945, during the Battle of Berlin, while serving with the 27th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Langemarck.
References:
- Denzler, Alexander. Die Anfänge des Holocaust: Die Einsatzgruppen und die Massenvernichtung der Juden in Osteuropa. Campus Verlag, 2013.
- Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
- Poprzeczny, Joseph. Odilo Globocnik: Hitler's Man in the East. McFarland, 2004.
- Schulz, Andreas and Dieter Zinke. Die Generale der Waffen-SS und der Polizei: Die militärischen Werdegänge der Generale, sowie der Ärzte, Veterinäre, Intendanten, Richter und Ministerialbeamten im Generalsrang. Band 3 (Lammerding-Plesch). Biblio Verlag, 2008.