Rudolf Lange
Encyclopedia
Dr. Martin Franz Erwin Rudolf Lange (18 April 1910 – 23 February 1945?) was a prominent Nazi police official. He served as commander of the SD
and SIPO
in Riga
, Latvia
. He participated in the Wannsee Conference
, and was largely responsible for implementing the extermination of Latvia's Jewish population (Einsatzgruppe A killed over 250,000 people in little less than six months).
, Prussian Silesia, a town now in present-day Saxony
. His father was a railway construction supervisor. Lange finished high school in Staßfurt
in 1928, and went to study law in the University of Jena. He received a doctorate in law in 1933, and was recruited by the Gestapo
office of Halle. He joined the SA
in November 1933, but soon felt that this had been a bad career move. Thus, in 1936 Lange joined the SS
(member number 290,308).
As a mid-level Gestapo
official, Lange rose rapidly in the regime's terror apparatus
. He also adopted the SS ideology wholeheartedly, as can be seen from his resignation from the church in 1937. From 1936 he worked in the Gestapo office of Berlin
. In May 1938, Lange was transferred to Vienna
to supervise the annexation of the Austrian police system. There, he met and worked with Franz Walter Stahlecker
, who later became his superior in Riga. In June 1939 Lange was transferred to Stuttgart.
In September 1939 the security and police agencies of Nazi Germany (with the exception of the Orpo) were consolidated into the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) of the SS, headed by Reinhard Heydrich
. The Gestapo became Amt IV (Department IV) of RSHA and Heinrich Müller became the Gestapo Chief, with Heydrich as his immediate superior. From May to July 1940, Lange ran the Gestapo offices of Weimar
and Erfurt
, while working as the deputy head of the office of the Inspector of the SiPo in Kassel
. Finally, in September 1940, Lange was promoted as the deputy head of police for Berlin. In April 1941, Lange was promoted to Sturmbannführer
in the SS (Major).
.
Lange was a Teilkommando (detachment) leader in Einsatzkommando 2
, or EK2. Lange was one of the few people to be aware of the Führerbefehl or "fundamental orders" for the so-called "Jewish problem
" in Latvia. According to Lange himself:
On December 3, 1941, he was promoted to command all of EK2, replacing Eduard Strauch
. At the same time, Lange was also the chief of the Nazi Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst
or SD with the title Kommandant des Sicherheitsdienst, or KdS. Lange was in charge of Department IV of the SD in Latvia. Department IV of the SD was the "hub of the whole SD organization in Latvia, the other departments served it." Matters of formal rank and titles were never clear in the Nazi occupation regime for Latvia, as the lines of authority within agencies, and the relationship between one agency and others, was "ambiguous, overlapping, and unclear". Nevertheless, Lange is widely recognized as one of the primary perpetrators of the Holocaust in Latvia.
His headquarters was in Riga
, on Reimersa street. From the very beginning of his involvement in Latvia, Lange gave orders to squads of Latvians whom the Germans had organized to carry out massacres in the smaller cities, such as the Arajs Kommando. According to one historian, Victors Arājs was "held on a short leash" by Lange. Another local organization receiving orders from Lange was the so-called Vagulāns Kommando, which was responsible for the Jelgava massacres
in July and August, 1941.
Lange also personally supervised executions conducted by the Arājs commando. He appears to have ordered that all the SD officers should personally participate in the killings.
Lange was responsible for the Latvian part of the decision by the Nazi regime to deport Jews from Germany, Austria
, and Czechoslovakia
to Riga
. In this connection, on November 8, 1941, he issued detailed orders to Hinrich Lohse
, who was ostensibly the ruler of Latvia in his capacity as "Reichskommissar Ostland", regarding the transport of 50,000 Jews to the East, with 25,000 going to Riga and 25,000 to Belarus
. At the same time, Lange was organizing the construction of the Salaspils concentration camp
, originally intended to accommodate these deportees. Because the Salaspils camp would not be ready by the time the Jews would arrive, Lange made the decision to sent the transports to an abandoned estate near Riga called Jungfernhof or Jumpravmuiza, which would be set up as an improvised concentration camp.
In November 1941 Lange was deeply involved in the planning and carrying out the murder of 24,000 Latvian Jews from the Riga ghetto
which occurred on November 30 and December 8, 1941. This crime has come to be known as the Rumbula massacre
. In addition to the Latvian Jews, another 1,000 Jews from Germany were also murdered. They had been brought to Latvia on the first train of deportees, which arrived on November 29, 1941. Following the November 29 train, more rail transports of Jews began arriving in Riga from Germany began arriving, starting on December 3, 1941. The Jews on the first few transports were not immediately housed in the ghetto
, but rather they were left at the Jungfernhof concentration camp
.
In May 1942, Lange issued orders to Obersturmführer
Günter Tabbert to kill the surviving Jews in the Daugavpils ghetto
. Only about 450 Jews survived in Daugavpils after this action, which involved among others the killing of the sick, children (including infants) and hospital workers. In addition to Tabbert, the Arājs commando of native Latvians was responsible for a major part of these killings.
In 1942, Lange became a Obersturmbannführer
(Lt. Colonel) in the head office in Riga until 1945, when he became Head of Reichsgau Wartheland
's SD
and SIPO
. He was promoted to Standartenführer
(Colonel) in the SS in 1945.
by Heydrich in January 1942. Along with Adolf Eichmann
, the recording secretary of the conference, Lange as a SS-Major was the lowest ranking of the present SS officers. Heydrich, however, viewed Lange's first-hand experience in conducting the mass murder of deported Jews as valuable for the conference. Instead of Lange, Heydrich could have invited either Karl Jäger
or Erich Ehrlinger
, who commanded the SiPO and SD in Lithuania and Belarus respectively, and were responsible for similar massacres. He ultimately chose Lange, because Riga was the main deportation destination, and also because Lange's doctorate made him to be seen as more intellectual than either Jäger or Ehrlinger. Lange's superior Stahlecker was not invited, as he was not familiar with the actualities of the Jewish deportations in technical detail and was not situated in Riga.
, Warthegau
in February 1945
; he may have committed suicide
, but records are unclear. He was one of the few SS officers to receive the German Cross
in Gold medal on 6 February 1945.
and Heinrich Himmler
. He demanded unconditional obedience from his subordinates. Joseph Berman, a survivor of one of the concentration camps administered by Lange, described him as follows:
Lange made himself one of the most feared officials among those responsible for the Riga ghetto
. Lange supervised the arrival of the transports in Riga, aided by Obersturmbannführer
Gerhard Maywald, whom historian Gertrude Schneider, herself a survivor of the Riga ghetto
, describes as Lange's "sidekick". Lange personally shot a young man, Werner Koppel, whom he felt was not opening a rail car door fast enough. Scheider described Lange's appearance:
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
and SIPO
Sicherheitspolizei
The Sicherheitspolizei , often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo and the Kripo between 1936 and 1939...
in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
. He participated in the Wannsee Conference
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of the Nazi German regime, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference was to inform administrative leaders of Departments responsible for various policies relating to Jews, that Reinhard Heydrich...
, and was largely responsible for implementing the extermination of Latvia's Jewish population (Einsatzgruppe A killed over 250,000 people in little less than six months).
Early life and career
Lange was born to a family in WeißwasserWeißwasser
Weißwasser is a town in Upper Lusatia in eastern Saxony, Germany.Weißwasser is the third largest town in the Görlitz district after Görlitz and Zittau. The town's landmark is its water tower.- History :...
, Prussian Silesia, a town now in present-day Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
. His father was a railway construction supervisor. Lange finished high school in Staßfurt
Staßfurt
Staßfurt is a town in the Salzlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on both sides of the river Bode, approximately northeast of Aschersleben, and south of Magdeburg. Pop. 23,538....
in 1928, and went to study law in the University of Jena. He received a doctorate in law in 1933, and was recruited by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
office of Halle. He joined the SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
in November 1933, but soon felt that this had been a bad career move. Thus, in 1936 Lange joined the 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...
(member number 290,308).
As a mid-level Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
official, Lange rose rapidly in the regime's terror apparatus
State terrorism
State terrorism may refer to acts of terrorism conducted by a state against a foreign state or people. It can also refer to acts of violence by a state against its own people.-Definition:...
. He also adopted the SS ideology wholeheartedly, as can be seen from his resignation from the church in 1937. From 1936 he worked in the Gestapo office of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. In May 1938, Lange was transferred to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
to supervise the annexation of the Austrian police system. There, he met and worked with Franz Walter Stahlecker
Franz Walter Stahlecker
Franz Walter Stahlecker was Commander of the Sicherheitspolizei and the Sicherheitsdienst for the Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941/42...
, who later became his superior in Riga. In June 1939 Lange was transferred to Stuttgart.
In September 1939 the security and police agencies of Nazi Germany (with the exception of the Orpo) were consolidated into the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) of the SS, headed by Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
. The Gestapo became Amt IV (Department IV) of RSHA and Heinrich Müller became the Gestapo Chief, with Heydrich as his immediate superior. From May to July 1940, Lange ran the Gestapo offices of Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
and Erfurt
Erfurt
Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...
, while working as the deputy head of the office of the Inspector of the SiPo in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
. Finally, in September 1940, Lange was promoted as the deputy head of police for Berlin. In April 1941, Lange was promoted to Sturmbannführer
Sturmbannführer
Sturmbannführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party equivalent to major, used both in the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel...
in the SS (Major).
Mass murder in Latvia
On 5 June 1941 Lange was ordered to Pretzsch and the command staff of Einsatzgruppe A, headed by SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei Dr. Franz Walter StahleckerFranz Walter Stahlecker
Franz Walter Stahlecker was Commander of the Sicherheitspolizei and the Sicherheitsdienst for the Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941/42...
.
Lange was a Teilkommando (detachment) leader in Einsatzkommando 2
Einsatzkommando
During World War II, the Nazi German Einsatzkommandos were a sub-group of five Einsatzgruppen mobile killing squads—up to 3,000 men each—usually composed of 500-1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to kill Jews, Romani, communists and the NKVD collaborators in the captured...
, or EK2. Lange was one of the few people to be aware of the Führerbefehl or "fundamental orders" for the so-called "Jewish problem
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
" in Latvia. According to Lange himself:
On December 3, 1941, he was promoted to command all of EK2, replacing Eduard Strauch
Eduard Strauch
Eduard Strauch was an SS-Obersturmbannführer, commander of Einsatzkommando 2, commander of two Nazi organizations, the Security Police , or Sipo, and the Security Service , first in Belarus – then called White Russia or White Ruthenia – and later in Belgium...
. At the same time, Lange was also the chief of the Nazi Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
or SD with the title Kommandant des Sicherheitsdienst, or KdS. Lange was in charge of Department IV of the SD in Latvia. Department IV of the SD was the "hub of the whole SD organization in Latvia, the other departments served it." Matters of formal rank and titles were never clear in the Nazi occupation regime for Latvia, as the lines of authority within agencies, and the relationship between one agency and others, was "ambiguous, overlapping, and unclear". Nevertheless, Lange is widely recognized as one of the primary perpetrators of the Holocaust in Latvia.
His headquarters was in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, on Reimersa street. From the very beginning of his involvement in Latvia, Lange gave orders to squads of Latvians whom the Germans had organized to carry out massacres in the smaller cities, such as the Arajs Kommando. According to one historian, Victors Arājs was "held on a short leash" by Lange. Another local organization receiving orders from Lange was the so-called Vagulāns Kommando, which was responsible for the Jelgava massacres
Jelgava massacres
The Jelgava massacres were the killing of the Jewish population of the Jews of the city of Jelgava, Latvia that occurred in the second half of July or in early August 1941...
in July and August, 1941.
Lange also personally supervised executions conducted by the Arājs commando. He appears to have ordered that all the SD officers should personally participate in the killings.
Lange was responsible for the Latvian part of the decision by the Nazi regime to deport Jews from Germany, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
to Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
. In this connection, on November 8, 1941, he issued detailed orders to Hinrich Lohse
Hinrich Lohse
Hinrich Lohse was a Nazi German politician, best known for his World War II rule of the Baltic states.-Early life:...
, who was ostensibly the ruler of Latvia in his capacity as "Reichskommissar Ostland", regarding the transport of 50,000 Jews to the East, with 25,000 going to Riga and 25,000 to Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
. At the same time, Lange was organizing the construction of the Salaspils concentration camp
Salaspils concentration camp
Salaspils concentration camp was established at the end of 1941 at a point 18 km southeast of Riga . The Nazi bureaucracy drew distinctions between different types of camps. Officially, Salaspils was a Police Prison and Work Education Camp...
, originally intended to accommodate these deportees. Because the Salaspils camp would not be ready by the time the Jews would arrive, Lange made the decision to sent the transports to an abandoned estate near Riga called Jungfernhof or Jumpravmuiza, which would be set up as an improvised concentration camp.
Jungfernhof concentration camp
The Jungfernhof concentration camp was an improvised concentration camp in Latvia, at the Mazjumprava Manor, near the Šķirotava Railway Station about three or four kilometers from Riga...
In November 1941 Lange was deeply involved in the planning and carrying out the murder of 24,000 Latvian Jews from the Riga ghetto
Riga Ghetto
The Riga Ghetto was a small area in Maskavas Forštate, neighborhood of Riga, Latvia, designated by the Nazis where Jews from Latvia, and later from Germany, were forced to live during World War II. On October 25, 1941, the Nazis relocated all Jews from Riga and the vicinity to the ghetto while the...
which occurred on November 30 and December 8, 1941. This crime has come to be known as the Rumbula massacre
Rumbula massacre
The Rumbula massacre was the two-day killing of about 25,000 Jews in and on the way to Rumbula forest near Riga, Latvia, during the Holocaust. Save only the Babi Yar massacre in Ukraine, this was the biggest two-day Holocaust atrocity until the operation of the death camps...
. In addition to the Latvian Jews, another 1,000 Jews from Germany were also murdered. They had been brought to Latvia on the first train of deportees, which arrived on November 29, 1941. Following the November 29 train, more rail transports of Jews began arriving in Riga from Germany began arriving, starting on December 3, 1941. The Jews on the first few transports were not immediately housed in the ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
, but rather they were left at the Jungfernhof concentration camp
Jungfernhof concentration camp
The Jungfernhof concentration camp was an improvised concentration camp in Latvia, at the Mazjumprava Manor, near the Šķirotava Railway Station about three or four kilometers from Riga...
.
In May 1942, Lange issued orders to Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...
Günter Tabbert to kill the surviving Jews in the Daugavpils ghetto
Daugavpils Ghetto
Following the occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany in the summer of 1941, the Daugavpils Ghetto was established in an old fortress near Daugavpils. Daugavpils is the second largest city in Latvia and the principal city of the Latgalia region. Daugavpils was located in southeastern Latvia on the...
. Only about 450 Jews survived in Daugavpils after this action, which involved among others the killing of the sick, children (including infants) and hospital workers. In addition to Tabbert, the Arājs commando of native Latvians was responsible for a major part of these killings.
In 1942, Lange became a Obersturmbannführer
Obersturmbannführer
Obersturmbannführer was a paramilitary Nazi Party rank used by both the SA and the SS. It was created in May 1933 to fill the need for an additional field grade officer rank above Sturmbannführer as the SA expanded. It became an SS rank at the same time...
(Lt. Colonel) in the head office in Riga until 1945, when he became Head of Reichsgau Wartheland
Reichsgau Wartheland
Reichsgau Wartheland was a Nazi German Reichsgau formed from Polish territory annexed in 1939. It comprised the Greater Poland and adjacent areas, and only in part matched the area of the similarly named pre-Versailles Prussian province of Posen...
's SD
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
and SIPO
SIPO
SIPO or Sipo can refer to* Sipo Bohale, an Equatoguinean footballer* Sicherheitspolizei, the Security Police of Nazi Germany* State Intellectual Property Office, the patent office of the People's Republic of China, 中华人民共和国国家知识产权局...
. He was promoted to Standartenführer
Standartenführer
Standartenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in the so-called Nazi combat-organisations: SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK...
(Colonel) in the SS in 1945.
Wannsee conference
Lange was called to the Wannsee ConferenceWannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of the Nazi German regime, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference was to inform administrative leaders of Departments responsible for various policies relating to Jews, that Reinhard Heydrich...
by Heydrich in January 1942. Along with Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
, the recording secretary of the conference, Lange as a SS-Major was the lowest ranking of the present SS officers. Heydrich, however, viewed Lange's first-hand experience in conducting the mass murder of deported Jews as valuable for the conference. Instead of Lange, Heydrich could have invited either Karl Jäger
Karl Jäger
Karl Jäger was a Swiss-born SS-Standartenführer and Einsatzkommando leader who perpetrated acts of genocide.-Early life and career:...
or Erich Ehrlinger
Erich Ehrlinger
Erich Ehrlinger was a member of the Nazi SS who, as commander of Special Detachment 1b, was responsible for mass murder in the Baltic states and Belarus.He was also the commander of the Security Police and the...
, who commanded the SiPO and SD in Lithuania and Belarus respectively, and were responsible for similar massacres. He ultimately chose Lange, because Riga was the main deportation destination, and also because Lange's doctorate made him to be seen as more intellectual than either Jäger or Ehrlinger. Lange's superior Stahlecker was not invited, as he was not familiar with the actualities of the Jewish deportations in technical detail and was not situated in Riga.
Disappearance
Lange was said to be killed in action in PosenPoznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
, Warthegau
Reichsgau Wartheland
Reichsgau Wartheland was a Nazi German Reichsgau formed from Polish territory annexed in 1939. It comprised the Greater Poland and adjacent areas, and only in part matched the area of the similarly named pre-Versailles Prussian province of Posen...
in February 1945
Battle of Poznan (1945)
The Battle of Poznań during World War II in 1945 was a massive assault by the Soviet Union's Red Army that had as its objective the elimination of the Nazi German garrison in the stronghold city of Poznań in occupied Poland...
; he may have committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, but records are unclear. He was one of the few SS officers to receive the German Cross
German Cross
The German Cross was instituted by Adolf Hitler on 17 November 1941 as an award ranking higher than the Iron Cross First Class but below the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross respectively ranking higher than the War Merit Cross First Class with Swords but below the Knight's Cross of the War Merit...
in Gold medal on 6 February 1945.
Character
Lange was said to have been a favorite student of Reinhard HeydrichReinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
and Heinrich 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...
. He demanded unconditional obedience from his subordinates. Joseph Berman, a survivor of one of the concentration camps administered by Lange, described him as follows:
Lange made himself one of the most feared officials among those responsible for the Riga ghetto
Riga Ghetto
The Riga Ghetto was a small area in Maskavas Forštate, neighborhood of Riga, Latvia, designated by the Nazis where Jews from Latvia, and later from Germany, were forced to live during World War II. On October 25, 1941, the Nazis relocated all Jews from Riga and the vicinity to the ghetto while the...
. Lange supervised the arrival of the transports in Riga, aided by Obersturmbannführer
Obersturmbannführer
Obersturmbannführer was a paramilitary Nazi Party rank used by both the SA and the SS. It was created in May 1933 to fill the need for an additional field grade officer rank above Sturmbannführer as the SA expanded. It became an SS rank at the same time...
Gerhard Maywald, whom historian Gertrude Schneider, herself a survivor of the Riga ghetto
Riga Ghetto
The Riga Ghetto was a small area in Maskavas Forštate, neighborhood of Riga, Latvia, designated by the Nazis where Jews from Latvia, and later from Germany, were forced to live during World War II. On October 25, 1941, the Nazis relocated all Jews from Riga and the vicinity to the ghetto while the...
, describes as Lange's "sidekick". Lange personally shot a young man, Werner Koppel, whom he felt was not opening a rail car door fast enough. Scheider described Lange's appearance:
Fictional portrayal
- Lange was portrayed by Martin Lüttge in the 1984 German TV film Die Wannseekonferenz.
- In the 2001 HBO film Conspiracy, he was played by Barnaby KayBarnaby KayBarnaby Kay is a British actor noted for his roles in television, stage and film, and as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.Kay is the son of the actor Richard Kay , and the grandson of entertainer Arthur Kay...
.
SS career
- Untersturmführer, July 6, 1938
- Sturmführer, November 9, 1938
- Hauptsturmführer, April 20, 1940
- Sturmbannführer , April 20, 1941
- Obersturmbannführer, November 9, 1943
- Standartenführer, 1945