Rudolf Lange

Rudolf Lange
Rudolf Lange
Born	November 18, 1910 Weißwasser, Prussian Silesia
Died	February 23, 1945(1945-02-23) (aged 34) uncertain, but said to be Posen, West Prussia
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Schutzstaffel and Sicherheitsdienst
Years of service	1932–1945
Rank	Standartenführer (Colonel)
Unit	Einsatzgruppe A, Einsatzkommando 2
Battles/wars	Battle of Poznań (1945)
Awards	German Cross in Gold
Other work	One of the persons most responsible for carrying out The Holocaust in Latvia. Representative of Einsatzgruppe A and Einsatzkommando 2 To The Wannsee Conference, January 20, 1942 and March 6, 1942

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).

Early life and career

Lange was born to a family in Weißwasser, Prussian Silesia,^[1] 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.^[1] He received a doctorate in law in 1933, and was recruited by the Gestapo office of Halle.^[1] He joined the SA in November 1933, but soon felt that this had been a bad career move.^[1] Thus, in 1936 Lange joined the SS (member number 290,308).^[1]

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.^[2] From 1936 he worked in the Gestapo office of Berlin.^[1] In May 1938, Lange was transferred to Vienna to supervise the annexation of the Austrian police system.^[1] There, he met and worked with Franz Walter Stahlecker, who later became his superior in Riga.^[2] In June 1939 Lange was transferred to Stuttgart.^[1]

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.^[2] Finally, in September 1940, Lange was promoted as the deputy head of police for Berlin.^[1] In April 1941, Lange was promoted to Sturmbannführer in the SS (Major).

Mass murder in Latvia

See also: Einsatzgruppen, Burning of the Riga synagogues, Riga ghetto, Rumbula massacre, Liepāja massacres, Jelgava massacres, and Daugavpils ghetto

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 Stahlecker.^[3]

Lange was a Teilkommando (detachment) leader in Einsatzkommando 2, or EK2.^[4] Lange was one of the few people to be aware of the Führerbefehl or "fundamental orders" for the so-called "Jewish problem" in Latvia.^[5] According to Lange himself:

“

From the very beginning, the goal of EK2 was that radical solution of the Jewish problem by killing all Jews.[6]

”

On December 3, 1941, he was promoted to command all of EK2, replacing Eduard Strauch.^[4] 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.^[4] Department IV of the SD was the "hub of the whole SD organization in Latvia, the other departments served it."^[7] 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".^[7] Nevertheless, Lange is widely recognized as one of the primary perpetrators of the Holocaust in Latvia.^[8]

His headquarters was in Riga, on Reimersa street.^[9] 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.^[4] According to one historian, Victors Arājs was "held on a short leash" by Lange.^[10] 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.^[11]

Lange also personally supervised executions conducted by the Arājs commando.^[12] He appears to have ordered that all the SD officers should personally participate in the killings.^[13]

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.^[8] 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.^[8][14]

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.^[8] This crime has come to be known as the Rumbula massacre.^[15] 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.^[16]

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.^[17]

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.

Wannsee conference

See also: Wannsee conference

Lange was called to the Wannsee Conference by Heydrich in January 1942.^[8] Along with Adolf Eichmann, the recording secretary of the conference, Lange as a SS-Major was the lowest ranking of the present SS officers.^[18] Heydrich, however, viewed Lange's first-hand experience in conducting the mass murder of deported Jews as valuable for the conference.^[18] 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.^[18] 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.^[18] 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.^[18]

Disappearance

Lange was said to be killed in action in Posen, 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.^[19]

Character

Lange was said to have been a favorite student of Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler.^[4] He demanded unconditional obedience from his subordinates.^[4] Joseph Berman, a survivor of one of the concentration camps administered by Lange, described him as follows:

“

As far as Lange is concerned, he was the biggest murderer I have ever known. To write a book about him would definitely not be enough. As he is dead, it is no use talking about him. I would, however, mention that he was one of the most notorious anti-Semites in the twentieth century. He hated Jews so much that he could not look at them; one never wanted to pass him either in the motor pool or anywhere else.[20]

”

Lange made himself one of the most feared officials among those responsible for the Riga ghetto.^[21] 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".^[16] Lange personally shot a young man, Werner Koppel, whom he felt was not opening a rail car door fast enough.^[16] Scheider described Lange's appearance:

“

Even though he was somewhat smaller and darker than the blond, blue-eyed Maywald, he looked very handsome in his fur-collared uniform coat and seemed every inch an officer and a gentleman. It never occurred to the newcomers to suspect such a man of being a murderer.[22]

”

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 Kay.^[23]

SS career

• Untersturmführer, July 6, 1938
• Sturmführer, November 9, 1938
• Hauptsturmführer, April 20, 1940
• Sturmbannführer , April 20, 1941
• Obersturmbannführer, November 9, 1943
• Standartenführer, 1945

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Lange biography and image
2. ^ ^{a b c} Angrick & Klein, The "Final Solution" in Riga: Exploitation and Annihilation, pp. 44
3. ^ Angrick & Klein, The "Final Solution" in Riga: Exploitation and Annihilation, pp. 44-45
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at pages 147-151.
5. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at page 207/
6. ^ Krausnik, Helmet, and Wilhelm, Hans-Heinrich, Die Truppe des Weltandschauungskrieges, at page 535, as quoted in Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at page 204
7. ^ ^{a b} Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at pages 152 and 153.
8. ^ ^{a b c d e} Lumans, Latvia in World War II, at pages 236, 249, 251, 253-255
9. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at page 313.
10. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, pg 184
11. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at pages 50 and 320.
12. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, pg 190.
13. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, pg 223.
14. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at pages 352 to 356
15. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at pages 243-247.
16. ^ ^{a b c} Schneider, Journey into Terror, at pages 11 to 15.
17. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at pages 279-280
18. ^ ^{a b c d e} Angrick & Klein, The "Final Solution" in Riga: Exploitation and Annihilation, pp. 226.
19. ^ Patzwall
20. ^ Berman, Joseph, Yad Vashem deposition 02/870, as quoted in Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at page 147.
21. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at pages 322-321.
22. ^ Schneider, Journey into Terror, at page 24.
23. ^ Conspiracy at the Internet Movie Database

References

• Ezergailis, Andrew, The Holocaust in Latvia 1941-1944—The Missing Center, Historical Institute of Latvia (in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) Riga 1996 ISBN 9984-9054-3-8
• Lumans, Valdis O., Latvia in World War II, New York : Fordham University Press, 2006 ISBN 0823226271
• (German) Patzwall, Klaus D. and Scherzer, Veit. Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 - 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II. Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, 2001. ISBN 3-931533-45-X.
• (German) Peter Klein: Dr. Rudolf Lange als Kommandant der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD in Lettland. Aspekte seines Dienstalltags, in Wolf Kaiser (Hrsg.): Täter im Vernichtungskrieg. Der Überfall auf die Sowjetunion und der Völkermord an den Juden. Propyläen-Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-549-07161-2
• Schneider, Gertrude, Journey into terror: story of the Riga Ghetto, Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2001 ISBN 0275970507

External links

• (German) Wannsee conference villa
• (Italian) Lange biography and image

Persondata
Name	Lange, Rudolf
Alternative names
Short description	SS Standartenführer and Colonel
Date of birth	18 April 1910
Place of birth	Weißwasser
Date of death	23 February 1945
Place of death	Poznań