The ‘Disappearance’ of SS-Hauptscharführer Lorenz Hackenholt A Report on the 1959-63 West German Police Search for Lorenz Hackenholt, the Gas Chamber Expert of the Aktion Reinhard Extermination Camps © Michael Tregenza (Page 8) The main purpose of the surveillance — to note all male visitors to the 'Sonnenhuttle', however, proved disappointing. No visits by unidentified males were observed. Apart from Colonel H. from the Ministry of Defence, only Frau Hackenholt's brother, Heinz Erich R., an engineer from Berlin-Zehlendorf, came every year with his family to spend the summer holidays in Tiefenbach, staying at the 'Edelweiss' guest house. Apart from this, only the wife of a local Border Police officer occasionally visited the 'Sonnenhuttle' to watch television but had never discussed the subjects of interest to the Ludwigsburg or police investigators. Other contact with local villagers was rare. The report concludes: It has already been mentioned that Frau Hackenholt works elsewhere and was often absent from Tiefenbach for long periods of time. About this, people say that she was often travelling. Above all, a visit to Italy which Frau Hackenholt made with her friends in the autumn was talked about. The thought occurs, how could these women have afforded it? In this connection, it was explained that Frau Hackenholt charges fees as a private masseuse. Nothing could be learned about this income of hers. [18] The information in the surveillance report was provided primarily by the village mayor and a Grenzpolizei officer who lived in the local municipal building which had a good view of the 'Sonnenhuttle' chalet. Both officials stated with certainty that they had never observed visits by strangers, and that Frau Hackenholt was a pleasant member of the village community. [19] There were no further leads in the search for former SS-Scharführer Lorenz Hackenholt until the following spring. On 1 March 1961, two officers from Sonderkommission III/a (SK III/a), the war crimes investigation unit of the Munich Kriminalpolizei assigned to the case, travelled to Berlin to interrogate one of his former SS-comrades. In Berlin-Tegel prison they questioned Erich Bauer who was serving the eleventh year of a life sentence imposed by a Berlin court in 1950 for crimes committed at the Sobibor extermination camp. In 1942-43, SS-Oberscharführer Bauer had been Hackenholt's counterpart, in charge of the Sobibor gas chambers in which over 250,000 Jews had been murdered. On oath, Bauer swore that he knew that Hackenholt had definitely survived the war. They had met and talked at Zuchering near Ingolstadt in Bavaria in 1946. At that time, according to Bauer, Hackenholt was living under the name of Jansen, Jensen, Johannsen, or something similar, an identity he had allegedly taken from a dead soldier towards the end of the war. It was Bauer's impression that under this alias Hackenholt had obtained work as a delivery van driver, and when pressed for further details he said he believed the vehicle Hackenholt was driving was a Faun van. Bauer also mentioned that during the _______________ [18] Ibid., p. 1060. Report by Kriminalpolizei Branch Office of the Bavarian State Police in Kempten/Allgau to the Bavarian State Police Office in Munich, dated 25.11.1960. Copies forwarded to SK III/a on 20.11.1960 and to the Ludwigsburg Central Office on 29.11.1960. Bavarian State Police Daily Duty Log, Entry No. 814/1960. [19] Ibid., p. 1061    Back Page 8 Forward
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