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 26) Office in Berlin-Schmargendorf. I must add here that in the meantime my husband had been transferred to the east and had been given leave to get married. After the honeymoon my husband returned again to the east. I never learned where my husband's unit was stationed. Our correspondence went through a Field Post Number. [93] During the war my husband returned home on leave at different times. I can no longer give the exact times today. With some certainty I can remember that my husband came to Berlin on leave from the east during the summer of 1942, and for Christmas 1942. In addition, I know well that that in November 1943 I was bombed-out in Berlin and lost my apartment, and that ... my husband received a so-called 'bomb leave'. I also remember well that my husband came to me in Berlin on leave for the last time in 1944, and in fact I know that he came from the south. I cannot answer unequivocally the interposed question about whether my husband had leave from Italy and returned there again. I only know that he came from the south and I certainly take it that he also travelled back to the south. [94] At this point in her statement, Ilse Hackenholt recounted the events that prematurely terminated her ill-fated holiday in Lublin in October-November 1943 to stay with her injured husband. She then told the SK III/a officers that she remembered for certain receiving a letter from him for her birthday in November 1944, and that she probably replied to this letter. After that, her memory of further correspondence was vague. There now follows the most intriguing part of Ilse Hackenholt's statement which concerns the possible survival of her husband after the war: Shortly after the war, that is, at the end of May or beginning of June 1945, I was visited in Berlin by a man I did not know. This man brought a handwritten note, whether written in ink or pencil I no longer know, on which was written only, 'Many Greetings, Your Lori'. As this incident could be of some importance, I must explain something else. In November 1943 I lost my apartment at Martin Luther Strasse 11 through bomb damage and went to my sister's at Babelsberger Strasse 3 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. As I have already stated, my husband was given 'bomb leave' at this time and therefore knew the new address. In the last days of the war the Babelsberger Strasse district was completely destroyed and I wrote on the wall of the ruin my new address: Wilhelmshohe Strasse 3, Berlin-Friedenau. The man who brought the note from my husband could have got the Babelsberger address from him, and then found me through the address on the ruin wall. The man introduced himself to me by name but I no longer know what it sounded like. I think it was a short name and had a 'a' in it. [95]. Ilse Hackenholt described the man as aged between 30-35 years of age and about 1.70 meters tall, and having sparse blond hair combed straight back. She claimed he was a total stranger and had never met him before, or seen him since. Whoever he was, he told Ilse Hackenholt that her husband was alive and that he needed his civilian clothes; he _______________ [93] Belzec extermination camp Field Post No. 27712. [94] ZStl 208 AR-Z 252/59 (Belzec Case), p. 1496. Ilse Hackenholt, 31.10 1961/Sonthofen. [95] Ibid., p. 1497.    Back Page 26 Forward
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