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 30) Theo Hackenholt may only have had the impression that the driver of the oncoming car was his brother, but it made a strong enough impression for him to mention it to his sister-in-law 12 years later, which suggests that at the time they were discussing Lorenz Hackenholt. It is not very likely that Theo Hackenholt could easily have mistaken his brother's hard, dark features, even after a gap of three years. At the Regional Court in Munich I the examining magistrate handling the Belzec Case assessed the depositions by witnesses to date and decided that there was sufficient evidence to reasonably assume that former SS-Hauptscharführer Lorenz Hackenholt was still alive under a false identity, and that the search should therefore continue in the area of Ingolstadt in Bavaria. The interim report by the judge ends with an interesting remark concerning the 10,000 DM indemnity against Lorenz Hackenholt's life which, it had been ascertained, the alleged widow had long since claimed and received in full: Insofar as Ilse Hackenholt is suspected of having embezzled money, I have submitted the interrogation reports to the State Prosecutor in Kempten/Allgäu. An intensive search for Lorenz Hackenholt was now begun in the Ingolstadt area. The police department in the town was requested by SK III/a by telephone from Munich to determine the following : whether any driving licenses had been issued to anyone with a name similar to 'Jansen' since the end of the war; whether anyone with such a name was registered as a lorry driver; whether any delivery driver — in the widest sense of the word, not only goods or long distance lorry drivers — is, or had ever been registered. This official request was passed on by the Ingolstadt police department to all police stations within their jurisdiction. Every male with the names, Jansen, Jensen, Johansen, or anything similar, was systematically checked. None of the people investigated could be connected in any way with Lorenz Hackenholt. The Ingolstadt police and all police stations in the region were provided with copies of Hackenholt's photograph and asked to check every garage, service station, vehicle repair workshop, motor accessory shop, vehicle park, and guest house frequented by drivers of commercial vehicles. There was no result. The State Association for Bavarian Commercial Goods Carriers (Landerverband Bayrischer Führungsunternehmer) asked to enquire through their branch offices whether they had ever registered any drivers with names similar to the alleged alias who drove Faun vans. As most commercial goods drivers were registered with the Association they were easily checked. In addition, every member of the Association, regardless of name, was also checked. There was no result. All enquiries, involving several thousand drivers, proved fruitless. At the Federal Vehicle Office (Kraftfahr Bundesamt) in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, there were registered at this time in West Germany no fewer than 15,000 men    Back Page 30 Forward
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