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 32) women'. In Stuttgart-Fellbach, Frau Schubert again denied knowing anyone called Hackenholt. Meanwhile, in Ingolstadt, the investigators decided to check with the local council offices in the area all applications for personal identity cards and special permits, in the same way that driving licenses had been scrutinized - by comparing Hackenholt's photograph and handwriting with those on the documents, but without referring to the applicant's name. This investigation, however, could not be carried out. The documents were no longer available. Only the card index remained which did not bear photographs of applicants and was therefore of no use to the investigation. In the early summer of 1962, the Bavarian Social Security Court in Augsburg summoned Ilse Hackenholt for fraud. She was charged with falsely applying for and receiving a substantial sum of money in the form of a back-dated war widow's pension. The court found her guilty of making a false declaration and fraudulently receiving the money. All future payments were withdrawn. Ilse Hackenholt appealed against the verdict on the grounds that she had not knowingly committed fraud and that she was being 'unjustly pursued' by the court which, as her defence attorney claimed, had 'illegally withdrawn her pension'. Her attorney also used the argument that a previous criminal charge against her — at the instigation of the examining magistrate at the Regional Court in Munich I — of embezzling the 10,000 DM indemnity, had not been proceeded with by the State Prosecutor in Kempten. The case had been dropped 'for lack of evidence'. Ilse Hackenholt's appeal was rejected the following year and the court imposed a heavy fine upon her. One of the witnesses questioned during the appeal was Helene Schubert who yet again perjured herself by denying knowing personally anyone called Lorenz Hackenholt. In the meantime, on 9 October 1962, the examining magistrate at the Regional Court in Frankfurt-am-Main wrote to SK III/a in Munich enquiring about progress in the search for Lorenz Hackenholt as he too was interested in the whereabouts of the former SS-Hauptscharführer. The State Prosecutor in Frankfurt was preparing indictments against several participants in the T4 'euthanasia' killings and Hackenholt featured high on the 'wanted' list of the Frankfurt court. SK III/a replied six days later with a detailed report of their three year investigation, and informed the judge that only one enquiry now remained outstanding, namely, to determine whether Hackenholt had ever been interned as a POW at the Weilheim or any other camp in the former US Zone of Occupation. If he had been released from the Weilheim camp in the summer of 1945, together with Schluch, Zierke and Juhrs, then the police stations in the vicinity may well have rendered assistance in the form of cash, provisions, and a driving license. Therefore, SK III/a — in conjunction with the Office of the State Prosecutor in Dortmund who was dealing with the Sobibor Case, and also wished to indict Hackenholt — requested from the US Army headquarters in Heidelberg lists of names of German POWs released from their camps in 1945. At the same time, the Office of the State Prosecutor in Munich I sent an enquiry to Washington also requesting details of German POWs released from American custody.    Back Page 32 Forward
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