August Becker (chemist)

August Becker (* 17th August 1900 in Staufenberg in Giessen , † 31 December 1967 ) was in the National Socialist German Reich as obersturmführer and chemists in the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) gas specialist for the T4 and inspector for the use of gas vans for the Holocaust in the Soviet Union .

Origin and studies

August Becker was born on August 17, 1900 in Staufenberg, Hesse, near Gießen, as the son of a factory owner. Still drafted towards the end of the First World War , Becker then studied chemistry and physics at the University of Giessen . 1933 doctorate he there to the Dr. phil. with a thesis on crystals with Karl Schaum . From 1933 to 1935 he remained as an assistant at the Giessen University.

Professional and political career

Becker joined the NSDAP as early as September 1930 (membership number 292.346) and in February 1931 also became a member of the SS (membership number 5.325). From February to April 1934 he worked for a time in the Giessen Gestapo office before finally leaving the university in 1935.

In his interrogation on April 4, 1960, Becker described his further career:

“In May 1935 I came to the SS-Regiment“ Germania ” in Arolsen near Kassel . At that time I was an SS-Oberscharführer and with this reg. I only had to do with military matters. I stayed in this regiment until February 28, 1938. Afterwards I was transferred to the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), Office VI in Berlin through an official transfer, without my own request . This office was located on Bernerstrasse in Grunewald . Office VI was responsible for defense, the head of this office was a Dr. Best . I myself was entrusted with the management of the sympathetic inks and photocopies department. I stayed in this office until December 1939 (shortly before Christmas), then I was called to the Reich Chancellery by telephone to see the chief service officer Victor Brack . On the same day I went to Brack in the leader firm , this was then housed in the building of the Chancellery. Brack received me and informed me that, based on a personal discussion between him and Reichsführer SS Himmler , I would be placed under Brack's position. At the same time, Brack informed me of the purpose of this transfer. It said a euthanasia program would be under way with the purpose of destroying all idiots and the insane. The type of killing should be carried out by a carbon dioxide gas . This gas was said to have already been used by a chemist Dr. Widmann has been checked at the Reich Criminal Police Office (RKPA) in Berlin for its usability in this regard. Brack continued to tell me - without my asking him about it - that I needn't have any scruples about this matter, because the killing of these people would later be legalized by the Führer with the help of a law. [...] "

With the T4

August Becker was probably already present at the "trial gassings" that were carried out in Fort VII in Posen in mid-October 1939 on an unknown number of victims in a provisional gas chamber .

Becker was definitely a participant in a first "test" gassing of 18 to 20 mentally ill patients in the " Brandenburg State Institution aH ", the former prison. In the proceedings against the first medical director of Aktion T4, Werner Heyde , Becker described this process as follows:

“Brack ordered me to start the first euthanasia experiment in the Brandenburg sanatorium near Berlin. It was in the first half of January 1940 when I drove to the hospital. The mental institution's buildings had been specially prepared for this purpose. A room, similar to a shower room and laid out with panels, about three by five meters and three meters high. There were benches all around and on the floor, about 10 cm high, a water pipe about 1 "Ø ran along the wall. There were small holes in this tube from which the carbon dioxide gas flowed. The gas bottles were outside the room and were already connected to the supply pipe. The installation of the system was carried out by a fitter from the SS main office in Berlin [...] At the entrance door, which was constructed similar to an air raid door, there was a rectangular peephole through which the behavior of the delinquents could be observed.

The first gassing was carried out by the Dr. Widmann carried out personally. He operated the throttle and regulated the amount of gas. At the same time he taught the prison doctor Dr. Eberl and Dr. Baumhart , who later took over the destruction in Grafeneck and Hadamar [...]

During this first gassing, about 18-20 people were led into this 'shower room' by the nursing staff. These men had to undress in an anteroom so that they were completely naked. The door was locked behind them. These people walked calmly into the room and showed no signs of agitation. Dr. Widmann operated the gas system, through the peephole I could see that after about a minute people fell over and were lying on benches. There were no scenes or tumults. After a further five minutes, the room was vented. SS men specially designated for this purpose took the dead out of the room on special stretchers and brought them to the incinerators.

When I say special stretchers, I mean stretchers specially designed for this purpose. These could be placed directly on the front of the cremation ovens and the corpses could be mechanically transported into the ovens by means of a device without the carrier coming into contact with the corpse. These ovens and stretchers were also constructed in the Brack office. But I cannot say who was responsible for it. The second attempt and the further destruction measures were then carried out by Dr. Eberl carried out alone and on his own responsibility.

Following this successful attempt, Viktor Brack, who of course was also present and whom I forgot earlier, spoke a few words. He was satisfied with the experiment and emphasized again that this action should only be carried out by the doctors, according to the motto that the syringe belongs in the doctor's hand. Then Professor Dr. Brandt and also emphasized that only doctors should perform these gassings. So the start in Brandenburg could be described as successful and the matter went under Dr. Eberl continuously. "[...]

After this result, which was satisfactory from the perpetrators' point of view, as well as the experience that SS-Sonderkommando Lange had gained in autumn 1939 with the gassing of Polish psychiatric patients in a first gas chamber in Fort VII in Poznan , the killing of the T4 victims with CO - Gas generally specified. Becker was commissioned to instruct the doctors who were to carry out the gassing in the six Nazi killing centers. The first killing facility put into operation was Grafeneck . Becker later testified about his assignment there:

“Around the end of January 1940 I came from Brandenburg with the gas bottles to Grafeneck to put the institution there into operation. Dr. Schumann was supposed to operate the system. But he didn't succeed, the gas hissed loudly into the 'shower room' so that one could hear it. The pressure gauges became restless, and the delinquents in the cell threatened to become restless. I went to the pressure gauge and operated the gas system in such a way that I turned the valves off so that a smaller amount of gas flowed in. The inmates were quiet and then killed. I personally killed about 20 people by gas this way. [...] "

Until the end of the T4 campaign in August 1941, Becker had to take care of the collection of the CO bottles from the IG-Farbenindustrie AG plant in Ludwigshafen and the transport to the killing centers. The orders for the gas were made by Albert Widmann from the Forensic Institute (KTI) in the Reich Main Security Office. The following can be found in the judgment of the Stuttgart Regional Court in the proceedings against Widmann:

"At a further meeting with Brack in the Fuehrer's office, the defendant [Widmann], as Nebe had already indicated to him, was instructed, for camouflage reasons, to take over the procurement and delivery of the CO gas cylinders by the CTI Suspicion arose, could not arise from a party office, especially not from the Fiihrer's office. The defendant took on this task [...] He received the requirements from the individual euthanasia institutes, and on behalf of the CTI he placed orders for CO gas in bottles at the Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabriken (at that time a fully integrated subsidiary of IG Farbenindustrie AG ) in Ludwigshafen and directed the order and delivery confirmations to […] Dr. Becker, who was employed by the Führer’s office, […] continues. He took care of the collection and transport of the CO gas bottles to the individual euthanasia centers. [...] "

At the central office T4 , Becker was called the “red Becker” because of his hair color and probably also to avoid confusion with the local head of the “central clearing office for healing and nursing homes”, Hans-Joachim Becker .

Brack listed Becker in a list he had made of 24 people who were primarily responsible for Operation T4, which he made for the Allies after the war.

Gas truck specialist

In October 1941 Becker was used again in the Reich Security Main Office and assigned to Office Group II D 3 a under Friedrich Pradel . This was responsible for the security police's motoring . The head of Office Group D (Technical Affairs), SS-Obersturmbannführer Walter Rauff , commissioned Becker in December 1941 to inspect the gas vans used by the security police and SD . These were mobile gas chambers in the form of trucks with a closed box structure. Becker later testified about his new use:

“[...] When I was transferred to Rauff in December 1941, he explained the situation to me by saying that the mental and moral stresses of the firing squads were no longer bearable and that the gassing operation had therefore started. He said that the gas vans with the drivers for the individual task forces were already on the way or had arrived there. I myself had a clear official assignment to check the work with the gas vans in the individual task forces in the east. In other words, I had to monitor that the mass killings carried out in the gas vans were proceeding properly, paying particular attention to the technical functioning of these vans. […] On the basis of this official assignment from Rauff, I drove to the east in mid-December 1941 with the aim of arriving at Einsatzgruppe A ( Riga ) […] [to come across the emergency vehicles and gas vans there. […] On 4th or 5th January 1942 I received a message from Rauff to contact him. There I received the order to leave immediately, this time directly to Einsatzgruppe D in the south ( Otto Ohlendorf ) in Simferopol . […] I was on the road for about three weeks for this trip and reported to the chief of Einsatzgruppe D, Otto Ohlendorf, in January 1942. I stayed with this group until the beginning of April 1942 and then left the individual Einsatzgruppen until I ended up with Group A up in Riga. "

Becker was not only concerned with the technology of the gas vans, he was also concerned about their camouflage and the physical and moral health of the “final solvers”. On May 16, 1942, he reported to Rauff from Kiev:

“[…] I had the group D wagons camouflaged as caravans by having one on each side of the small wagon and two shutters on the large wagons on each side, as you often see on farmhouses in the country . The cars had become so well known that not only the authorities but also the civilian population referred to the car as a 'death car' as soon as one of these vehicles appeared. In my opinion it cannot be concealed in the long run even if it is camouflaged. [...] In addition, I ordered all men to be kept as far away from the car as possible during the gassings so that their health would not be harmed by any gases escaping. On this occasion, I would like to draw your attention to the following: Various commands let their own men unload after the gassing. I drew the attention of the commanders of the relevant SK [Sonderkommandos dV] to the tremendous emotional and health damage this work can have on men, if not immediately, at least later. The men complain to me of headaches that occur after each discharge. [...] "

In this letter, Becker also criticized the incorrect execution of the gassing:

"[...] The gassing is not carried out correctly. In order to end the action as quickly as possible, the drivers are consistently full throttle . As a result of this measure, the executors suffer death from suffocation and not, as intended, death from being put to sleep . My instructions have now shown that if the lever is set correctly, death occurs more quickly and the prisoners fall asleep peacefully. Distorted faces and excretions, as seen since then, could no longer be noticed. [...] "

In addition to reports of success and suggestions for design changes that are attributed to Becker ( "For example, since December 1941, 97,000 cars have been processed with 3 cars in use without any defects in the vehicles." ), He again expressed clear criticism after his return to Berlin in September 1942 to Rauff's deputy Pradel:

“In a one-hour personal conversation I described to Pradel how the gas vans work and criticized them because the delinquents were not gassed, but rather suffocated by the wrong attitude of the service teams. I told him that it made people vomit and make themselves. Pradel listened to the matter without saying a word. "

After being employed as a gas truck specialist, Becker was employed by the Zentralhandelsgesellschaft Ost für agricultural sales and requirements mbH ., A monopoly company for agricultural purchasing and sales in the occupied eastern territories, and then in the foreign defense of the Reich Main Security Office. In 1943 he was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer.

After the war

Because of his membership in the SS, Becker was sentenced to three years in a labor camp at the end of the war. He then worked as a representative for animal feed, first in 1954 to earn his living in a precision mechanics workshop and then in concrete construction . In 1959 he suffered a stroke and was then placed in a nursing home in Laubach in Upper Hesse .

In 1959, the Stuttgart Public Prosecutor's Office initiated an investigation into violent Nazi crimes against Albert Widmann and Paul Werner as well as against August Becker. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, but due to his poor health he was released from prison on July 15, 1960 and was admitted to the Butzbach nursing home . When the Stuttgart Regional Court tried to contact Becker in 1967, it turned out that he had been picked up from the old people's home on January 3, 1966 by a family member whose name was unknown and that his new whereabouts were not known. The State Criminal Police Office of Baden-Württemberg therefore wrote Becker for a search on June 16, 1967. However, Becker was brought back to the Laubach nursing home, where he remained almost mentally deranged and physically deteriorated.

August Becker died on December 31, 1967.

literature

• Beer, Mathias: The development of the gas truck during the murder of the Jews . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. 35, 1987, pp. 403-417 ( PDF ).
• Ernst Klee : "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state . 11th edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt / M. 2004, ISBN 3-596-24326-2
• Ernst Klee: Documents on "Euthanasia". Frankfurt a. M. 1985, Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, ISBN 3-596-24327-0
• Ernst Klee: "What they did - what they became" , Frankfurt / M. 1986, ISBN 3-596-24364-5
• Ernst Klee: "August Becker" entry in ders .: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Updated edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0
• Eugen Kogon , Hermann Langbein , Adalbert Rückerl a . a. (Ed.): National Socialist mass killings by poison gas. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt 1986, ISBN 3-596-24353-X .
• Ernst Klee, Willi Dreßen , Volker Rieß (eds.): "Nice times". S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1988, ISBN 3-10-039304-X .
• Volker Rieß: The beginnings of the annihilation of 'life unworthy of life' in the Reichsgauen of Danzig-West Prussia 1939/40. Frankfurt am Main 1995
• Henry Friedlander : The Road to Nazi Genocide. From euthanasia to the final solution. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-8270-0265-6 .
• Sad picture . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1967 ( online ).

Web links

• "Kill in a Minute". "The transcript of the interrogation and search letter from Dr. phil. August Becker "
• Brandenburg killing center
• Owinska Sanatorium and Poznan Fort VII
• Gas truck

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Interrogation protocol of the special commission of the Hessian State Criminal Police Office Wiesbaden, V / 1, from April 4, 1960, see "Killing in a minute". "The transcript of the interrogation and search letter from Dr. phil. August Becker ” .
2. ↑ Volker Rieß: The beginnings of the destruction of 'life unworthy of life' in the Reichsgauen Danzig-West Prussia and Wartheland 1939/40. Frankfurt / M. 1995, ISBN 3-631-47784-8 , p. 304, shows the presence of Becker in Fort VII as certain. With Astrid Ley: The beginning of the Nazi murder in Brandenburg an der Havel. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 58 (2010), p. 327, it says: “possibly with the participation” of Becker.
3. ^ Astrid Ley: The beginning of the Nazi murder in Brandenburg on the Havel. On the importance of the 'Brandenburg trial killing' for the 'Action T4'. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtsforschung 58 (2010), pp. 321–331 and death camps: NS-Kötungsanstalt Brandenburg
4. ↑ Heyde files, pages 293 ff., Public Prosecutor General Frankfurt a. M. Ks 2/63, quoted from Ernst Klee : "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state , pages 110/111.
5. ↑ However, the latter denied his active participation, see Ernst Klee: “Euthanasia” in the Nazi state , page 110.
6. ↑ hospital Owinska and Poznan Fort VII
7. ^ Interrogation protocol on page 8 of the special commission of the Hessian State Criminal Police Office, Wiesbaden, V / 1, of April 4, 1960, see "Killing in one minute". "The transcript of the interrogation and search letter from Dr. phil. August Becker "
8. ↑ Judgment of September 15, 1967 Ks 19/62, quoted from Ernst Klee: “Euthanasia” in the Nazi state , page 85.
9. ↑ Ernst Klee: “What they did - what they became”, page 327, note 18.
10. ^ Statement of March 26, 1960, Central Office of the State Justice Administrations in Ludwigsburg 9 AR-Z 220/59, Volume I, pages 194 ff, quoted from Klee, Dressen, Rieß: "Schöne Zeiten", pages 71 ff.
11. ↑ Nuremberg Document PS-501, quoted from Klee: “Documents on 'Euthanasia'”, pages 272 ff, complete letter online: Der Rauff Brief
12. ↑ ^{a b} quoted from Klee, Dreßen, Rieß: "Schöne Zeiten", page 72.
13. ↑ Klee, “What They Did - What They Became,” page 152.
14. ↑ 13 Js 328/60, see " Killed in a Minute". "The transcript of the interrogation and search letter from Dr. phil. August Becker "
15. ↑ Sad picture . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1967 ( online ).