Friedrich Pradel

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Friedrich Pradel (born April 16, 1901 in Berlin ; †?) Was in the National Socialist German Reich as police commissioner and major in the police in the office group II D 3 a of the Reich Main Security Office responsible for the development of gas vans that were used to kill Jews and other " racially undesirable ”were used.

Life

Friedrich Pradel was born on April 16, 1901 in Berlin. In the police service he rose to the rank of commissioner and major in the police force . After the establishment of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), Pradel was entrusted with the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer in charge of Office II D 3 a, which was responsible for the security police's entire motor vehicle system. On April 2, 1940, as chief officer, he took part in a meeting under the direction of Werner Best , the subject of which was the establishment of task forces for France, Holland and Belgium.

Pradel's office belonged to Office Group II D (Technical Affairs) under the direction of SS-Obersturmbannführer Walter Rauff , who was one of the main people responsible for the mass murders of Jews and "racially undesirable" people in the occupied eastern territories.

Soon after the killings began, alternatives to the mass shootings by the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD were sought. Killings with gas vans were also discussed, as had already been carried out in 1939 and 1940 by an SS commando under Herbert Lange in Poland. The gas vans were closed-body trucks into which exhaust gases were introduced. Heydrich commissioned Rauff with the development of such mobile gas chambers in September 1941, who passed the order on to his subordinate Pradel, who was responsible for the vehicles of the security police. This commented on this as follows:

“Towards the end of 1941, my superior Rauff approached me with the request that workshop manager Wentritt determine whether it was possible to introduce exhaust gases into closed box vans. I carried out this assignment. Wentritt had affirmed this possibility, whereupon Rauff gave the order that appropriate vehicles were to be prepared for it. "

Rauff ordered Pradel to contact the chemist Walter Heeß from the Forensic Institute (KTI) about the construction of the gas vans . Pradel and Wentritt then ordered the delivery of box bodies from the Gaubschat company in Berlin-Neukölln, while they procured the chassis for the gas vans. Harry Wentritt described the further renovation work in the RSHA workshop:

“There a removable exhaust hose was attached to the exhaust , which was led from the outside to the floor of the car. In this car we drilled a hole with a diameter of about 58 to 60 mm, the thickness of the exhaust pipe. Inside the car, above this hole, a metal pipe (exhaust pipe) was welded on that was or could be connected to the exhaust hose brought in from the outside. When the engine was started and after the connection was established, the exhaust gases from the engine went through the exhaust into the exhaust hose and from there into the exhaust pipe installed inside the car, where the gas was then distributed. Pradel didn't give me any further instructions on this, at least I don't remember that today. He gave me the job of finishing the cars so that the exhaust fumes from the engine could get inside. This was possible with the help of the exhaust hose attached to the exhaust pipe. Pradel also explained to me that another pipe had to be installed in the car so that this inlet point was protected from interference by the car occupants. The execution operated by our workshop was essentially determined by Pradel or a higher authority. "

At the beginning of November, 30 prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp were gassed to test the first gas truck . First a series of five or six gas vans was built; a first insert of a gas carriage in November in Poltawa by the detail 4a in the use of group C . The use of gas trucks in the Kulmhof extermination camp is documented for December 8, 1941 . Before December 14, 1941, Rauff gave the chemist August Becker the order to check the use of the gas vans by the Einsatzgruppen in the east and assigned him to Pradel's Office II D 3 a.

Probably before the end of 1941, 30 more gas trucks were commissioned, which were to be built on the basis of larger trucks. By June 23, 1942, 20 of them had been delivered. According to a note dated June 5, 1942, made in Pradel's Office II D 3a of the RSHA, 97,000 people have been murdered with three gas vans since December 1941.

August Becker stated about Pradel's rank after the war:

"[...] Rauff's deputy was the captain at the time and later Major Pradel. Pradel also had an SS equalization rank, but he called himself major. [...] "

After the war, Pradel managed to remain undetected and to find another place in the police service. When he became the target of investigations by the Hanover Public Prosecutor's Office , he was again Chief Commissioner for the Lower Saxony Police Police . Because aid to murder at least 6,000 people from Pradel was Hanover Regional Court sentenced (.: 2 Ks 2/65 Az) to seven years in prison on 6 June 1966th

literature

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Wildt : Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office page 507, Hamburger Edition , 2002, ISBN 3930908751 .
  2. ↑ Darmstadt Public Prosecutor's Office Ref .: Ks 1/67 ( Central Office of the State Justice Administrations Ludwigsburg , Ref .: 204 AR-Z 269/60, Volume XIV, Sheet 3649), quoted from Kogon u. a. National Socialist mass killings by poison gas , page 82.
  3. ↑ Public Prosecutor's Office Hanover Az .: 2 Js 7212/59 (Central Office of the State Justice Administrations Ludwigsburg, Az .: 415 AR-Z 220/59, Volume I, Sheet 260e), quoted from Kogon u. a. National Socialist mass killings by poison gas , page 83.
  4. ↑ Note… special car, number in the RSHA: II D 3 a (9) No. 214/42 g.Ra. - from June 5, 1942 at www.ns-archiv.de.
  5. ↑ Becker's statement of March 26, 1960, Zentralestelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen Ludwigsburg, Az .: 9 AR-Z 220/59, Volume I, page 194 ff., Quoted from Ernst Klee / Willi Dreßen / Volker Rieß (eds.): “ Good times ”page 71.
  6. ↑ Justice and Nazi crimes ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2014 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Summary of the judgment @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www1.jur.uva.nl
personal data
SURNAME Pradel, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German perpetrator of the Holocaust, responsible for the development of gas vans in the Reich Security Main Office
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH after 1966