Herbert Lange

Herbert Lange
Herbert Lange in civilian clothing, before World War II
Born	29 September 1909
Died	20 April 1945(1945-04-20) (aged 35) Berlin
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Schutzstaffel
Rank	SS-Sturmbannführer
Unit	SS-Totenkopfverbände
Commands held	Chełmno extermination camp (November 1941 – April 1942)

Herbert Lange (29 September 1909 – 20 April 1945) was an SS-Sturmbannführer and the commandant of Chełmno extermination camp until April 1942; leader of the SS Special Detachment Lange conducting the extermination of Jews from the Łódź Ghetto. He was responsible for numerous crimes against humanity including the murder of mental patients in Poland and in Germany during the Action T4 forced euthanasia programme.

Lange studied law, but failed to obtain a degree and he subsequently joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party) on 1 May 1932. He enlisted in the SA three months later, and the following year, he joined the SS. He subsequently joined the police force, becoming a deputy commissioner in 1935.

Lange entered Poland with Einsatzgruppe Naumann (EG VI) during the September campaign. On 9 November 1939, following a Nazi German victory, Lange was promoted to the rank of SS-Untersturmführer (2nd lieutenant) in occupied Poland and posted in charge of the Gestapo in occupied Poznań. In the beginning of 1940 he assumed command of an SS-Sonderkommando Lange named after him and tasked with the extermination of mentally ill in Wartheland area (Wielkopolska) under the direction of notorious Holocaust perpetrators Ernst Damzog and Wilhelm Koppe. Lange served with Einsatzgruppe VI during Operation Tannenberg. Already by mid-1940, he and his men were responsible for the murder of about 1,100 patients in Owińska, 2,750 patients at Kościan, 1,558 patients and 300 Poles at Działdowo, and hundreds of Poles at Fort VII where the mobile gas-chamber (Einsatzwagen) was invented. Their earlier hospital victims were usually shot in the back of the neck. The unit, equipped with a gas van, shuttled between hospitals, picking up patients and killing them with carbon monoxide.