Herbert Lange : the first commandant of the first National Socialist death camp. Part one of five.
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Published 2024-04-26
Herbert Lange was born on 29 September 1909 in Menzlin, a community in the northern part of Germany some 8km from the Baltic Sea and located north of the flood plain of the Peene river. Land here had been reclaimed to form polders, in the twenty first century the largest polder in the area has been rewetted and gone back to nature. Menzlin is a district of the municipality of Ziethen near Anklam in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . This print from the collection of Alexander Duncker shows the manor house at Menzlin around 1875.
Lange studied law at the Prussian University of Greifswald. . In the summer semester of 1930 he became a member of the Greifswald fraternity Rugia which was then a nationalist student organisation although it needs to be said that later it was to resist the synchronisation the Nazis put in place and resisted attempts to have it merge into the National Socialist student association, so much so that it was banned in 1936. Lange finished his studies without taking the final exam. On 1 May 1932, aged 23, he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 1,159,583). Shortly afterwards he became a member of the Sturmabteilung .
In 1933, following the “ seizure of power ” he transferred to the Schutzstaffel (SS No. 93.501). Like many who studied law , he entered the police service with the rank of detective inspector . From 1934 he was recruited for the Gestapo office in Stettin and moved to the Gestapo Aachen the following year. In Aachen he lived at Ursulinerstrasse 17, flat 19 which we can see is in the centre of the city. He married in Aachen in 1935, this letter was sent to the Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt – the Race and resettlement office of the SS in Berlin. It is his request to get married. As far as the SS was concerned, marriage was a serious matter and both partners had to come from what was considered true racial stock in the eyes of the National Socialists. However they were also interested in mental and hereditary diseases. Lange’s father had committed suicide and his sister also experienced frequent cramp attacks. Before he was allowed to get married, Herbert Lange’s mental state had to be examined to ensure that he would not have the same symptoms as the people that later he was to kill in the T4 Euthanasia Program. In the letter he writes that he is still waiting for reports of his sister’s doctor which he will then submit to the RSHA. He of course claimed that the health problems of his family did not have any bearing on him and his health condition.He passed the test, he was allowed to marry the woman he chose and in gratitude he killed thousands of people who had the same health challenges as members of his own family. The couple had two children – whether or not they had any hereditary congential defects which would have led to their murder in Nazi times, I do not know.
In 1938, Lange was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer.
The National Socialist idea of euthanasia developed from an idea which might be called the right to die – this is what we would call euthanasia today. If a person has a terminal disease and is suffering, should that person have the right to end that suffering. The Nazis however expanded this from a Mercy Death to the destruction of life unworthy of life and they would decide who was unworthy of life. This in itself was an idea that had come from eugenecists from the nineteenth century.
In 1933 the National Socialists made a law forcing people deemed to have hereditary diseases to be sterilised. According to Hitler’s doctor Karl Brandt and Hans Lammers, who was the civil servant who was the head of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler had wanted as early as 1933 to kill the incurably ill but recognised that public opinion would not accept this. In 1935, Hitler told Gerhard Wagner, who was head of the Reich doctors’ association that the question could not be taken up in peacetime; "Such a problem could be more smoothly and easily carried out in war". Hitler told Wagner that he intended to "radically solve" the problem of the mental asylums in such an event. Wagner did not live to see beginning of the killings of the sick or even the war as he died of cancer aged 50 in 1939. He was succeeded by Leonardo Conti.
All Comments (18)
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Love the details of your videos. It is so interesting how granular you get with the individuals you discuss. Perhaps you could consider doing a video of Eva Braun's parents? what happened to them? Were they arrested and interrogated after the war? Just a suggestion.
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Excellent informative video Alan can't wait for part 2
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It’s hard to believe the perpetrators were educated and supposedly intelligent people who became cold blooded murderers. They were even willing to sacrifice their own flesh and blood. Thank you for the presentation of this horror story. You reveal to us so many things beyond the scope of the well known.
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A different World, a different era I cared for two women till end of life. The first died from Cancer. The second had Huntingtons Disease,I cared for my profoundly disabled partner Ann for 20 years. Bottle fed her for 10 of those years. It wasn't easy, even now. Alan, you have addressed a complex subject well and I look forward to part 2. Stangl's observation of T4 was one of booze and sex on the Public Purse. Compassion and empathy in short supply. 🙏🇦🇺
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A very informative video, of such a terrible thing. It is so very true that we should never forget that these things happened.
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I thoroughly enjoy your content,especially the biographies of the more obscure SS and NSDAP party members,long may it continue.
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Thanks for the video 😄
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Very true! Ive never heard of him till now! He truly deserves a spot in History for being a Top.Savage of all.time!
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Looks like Lange was one of the worst war criminals
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Before the death camps there was T4. They should be remembered too
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19:56 the motorcycle with sidecar has a luftwaffe (german airforce) plate (WL wehrmacht luftwaffe) and at the builduing stands a airforce NCO (unteroffizier) he wears a airforce visor cap. the motorcycle soldiers wear raincoat and steel helmets. you cant see if there are airforce or not
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6:55 Gerhardt Kretzschmar born to a farmer in 1939 and T-4 is launched
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How did they decide the criteria for murder? Was there a list of conditions? Was is all patients at an institution?
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21:06 just curious about the source for this being the actual men who did the gassings because the motorcycle has a Luftwaffe licence plate and the man in the background has a Luftwaffe visor cap.
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The whole world(all people) were complicate. That is why there was a "world war". Never cede an inch to tyrants. Thanks for the vids.
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National Socialists - who were they, what language did they speak, did they come from Mars ? Political correctness turns us into mindless monkeys.
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Gotta keep the lie goin!
