Rudolf Lange - Mass Murder in Latvia

Mass Murder in Latvia

See also: Einsatzgruppen, Burning of the Riga synagogues, Riga ghetto, Rumbula massacre, Liepāja massacres, Jelgava massacres, and Daugavpils ghetto

On 5 June 1941 Lange was ordered to Pretzsch and the command staff of Einsatzgruppe A, headed by SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei Dr. Franz Walter Stahlecker.

Lange was a Teilkommando (detachment) leader in Einsatzkommando 2, or EK2. Lange was one of the few people to be aware of the Führerbefehl or "fundamental orders" for the so-called "Jewish problem" in Latvia. According to Lange himself:

“

From the very beginning, the goal of EK2 was that radical solution of the Jewish problem by killing all Jews.

”

On December 3, 1941, he was promoted to command all of EK2, replacing Eduard Strauch. At the same time, Lange was also the chief of the Nazi Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst or SD with the title Kommandant des Sicherheitsdienst, or KdS. Lange was in charge of Department IV of the SD in Latvia. Department IV of the SD was the "hub of the whole SD organization in Latvia, the other departments served it." Matters of formal rank and titles were never clear in the Nazi occupation regime for Latvia, as the lines of authority within agencies, and the relationship between one agency and others, was "ambiguous, overlapping, and unclear". Nevertheless, Lange is widely recognized as one of the primary perpetrators of the Holocaust in Latvia.

His headquarters was in Riga, on Reimersa street. From the very beginning of his involvement in Latvia, Lange gave orders to squads of Latvians whom the Germans had organized to carry out massacres in the smaller cities, such as the Arajs Kommando. According to one historian, Victors Arājs was "held on a short leash" by Lange. Another local organization receiving orders from Lange was the so-called Vagulāns Kommando, which was responsible for the Jelgava massacres in July and August, 1941.

Lange also personally supervised executions conducted by the Arājs commando. He appears to have ordered that all the SD officers should personally participate in the killings.

Lange was responsible for the Latvian part of the decision by the Nazi regime to deport Jews from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia to Riga. In this connection, on November 8, 1941, he issued detailed orders to Hinrich Lohse, who was ostensibly the ruler of Latvia in his capacity as "Reichskommissar Ostland", regarding the transport of 50,000 Jews to the East, with 25,000 going to Riga and 25,000 to Belarus. At the same time, Lange was organizing the construction of the Salaspils concentration camp, originally intended to accommodate these deportees. Because the Salaspils camp would not be ready by the time the Jews would arrive, Lange made the decision to sent the transports to an abandoned estate near Riga called Jungfernhof or Jumpravmuiza, which would be set up as an improvised concentration camp.

In November 1941 Lange was deeply involved in the planning and carrying out the murder of 24,000 Latvian Jews from the Riga ghetto which occurred on November 30 and December 8, 1941. This crime has come to be known as the Rumbula massacre. In addition to the Latvian Jews, another 1,000 Jews from Germany were also murdered. They had been brought to Latvia on the first train of deportees, which arrived on November 29, 1941. Following the November 29 train, more rail transports of Jews began arriving in Riga from Germany, starting on December 3, 1941. The Jews on the first few transports were not immediately housed in the ghetto, but rather they were left at the Jungfernhof concentration camp.

In May 1942, Lange issued orders to Obersturmführer Günter Tabbert to kill the surviving Jews in the Daugavpils ghetto. Only about 450 Jews survived in Daugavpils after this action, which involved among others the killing of the sick, children (including infants) and hospital workers. In addition to Tabbert, the Arājs commando of native Latvians was responsible for a major part of these killings.

In 1942, Lange became a Obersturmbannführer (Lt. Colonel) in the head office in Riga until 1945, when he became Head of Reichsgau Wartheland's SD and SIPO. He was promoted to Standartenführer (Colonel) in the SS in 1945.