Joachim Hamann (18 May 1913 in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ...

– 13 July 1945 in

Heikendorf Heikendorf is a municipality in the district of Plön, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is a seaside resort off the Baltic Sea, located approximately 10 km from Kiel. The oldest part of the town is the Old Viking settlement in Mölten ...

) was an officer of the ''Einsatzkommando 3'', a killing unit of '' Einsatzgruppe A'', responsible for tens of thousands of Jewish deaths in Lithuania. Hamann organized and commanded '' Rollkommando Hamann'', a small mobile killing unit composed of 8–10 Germans and several dozen local Lithuanian collaborators. Hamann was of

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

parentage. Trained as a chemist, he had difficulties finding a job due to the Great Depression. He joined the SA in August 1931, the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in December 1932, and the SS in July 1938. He served in the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

during the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

and

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

as a paratrooper (''

Fallschirmjäger The ''Fallschirmjäger'' () were the paratrooper branch of the German Luftwaffe before and during World War II. They were the first German paratroopers to be committed in large-scale airborne operations. Throughout World War II, the commander ...

''). He returned to Berlin where he joined the SS and completed training courses. In March 1941, he was promoted to SS-''

Obersturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Ostuf'') was a Nazi Germany paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organisations, such as the SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK. The rank of ''Obersturmführer'' was first created in 1932 as the result of an expan ...

'' (first lieutenant). After the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Hamann organized and commanded '' Rollkommando Hamann'' which killed at least 39,000 Jews in various locations across Lithuania and 9,102 people, almost all of whom were Jews, from the Daugavpils Ghetto. Hamann's superior, Karl Jäger, documented these killings in the Jäger Report. Nevertheless, Martin C. Dean estimates the death toll of ''Rollkommando'' Hamann as an estimated 60,000 Jews in Lithuania alone.. Hamann left Lithuania in October 1941 and continued his SS career. In 1942, Hamann participated in Operation Zeppelin, a scheme to recruit Soviet POWs for espionage behind Russian lines. From 1943 he worked at Amt IV of RSHA (

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...

). He was involved in apprehending and executing suspected members of the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler. He was appointed aide to

Ernst Kaltenbrunner Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 October 190316 October 1946) was a high-ranking Austrian SS official during the Nazi era and a major perpetrator of the Holocaust. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and a brief period under Heinric ...

, director of the

Reich Security Main Office The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and '' Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Nazi ...

. After the war, Hamann committed suicide.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamann, Joachim 1913 births Einsatzgruppen personnel Holocaust perpetrators in Lithuania SS-Sturmbannführer Nazis who committed suicide in Germany Military personnel from Kiel Reich Security Main Office personnel Sturmabteilung personnel German military personnel who committed suicide 1945 suicides