Joachim Hamann
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Joachim Hamann (18 May 1913 in
Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
– 13 July 1945 in Heikendorf) was an officer of the ''Einsatzkommando 3'', a killing unit of ''
Einsatzgruppe A (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the impl ...
'', responsible for tens of thousands of Jewish deaths in
Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
. Hamann organized and commanded ''
Rollkommando Hamann ''Rollkommando'' Hamann () was a small mobile unit that committed mass murders of Lithuanian Jews in the countryside in July–October 1941, with an estimated death toll of at least 60,000 Jews. The unit was also responsible for many murders in L ...
'', a small mobile killing unit composed of 8–10 Germans and several dozen local Lithuanian collaborators.


Biography

Hamann was of Baltic German parentage. Trained as a chemist, he had difficulties finding a job due to the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. He joined the SA in August 1931, the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
in December 1932, and the SS in July 1938. He served in the
Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
during the
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
and
Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...
as a paratrooper (''
Fallschirmjäger The () were the airborne forces branch of the Luftwaffe before and during World War II. They were the first paratroopers to be committed in large-scale airborne operations. They were commanded by Kurt Student, the Luftwaffe's second-in-comman ...
''). 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 ranks, Nazi Germany paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organisations, such as the Sturmabteilung, SA, Schutzstaffel, SS, National Socialist Motor Corps, NSKK and the ...
'' (first lieutenant). After the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Hamann organized and commanded ''
Rollkommando Hamann ''Rollkommando'' Hamann () was a small mobile unit that committed mass murders of Lithuanian Jews in the countryside in July–October 1941, with an estimated death toll of at least 60,000 Jews. The unit was also responsible for many murders in L ...
'' 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 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 (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...
). He was involved in apprehending and executing suspected members of the
20 July plot The 20 July plot, sometimes referred to as Operation Valkyrie, was a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the chancellor and leader of Nazi Germany, and overthrow the Nazi regime on 20 July 1944. The plotters were part of the German r ...
to assassinate Hitler. He was appointed aide to
Ernst Kaltenbrunner Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 October 1903 – 16 October 1946) was an Austrian high-ranking SS official during the Nazi era, major perpetrator of the Holocaust and convicted war criminal. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and a ...
, director of the
Reich Security Main Office The Reich Security Main Office ( , RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and , the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stat ...
. Two months after Germany's surrender Hamann committed suicide.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamann, Joachim 1913 births 1945 deaths 1945 suicides Einsatzgruppen personnel Holocaust perpetrators in Lithuania SS-Sturmbannführer Fallschirmjäger of World War II Nazis who died by suicide in Germany Military personnel from Kiel Reich Security Main Office personnel Sturmabteilung personnel German military personnel who died by suicide