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Joachim Hamann (18 May 1913 in Kiel – 13 July 1945 in Heikendorf) 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.

Biography

Hamann was of Baltic German 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 in December 1932, and the SS in July 1938. He served in the Luftwaffe during the invasion of Poland and Battle of France as a paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger). He returned to Berlin where he joined the SS and completed training courses. In March 1941, he was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer (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 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). He was involved in apprehending and executing suspected members of the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler. He was appointed aide to Ernst Kaltenbrunner, director of the Reich Security Main Office. Two months after Germany's surrender Hamann committed suicide.

References

1. • Matthaūs, Jūrgen (1991). "Anti-Semitism as an Offer: The Function of Ideological indoctrination in the SS and Police Corps During the Holocaust". In Hayes, Peter; Dagmar, Herzog (eds.). Lessons and Legacies VII: The Holocaust in International Perspective. Notrthwestern University Press. p. 119. ISBN 9780810109551.
   • Struve, Kai (2016). "Anti-Jewish Violence in the Summer of 1941". In Geissbühler, Simon (ed.). Romania and the Holocaust: Events Contexts Aftermath. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 106. ISBN 9783838269245.
   • Friedman, Jonathan C., ed. (2010). The Routledge History of the Holocaust. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781136870590.
2. ^ Bubnys, Arūnas (2004). "The Holocaust in Lithuania: An Outline the Major Stages and their Results". In Nikžentaitis, Alvydas; Schreiner, Stefan; Staliūnas, Darius (eds.). The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews. Rodopi. p. 210. ISBN 9789042008502.
3. Voren, Robert van (2011). Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania. Rodopi. p. 76. ISBN 9789401200707.
4. ^ Stang, Knut (1996). Kollaboration und Massenmord: die litauische Hilfspolizei, das Rollkommando Hamann und die Ermordung der litauischen Juden. Lang. pp. 153–154. ISBN 9783631308950.
5. ^ Aly, Götz; Hoppe, Bert, eds. (2011). Sowjetunion mit annektierten Gebieten I: Besetzte sowjetische Gebiete unter deutscher Militärverwaltung, Baltikum und Transnistrien. Oldenbourg Verlag. p. 531. ISBN 9783486589115.
6. Ezergailis, Andrew (1996). The Holocaust in Latvia 1941-1944: The Missing Center. Riga: Historical Institute of Latvia. pp. 276–279. ISBN 9984-9054-3-8.
7. Dean, Martin C. (2004). "Local Collaboration in the Holocaust in Eastern Europe". In Stone, Dan (ed.). The Historiography of the Holocaust. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-4039-9927-6. The case of the Rollkommando Hamann, which murdered some 60,000 Jews mostly in the small towns of Lithuania between July and September 1941,....
8. ^ Melamed, Joseph A. "The Mechanized Commando Unit of Haman". Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel. Archived from the original on 2015-09-10. Retrieved 2014-10-12.
9. Muñoz, Antonio J. (2000). The Druzhina SS Brigade: A History, 1941-1943. Axis Europa Books. p. 16. ISBN 9781891227370.

• 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