Sunday, May 24, 2026

Willi Lenz: The “Doctor” of the Kulmhof (Chełmno) Extermination Camp

When Soviet troops reached the area around Chełmno nad Nerem in January 1945, the Nazi extermination camp Kulmhof had already been largely dismantled.1 Nevertheless, contemporary documents and witness testimony preserve evidence about the men who operated the camp.

One name appears repeatedly in these sources: Willi Lenz, a Polizeimeister of the Schutzpolizei. At Kulmhof, he supervised Jewish forced laborers in the so-called forest camp, personally carried out shootings, and oversaw the disposal of the corpses.

Existing accounts of Kulmhof describe Lenz as an exceptionally brutal person (see endnote 1), but provide little information about his background and career. Drawing on contemporary civil records, police files, NSDAP membership documentation and postwar testimony, this article establishes his identity and reconstructs a life-spanning, though still fragmentary, biography of Willi Lenz. 

Note on terminology
This article uses Kulmhof for the German extermination camp and Chełmno for the Polish village in which it was established. The village, officially known as Chełmno nad Nerem, lies in central Poland, between Poznań and Łódź. German names such as Posen, Litzmannstadt and Breslau (Polish Wrocław) are used where they reflect the administrative language of the sources.
 Contents

Origins and Police Career, 1894–1941

It is July 16, 1894, a summer day in the small settlement of Smolarz Mill, deep in the forests of Obornik County north of Posen. Here, in a remote part of Prussia, Willi Lenz was born as the son of the mill owner Otto Lenz. Little is known about his childhood and youth; all that can be established with certainty is his origin in a rural milieu of the Prussian eastern provinces.2

After the outbreak of the First World War, Lenz joined the Silesian Dragoon Regiment "von Bredow" No. 4 in November 1914. His service in the 5th Squadron took him first to the Eastern Front and later to France. One detail stands out in retrospect: on November 18, 1914, his squadron passed through Chełmno, the place to which he would go more than two decades later under entirely different circumstances.

From March 1 to March 20, 1918, Lenz was treated in the Reserve Field Hospital 64 in Dizy-le-Gros (France). The diagnosis recorded was a contusion of the bone and soft tissue of the right elbow. During a later period of home leave, he contracted malaria and was admitted to Fortress Auxiliary Hospital VII in Posen on 26 September 1918.3

After the end of the war, Lenz's home district of Obornik fell to the Republic of Poland as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. He left his region of origin and made his way to neighboring Silesia.4

In Breslau, Lenz decided in 1920 to pursue a career with the Schutzpolizei.5 During a period of political and social tension after the war, police service offered an institutional environment shaped by order, discipline, and clear hierarchies. His private life also became more settled: in 1923 he married Ida, a nurse;6 in 1926 he became the father of a son.7 It is yet not known whether they had any further children.

The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 changed the conditions of Lenz’s police career. In 1937, Lenz joined the NSDAP, a step that may have been been motivated by ideological conviction, career calculation, or a combination of both.8 In any case, Lenz rose within the Schutzpolizei: from Revier-Oberwachtmeister to Hauptwachtmeister, probably in 1937 or 1938.9

Document

NSDAP Gau card index entry for Willi Lenz

NSDAP Gau card index entry for Willi Lenz. Source: Bundesarchiv, R 9361-IX KARTEI/2553197; also available as digitized microfilm at the U.S. National Archives, N0026, frame 596.

English Translation

Name:
Lenz, Willi
Occupation:
Polizei-Revier-Oberwachtmeister [Police Precinct Senior Constable]
Date of birth:
16 July 1894
Place of birth:
Smolarze
Membership no.:
424567
Admission:
1 May 1937
Admission requested on:
30 June 1937
Residence:
Breslau, Dragoner Street 13
Local Group:
Breslau
Gau monthly report:
Lower Silesia, month 10/41, sheet 10
Residence:
Posen, Andreas-Hofer Street 8
Local Group:
Posen
Gau:
Warthegau

The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 marked another turning point. With the incorporation of large parts of occupied Polish territory into the German Reich, the so-called Warthegau came into being- a territory in which National Socialist policies of occupation, Germanization, and extermination were implemented particularly early and radically. For Lenz, who had been born in the former Prussian east, the German occupation of the Warthegau may also have had a personal dimension: the return of German rule to a region connected to his own origins.

In July 1941, he was transferred from Breslau to Posen and promoted to Meister of the Schutzpolizei. On August 8, 1941, Lenz arrived in the capital of the Warthegau, where he was assigned as duty officer at the 4th police precinct.10

Arrival at Kulmhof

In November 1941, the command of the Schutzpolizei telephoned the 4th police precinct to request that Lenz appear the next day at the State Police headquarters in Posen. The Gestapo was looking for Schutzpolizei officers to provide a guard detachment for an SS special commando (SS-Sonderkommando).

The following day, Lenz reported to the State Police headquarters together with other Schutzpolizei officers who had been detached for the assignment. Kriminalkommissar and SS-Hauptsturmführer Herbert Lange required the men to sign a declaration committing them to strict secrecy about their deployment. A few days later, the group was taken by truck to Kulmhof, Polish Chełmno nad Nerem, south of Warthbrücken/Koło, and housed in buildings that had been confiscated by the SS-Sonderkommando.11

On December 8, 1941, systematic mass killings of Jewish people by gas vans begun in Kulmhof.12 Lenz soon occupied a key position in the forest camp. Command leader Lange entrusted him with the supervision of the Jewish labor detachment there. Lenz thus acquired considerable authority over the Jewish forced laborers and the police guards assigned to the forest camp. On occasion, he also delivered the speech to the Jewish victims in the mansion, where they were ordered to undress before being driven into the gas vans.13

Note on the Gas VANS
Gas vans were mobile killing vehicles used by the Einsatzgruppen and Sonderkommando Kulmhof to kill people with gasoline engine exhaust. At extermination camp Kulmhof, the victims were first taken by truck or forced to walk to the so-called mansion (Schloss, literally "castle") in the village of Chełmno, where they had to undress and surrender their belongings. They were then forced into the sealed cargo compartment of a truck and killed while the vehicle stood still with its engine idling. The gas van then transported the bodies to the forest camp, where they were unloaded and buried; later, the corpses were exhumed and burned. Also see the overview map here. For photographs of a gas van at the Einsatzgruppen see here and here.

"Doctor" in the Forest Camp

In the forest camp, Lenz decided who lived and who died; he was cynically called "Doctor." Who could not longer work during the day was sent to him with words like: "You have to go to the Doctor".14 At times, Lenz urged prisoners to flee, only to shoot them afterward under the pretext of an "escape attempt." At the end of the working day, he also separated out the sick and exhausted. At a whistle from him, the inner chain of guards closed into a ring around the Jewish prisoners. Those no longer able to work lay down on the ground and were killed with a shot to the back of the neck. In other cases, they were shot while standing or forced to lie down on top of the corpses already lying in the mass graves.15

People who still showed signs of life when the gas vans are emptied are also shot.16 SS-Scharführer Fritz Ismer testified that, after being assigned to Kulmhof in early January 1942, he observed "a Jewish worker going to Lenz with a small child and saying: ‘Meister, still alive.’ Lenz then took his pistol and shot the child".17

The Polizeimeister also shot Jewish psychiatric patients, physically weak Jews, and people brought in smaller transports directly to the forest camp without being sent through the gas vans. One witness later recalled hearing that Lenz had also shot Soviet prisoners of war in the mansion courtyard.18

Other Schutzpolizei officers - including Simon Haider, Johann Runge, Gustav Fiedler, Karl Heinl, and Johann Strohmeier - were also involved in shootings in the forest camp, but Lenz remained the principal perpetrator. For the members of the Gestapo, Lenz’s zeal provided a noticeable relief: they could avoid the notorious "stench in the forest" - an expression Lenz used for his workplace.19 Only SS-Untersturmführer Albert Plate and SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Bothmann likewise participated regularly in the killings.20

Lenz kept records of the number of shootings, since the daily strength reports of the labor detachment had to fit.21 In addition, he handed over valuables from the forest camp, including extracted gold teeth, to the administrative officer, SS-Hauptscharführer Fritz Ismer.22

Lenz as Seen by His Contemporaries

What drove Lenz to devote himself to such a brutal task? The sources cannot fully explain his motives. They do, however, show how he behaved, how others perceived him, and how he sought to use commando service for advancement. 

Although the conditions at Kulmhof brutalized many members of the Schutzpolizei, individual examples also show that, even under these circumstances, there was room for individual action, including limited gestures of compassion toward the victims.23

In Lenz’s case, however, the statements converge into a different picture. The witness statements suggest that his behavior went far beyond mere obedience to orders, but rather an active, self-initiated participation in the extermination, marked by brutality and sadistic violence.24 Armed with a club25 and pistol, Lenz sometimes killed "for fun",26 abused the Jewish prisoners27 and threatened the policemen under his command.28

Lenz lived together with the Polizeimeisters Simon Haider, Alois Häfele, and Kurt Möbius in the so-called German House.29 It is precisely these immediate comrades who painted an especially dark picture of him. Häfele described Lenz as a "sadist" who knew "no inhibitions".30 Möbius portrayed him as "completely insane," "racial-politically fanatical," "quarrelsome," with "cold eyes" - "someone with whom one can have absolutely no conversation".31 According to Möbius, Lenz participated in the extermination of the Jews in Kulmhof with an "obviously inwardly positive attitude".32

According to the testimony of Bruno Israel, a Schutzpolizist from Litzmannstadt, Lenz once took from him photographs of Jewish acquaintances and tore them up - an act that indicates his hostility even toward private reminders of Jewish life.33

All the more striking is the contrast with the perception of outsiders. To the chief forester and SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinrich May, who supplied the extermination site with firewood and with young trees for camouflage, Lenz appeared merely bieder - respectable, conventional, unremarkable – and looked like a "small, lowly little peasant". 34

No known photograph of Willi Lenz has yet been found. A personal description mentioned him as approximately 165 centimeters tall, with thin blond hair, grey-blue eyes, and a slender build. 35

His unauthorized actions appear to have drawn criticism from the command leadership only when they disrupted the process or interfered with Gestapo interests. For example, he attracted negative attention when he immediately shot Jewish prisoners captured after escape attempts, instead of first handing them over to the Gestapo officers for interrogation. 36

After Jewish prisoners managed to escape from Kulmhof under his supervision in January 1942, he had to justify himself before the SS and Police Court in Posen.37

Expertise in Erasing Traces

In April 1943, the SS-Sonderkommando Kulmhof is dissolved. Instead of merely clearing out the mansion and leaving it to decay, SS-Standartenführer Blobel had it blown up and demolished.38 Along with the walls, the last traces of the Jewish prisoners held there also disappeared - they are shot, presumably with Lenz’s involvement. The men of the commando were granted several weeks’ leave.39

For Lenz, service with the SS-Sonderkommando ended on April 10, 1943.40 Unlike the other members of the commando, who were transferred either to the Waffen-SS Division "Prinz Eugen" in the Balkans or to the SS Field Gendarmerie Training and Replacement Company at Weimar-Buchenwald, Lenz remained in the Warthegau and returned to the Schutzpolizei in Posen. His subsequent assignment to another top-secret special operation indicates that the authorities regarded his behavior and experience at Kulmhof as extremely useful.41

The Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), within the framework of the so-called Enterdungsaktion (exhumation operation) of Sonderkommando 1005, ordered the elimination of mass graves in the Warthegau.42 For the Hohensalza administrative district, a unit known as Wetterkommando - literally, "Weather Commando" - is formed from November 1, 1943, under SS-Hauptsturmführer Johann Legath.43 A police detachment under Ernst Burmeister took over cordoning and guard duties. For the practical work of locating mass graves, exhuming bodies, and burning them, the commander of the Security Police in Posen, Karl-Heinz Stoßberg, assigned a man who already has relevant experience: Polizeimeister Willi Lenz.

Note on Sonderkommando 1005
The name of the operation directed by Paul Blobel to eliminate evidence of Nazi mass murder. Across the occupied and annexed eastern territories, mass graves were opened, corpses were burned, and the traces of killing sites were concealed. In 1942, the Kulmhof extermination camp served as an experimental site where Blobel tested methods for burning the bodies. See also Sonderkommando Kulmhof in German Documents: Body Disposal.

Alongside Lenz, the personnel used for the exhumation work included the Polish prisoners who had already worked with him in the forest camp. They had already been used during the early mass killings carried out by Sonderkommando Lange between 1939 and 1941. Now they had to help locate old mass graves. Lenz demonstrated to the SS commando how the exact position of the graves can be determined with an iron rod driven into the ground.44

Within the commando, Lenz occupied a prominent position. The Gestapo members described the Polizeimeister as the "manager of the commando," with a "special position as cremation master" and an "outstanding position" at the burning site - as though he had brought a privilege with him from Posen.45 Together with the Polish prisoners, Lenz directed the Jewish labor detachment in getting the bodies from the mass graves and burning them on pyres. 46

This assignment, too, led to some conflicts with the command leadership. Lenz brutally abused Jewish prisoners and was reprimanded by Legath for it.47 When he shot prisoners on his own authority, Legath supposedly complained to the commander of the Security Police in Posen. Stoßberg, however, is said to have kept the Polizeimeister under his protection. 48

Lenz also appeared to view his work as a career opportunity. To Legath, he described it as his "greatest wish" to become a police officer, and hoped to achieve this goal through "special zeal in commando service".49 It is a calculation that ultimately paid off: on August 7, 1944, he was sent to the 22nd three-month precinct officer candidate course at the police school in Pelplin.50

Return to Kulmhof in 1944

Before this, however, Lenz returned to his former place of activity - the forest camp near Kulmhof. In March 1944, Hans Bothmann assembled a new Sonderkommando, which is deployed for the liquidation of the Litzmannstadt/Łódź Ghetto. Bothmann recruited the core personnel primarily from former members of the Sonderkommando in the SS Division "Prinz Eugen", who already held key positions during the first phase of the Sonderkommando. The Polizeimeister Willi Lenz and Alois Häfele also rejoined the commando.

The unit is supplemented by the NSKK driver Stefan Seidenglanz, the Gestapo members Walter Piller, Hermann Gielow, and Ernst Thiele, as well as by the police guard detachment of the Wetterkommando under Police Precinct Lieutenant Ernst Burmeister.

Lenz was again deployed in the forest camp, where he took charge of supervising the Jewish forced labor commando.51 He shots Jewish forced laborers who are no longer fit for work, so-called "letter writers" who had initially been exempted from gassing, as well as people who survived the gas vans. The deputy commando leader Walter Piller estimated that Lenz killed between 450 and 500 Jewish people.52 His zeal drove him again to acts of violence that went too far even for the notorious commando leader Bothmann when they disrupted operations.53

On May 20, 1944, like all former members of Sonderkommando Kulmhof, Lenz war awarded the War Merit Cross, 2nd Class with Swords.54

Death in the granary, January 1945

If Lenz completed the officer-candidate course in Pelplin, he presumably returned to Kulmhof in November 1944. There he was involved in the liquidation of the camp and in the removal of traces. When the Red Army advanced on Łódź in January 1945 during the Vistula - Oder Offensive, the Sonderkommando Kulmhof received the order to evacuate. At this point, 47 Jewish prisoners were still locked in the granary next to the ruins of the mansion, which was blown up in April 1943.55 They were to be shot before the retreat.

During the night of 17 - 18 January 1945, Lenz enters the granary together with Reserve Sergeant Ernst Haase and ordered the prisoners to come out in groups of five. Outside, Lenz or Bothmann killed them with shots to the back of the head. Among the first victims was 14-year-old Szymon Srebrnik. 56

When the fourth group of five prisoners had been led out and the door behind them was about to be locked again, Mordka Zurawski forced the door open and fled outside. In the chaos, the Jewish prisoners who remained in the granary managed to overpower and kill Lenz and Haase. Gestapo and Schutzpolizei members then opened fire on the granary with machine guns and set the building on fire.57

Szymon Srebrnik survived despite a serious gunshot wound to the head. Mordka Żurawski managed to escape into the nearby forest.

The burned-out granary at Chełmno nad Nerem, 1945.
The burned-out granary at Chełmno , 1945.

Source: AIPN GK 165/271, volume 2, p. 52

Epilogue

Much of what is known about Lenz’s actions comes from postwar testimony by survivors, bystanders, and former perpetrators. Such statements must be read critically, particularly where former members of the Sonderkommando may have sought to minimize their own responsibility or shift blame onto others. Nevertheless, the convergence of multiple accounts, together with the surviving documentary record, makes it possible to reconstruct Lenz’s role with considerable confidence.

Willi Lenz was not one of the architects of the genocide of the Jews in the Warthegau. Nor, however, was he merely a low-ranking guard who endured the brutal conditions of service at Kulmhof. The surviving sources portray him as a cruel, self-motivated perpetrator who played an active role in mass murder.  

In this respect, Lenz can be cautiously compared with Otto Moll of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The extermination process depended on men like them willing to murder the most vulnerable, capable of forcing prisoners to perform horrific work, and experienced in the practical work of killing and disposing of bodies - men who, in the words of one of Lenz’s fellow policemen, were "without inhibitions".

Notes and References

Abbreviation of Archives: 

AIPN - Archiwum Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, Warsaw
BArch - Bundesarchiv, Germany
LA Berlin - Landesarchiv Berlin
LA NRW - Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen
LA SH - Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein
StA Hamburg - Staatsarchiv Hamburg
YVA - Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem

  1. For general studies on the Kulmhof/Chełmno extermination camp, see Patrick Montague, Chełmno and the Holocaust (2012); Shmuel Krakowski, Chełmno: A Small Village in Europe: The First Nazi Mass Extermination Camp (2009); Michael Alberti, Die Verfolgung und Vernichtung der Juden im Reichsgau Warthegau (2006); Peter Klein, Die Gettoverwaltung Litzmannstadt 1940–1944 (2009). See also Nick Terry, Covering Up Chelmno: Nazi Attempts to Obfuscate and Obliterate an Extermination Camp. 2018. Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust, 32(3), 188–205. 2 See also my blog series Sonderkommando Kulmhof in German Documents and source collection maintained by me at holocausthistory.site. ↩
  2. LA Berlin; Östliche preußische Provinzen, Polen, Personenstandsregister 1874-1945; laufende Nummer: 7377; Urkunde Nummer: 375 ↩
  3. BArch R 601/2351, p. 1–3, proposal list for the award of the Police Long Service Award (Polizei-Dienstauszeichnung); according to this document, military service from November 15, 1914, to March 30, 1919; BArch B 578/28359, p. 9, medical register of Reserve Field Hospital 64, Dizy-le-Gros; Seite 9, Krankenbuch des Reserve-Feldlazarett 64 Dizy le Gros; BArch B 578/36886, p. 9, medical register of Fortress Auxiliary Hospital VII, Posen; Wolfgang von Niebelschütz, Geschichte des Dragoner-Regiments von Bredow (1. Schlesisches) Nr. 4, 1929 ↩
  4. Years later, his cavalry captain describes the mood within the troops - admittedly not without propagandistic intent - as one of bitter disappointment over the "loss of the Province of Posen" (Wolfgang von Niebelschütz, Geschichte des Dragoner-Regiments von Bredow (1. Schlesisches) Nr. 4, 1929, page 239). It is possible – though there is no concrete evidence - that he follows the call in Schlesien to join the Volunteer Squadron of Dragoon Regiment No. 4. This unit recruits "trained cavalrymen" willing to "protect their homeland, house and farm from predatory incursions by the Poles" and to spare their families a fate such as that attributed to the Germans in the Province of Posen. Good provisions, free accommodation, mobile pay, and a daily allowance are offered; at the same time, "discipline and order" are explicitly required (Groß Wartenberger Kreisblatt, February 1, 1919, no. 9, year 1919.). On September 30, 1919, this „border-defense formation" too is disbanded. ↩
  5. BArch R 601/2351, p. 1–3, proposal list for the award of the Police Long Service Award (Polizei-Dienstauszeichnung), according to this document, Lenz entered police service on August 7, 1920. ↩
  6. LA Berlin; Östliche preußische Provinzen, Polen, Personenstandsregister 1874-1945; laufende Nummer: 7377; Urkunde Nummer: 375 ↩
  7. NSDAP-Gaukartei of Wolfgang Lenz, born December 10, 1926 in Breslau; available as a digitized microfilm at the U.S. National Archives, N0026, frame 774; ↩
  8. NSDAP-Gaukartei BArch R 9361-IX KARTEI/2553197; available as a digitized microfilm at the U.S. National Archives, N0026, frame 596. ↩
  9. Breslau address books, 1927–1932, 1935, 1937, and 1939. ↩
  10. IPN GK 705-16, p. 15, Kommandotagesbefehl Nr. 70 des Kommandos der Schutzpolizei in Posen vom 16. Juli 1941; IPN GK 705-16, p. 30, Kommandotagesbefehl Nr. 78 des Kommandos der Schutzpolizei in Posen vom 12. August 1941 ↩
  11. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16509, statement by Siegfried Süß, February 20, 1963. ↩
  12. BArch R 601/2445, p. 63–64, proposal list for the War Merit Cross, 2nd Class with Swords ("[belonged] to SS-Sonderkommando Kulmhof: SS-Oberscharführer, criminal employee (K), Hering [from] December 8, 1941, to April 5, 1943, and SS-Oberscharführer, criminal employee (K), Laabs [from] December 8, 1941, to April 5, 1943"); Laabs and Hering were the two gas-van drivers at Kulmhof; AIPN GK 165/271, vol. 3, p. 13, statement by Adam Milewski, July 5, 1945 ("Transports began arriving in Chełmno from December 8, and from that date, the area was guarded."); AIPN GK 165/271, vol. 3, p. 102, statement by Zofja Potyralska, July 13, 1945 ("The Sonderkommando arrived in Chełmno at the end of November 1941, while the first transport of Jews arrived on December 8."); see also my blog post Review of Holocaust Handbooks Volume 23 - Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno (Part III - Systematic Analysis of One Example). ↩
  13. BArch B 162/3245, Statement by Theodor Malzmüller, June 27, 1960 ("After Polizeimeister Lenz had delivered his speech to the Jews, he went with his Jewish labor detachment to the forest camp…"). ↩
  14. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16507, statement by Fritz Ismer, July 5, 1961; BArch B 162/3246, statement by Fritz Ismer, November 9, 1960 ("It often happened that the Jews of the work detachments collapsed as a result of poor nutrition and hard labor. When they reported this to a police officer, he sent them to the ‘Doctor.’ ‘Doctor’ was the nickname of Polizeimeister Willi Lenz, who supervised all the excavations. He shot the Jews in question while they were standing, with a shot to the back of the neck."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16508.1, statement by Kurt Meier, June 30, 1960 ("He had the nickname Dr. Lenz."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16509, statement by Franz Schalling, July 12, 1961 ("I still remember how, after my return from the hospital, one of the Jews of the commando told me that in the meantime many of our dear friends had had to remain in the forest. They had had to ‘go to Uncle Doctor.’ By this he meant that, because of their weakened condition, they had been shot by Polizeimeister Lenz in the forest camp."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16509, statement by Franz Schalling, September 27, 1961 ("The selection of the Jewish mansion commando was carried out by the Poles. I myself heard them say in German to members of this commando: ‘You probably can’t go on anymore; tomorrow you’ll go to Uncle Doctor.’ The next day these people were then sent along to the forest, where they were shot by Lenz, who bore the nickname ‘Doctor.’"); AIPN GK 165/271, vol. 1, p. 51–53, statement by Andrzej Miszczak, June 14, 1945 ("nicknamed ‘Doctor’"). ↩
  15. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16490, statement by Josef Islinger, May 6, 1964 ("I know of Lenz that he also sometimes shot Jews during the course of the day."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16490, statement by Friedrich Maderholz, May 8, 1964 ("Regarding the shootings of Jews from the work commando who had become unable to work, I can say that these were regularly carried out at the end of duty. At a whistle, the guard chain closed in, and Lenz selected those unable to work. He, Plate, or Bothmann then shot them. Lenz also sometimes shot Jews during the day. I also remember Bothmann arbitrarily shooting Jews whenever he came to the forest camp."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16492, statement by Gustav Fiedler, October 25, 1965 ("It is said to have been customary that, occasionally, at a whistle from Lenz, the inner guard ring would contract concentrically, and that Lenz would then personally carry out a so-called selection and shoot the Jews who could no longer work."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16490, statement by Josef Islinger, May 6, 1964 ("Regarding the Jewish work commando, I can state that it often happened that some of them were selected out and shot. As far as I remember, Lenz mainly took care of this. These selections and shootings were regularly carried out in the evening. I saw that, besides Lenz, Plate and Bothmann also shot."); Bundesarchiv B 162/3249, statement by Josef Islinger, February 26, 1962 ("Almost every day it happened that members of the Jewish work commando were shot in the forest camp in the evening before it was transported back to Kulmhof. These were always Jews who were no longer able or willing to work. Usually 5–6 people were killed. Sometimes, however, around 10 people were shot. These executions were mostly carried out by Police Meister Lenz. He ordered the Jews to lie down at the edge of the mass grave, face down. Then he took his pistol and shot each one in the back of the neck."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 15492, statement by Theodor Malzmüller, November 8, 1965 ("I saw with my own eyes that Jews from the work commando, after their chains had been removed, had to lie down on their stomachs and were killed by Lenz, Bothmann, or Plate with a shot to the back of the neck. This happened about 10 to 15 times, always in the evening. We were called together so that the ring closed and no one could run away."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16508.1, statement by Theodor Malzmüller, June 20, 1961 ("Whoever among them became sick and was no longer able to work had his foot chains removed and was shot by Bothmann, Plate, or Lenz in the area of the forest camp. This happened in such a way that they had to lie down and were then given a shot to the back of the neck with a pistol. I often saw all three of them do this. For the total number of shootings that I witnessed in this way, the figure of about 130 is not estimated too high."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16492, statement by Gustav Fiedler, October 25, 1965 ("I was once present when a Jew came to Lenz and said: ‘Meister, shoot me, I can’t go on anymore’ or ‘I don’t want to go on anymore.’ At first Lenz did not want to, since the man could work well. Then he said: ‘Run,’ and shot the Jew."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16509, statement by Jakob Wildermuth, January 17, 1962 ("It did happen once in a while that a victim was briefly sent away and was then shot when, for this purpose, he turned his back to the person killing him."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16510, statement by Martin Meier, October 11, 1961 ("I now remember that these three Jews had to lie face down in the mass grave on top of the corpses already lying there. Lenz then also climbed onto the corpses and gave the three Jews the shot to the back of the neck from above."); ↩
  16. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16490, statement by Josef Islinger, May 6, 1964 ("It may also have happened on occasion that bodies taken out of the gas van still showed signs of life. I once saw Lenz shoot such victims.") ↩
  17. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 15492, statement by Fritz Ismer, November 10, 1965. ↩
  18. BArch B 162/3245, statement by Theodor Malzmüller, June 27, 1960 ("A transport consisting of four trucks carrying Jews … There may have been around 100 Jews on these trucks altogether. […] I could not see what took place there, but it was clear that the Jews were shot there. Afterwards, I heard from comrades — I can no longer say from whom — that the Jews had in fact been shot there by Bothmann, Plate, and Lenz. According to what was said, these Jews were mentally ill. […] I also saw with my own eyes that, over time, Bothmann, Plate, and Lenz shot approximately 130 Jews in the immediate vicinity. Of these, approximately 50 were shot by Bothmann, approximately 50 by Plate, and approximately 30 by Lenz. These were Jews who, over time, were brought to the forest camp in smaller transports of 5–10 people."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16508.1, statement by Kurt Meier, June 30, 1960 ("In one instance, he is said to have killed several Russian officers in the courtyard of the mansion with shots to the back of the neck. There were reportedly five or six Russian officers who had escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp. It was said of Lenz that he was a specialist in shots to the back of the neck."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16507, statement of Alois Adler, January 23, 1962 ("With every arriving transport, there were probably 20–30 sick or infirm people who did not march to the mill but were taken by truck directly to Kulmhof. As I heard from accounts at the time, they were taken to the forest camp and shot there with a pistol by Polizeimeister Lenz. The people had to lie down on the ground and were shot in the back of the neck."); ↩
  19. AIPN GK 165/271, vol. 2, p. 81, statement by Rudolf Kramp, July 1, 1945. ↩
  20. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16516, statement by Friedrich Hensen, June 22, 1960 ("Thus, on several occasions I saw Runge, Lenz, and Fiedler kill sick Jews with shots to the back of the neck. Each time, these people had to lie face down on the ground. Then Runge, Lenz, or Fiedler approached with a pistol and shot them in the back of the neck from above."); BArch B 162/3247, statement by Kurt Möbius, November 8, 1961 ("Haider and Lenz later told me that they, too, had shot Jews in the forest camp who were still alive."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16508.1, statement by Walter Nonn, April 18, 1962 ("During my night duty in the forest camp, several Jewish prisoners were shot. The perpetrators were Polizeimeister Lenz and a certain Strohmeyer [sic]."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16509, statement by Jakob Wildermuth, January 17, 1962 ("Such shootings were carried out by Bothmann, Plate, Lenz, and Runge."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16489, statement by Gustav Fiedler, January 30, 1964 ("With regard to the policemen who, besides me, were active in the forest camp, I would like to add that Heider, whom I have already mentioned, was Lenz’s deputy, which has since come back to me."); Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rep.206 Nr. 189, statement by Jakob Wildermuth, November 8, 1965 ("It is correct that, during my interrogation by the witness Kofner, I mentioned of my own accord that Heinl had also shot people."); BArch B 162/3247, statement by Kurt Möbius, November 8, 1961 ("That morning, I saw Oberscharführer Richter shoot with a pistol several people who had been in the gas vans but were still alive."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16489, statement by Walter Bock, February 5, 1964 ("I can only remember that Lenz and Plate were said to have carried out such shootings."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16490, statement by Josef Islinger, May 6, 1964 ("I saw that, besides Lenz, Plate and Bothmann also shot people."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16507, statement by Fritz Ismer, January 17, 1961 ("During my service in the forest camp, I saw Plate, Lenz, and Bothmann kill members of the Jewish labor detachments on several occasions with a pistol shot to the back of the neck when they were no longer able to work."); BArch B 162/3248, statement by Friedrich Maderholz, July 20, 1961 ("During my service as a guard inside the forest camp, I saw on several occasions that Lenz, Haider, Bothmann, and Plate killed members of the Jewish labor detachment there over the course of time with pistol shots to the back of the neck when they were no longer able to work. The killings were carried out mainly by Lenz, who was very brutal and ruthless."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 15492, statement by Karl Heinl, November 3, 1965 ("As I heard it, only Lenz, Bothmann, and Plate carried out shootings. Heider was not permitted to shoot."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 15492, statement by Gustav Laabs, November 3, 1965 ("Apart from Lenz, no one carried out shootings in the forest camp."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16515, statement by Gustav Laabs, May 8, 1961 ("Several times, I saw Polizeimeister Lenz shoot people there in the back of the neck after they had first been forced to kneel or lie down. […] In addition to these several shootings by Lenz, I also once saw such a shooting carried out in the forest camp by Bothmann and a civilian unknown to me. The people had been made to lie down in a row beside one another on the ground. Bothmann and the civilian, both visibly drunk, stood with their feet between them and killed the people one after another with shots to the back of the neck. The civilian missed several times; Bothmann then laughed like a madman and fired again. This incident occurred in the summer of 1942."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16490, statement by Friedrich Maderholz, May 8, 1964 ("I also remember that Bothmann arbitrarily shot Jews whenever he came to the forest camp."). ↩
  21. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.15492, statement by Josef Islinger, November 8, 1965 ("I believe Lenz kept records of it."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16514, statement by Gustav Fiedler, January 29, 1964 ("If it were true that I had carried out shootings, then one of the other police officers would surely also have heard me report the shooting to Lenz and explain to him what had happened to the missing Jewish forced laborers. Lenz kept a notebook in which he apparently recorded the number of Jewish forced laborers deployed."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16507, statement by Fritz Ismer, January 17, 1961 ("As I myself saw, he [Häfele] also kept records of all the members of the Jewish labor detachments. Lenz also reported to him whenever some members of the Jewish labor detachment did not return from the forest camp because they had been liquidated. Häfele then crossed them out in his book."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16507, statement by Fritz Ismer, July 5, 1961 ("When the Jewish labor detachment returned from the forest, Polizeimeister Lenz would in any case inform him of the changes, saying, for example: ‘eight out and five in.’ Häfele would then write something in his book."). ↩
  22. LA NRW, Rep.206 Nr. 189, statement by Fritz Ismer [date?] ("Polizeimeister Lenz brought individual valuables and extracted gold teeth from the forest camp."). ↩
  23. BArch B162/3248, statement by Walter Bock, June 20, 1961 ("Häfele came from Posen, but spoke with a Swabian dialect and was already an older officer. He had a very calm manner. I do not believe that he performed his duties at Kulmhof willingly. I often observed him slipping bread or cigarettes to the Jews of the labor detachment when no one was watching."). ↩
  24. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16516, statement by Theodor Malzmüller, April 21, 1964 ("Police Meister Lenz was the leader of the Waldkommando in the inner compound; he was very brutal."); AIPN GK 165/271, Band 1, S. 51-53, statement by Andrzej Miszczak, June 14, 1945 ("Lenz, nicknamed ‘Doctor,’ was the cruelest of all the Germans in Chełmno; that sadist had to kill at least one Jew a day with his own hands."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 15492, statement by Alois Häfele, November 3, 1965 ("Lenz was a sadist; he had no inhibitions."). ↩
  25. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 15492, statement by Theodor Malzmüller, November 8, 1965 ("I do not know whether he [Fiedler] carried a club. In any case, Lenz always had one with him."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16516, statement by Theodor Malzmüller, April 21, 1964 ("I can also say of Fiedler that, like Lenz, he carried a walking stick."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16509, statement by Jakob Wildermuth, January 17, 1962 ("I do remember that, among others, Lenz and Haider carried sticks. I saw Lenz beat the Jewish workers."). ↩
  26. Pawlicka-Nowak, Swiadectwa Zaglady, pp. 157–168, statement by Szymon Srebrnik, 1963 ("The deputy commandant of the camp, Lenz, was also particularly inventive in his cruelty. Among other things, he liked to shoot at bottles placed on the prisoners’ heads. Sometimes he hit the bottle; other times, he hit the human head.") ↩
  27. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16516, statement by Friedrich Hensen, February 6, 1964 ("Lenz also frequently beat the Jews and was particularly brutal toward them."); BArchB 162/3249, statement by Josef Islinger, February 26, 1962 ("Lenz and Runge constantly drove the members of the Jewish labor detachment to unload the gas vans. They insulted them with terms such as ‘pigs.’ It also happened that they beat the workers with sticks."); BArchB 162/3247, statement by Jakob Wildermuth, December 14, 1961 ("Lenz, Runge, and Heinl usually drove the members of the Jewish labor detachment in the forest camp to work by shouting at them and ordering them to work faster. They insulted them with terms such as ‘pigs,’ ‘lazy dogs,’ and the like. […] It also frequently happened that Lenz, Runge, and Heinl forced these Jews to work by beating them with wooden sticks."). ↩
  28. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 16489, statement by Gustav Fiedler, January 30, 1964 ("He was so harsh that he even kicked his own men in the backside."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.15492, statement by Kurt Huth, November 12, 1965 ("Lenz approached me with his pistol. Hüfing said, ‘Let me handle this.’ He then beat me with a whip."); LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16489, statement by Kurt Huth, April 1, 1964 ("I remember Lenz as a completely ruthless, first-class sadist. He fired his pistol indiscriminately and frequently shot Jews from the labor detachment. He also threatened me personally with his pistol, so that I already thought he intended to shoot me. I had become nauseous from the stench there and from the sight of the horrific events inside the forest camp, and I must have collapsed and fallen asleep while on guard duty, whereupon Lenz caught me. He immediately reached for his pistol, and if First Lieutenant Hüfing had not arrived, he would certainly have shot me. Hüfing struck me several times across the back with a riding whip. After that, I was assigned only as an outer guard in the forest camp.") ↩
  29. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 15492, statement by Alois Häfele, November 3, 1965 ("I lived with Lenz, Möbius, and Heider in the German House.") ↩
  30. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 15492, statement by Alois Häfele, November 3, 1965 ("Lenz was a sadist; he had no inhibitions."). ↩
  31. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr. 15492, statement by Kurt Möbius, November 3, 1965 ("Lenz was completely insane; he was a bad comrade and intolerable. When he returned from the forest camp in the evening, it was absolutely impossible for us to have any conversation with him. We avoided him so that we would not have to listen to his rambling talk. In my opinion, he was fanatical in racial-political terms and boasted about his marksmanship and his work, which we found repugnant. He was extraordinarily quarrelsome and had such cold eyes."). ↩
  32. BArchB 162/3248, statement by Kurt Möbius, November 23, 1961 ("The two Polizeimeister living with me, Lenz and Haider, evidently participated in what was taking place with an inwardly positive attitude …"). ↩
  33. AIPN GK 165/271, volume 4, pp. 67–70; see also Chelmno Witnesses Speak, p. 194, statement by Bruno Israel, October 29, 1945 ("Once I found a photograph of a Jewish family I knew — the Smietana family — and wanted to take it. Lenz saw this and tore it into pieces."). ↩
  34. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16508.1, statement by Heinrich May, June 14, 1961 ("During my interrogation in Bonn, the name Lenz was brought back to my mind. He had struck me as a particularly respectable and unassuming [bieder] man, and I had wondered what he was doing in that gendarmerie commando."); LA NRW, Rep.206 Nr. 189, statement by Heinrich May [date?] ("Polizeimeister Lenz: ‘A small, lowly little peasant.’"). ↩
  35. BArchB162/3258, statement by Hermann Gielow, May 15, 1945 ("Willi Lenz, Meister of the Schutzpolizei, approximately 48 years old, 165 cm tall, with thinning blond hair, grey-blue eyes, and a slender build; whereabouts unknown.") ↩
  36. LA SH, Abt. 352.3, Nr.16508.1, statement by Theodor Malzmüller, June 20, 1961 ("I did not witness it myself, but afterwards I heard from comrades that, on one occasion, one of the Jews from the labor detachment was said to have attempted to escape. It was said that he had suddenly run into the forest but was then caught at the forest clearing. He was apparently shot immediately, namely by Polizeimeister Lenz. Lenz must then have tried to present the matter as though the man who had been shot had slipped past another police officer standing guard there as a result of that officer’s inattentiveness. This comrade disputed that account, however, and stated that, on the contrary, the man who was shot had run past Polizeimeister Lenz. Bothmann then came to the forest camp and severely reprimanded Lenz because he had shot the Jew immediately."). ↩
  37. BArch B 162/3248, statement by Kurt Möbius, November 23, 1961 ("Incidentally, the two Polizeimeister Heyder [sic] and Lenz were later also questioned before the SS and Police Court after four Jews from the labor detachment had escaped while under their supervision during the journey to the forest camp, as I already described yesterday (fol. 11, para. 3). […] They had, however, seated themselves in the driver’s cab and were therefore partly responsible for the success of the escape attempt. Both of them had to go to Posen for questioning."). ↩
  38. Andrej Angrick, »Aktion 1005« — Spurenbeseitigung von NS-Massenverbrechen 1942–1945, p. 293; AIPN GK 165/271, volume 1, pp. 51–53; see also Pawlicka-Nowak, Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 139–144, statement by Andrzej Miszczak, June 14, 1945 ("On April 7, 1943, the palace was blown up in order to obliterate the traces of their crimes."); BArch B 162/3246, p. 158, statement by Walter Burmeister, January 25, 1961 ("Shortly before our departure, the Jews of the labor detachments were killed, although I did not participate in this, and the mansion was blown up."); BArch B 162/3248, p. 86, interrogation of Walter Burmeister, March 24, 1961 ("Bothmann, Bürstinger, and I, above all, remained until the end. Everything was then dismantled, and the mansion was blown up; that is to say, Standartenführer Blobel wanted to blow it up, but despite extensive preparations achieved only partial success. The forest camp was to remain fenced in, and the key was handed over to the forester. The cremation oven, which had appeared there at approximately the same time as Blobel, was demolished. Everything was levelled. I do not know whether planting had already been carried out there at that time. The last Jewish labor detachment also had to die; it was not present until the very end."); LA NRW, Rep.295 Nr. 251, statement by Alois Häfele, April 21, 1961 ("The mansion was blown up before the end, by an SS commando unknown to us. Bothmann killed the last Jewish labor detachment. That took place in the forest camp, but I was not present and had nothing to do with it.") ↩
  39. BArchNS 19/2635, p. 9, letter from Rudolf Brandt to Hans Jüttner, March 29, 1943 ("A commando of 85 men under the command of SS-Hauptsturmführer Bothmann will complete its assignment during the course of this month. Afterwards, the men will go on leave, either for three or four weeks) ↩
  40. IPN GK 705/23, p.11, Command Daily Order No. 39 of the Schutzpolizei Command in Posen, April 11, 1943 ↩
  41. Allegedly, SS-Hauptsturmführer Johann Legath had already received, around this time, the assignment to exhume and destroy the mass graves in the Posen and Hohensalza districts of the Warthegau; see Staatsarchiv Hamburg, 213-12/007, pp. 3097–3105, statement by Johann Legath, April 2, 1962 ("Approximately three quarters of a year before the commando began its activities, Oberregierungsrat Stossberg informed me that I would soon be placed in charge of such a commando.") ↩
  42. Andrej Angrick, »Aktion 1005« - Spurenbeseitigung von NS-Massenverbrechen 1942 – 1945, p. 1034 ff.; ↩
  43. YVA O.53/12; see also Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 169–193, statement by Walter Piller, May 15, 1945 ("After the closure of the Gestapo offices in Inowrodaw on November 1, 1943, due to the shortage of officers, I was transferred to a Gestapo post in Lodz. However, I did not begin my service until the middle of 1944, because before that I was assigned to Legath’s Wetterkommando, under the command of Kriminalkommissar and SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Legath. […] 1. Legath, Hans — Kriminalkommissar and SS-Hauptsturmführer, […] 2. Michaelis, Erich — Kriminalsekretär and SS-Sturmscharführer, […] Legath’s deputy. 3. Schmerse, Wilhelm — Kriminalsekretär and SS-Sturmscharführer, […] 4. Thiele, Ernst — a driver and an SS-Hauptscharführer, […] 5. Gielow, Hermann — a driver and an SS-Hauptscharführer, […] 6. Kossek — I have forgotten his first name — SS-Mann."); StA Hamburg, 213-12/007, pp. 3097–3105, statement by Johann Legath, April 2, 1962 ("The following had been assigned to the commando from the Gestapo: Schmerse, Piller, and Michaelis. In addition, there was the driver Thiele."); StA Hamburg 213-12/0597/007, p. 3141, statement by Wilhelm Schmerse, April 6, 1962 ("When the Hohensalza State Police Office was dissolved in the autumn of 1943 and the Hohensalza branch office of the Commander of the Security Police in Posen was established, I was transferred to the State Police headquarters in Litzmannstadt. […] However, I never actually went to Litzmannstadt; instead, the head of the Hohensalza branch office, Hauptsturmführer Legath, in agreement with the responsible authorities, assigned me to a special commando. […] The leader of the special commando was Hauptsturmführer Legath. In addition to me, the following came from the Hohensalza office: Kriminalsekretär Piller, Kriminalsekretär Michaelis, and the driver Ernst Thiele."); BArchB 162/25944, p. 80, statement by Erich Michaelis, February 1, 1961 ("As I already stated during my earlier interrogation on October 13, 1960, I served with Legath’s commando, the so-called Wetterkommando, which was tasked with exhuming bodies. As I have already stated, this was during the period from November 1943 to May 1944.") ↩
  44. StA Hamburg, 213-12/007, pp. 3097–3105, statement by Johann Legath, April 2, 1962 ("I conducted the search for the graves together with Polizeimeister Lenz; other officers were also involved in the search. […] Unless I am very much mistaken, Lenz was not always present. At the outset, he merely showed me how to determine whether bodies were buried in the ground by using an iron rod. In addition to Lenz, I had two police officers with me."); YVA O.53/12; see also Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 169–193, statement by Walter Piller, May 15, 1945 ("Over the three and a half years from 1939 to 1943, the graves at the execution site had collapsed. This meant that they were visible to people. If there was any doubt, an iron rod was pushed into the ground, and the graves were identified in places where the earth gave way.") ↩
  45. BArch B 162/25944, p. 80, statement by Erich Michaelis, February 1, 1961 ("Lenz was the manager of the commando."); StA Hamburg 213-12/0597/007, p. 3141, statement by Wilhelm Schmerse, April 6, 1962 ("Lenz held a special position as the master responsible for cremation. […] At the burning site, Lenz undoubtedly occupied a dominant position. He gave the impression that he had brought some special privilege with him from Posen.") ↩
  46. BArch B 162/25944, S. 21-25, Aussage von Wilhelm Schmerse vom 27. Oktober 1960 („Zur Vernichtung der Leichen wurden von Pol.Mstr. Willi Lenz und anderen Polizeibeamten große Feuerstellen hergerichtet, in der Art, dass große Stapel Holz mit Leichen aufgeschichtet und in Brand gesetzt wurden."); BArchB 162/25944, S. 14 – 20, Aussage von Johann Legath vom 7. Oktober 1960 („Ich kann mich nunmehr erinnern, dass Polizeimeister Lenz meinem Kommando als Fachmann für die Ausgrabungen und Verbrennungen der Leichen zugeteilt war."); YVA O.53/12, siehe auch Chelmno Witnesses Speak, p. 169 – 193, Aussage von Walter Piller vom 15. Mai 1945 („As soon as the corpses had been exhumed, they were thoroughly cremated under Lenz's supervision. If necessary, the area around the pit was cleared off and covered with iron sheets. As soon as the fire was lit, dead bodies were thrown into the pit and burned.) ↩
  47. YVA O.53/12, siehe auch Chelmno Witnesses Speak, p. 169 – 193, Aussage von Walter Piller vom 15. Mai 1945 ("Only Polizeimeister Lenz hit one Jew or another while they were burning the corpses; however, in such cases he was instantly reprimanded by commanding officer Legath.") ↩
  48. BArchB 162/25944, pp. 21–25, statement by Wilhelm Schmerse, October 27, 1960 ("For the destruction of the bodies, large pyres were prepared by Polizeimeister Willi Lenz and other police officers, with large stacks of wood and corpses piled up and set on fire."); BArchB 162/25944, pp. 14–20, statement by Johann Legath, October 7, 1960 ("I can now recall that Polizeimeister Lenz was assigned to my commando as a specialist in the exhumation and burning of bodies."); YVA O.53/12; see also Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 169–193, statement by Walter Piller, May 15, 1945 ("As soon as the corpses had been exhumed, they were thoroughly cremated under Lenz’s supervision. If necessary, the area around the pit was cleared and covered with iron sheets. As soon as the fire was lit, bodies were thrown into the pit and burned.") ↩
  49. StA Hamburg 213-12/007, pp. 3106–3108, statement by Johann Legath, April 3, 1962 ("With regard to Lenz, I would also like to say that he gave the impression of being a very zealous officer who hoped to secure his promotion to officer rank through his exceptional zeal in carrying out the commando’s work. According to his own statements, becoming a police officer was his greatest wish. He also tried to encourage me to provide an appropriate assessment of his performance.") ↩
  50. IPN GK 705/27, p. 23, Command Daily Order No. 50 of the Schutzpolizei Command in Posen, July 19, 1944 ↩
  51. AIPN GK 165/271, volume 4, pp. 67–70, statement by Bruno Israel, October 29, 1945 ("The Jewish workers had shackles on their legs. They were divided into the Hauskommando and the Waldkommando. The former was supervised by Heffele [Häfele], while the latter was supervised by Lenz, with Runge as his deputy."); AIPN GK 165/271, volume 2, pp. 67–70, statement by Szymon Srebrnik, June 29, 1945 ("Runge operated one crematorium and Kreczmer [Kretschmar] the other. Lenz was their superior."); AIPN GK 165/271, volume 3, pp. 42–45; see also Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 130–135, statement by Mordka Zurawski, July 31, 1945 ("The manager of the Waldkommando was Wachtmeister Lenz.") ↩
  52. YVA O.53/12; see also Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 169–193, statement by Walter Piller, May 15, 1945 ("Lenz [shot] an estimated 450–500 people."); AIPN GK 165/271, volume 3, pp. 42–45; see also Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 130–135, statement by Mordka Zurawski, July 31, 1945 ("He shot one of the Jews because the man was getting onto the truck too slowly."); Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 136–138, statement by Mordka Zurawski, January 30, 1950 ("Next, a special labor detachment made up of Jews entered the van and removed the corpses, while another detachment carried them to the furnace. If anyone was still alive, he or she was shot. A Gestapo officer stood next to each furnace; I remember clearly that Hanes [Hannes] stood next to one and Lentz [Lenz] next to the other, and they shot those who were still moving.") ↩
  53. AIPN GK 165/271, volume 3, pp. 42–45; see also Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 130–135, statement by Mordka Zurawski, July 31, 1945 ("Besides, Lenz beat Jews regardless of whether they worked well or badly. Once he beat me so severely that I lost consciousness; he then poured cold water over me to revive me."); AIPN GK 165/271, volume 2, pp. 67–70, statement by Szymon Srebrnik, June 29, 1945 ("The construction work lasted about two weeks. Jews building the furnaces were sometimes killed for entertainment. Lenz and the Sonderkommando commander, Commissioner Bothmann, displayed extreme cruelty. At times, of 30 workers sent to the woods, only 14 returned. The work groups were constantly replenished with new men brought from Łódź. Although each of eight transports brought 30 workers, even this was not enough, because so many of them were killed."); Pawlicka-Nowak, Swiadectwa Zaglady, pp. 157–168, statement by Szymon Srebrnik, June 1963 ("The deputy commandant of the camp, Lenz, was also particularly inventive in his cruelty. Among other things, he liked to shoot at bottles placed on the prisoners’ heads. Sometimes he hit the bottle; other times, he hit the human head."); YVA O.53/12; see also Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 169–193, statement by Walter Piller, May 15, 1945 ("It was emphasized, however, that no brutal methods were to be used in the extermination process. Such conduct could result in severe punishment by the SS and Police Court. As far as I remember, Polizeimeister Lenz violated these orders on two occasions by beating Jews working in the forest with a stick, so that Bothmann had to intervene and reprimand him in both cases.") ↩
  54. BArch ZK-L 484-555; according to this document, the War Merit Cross, 2nd Class with Swords, was proposed for Lenz by the Commander of the Order Police in Posen under file reference IIb-9573/43 (g) on December 3, 1943, and awarded to him on May 20, 1944 ↩
  55. AIPN GK 165/271, volume 1, p. 51-53, Statement by Andrzej Miszczak, June 14, 1945 ("In the end there were 47 Jews in Chełmno; previously there were 80-90."); AIPN GK 165/271, volume 2, p. 67-70, statement by Szymon Srebrnik, June 29, 1945 ("In the granary there were still 87 Jewish workers. Those were tailors and shoemakers. They lived upstairs. The number of workers decreased and finally there were 47 of them left - 22 tailors and 25 courtyard workers."); ↩
  56. AIPN GK 165/271, volume 2, pp. 67–70, statement by Szymon Srebrnik, June 29, 1945 ("When the Soviet Army was advancing rapidly, one night we were ordered to leave the granary in groups of five. I cannot remember the date. The area was lit by car headlights. I went outside in the first group of five. Lenz ordered us to lie down on the ground. He shot everyone in the back of the head. I lost consciousness and regained it when there was no one around."); statement by Bruno Israel ("On the night of January 16, 1945, we were woken up and ordered to pack our belongings. We were told about the advancing Russians. Lenz then led the Jews out of the granary in groups of five, and Bootmann [Bothmann] killed them with shots to the back of the head."); AIPN GK 165/271, volume 1, pp. 51–53, statement by Andrzej Miszczak, June 14, 1945 ("When the Soviet Army was advancing, the ‘liquidation’ of the last Jews began. They were led out in groups of five. They were ordered to lie on the ground and were shot in the back of the head."); Pawlicka-Nowak, Swiadectwa Zaglady, pp. 157–168, statement by Szymon Srebrnik, June 1963 ("It happened at night in mid-January 1945, when the door of our barracks was suddenly thrown open and Willi Lenz roared: ‘Five men out!’ I was among them, the youngest of all. I was wearing only my underwear and had no shoes. I remained calm, unlike a fellow prisoner, a doctor from Czechoslovakia, who went into shock and began dancing and singing. Bothmann was also outside. We were ordered to lie face down on the ground. Then the shots rang out. We were executed with the infamous Genickschuss — a shot to the back of the head."); Pawlicka-Nowak, Swiadectwa Zaglady, pp. 131–151, statement by Mordka Zurawski, February 17, 1945 ("It was the night between Wednesday, January 17, and Thursday, January 18. It was around 1 a.m. The doors of the camp opened, and we heard a voice: ‘Get up! Get dressed!’ At the same time, there was a loud roar in the yard. What kind of roar? The roar of a car engine, which, as it turned out, had brought Bothmann himself. This seemed deeply suspicious to us. We had terrible premonitions. Who entered first? The first to enter was Gestapo officer Meister Lenz. The first group of five went to their deaths. What kind of Meister? The master of the motor repair workshop. Upon entering, he called out the first group of five. He held a flashlight in one hand and a revolver in the other. We were chained. We could barely manage to dress ourselves. Some managed to put on some clothing, but most did not. Some were in shirts, without caps, barefoot. They led out the first five. A moment later, we heard five shots. We already knew what was happening."); AIPN GK 165/271, volume 3, pp. 42–45; see also Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 130–135, statement by Mordka Zurawski, July 31, 1945 ("On the night of January 17, Lenz entered the granary and called out five people. After a while, we heard five shots.") ↩
  57. AIPN GK 165/271, volume 2,p p. 67-70, volume 2, pp. 67–70, statement by Szymon Srebrnik, June 29, 1945 ("Later I learned that while killing the Jews, Lenz and Hase [Haase] also died (I saw their bodies). When the two went inside, the Jews hung one of them and shot the other one with his own weapon."); AIPN GK 165/271, volume 3, pp. 42–45; see also Chelmno Witnesses Speak, pp. 130–135, statement by Mordka Zurawski, July 31, 1945 ("We knew it signified our deaths, and that they would call us out in groups of five to kill us all. I knocked on the ceiling with a wooden board in order to alarm the tailors and shoemakers on the first floor. I decided to save my life. I stood by the door hidden under a blanket with a knife in hand. After the fourth group of five had been led out of the granary and the door was being locked, I charged the door with great force, probably making Lenz, who was locking it, fall over. I ran madly straight ahead stabbing my way through. I felt as if I were unconscious. As I later found out, in this act of madness one of the gendarmes lost his nose, and another, his ear. They were shooting at me and one bullet reached the muscle of my right thigh. One of the gendarmes hit my leg with the butt of a gun, but I kept on running. I got through the fence injuring my right arm to the bone and kept on running towards the woods. The Germans organized a chase. Lying in a ditch, I heard the gendarme Ruwinach [Ruwenach] and some other gendarmes warning the residents in nearby the houses about my escape...After the Soviet army marched in, I was in Chełmno and saw the corpses of Lenz and Haase. They had been killed by Jews during the execution."); AIPN GK 165/271, vol. 4, pp. 67-70, statement by Bruno Israel, October 29, 1945 ("Suddenly, Zurawski sprang from the granary, fought his way through the SS-men and escaped, running across my path about 6-7 meters away from me. In spite of Bootmann’s [Bothmann’s] order, I did not shoot. Bootmann, Kretschmer, gendarme Daniel, and others started chasing him. However, I did not know anything about Srebrnik’s escape.…I wish to point out that after Zurawski’s escape Lenz and gendarme Haase went inside the granary in order to force the Jews to go out. However, the Jews hanged Lenz and shot Haase. In such circumstances Bootmann ordered to fire incendiary bullets at the granary. The fire, which broke out, consumed all Jews inside. Shortly before the incident there were 45 Jewish workers in Chełmno."); AIPN GK 165/271, volume 1, pp. 51-53, statement by Andrzej Miszczak, June 14, 1945 ("This time the Jews rebelled. One of them, Mieczyslaw, known as Maks Zurawski, armed with a knife, forced his way passed the gendarmes and escaped from the gendarmes. The gendarmes could not find him. The Jewish tailors forced open the door leading downstairs. When two Germans (including Lenz) went inside, the Jews killed them. The Germans opened submachine-gun fire at the granary’s door, as well as at the interior. Simultaneously, they set fire to the granary."); BArch B 162/3246, p. 160, statement by Walter Burmeister, January 26, 1961 ("At the same time, I was told that the Jews of the labor detachment housed in the granary had pulled Wachtmeister Lenz into their quarters and killed him. Shortly afterwards, machine-gun fire was directed at the granary, which soon went up in flames.") ↩

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