Editing August Becker

[[File:220px-Bundesarchiv Bild 183-P0220-303, Olga Benario-Prestes.jpg|thumb|307x307px]]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Becker

'''August Becker''' (17 August 1900 in Staufenberg, Hesse – 31 December 1967) was during the Nazi regime in Germany (1933–1945) an SS lieutenant colonel (''Obersturmbannführer'') and chemist in the Central Reich Security Office (RSHA).
<nowiki> </nowiki>He helped design the vans with a gas chamber built into the back 
compartment used in early Nazi mass murder of disabled people, political
<nowiki> </nowiki>dissidents, Jews, and other "racial enemies," including Action T4 as well as the Einsatzgruppen (mobile Nazi death squads) in the Nazi-occupied portions of the Soviet Union.
<nowiki> </nowiki>Generally his role was to provide important technical support, but on 
at least one occasion he personally gassed about 20 people.

== Contents ==
* 1 Early life
* 2 Early Nazi career
* 3 Transfer to Berlin
* 4 Assignment to Action T4 killing program
* 5 Carrying out Action T4
** 5.1 Setting up the first gas chamber
** 5.2 Carrying out the first killings
** 5.3 Ongoing conduct of the gassing program
** 5.4 The Einsatzgruppen
** 5.5 Introduction of the gas vans
** 5.6 Becker inspects gas van operations
* 6 Nazi career after gas vans
* 7 After the war
* 8 Trial, conviction, and last years
* 
== Early life ==
August Becker was born on 17 August 1900 in Staufenberg in the German state of Hesse. He was the son of a factory owner. He was inducted into the German Army toward the end of World War I. Afterward Becker studied chemistry and physics at the University of Giessen, where in 1933 he achieved the PhD degree in chemistry. From 1933 to 1935 he remained as an assistant at the university.<sup>[1]</sup>

== Early Nazi career ==
By September 1930 Becker had joined the Nazi party, and in February 1931 he also became a member of the SS. From February to April 1934 he was occasionally active in the Gestapo
<nowiki> </nowiki>office at Giessen, before he finally left the university in 1935. At 
his trial on 4 April 1960, Becker testified that in May 1935 he was 
assigned to the SS-regiment "Germania" at Bad Arolsen, a small resort town near Kassel, the major city in the northern part of the German state of Hesse, in central Germany. During this time Becker held the rank of ''SS-Oberscharführer'', and was concerned only with military affairs. He remained with this regiment up to 28 February 1938.<sup>[2]</sup>

== Transfer to Berlin ==
According to his 1960 testimony, Becker was then transferred to Berlin, to the Reich Security Main Office ''(Reichssicherheitshauptamt'' or RSHA), Office (''Amt'')VI, foreign intelligence. This agency was on the Bernerstrasse in the Grunewald. At this time Werner Best was in charge of RSHA Amt VI. Becker was responsible for the department replicating inks and photocopies.<sup>[2]</sup> He was employed to detect whether written communications used invisible ink. At this time, he was promoted to rank of ''SS-Untersturmführer'' (Second Lieutenant).<sup>[1]</sup>

== Assignment to Action T4 killing program ==
Olga Benário Prestes in 1928, later murdered at Bernburg Euthanasia Centre

Self-portrait by Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler who was murdered at Sonnenstein Euthanasia Centre

Becker remained with RSHA Amt VI until December 1939, when, shortly 
before Christmas, he received an order by telephone to report to 
Oberführer Victor Brack in the Reich Chancellery (''Reichskanzlei''). Becker went to Brack's office that same day. Brack was part of the office of the Führer Chancellery (''Kanzlei des Führers''). According to Becker, Brack told him the following:
** At the personal command of (''Reichsführer-SS'') Himmler, Becker was deputed to Brack;
** Becker's assignment would be to carry out a "euthanasia" program to destroy all idiots and mental patients;
** The killing would be done with carbon monoxide gas. This gas had already been studied by a chemist, Dr. Albert Widmann, with the Office of the National Criminal Police (RKPA) in Berlin to assess its utility.
** Becker "didn't need to have any scruples with this thing, because 
the killing of these people would be made lawful by a Führer directive.<sup>[2]</sup>
This program came to be known as Action T4.

== Carrying out Action T4 ==
Becker
<nowiki> </nowiki>participated in the first "test", gassing 18 to 20 mentally ill 
convicts in a former prison known by the euphemistic name of The Brandenburg an der Havel National Institute, which later became known to history as a Nazi killing center (''NS-Tötungsanstalt'').<sup>[''citation needed'']</sup>
 Among the Action-T4 personal, Becker was called "the Red Becker" 
because of his hair color and also probably to avoid confusion with the 
similarly named Hans Joachim Becker, director of the ''Zentralverrechnungstelle''
 welfare and institutes for care. After the war, Brack was placed on 
trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Brack named Becker 
among 24 main responsible people for the action T4 in a list Brack 
produced for the Allied occupying authorities.<sup>[3]</sup>

=== Setting up the first gas chamber ===
Gas chamber in Hadamar Euthanasia Centre

According to Becker's testimony at the trial of Werner Heyde, the first medical director of Action T4,
<nowiki> </nowiki>in the first half January 1940, Becker drove to the Brandenburg 
institute, where buildings had been prepared specially for this purpose.
<nowiki> </nowiki>An area resembling a shower room with showerheads was laid out, about 3
<nowiki> </nowiki>meters by 5 meters in floor size, with a ceiling about three meters 
high.<sup>[4]</sup>

A pipe ran around the walls of the room, and in the pipe were small 
holes, out of which the carbon monoxide gas flowed. The gas bottles 
stood outside of the area and were already attached to the supply pipe. 
The assembly of the plant was accomplished by a mechanic of the 
SS-principal office Berlin. The gas-tight entrance door (''Gasdichttur'') included an observation port by which the behavior of the delinquents (''Delinquenten'') could be observed during the course of the gassing.<sup>[4]</sup>

=== Carrying out the first killings ===
For
<nowiki> </nowiki>the first gassing the maintenance personnel led about 18 - 20 persons 
into the disguised gas chamber. These men had had to undress in an 
antechamber (''Vorraum''), so that they were completely naked. The 
door was locked behind them. According to Becker, the victims went 
calmly into the area and showed no signs of agitation. As Widmann let in
<nowiki> </nowiki>the gas<sup>[5]</sup>
 Becker watched through the observation port. After about one minute, 
the victims fell down and lay on top of one another. Becker said he saw 
no scenes or tumult. After a further five minutes the area was aired 
out. At this point, using specially designed stretchers, SS personnel 
cleared the bodies out of the area and took them to the incinerators.<sup>[4]</sup>

Becker's boss, Victor Brack, and his office had designed the 
stretchers and the incinerator equipment, which was intended to allow 
mechanical feeding of the corpses into the furnace. Brack was present at
<nowiki> </nowiki>this first gassing to observe his system in operation. According to 
Becker, afterwards Brack appeared satisfied, and made some remarks, 
saying that "this action should be accomplished only by the physicians" 
and recited the saying that "the syringe belonged into the hand of the 
physician." Subsequently, professor Dr. Brandt spoke and stressed 
likewise that only physicians would carry out these gassings.<sup>[4]</sup>
 At the same time, Widmann informed the institute physician Dr. Eberl 
and Dr. Baumhart, who later took over extermination efforts at Grafeneck
<nowiki> </nowiki>and at Hadamar. The second gassing trial and later extermination 
measures were accomplished thereafter by Dr. Eberl alone and on his own 
authority.<sup>[4]</sup>

=== Ongoing conduct of the gassing program ===
The
<nowiki> </nowiki>Brandenburg gassing, together with the gassings of Polish mental 
patients that the SS-Sonderkommando had carried out in the autumn 1939 
gas chamber in Fort VII at Posen,<sup>[''citation needed'']</sup>
 led to the specification that the T4 victims should also be killed with
<nowiki> </nowiki>CO gas. Becker was assigned to instruct the physicians, who were to set
<nowiki> </nowiki>up six "institutes" for gassing, the first of which was at Grafeneck. 
According to Becker's later testimony, around the end of January 1940 he
<nowiki> </nowiki>brought the gas bottles out from Brandenburg to Grafeneck Castle,
<nowiki> </nowiki>to put the institute there "into operation", that is, to start the 
killing program there. Originally, a Dr. Schumann was to operate the CO 
valve, but Schumann let the gas flow too quickly, causing it to hiss 
loudly inside the "shower room." This caused the victims, whom Becker 
called, even years later, the "delinquents" to become agitated. Becker 
took over manometers from Schumann. He slowed down the gas infusion into
<nowiki> </nowiki>the chamber, which caused the victims to calm down and die shortly 
thereafter.<sup>[2]</sup>
{| class="mbox-small plainlinks sistersitebox"

|
|Wikisource has original text related to this article:
'''Letter of Bishop Hilfrich to Reich Justice Minister'''

|}
Up to the end of Action T4 in August 1941 Becker's job was to arrange delivery of CO bottles from the I.G. Farben plant in Ludwigshafen to the killing facilities. The purchase orders for the gas were made by Albert Widmann of the Criminal Technology Institute (''Kriminaltechnische Institut'') or (KTI), of the Central National Security Office (RSHA). Like Becker, Widman was also tried in a German court after the war. In Widman's case, the court, based in Stuttgart
<nowiki> </nowiki>found that Widman's role was to order the CO gas bottles to conceal the
<nowiki> </nowiki>fact that the purchase orders were coming from a party agency, and in 
particular, from the Führer Chancellery. This was decided upon by Becker
<nowiki> </nowiki>and Widman's superior, Victor Brack, at the Führer Chancellery, but it had been previously suggested by Arthur Nebe.
<nowiki> </nowiki>Widmann received from the individual killing institutes their CO 
demand. He then ordered the CO gas bottles from the Baden Aniline and 
Soda Works<sup>[6]</sup>
 in Ludwigshafen orders, giving KTI as the purchaser. Widman then sent 
the order and supply confirmations to Becker, who was working at the Führer Chancellery arranging for their delivery to the individual institutes.<sup>[7]</sup>

=== The Einsatzgruppen ===
Killing of Jews at Ivangorod, Ukraine, 1942. A woman is attempting to protect a child with her own body just before they are fired on with rifles at close range

In October 1941 Becker was used again in the Central Reich Security Office and assigned to department II D 3 A under Friedrich Pradel.
<nowiki> </nowiki>This was responsible for the Kraftfahrwesen of the state police. The 
director of department D (technical affairs), SS-Obersturmbannführer Walter Rauff, assigned Becker in December 1941 the inspection of the gas vans with the Einsatzgruppen,
<nowiki> </nowiki>a Nazi bureaucratic term which technically meant "Special Task Group." 
In fact, the Einsatzgruppen were Nazi killing squads that roved about 
Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe and organized the mass murder of Jews prior
<nowiki> </nowiki>to the invention of the death camps. These included, among others, 
Gypsies, communists, and especially Jews. While there were some 
variations (see Friedrich Jeckeln),
<nowiki> </nowiki>typically the way this was done was to have a trench dug by prisoners 
of war, with the local population of "undesirables" rounded up by 
intimidation or force, sometimes with the aid of local collaborators, 
and then they would be shot with one bullet per victim by an SS man. In 
this manner, and with the aid of a good number of people to catch, 
guard, and force-march the victims to the killing site, 10 or 12 
shooters could kill 12,000 people in a single day.<sup>[8]</sup>

=== Introduction of the gas vans ===
A destroyed Magirus-Deutz van found in 1945 in Koło (Kolo), Poland, not far from the Kulmhof (Chelmno) extermination camp.
<nowiki> </nowiki>The same type of van was used by the Nazis for suffocation, with the 
exhaust fumes diverted into the sealed rear compartment where the 
victims were locked in. This particular van has not been modified yet

To lessen the psychological impact on the killers of the one-on-one 
style of killing that had characterized Einsatzgruppen operations, the 
SS, at the direction of Heinrich Himmler, invented the gas van,
<nowiki> </nowiki>a type of mobile gas chamber consisting of a van or truck with an 
air-tight cargo area capable of carrying a number of people. The exhaust
<nowiki> </nowiki>pipe of the van could be set to exhaust into the cargo area, so that 
when the van was loaded with victims, and the cargo door closed and 
locked, all that was needed was to drive down a road for a time while 
the carbon monoxide
<nowiki> </nowiki>in the exhaust gas killed the people in the van. Once this process was 
finished, the bodies were pulled out, and the van driven on to another 
location to kill another group of people.<sup>[9][10]</sup>

=== Becker inspects gas van operations ===
In
<nowiki> </nowiki>practice, however, it was more difficult to carry out van killings than
<nowiki> </nowiki>the original theory had anticipated. Becker was assigned to solve the 
problems. He later testified that when, in December 1941, he was 
transferred to Rauff's command. Rauff explained to Becker that the plan 
was to gas people rather than shoot them, because the psychological 
burden of so many shootings could no longer be borne by the killers. 
Rauff told Becker that the gas vans and drivers had already arrived at 
the Einsatzgruppe
<nowiki> </nowiki>locations or they were on their way. Rauff assigned Becker to 
investigate the gas van procedures used by the Einsatzgruppen. 
Specifically, Becker was to ensure the mass killings (''Massentötungen'')
<nowiki> </nowiki>made in the gas vans were conducted efficiently, whereby he paid his 
attention in particular to the technical function of these vans. 
Pursuant to this order from Rauff, in the middle of December 1941, 
Becker drove to Riga
<nowiki> </nowiki>to inspect the gas vans used by Einsatzgruppe A. On January 4 or 5, 
1942, Becker received another order from Rauff directing him to move on 
to Einsatzgruppe D in the south, which was commanded by Otto Ohlendorf near Simferopol.
<nowiki> </nowiki>It took Becker about three weeks to get there. Becker stayed with 
Einsatzgruppe D until the beginning of April 1942, when he returned to 
Einsatzgruppe A at Riga.<sup>[11]</sup>

Becker worried however not only about the technology of the gas vans,
<nowiki> </nowiki>but was also concerned about their camouflage as well as the physical 
and moral health of the SS soldiers carrying out the execution 
procedure. Thus he reported on 16 May 1942 from Kiev to Rauff:
{| class="cquote"

|“
|I ordered the vans of group D
<nowiki> </nowiki>to be camouflaged as house-trailers by putting one set of window 
shutters on each side of the small van and two on each side of the 
larger vans, such as one often sees on farm-houses in the country. The 
vans became so well-known, that not only the authorities, but also the 
civilian population called the van "death van", as soon as one of these 
vehicles appeared. It is my opinion, the van cannot be kept secret for 
any length of time, not even camouflaged.<br>
...

Because of the rough terrain and the indescribable road and highway 
conditions the caulkings and rivets loosen in the course of time. I was 
asked if in such cases the vans should be brought to Berlin for repair. 
Transportation to Berlin would be much too expensive and would demand 
too much fuel. In order to save those expenses I ordered them to have 
smaller leaks soldered and if that should no longer be possible, to 
notify Berlin immediately by radio, that Pol. Nr ............. is out of
<nowiki> </nowiki>order. Besides that I ordered that during application of gas all the 
men were to be kept as far away from the vans as possible, so they 
should not suffer damage to their health by the gas which eventually 
would escape. I should like to take this opportunity to bring the 
following to your attention: several commands have had the unloading 
after the application of gas done by their own men. I brought to the 
attention of the commanders of those S.K. concerned the immense 
psychological injuries and damages to their health which that work can 
have for those men, even if not immediately, at least later on. The men 
complained to me about head-aches which appeared after each unloading. 
Nevertheless they don't want to change the orders, because they are 
afraid prisoners called for that work, could use an opportune moment to 
flee. To protect the men from these damages, I request orders be issued 
accordingly.<sup>[12]</sup>

|”

|}
In this letter Becker criticized also the incorrect execution of the gassings:
{| class="cquote"

|“
|The 
application of gas usually is not undertaken correctly. In order to come
<nowiki> </nowiki>to an end as fast as possible, the driver presses the accelerator to 
the fullest extent. By doing that the persons to be executed suffer 
death from suffocation and not death by dozing off as was planned. My 
directions now have proved that by correct adjustment of the levers 
death comes faster and the prisoners fall asleep peacefully. Distorted 
faces and excretions, such as could be seen before, are no longer 
noticed.<sup>[12]</sup>
|”

|}
Becker continued sending messages to Rauff regarding the efficacious 
use of the gas vans through the middle of 1942. On 5 June 1942 Becker 
reported that "for an example, since December 1941, three vehicles were 
used to process<sup>[13]</sup> 97,000, with no down-time on the vehicles.".<sup>[11]</sup>
 In September 1942, following his return to Berlin, Becker criticized 
the untidy means by which the murders were carried out to Rauff's deputy
<nowiki> </nowiki>Pradel:
{| class="cquote"

|“
|I 
described the function of the gas cars to Pradel in an hour long 
personal discussion and offered criticisms, because the subjects (people
<nowiki> </nowiki>to be murdered) were suffocated and not gassed since the operating crew
<nowiki> </nowiki>didn't follow proper instructions. I told him that the subjects vomited
<nowiki> </nowiki>and defecated upon themselves prior to death instead of falling asleep 
first. Pradel thoughtfully nodded, without saying a word.<sup>[11]</sup>
|”

|}

== Nazi career after gas vans ==
After his work as a gas van specialist Becker was employed at the Central Commercial Company East (''Zentralhandelsgesellschaft Ost''), a monopoly company for the agricultural products in the occupied east areas, and afterwards in the Foreign Defense Office (''Auslandabwehr'') of the Central Reich Security Office (RSHA). In 1943 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel (SS-Obersturmbannführer).

== After the war ==
Because of his membership in the SS, Becker was condemned after end of war to a three years prison sentence.<sup>[3]</sup>
 Afterwards he worked as a salesman for animal feeds and then to support
<nowiki> </nowiki>himself in 1954 he started working first in a precision machine shop 
and then in concrete construction. In 1959 he suffered a stroke and 
moved to a nursing home in the upper Hessian town of Laubach.

== Trial, conviction, and last years ==

In 1959, the public prosecutor's office in Stuttgart began a preliminary investigation into offenses committed by Becker, Albert Widmann and Paul Werner.<sup>[14]</sup>
 Becker was condemned to ten years prison, but on 15 July 1960, due to 
his bad state of health he was released from detention and admitted to 
the home for the elderly at Butzbach.
<nowiki> </nowiki>When in 1967, the State Criminal Court in Stuttgart sent a summons to 
Becker, it turned out that Becker had been taken out of the Butzbach 
home on January 3, 1966 by persons unknown, and his current whereabouts 
could not be determined. On June 16, 1967, the Baden-Wuerttemburg state 
criminal police agency issued a bulletin to be on the look out for 
Becker. By then however Becker had been checked into another nursing 
home where he remained in a state of almost complete mental and physical
<nowiki> </nowiki>breakdown.<sup>[15]</sup> August Becker died on 31 December 1967.