August Becker
He helped design the vans with a gas chamber built into the back compartment used in early Nazi mass murder of disabled people, political 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.
From February to April 1934, he was occasionally active in the Gestapo 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.
[1] 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 participated in the first "test", gassing 18 to 20 mentally ill convicts in a former prison known by the euphemistic name of Landes-Pflegeanstalt Brandenburg an der Havel, which later became known to history as a Nazi killing center (NS-Tötungsanstalt).
[4] 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.
[4] At the same time, Widmann informed the institute physician Dr. Eberl and Dr. Baumhart, who later took over extermination efforts at Grafeneck and at Hadamar.
According to Becker's later testimony, around the end of January 1940, he brought the gas bottles out from Brandenburg to Grafeneck Castle, to put the institute there "into operation", that is, to start the killing program there.
This was decided upon by Becker and Widmann's superior, Victor Brack, at the Führer Chancellery, but it had been previously suggested by Arthur Nebe.
Widmann then sent the order and supply confirmations to Becker, who was working at the Führer Chancellery arranging for their delivery to the individual institutes.
[7] In October 1941, Becker was used again in the Central Reich Security Office and assigned to department II D 3 A under Friedrich Pradel.
In fact, the Einsatzgruppen were Nazi killing squads that roved about Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe and organized the mass murder of Jews prior to the invention of the death camps.
[8] 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, 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.
Specifically, Becker was to ensure the mass killings (Massentötungen) made in the gas vans were conducted efficiently.
On 4 or 5 January 1942, Becker, on the direction from Rauff, moved on to Einsatzgruppe D in the south, which was commanded by Otto Ohlendorf near Simferopol.
[11] Becker worried however not only about the technology of the gas vans, but was also concerned about their camouflage as well as the physical and moral health of the SS troops carrying out the execution procedure.
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.
[12]In this letter, Becker criticized also the incorrect execution of the gassings: The application of gas usually is not undertaken correctly.
My directions now have proved that by correct adjustment of the levers death comes faster and the prisoners fall asleep peacefully.
"[11] In September 1942, following his return to Berlin, Becker criticized the untidy means by which the murders were carried out to Rauff's deputy Pradel: I described the function of the gas cars to Pradel in an hour long personal discussion and offered criticisms, because the subjects (people to be murdered) were suffocated and not gassed since the operating crew didn't follow proper instructions.
[11]After his work as a gas van specialist Becker was employed at the Central Commercial Company East (Zentralhandelsgesellschaft Ost [de]), 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 1959, the public prosecutor's office in Stuttgart began a preliminary investigation into offenses committed by Becker, Albert Widmann and Paul Werner.
[14] 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.
By then, however, Becker had been checked into another nursing home, where he remained in a state of almost complete mental and physical breakdown.
