Erwin Lambert

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Erwin Lambert
Sobibór and Treblinka extermination camps during Operation Reinhard
Other workMason, Ceramic tile salesman[1]

Erwin Hermann Lambert (7 December 1909 – 15 October 1976) was a German perpetrator of

Sobibór and Treblinka extermination camps during Operation Reinhard
. He specialized in building larger gas chambers that killed more people than previous efforts in the extermination program.

Biography

Lambert was born on 7 December 1909 in Schildow, a small town in

locksmith, and then to a mason. After passing his apprentice exam, he attended a school for the building trades in Berlin in the mid-1920s and passed his examination for master mason in the mid-1930s. He was always employed as a mason and, after becoming a master mason, as a foreman for various Berlin construction firms.[2]

Lambert joined the

Hitler's assumption of national power, and first worked within the Party as a Blockleiter in Schildow.[3]
Lambert was not yet a member of any of the party's paramilitary organizations.

Late in 1939, the

Action T4".[2]

Construction of gas chambers

Gas chamber at Bernburg, designed by Erwin Lambert

Lambert's primary task was to direct construction work at the T4 killing centres, particularly the construction of

Hadamar as the program's "expert for the construction of gas chambers".[2]

After T4's termination, Lambert was posted to

SS. During this time, however, his work was often interrupted for further construction jobs in Germany and Austria involving the still-ongoing Action 14f13. With the help of Ukrainian volunteers, and condemned Jewish prisoners, Lambert constructed solid gassing facilities at Sobibor and Treblinka: "Using his expert knowledge about gassing installations, Lambert was able rapidly to complete all work on the big gas house [in Treblinka]".[2]

During his testimony at the

Hagen, Germany (whose lead defendant was Kurt Bolender
), lasting from 6 September 1965 until 20 December 1966, Lambert stated:

I was in the extermination camp of

Treblinka
.

I went to

Sobibor together with Lorenz Hackenholt, who was at that time in Treblinka. First of all, I went with Hackenholt to a sawmill near Warsaw
. There Hackenholt ordered a large consignment of wood for reconstruction in Sobibor.

Finally, both of us went to Sobibor. We reported there to the camp commander, Reichleitner. He gave us the exact directives for the construction of the gassing installations. The camp was already in operation, and there was a gassing installation. Probably the old installation was not big enough, and reconstruction was necessary.

Today I cannot tell exactly who participated in the reconstruction work. However, I do remember that Jewish prisoners and so-called Askaries (Ukrainian auxiliaries) took part in the work.

During this time that building was in progress, no transports with Jews arrived.[4]

In addition, Lambert directed construction at several nearby forced labour camps such as Dohorucza and the Poniatowa concentration camp. Reportedly, Lambert attempted to remain an uninvolved expert devoted solely to his work and not interested in the conditions which surrounded it. According to one survivor, Jankiel Wiernik, Lambert avoided looking at dead bodies and treated his Jewish workers in a professional manner.

Unterscharführer Herman [sic] was humane and likeable. He understood us and was considerate of us. When he first entered Camp II and saw the piles [of bodies] that had been suffocated by the gas, he was stunned. He turned pale and a frightened look of suffering fell over his face. He quickly took me from the place so as not to see what was going on. With regard to us, the workers, he treated us very well. Frequently he would bring us food on the side from the German kitchen. In his eyes one could see his good-heartedness... but he feared his friends. All his deeds and movements expressed his gentle soul.[5][6]

At the conclusion of Operation Reinhard, Lambert was posted to Trieste, where he continued installing cremation facilities at the concentration camp Risiera di San Sabba.

After the war, Lambert was arrested on 28 March 1962. At the

Sobibór Trial in 1966, Lambert was acquitted.[8]
At the trials Lambert denied involvement in the killing operation and claimed that he merely suspected that the buildings would be used for killing. Lambert died on 15 October 1976.

References

  1. ^ H.E.A.R.T. Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-8078-2208-6
  3. ISBN 3-10-039309-0
  4. ^ In the Name of the People: Perpetrators of Genocide in the Reflection of Their Post-War Prosecution in West Germany the 'Euthanasia' and Aktion Reinhard Trial Cases. Dick Mildt Publisher: Brill ISBN
  5. ^ Yitzhak Arad (1987). Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p. 196.
  6. ^ Jankiel Wiernik (1944). A Year in Treblinka, New York, pp. 20-21.
  7. ^ Treblinka Trial
  8. ^ Sobibor Trial at the Holocaust Research Project.

External links

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