Eckeln, Friedrich

Member of World War I , lieutenant. For military merits, he was awarded the Iron Cross of the 2nd class.

October 1, 1929 joined the NSDAP (No. 163348), in December 1930 - in the SS (No. 4367), served in the SS detachment in Hanover . In 1932 he was elected deputy of the Reichstag from East Hanover.

Since 1941, he held senior positions in the SS and police in the occupied territory of the USSR. On July 25, 1941, Ekkeln issued an order: “After a short interrogation, send the captured commissars to me for a detailed interrogation through the chief of the SD of my headquarters. Women agents or Jews who went to the service of the Soviets should be treated appropriately ” ^[1] .

Since November 1941 - the highest leader of the SS and police in Riga (Reichskommissariat Ostland ). In May 1942 he was awarded the Iron Cross of the 1st degree. In June 1942 he received a silver badge for injuring himself.

Eckeln was one of the main organizers of the terror and massacres of the local population. By the time Soviet troops entered the Baltic states, only about 1.6% of pre-war Jewry remained in it. In late November - early December 1941, under the leadership of Ekkeln, a mass murder of Jews was carried out in the Rumbul forest near Riga. Then, with the participation of the Arays team , about 25 thousand people were exterminated.

In February-April 1943, Eckeln directed the conduct of the punitive anti-partisan operation "Winter Magic" in the north of Belarus. During the operation, Latvian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian collaborators shot and burned several thousand civilians, more than ten thousand were taken to work in Germany ^{[2] [3] [4]} .

For this anti-partisan operation, Ekeln was awarded the Golden German Cross. In August 1944 he was awarded the Knight's Cross.

Since March 1945, he commanded the 5th mountain corps of the SS troops , on the Eastern Front, in the Frankfurt area. Awarded with Oak Leaves (No. 802) to the Knight's Cross.

In May 1945, captured in Soviet captivity in Berlin.

May 2, 1945 in Berlin captured by Soviet troops. During interrogation on December 14, 1945, Eckeln told about the instructions given to him by Himmler before leaving for Ostland in 1941 ^[5] :

Himmler said that I have to set up work in Ostland so that there is complete peace throughout the Baltic states and Belarus, and that the Jews in Ostland must be destroyed every single one. Himmler spoke of other nations inhabiting the territory of Ostland, in particular emphasized his hatred of the Lithuanians , calling them an inferior race. He spoke a little softer about Latvians , but expressed his disdain for them, saying that of the total number of Latvians, in his opinion, only 30% should be considered people who can be used. Himmler also classified Estonians as a lower race, especially those living east of the Baltic Sea.

Himmler further said that after the final victory of National Socialism, it would be necessary to Germanize those Estonians and Latvians who would show themselves well at work in favor of Germany. All other Latvians and Estonians, he said, would need to be evicted from the Baltic States to Germany, where to use them at work, and the vacant space would be filled with Germans. Himmler called Belarusians an inferior race, and about Russians he said that this was an allegedly backward, uncultured, not at all capable of leading a large state lower race. This time Himmler did not give more definite indications regarding my work in Ostland, except for one specific order to eliminate all Jews contained in the Riga ghetto .

In 1942, Himmler called Eckeln to Letzen (East Prussia), reporting that Jews from Europe would be brought to the Salaspils concentration camp (20 km from Riga). Eckeln suggested using executions for the murders of Jews as the easiest and quickest way ^[5] . During the trial, Eckelnn admitted: “Two or three trains with Jews arrived in the Salaspils concentration camp every week. Upon receipt, these parties were liquidated. So it went on continuously from December 1941 to mid-1942. In each echelon, there were at least a thousand people. I suppose that in total we shot up to 87 thousand Jews who arrived in the Salaspils camp from other countries ” ^[6] .

In the criminal case, Ekkelna featured the "Act on the extermination of 35,000 Soviet children by the Nazi invaders in the territory of the Latvian SSR" with information about the murders of children in the Latvian Salaspils. In a concentration camp, children were taken from their mothers and driven into a separate hut. Poor nutrition, experiments by doctors, pumping out blood for the soldiers of the German army, illness, lack of care led to mass mortality of children. One of the prisoners, ten-year-old Natasha Lemeshonok, said ^[5] :

A few days later, soldiers in all groups were taken out of the hut and led through the courtyard to the hospital. We were lined up there. We did not know what they would do with us. Then came a German doctor, big and angry, and another German, I did not see what they were doing in front, but some girl suddenly began to cry and scream, and the doctor stamped his feet. I was very scared ... my turn came ... the doctor stuck a needle in my hand and, when he got a full glass tube, released me and began to take blood from my sister Ani ... A day later, we were again taken to the doctor and again took blood. Soon Anya died in a barracks. All of our hands were in jabs. We were all sick, dizzy, boys and girls died every day.

From the end of 1942 to 1944, up to 12 thousand children passed through the Salaspils camp ^[5] .

At a trial in Riga for war crimes, Eckeln was sentenced to death by a military tribunal of the Baltic Military District and publicly hanged in Riga on February 3, 1946. ^[7]

• Zalessky K.A. Guard units of Nazism. Complete Encyclopedia of the SS. - M .: Veche, 2009 .-- S. 784. - ISBN 978-5-9533-3471-6 .
• The extermination of Jews in Latvia 1941-1945. (ed. M. Barkagan ), Riga, 2008 ISBN 978-9984-9835-6-1
• M. Bobe . Jews in Latvia, Riga, 2006, ISBN 9984-9835-3-6
• D. Zilberman . “And you saw it”, Riga, “BOTA”, 2006, ISBN 9984-19-970-3
• A.I. Kruglov . The tragedy of Babi Yar in German documents . - Dnepropetrovsk: Center "Tkuma"; PE Lira LTD, 2011. - P. 121-126.

• Sevidova N. Attorney for the "specialist in sardines" // News Today, No. 14, January 17, 2009