Dr. Rudolf Lange was Commander of SD and SIPO in Riga,
Latvia. Overall he was a mass killer who was largely responsible for
the extermination of the Jewish population of Latvia (Einsatzgruppen
A killed over 250,000 people in little less than 6 months).
Dr. Lange was born in Weisswasser in 1910. He studied
law and became a member of the secret police. He joined the SS and NSDAP in 1937.
He then served for a time as deputy head of police for Berlin.
In 1941, he joined
Einsatzgruppe A in the Baltic region, mostly Latvia (Riga) He was called
to the Wannsee Conference,
as he had done mass killing in Latvia. He had been in charge of the
mass killings on the outskirts of Riga that liquidated 35,000 people
in two days.
At the time of the Wannsee Conference he was Deputy
Head of task forces in Latvia. He was a Sturmbannführer in the SS (Major) and in charge
of Einsatzgruppe A EK2 (Sub section 2). In 1942,
he became a Obersturmbannführer (Lt. Colonel) in the head office
in Riga until 1945,
when he became Head of Warta Region SD and SIPO. He was promoted to
Standartenführer (Colonel) in the SS in 1945. He was killed in action in Poznan, Poland in February 1945. He may have committed suicide, but records
are unclear. He was one of the few SS officer to receive the DK in gold.