Dr. Karl Eberhard Schongarth was born in 1903 in the
town of Leipzig. He became a member of the SD Sicherheitsdienst Intelligence
Service of the SS Schutzstaffel
in 1933. He was
later made head of SIPO Sicherheitspolizei Security Police . He was
then appointed Commander of the Gestapo in the Netherlands.
During the time he was stationed in Krakow, Poland, he formed an Einsatzgruppen
Special Action Group. He was responsible for the murder of up to
4,000 Jewish citizens between July and September of 1941.
He attended the Wannsee
Conference on January 20, 1942,
along with Dr. Rudolf Lange (Einsatzgruppen A) who also had participated in genocide.
Schongarth was captured at the end of the war. He was
found guilty of executing a downed Allied pilot (which occurred on November
21, 1944) by a
British Court in Burgsteinfurt on February 11, 1946. He was executed
on May 16, 1946.