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Karl Jäger
File:Karl Jaeger (Nazi official).jpg
Karl Jäger in the SS
Born (1888-09-20)20 September 1888
Died 22 June 1959(1959-06-22) (aged 70)
Place of birth Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Place of death Hohenasperg, Germany
Allegiance Flag of German Reich (1935–1945) Nazi Germany
Service/branch Flag Schutzstaffel Waffen-SS
Years of service 1933–1945
Rank Standartenführer (Colonel)
Unit Einsatzkommando 3

About this sound Karl Jäger  (20 September 1888 – 22 June 1959) was a Swiss-born SS-Standartenführer (Colonel) and Einsatzkommando leader who perpetrated acts of genocide during the Holocaust.[1]

Early life and career[]

Jäger was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. In World War I he received the Iron Cross (1st Class). He joined the Nazi Party in 1923 (serial no. 359269). Jäger obtained a managerial position with the Weber Factory in Waldkirch, and brought it into bankruptcy in 1931.[1] He was unemployed for several years, but refused unemployment support from the burgeoning Weimar Republic. He sold all his assets by 1934. Wife Emma separated from him when Jäger became a burden to his own family. The formal divorce took place in 1940.[1] He joined the SS in 1932 (serial no. 62823), but began a quick SS career only under Heinrich Himmler, in 1935.[1]

He was assigned to Ludwigsburg, then to Ravensburg in 1935, and to Münster in 1938, where he was named head of the local office of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). During the invasion of the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, Jäger was named commander of Einsatzkommando 3, a unit of Einsatzgruppe A.

Mass murders in eastern Europe[]

Jäger was instrumental in the brutal and systematic destruction of the Jewish community of Lithuania. From July 1941 until September 1943 Jäger served as commander of the SD Einsatzkommando 3a in Kaunas. During this time, reports detailing calculated acts of mass murder were routinely submitted to his superiors. Some of these reports survived the war and are collectively referred to as the "Jäger Report". Reassigned back to Germany near the end of 1943, Jäger was appointed commander of the SD in Reichenberg in the Sudetenland.

Kiev Jew Killings in Ivangorod (1942)

Einsatzgruppen killing people in 1942 in the Ukraine at Ivangorod. Jäger organized thousands of murders like these.

The Jäger Report[]

The actions by Einsatzkommando 3, including the Rollkommando Hamann killing squad were tallied by Jäger himself. The report keeps an almost daily running total of the liquidations of 137,346 people. Among all Nazi documents detailing calculated acts of mass murder and other atrocities, the "Jäger Report" is one of the most horrifying. It provides a detailed account of the murderous rampage of this "special squad" in Nazi-occupied Lithuania.

Escape, capture, and suicide[]

Jäger escaped capture by the Allies when the war ended, assumed a false identity, and was able to assimilate back into society as a farm hand until his report was discovered in March 1959. Arrested and charged with his crimes, Jäger committed suicide by hanging himself in prison in Hohenasperg while he was awaiting trial in June 1959.

Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Vincas Bartuseviécius, Joachim Tauber, Wolfram Wette (2003). "Jägers Karriere in der SS 1936–1941". Holocaust in Litauen: Krieg, Judenmorde und Kollaboration im Jahre 1941. Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar. pp. 80–82. ISBN 3412139025. http://books.google.ca/books?id=cGcc1iukDIsC&pg=PA80&dq=%22J%C3%A4gers+Karriere+in+der+SS+1936%E2%80%931941%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jVftUce2J8LOyAGE64DoCA&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22J%C3%A4gers%20Karriere%20in%20der%20SS%201936%E2%80%931941%22&f=false. Retrieved 22 July 2013. 
  • Klee, Ernst, Dressen, Willi, and Riess, Volker, "The Good Old Days" – The Holocaust as Seen by its Perpetrators and Bystanders, (translation by Deborah Burnstone) MacMillan, New York, 1991 ISBN 0-02-917425-2, originally published as (German) Klee, Ernst, Dreßen, Willi, and Rieß, Volker (Hrsg.): Schöne Zeiten. Judenmord aus der Sicht der Täter und Gaffer. S. Fischer, Frankfurt / Main 1988. ISBN 978-3-10-039304-3
  • (German) Krausnick, Helmut, and Wilhelm, Hans-Heinrich: Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges. Die Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD 1938–1942. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-421-01987-8
  • (German) Seljak, Anton: Monolithisches Leitbild und soziale Heterogenität einer Elite. Untersuchungen zum Ordensgedanken der SS und zur sozialen Stratifikation des SS-Führerkorps. Including a socio-biographical excursus on Karl Jäger. Universität Basel, 1992 (vgl. "Alexandria": Online-Katalog (OPAC) des Bibliotheksverbunds der Schweizerischen Bundesverwaltung)
  • (German) Stang, Knut: Kollaboration und Massenmord. Die litauische Hilfspolizei, das Rollkommando Hamann und die Ermordung der litauischen Juden. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [u.a.] 1996, ISBN 3-631-30895-7

External links[]

All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Karl Jäger and the edit history here.
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