Lange entered Poland with
Einsatzgruppe Naumann (
EG VI) during the
September campaign. On 9 November 1939, following a Nazi German victory, Lange was promoted to the rank of SS-
Untersturmführer (2nd lieutenant) in
occupied Poland and posted in charge of the
Gestapo in occupied
Poznań. In the beginning of 1940 he assumed command of an
SS-Sonderkommando Lange, named after him and tasked with the murder of mentally ill in
Wartheland area (Wielkopolska) under the direction of
SS-Standartenführer Ernst Damzog and
SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Koppe. Lange served with Einsatzgruppe VI during
Operation Tannenberg. Already by mid-1940, he and his men were responsible for the murder of about 1,100 patients in
Owińska, 2,750 patients at
Kościan, 1,558 patients and 300 Poles at
Działdowo, and hundreds of Poles at
Fort VII where the mobile gas-chamber (Einsatzwagen) was invented. Their earlier hospital victims were usually shot in the back of the neck. The unit, equipped with a gas van, shuttled between hospitals, picking up patients and killing them with
carbon monoxide. After his promotion to SS-
Obersturmführer (1st lieutenant) on 20 April 1940, his unit was permanently stationed at the
Soldau concentration camp. In one special case,
Wilhelm Rediess hired
Kommando Lange to kill 1,558 mental patients from
East Prussia for ten
Reichsmarks a head. By December 1941 Lange was a SS-
Hauptsturmführer (captain) and was appointed commander of the
Chełmno death camp by then SS-
Standartenführer Ernst Damzog, the
Inspekteur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD in Posen (today,
Poznań). Lange held that position until March 1942. His commando was tasked with the liquidation of 100,000 Jews from the
Warthegau via
Ghetto Litzmannstadt. In April 1942 Lange's unit was renamed SS
Sonderkommando Kulmhof and introduced improvements to the killing process at Chełmno. Lange constructed cremation pits to replace mass graves. He was succeeded by
Hans Bothmann who formed Special Detachment Bothmann in 1942. At a very minimum 152,000 people (Bohn) were killed at the camp, though the West German prosecution, citing Nazi figures during the
Chełmno trials of 1962–65, laid charges for at least 180,000 victims. Upon the completion of his task in 1942 Lange was transferred to the
Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office) and served under
Arthur Nebe as a Kriminalrat (Criminal Investigator). In 1944, Lange aided in catching the conspirators who attempted to assassinate Hitler as part of the
20 July Plot, leading to his promotion to SS-
Sturmbannführer. One of the conspirators he interrogated was Peter Bielenberg. In her book
The Past Is Myself, Peter Bielenberg's wife
Christabel Bielenberg describes her own interrogation by Lange. Lange was killed in action at
Bernau bei Berlin during the
Battle of Berlin on 20 April 1945. ==Notes==