During the
September Campaign, Hahn and his
Einsatzkommando were heavily involved in the arrests and executions carried out as part of the
Intelligenzaktion, a Nazi extermination operation targeting the Polish
intelligentsia and other members of the nation's
elite. Between September–November 1939, Hahn took part in the mass-killings of Polish
public officials,
political activists,
intellectuals and
army officers in
Katowice,
Sanok,
Rzeszów and
Podlesie.
Einsatzgruppe I was also involved in the
Dynów massacre, in which 170–200
Jewish civilians lost their lives. The town's surviving Jewish population was subsequently expelled into
Soviet-occupied eastern Poland. Following the dissolution of
Einsatzgruppe I, Hahn served as
Stadtkommissar (City Commissioner) for the city of
Przemyśl (Prömsel) from November–December 1939. Hahn next took over as
Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (KdS) for the occupied city of
Kraków in January 1940. He also served as chief of the "Police Emergency Court" (
Standgericht) at
Montelupich Prison. In this capacity Hahn was instrumental in the implementation of the
German AB-Aktion in Poland. In August 1940, Hahn was transferred to
Bratislava,
Slovakia where he had been appointed
Sonderbeauftragter (Special Representative) of the
Reichsführer-SS. In this position Hahn served as SS leader
Heinrich Himmler's personal emissary to the
Nazi-allied government of the
Slovak Republic under
Jozef Tiso. He also acted as a senior advisor to the
Slovak Ministry of the Interior. From April–June 1941 Hahn was stationed in
Athens,
Greece where he commanded
Einsatzgruppe Griechenland during the
Balkan Campaign. Following the German victory in the offensive, he was promoted to the rank of SS-
Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) and returned to his diplomatic post in
Slovakia.
Warsaw Franz Kutschera, 2 February 1944 In August 1941, Hahn returned to
occupied-Poland and was appointed KdS for the city of
Warsaw. His headquarters was housed in the former offices of the
Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education. As Commander of the SiPo and the SD, Hahn would oversee a force of approximately 2,000 individuals; including a staff of 500-600
SS security personnel, as well as around 1,000
Polish police auxiliaries and several
guard companies composed mostly of
Ukrainian and Cossack collaborators. During his tenure, Hahn was directly involved in the planning and implementation of
the Holocaust in Poland. In the summer of 1942, Hahn collaborated with SS-
Brigadeführer Odilo Globocnik and other personnel associated with
Operation Reinhard to carry out
Grossaktion Warschau, the liquidation of the
Warsaw Ghetto. An estimated 265,000
Polish Jews perished between July–September 1942, either in mass-executions carried out by the SS or following their deportation to the
extermination camp at
Treblinka. This was the single deadliest action taken against the Jews in the course of the Holocaust in
occupied-Poland. As a deputy officer to
SS and Police Leader Jürgen Stroop, Hahn also had a leading role in the bloody suppression of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April–May 1943. The brutal pacification of the ghetto by the SS resulted in the deaths of 13,000 Jews either killed in the fighting or executed. In the aftermath of the uprising, Hahn orchestrated the deportation of another 36,000 Jews from Warsaw to the
death camps of
Treblinka and
Majdanek. On 2 February 1944, Hahn would organize the
public execution of 300 Polish civilian
hostages in reprisal for the
assassination of SS and Police Leader
Franz Kutschera by members of the
Polish Resistance. In April 1944, he was promoted to the rank of SS-
Standartenführer (colonel)
und Kriminaldirektor. Hahn would also receive the further title of
Oberst der Polizei. During the August–October 1944
Warsaw Uprising by the
Polish Home Army, Hahn served with the
Waffen-SS, leading a
battalion of 700 men in the southern districts of the city and later in the downtown area. He also personally commanded the defense of Warsaw’s heavily fortified government district. Acting on instructions from Himmler, Hahn ordered the
mass-killing of Polish civilians in retaliation for the rebellion. An estimated 5 to 10 thousand men, women and children were shot by the SS, mainly in the ruins of the former
General Inspectorate of the Armed Forces. Following the
capitulation of the uprising, Hahn supervised the deployment of the
Verbrennungskommando (Cremation Details); groups of Polish prisoners forced to work clearing bodies and debris from the city's streets. Hahn was awarded the
Iron Cross, 1st Class for his service during the uprising.
Later service with the SS In November 1944, Hahn departed Warsaw and returned to
Germany where he was posted to the
Western Front. He was stationed in the town of
Cochem and was appointed commander of
Einsatzgruppe L which was attached to the
German Sixth Panzer Army during the
Battle of the Bulge. After the failure of the Ardennes offensive, Hahn was transferred to
Army Group Vistula on the
Eastern Front to serve as a representative of the SiPo and the SD on the
general staff of SS-
Obergruppenführer Carl Oberg during the
Vistula-Oder offensive. In February 1945, he was reassigned to
Dresden, where he briefly served as
Stabsführer (chief of staff) to SS-
Gruppenführer Ludolf von Alvensleben, the
Higher SS and Police Leader for the
Elbe. Hahn was next appointed KdS for the city of
Wiesbaden in March 1945. However, he was quickly displaced from this position when the city fell to the
Allies and was instead dispatched to
Münster, where he took over as KdS for
Gau Westphalia-North. Hahn was also tasked with overseeing the
security detail for
Gauleiter Alfred Meyer. During the closing weeks of the war, Hahn and his staff fled to
Hessisch-Oldendorf to escape the
Allied advance. He was taken prisoner by the
British Army on 12 April 1945 but successfully escaped from custody shortly afterward. ==Postwar life==