Ludwig Hahn

Ludwig Hermann Karl Hahn (23 January 1908 – 10 November 1986) was a German Nazi war criminal who participated in the destruction and evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto. He was originally a German lawyer, who held multiple political and Nazi defence positions. Hahn died in prison in 1986 after being convicted for war crimes.

Biography
The son of a farmer of the same name, Hahn qualified as a lawyer in 1935. He joined the Nazi Party in 1930 and soon afterwards joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) as a Scharführer. He left the SA in 1932 to concentrate on his studies by joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1933. Soon after qualifying he took on administration post with the Gestapo and was sent to work in their main Berlin office in 1936.

Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Hahn was appointed leader of the Einsatzkommando I of Einsatzgruppe I.

Hahn served as Chief of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) and Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in occupied Warsaw from November 1941 to January 1945 under the command of SS General Bruno Streckenbach. In this role he oversaw the liquidation of the ghetto in summer 1942 and the transportation of the inhabitants to Treblinka concentration camp. Similarly Hahn played a leading role in the violent suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

After the Germans were driven out of Poland Hahn, under the command of Jürgen Stroop, was made chief of police in Wiesbaden. Hahn was captured by British forces whilst in this role but escaped and would later emerge as a lawyer in Hamburg. He was arrested in 1960 by the government of West Germany for his involvement in war crimes but after seven years was released. He was married to Charlotte Steinhoff, sister of the World War II fighter pilot Johannes Steinhoff, and later a senior West German Air Force officer and military commander of NATO.