Rudolf Lange

Rudolf Lange (April 18th, 1910 - February 23rd, 1945?) was a prominent Nazi police official.

Mass murder in Latvia and Wannsee Conference
As a member of the Schutzstaffel, he was responsible for being one of the primary perpetrators of The Holocaust in Latvia during the Second World War.

In November 1941 Lange was involved in the planning and carrying out the murder of 24,000 Latvian Jews from the Riga ghetto which occurred on 30 November and 8 December 1941. This crime has come to be known as the Rumbula massacre. In addition to the Latvian Jews, another 1,000 Jews from Germany were also murdered. They had been brought to Latvia on the first train of deportees, which arrived on 29 November 1941. Following the 29 November train, more rail transports of Jews began arriving in Riga from Germany, starting on 3 December 1941. The Jews on the first few transports were not immediately housed in the ghetto, but were left at Jungfernhof concentration camp.

Joined the Wannsee Conference with Adolf Eichmann, Heinrich Muller and Reinhard Heydrich where they and other SS leader and generals planned out the final details for the Holocaust.

Disappearance
Early in 1945 Lange was appointed head of the SD and the SS in Posen, Warthegau. Soon after he reached the city, Posen was surrounded by the Soviet Red Army and was declared a fortified city (Festung). Lange, who could not have any doubts about his destiny as a prisoner, directed the police under his command with fanaticism. He was wounded during the Battle of Poznan and the siege by Russian forces and was promoted SS-Standartenführer (30 January 1945). At Adolf Hitler's behest, on 6 February 1945 he received the German Cross in gold. Lange may have died or committed suicide when the Red Army seized Poznań 23 February 1945 after a last-ditch defence of the city by the remnants of the German garrison.