Lorenz Hackenholt

German Nazi SS gas chamber executioner

Lorenz Hackenholt (26 June 1914 – missing 1945, declared legally dead as of 31 December 1945, but believed to have still been alive) was a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) with the rank of Hauptscharführer (First Sergeant).

During World War II Hackenholt built and operated the gas chamber at the Bełżec extermination camp in occupied Poland.

In so doing, he personally carried out the murder of hundreds of thousands of people.Hackenholt was deeply involved in the operation of death camps during the deadliest phase of the Holocaust in Poland, known as Operation Reinhard, as well as in other Nazi war crimes, including the murder of mental patients and the disabled in Action T4 programme of forced euthanasia.