Erwin Hermann Lambert (7 December 1909 – 15 October 1976) was a perpetrator of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. In profession, he was a master mason, building trades foreman,

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

member and member of the ''

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe d ...

'' with the rank of SS-''

Unterscharführer ''Unterscharführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between 1934 and 1945. The SS rank was created after the Night of the Long Knives. That event caused an SS reorganisation and the creation o ...

'' (corporal). He supervised construction of the

gas chambers A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History ...

for the

Action T4 (German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address of ...

euthanasia Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eut ...

program at Hartheim, Sonnenstein,

Bernburg Bernburg (Saale) is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the Salzlandkreis district. The former residence of the Anhalt-Bernburg princes is known for its Renaissance architecture, Renaissance castle. Geography The town centre is situated ...

and

Hadamar Hadamar is a small town in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany. Hadamar is known for its Clinic for Forensic Psychiatry/Centre for Social Psychiatry, lying at the edge of town, in whose outlying buildings is also found the Hadamar Mem ...

, and then at

Sobibór Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As ...

and

Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...

s during

Operation Reinhard or ''Einsatz Reinhard'' , location = Occupied Poland , date = October 1941 – November 1943 , incident_type = Mass deportations to extermination camps , perpetrators = Odilo Globočnik, Hermann Höfle, Richard Thomalla, Erwin L ...

. He specialized in building larger gas chambers that killed more people than previous efforts in the extermination program.

Biography

Lambert was born on 7 December 1909 in Schildow, a small town in

Mühlenbecker Land Mühlenbecker Land is a municipality in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, Germany. History The municipality shared its borders partly with the former West Berlin, and so during the period 1961-1990 it was separated from it by the Berlin Wal ...

, in the Niederbarnim district. His father was killed in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

; his stepfather owned a construction firm in Schildow. After basic schooling, Lambert became an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

, first to a locksmith, and then to a mason. After passing his apprentice exam, he attended a school for the building trades in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

in the mid-1920s and passed his examination for master mason in the mid-1930s. He was always employed as a mason and, after becoming a master mason, as a foreman for various Berlin construction firms. Henry Friedlander (1995). ''The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution'', Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 214-215. Lambert joined the

in March 1933, after

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

's assumption of national power, and first worked within the Party as a ''

Blockleiter ''Blockleiter'' (Block Warden), where ''block'' refers to city block, was from 1933 the title of a lower Nazi Party political rank responsible for the political supervision of a neighborhood. Referred to in common parlance as ''Blockwart'', t ...

'' in Schildow. Klee, Ernst: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945?''. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Zweite aktualisierte Auflage, Frankfurt am Main 2003 Lambert was not yet a member of any of the party's paramilitary organizations. Late in 1939, the

program tried to recruit Lambert, who had been recommended by the local office of the

German Labour Front The German Labour Front (german: Deutsche Arbeitsfront, ; DAF) was the labour organisation under the Nazi Party which replaced the various independent trade unions in Germany during Adolf Hitler's rise to power. History As early as March 1933, ...

. He accepted the offer in January 1940. Lambert was hired to serve as a construction foreman who supervised the other workers; he was "the traveling construction boss of

Construction of gas chambers

Lambert's primary task was to direct construction work at the T4 killing centres, particularly the construction of

and

crematoria Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

. In testimony Lambert claimed that he merely erected room dividers and installed doors, a claim largely discredited. Since

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

and

Grafeneck Grafeneck is a small rural village in the German municipality of Gomadingen, south of Stuttgart. World War II history Grafeneck Castle, which had previously been an asylum for crippled people, was turned by the Nazis into an extermination fa ...

had already been completed before Lambert joined the T4 program, he worked at Hartheim, Sonnenstein,

, and

as the program's "expert for the construction of gas chambers". After T4's termination, Lambert was posted to

Lublin reservation The Nisko Plan was an operation to deport Jews to the Lublin District of the General Governorate of occupied Poland in 1939. Organized by Nazi Germany, the plan was cancelled in early 1940. The idea for the expulsion and resettlement of the Jews ...

for the purpose of bricklaying assignments which constructed the gas chambers in

and

s. At Lublin Lambert joined the SS. During this time, however, his work was often interrupted for further construction jobs in Germany and Austria involving the still-ongoing

Action 14f13 Action 14f13, also called '' Sonderbehandlung'' (special treatment) 14f13 and Aktion 14f13, was a campaign by Nazi Germany to murder Nazi concentration camp prisoners. Also called ''invalid'' or ''prisoner euthanasia'', the sick, the elderly and ...

. With the help of Ukrainian volunteers, and condemned Jewish prisoners, Lambert constructed solid gassing facilities at Sobibor and Treblinka: "Using his expert knowledge about gassing installations, Lambert was able rapidly to complete all work on the big gas house

n Treblinka N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

. During his testimony at the

Sobibór trial The Sobibor trial was a 1965–66 judicial trial in the West German prosecution of SS officers who had worked at Sobibor extermination camp; it was held in Hagen. It was one of a series of similar war crime trials held during the early and mid-1 ...

Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

, Germany (whose lead defendant was

Kurt Bolender Heinz Kurt Bolender (21 May 1912 – 10 October 1966) was an SS sergeant during the Nazi era. In 1942, he operated the gas chambers at Sobibór extermination camp, perpetrating acts of genocide against Jews and Romani people during Operati ...

), lasting from 6 September 1965 until 20 December 1966, Lambert stated: In addition, Lambert directed construction at several nearby forced labour camps such as Dohorucza and the

Poniatowa concentration camp Poniatowa concentration camp in the town of Poniatowa in occupied Poland, west of Lublin, was established by the '' SS'' in the latter half of 1941, initially to hold Soviet prisoners of war following Operation Barbarossa. By , about 20,000 Sov ...

. Reportedly, Lambert attempted to remain an uninvolved expert devoted solely to his work and not interested in the conditions which surrounded it. According to one survivor,

Jankiel Wiernik Jankiel (Yankel, Yaakov, or Jacob) Wiernik ( he, יעקב ויירניק; 1889–1972) was a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor who was an influential figure in the Treblinka extermination camp resistance. He had been forced to work as a ''Son ...

, Lambert avoided looking at dead bodies and treated his Jewish workers in a professional manner. At the conclusion of

, Lambert was posted to

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

, where he continued installing cremation facilities at the concentration camp

Risiera di San Sabba Risiera di San Sabba ( sl, Rižarna) is a five-storey brick-built compound located in Trieste, northern Italy, that functioned during World War II as a Nazi concentration camp for the detention and killing of political prisoners, and a transit ca ...

. After the war, Lambert was arrested on 28 March 1962. At the First Treblinka Trial in 1965, Lambert was tried for the first time and sentenced to four years' imprisonment for aiding and abetting the murder of at least 300,000 people. Having already served this time, he was allowed to live as a free man. At the

Sobibór Trial The Sobibor trial was a 1965–66 judicial trial in the West German prosecution of SS officers who had worked at Sobibor extermination camp; it was held in Hagen. It was one of a series of similar war crime trials held during the early and mid-1 ...

in 1966, Lambert was acquitted.Sobibor Trial
at the Holocaust Research Project. At the trials Lambert denied involvement in the killing operation and claimed that he merely suspected that the buildings would be used for killing. Lambert died on 15 October 1976.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambert, Erwin 1909 births 1976 deaths People from Oberhavel Aktion T4 personnel Bricklayers Operation Reinhard People convicted in the Treblinka trials Sobibor trial SS non-commissioned officers Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Stonemasons