 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(August 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Rudolf Joachim Seck | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 July 1908 |
| Died | 4 June 1974(1974-06-04) (aged 65) |
| Known for | Commandant ofJungfernhof concentration camp |
| Motive | Nazism |
| Convictions | Murder Infliction of grievous bodily harm |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment with hard labour |
Rudolf Joachim Seck (15 July 1908[1] – 4 June 1974) was anSS-Oberscharführer (staff sergeant) duringWorld War II. During the war, Seck committed many atrocities for which he was later sentenced to serve life in prison by aWest German court.
Seck held the SS ranks ofUnterscharführer and laterOberscharführer (staff sergeant).[2][3] He was the commander ofJungfernhof concentration camp, nearRiga,Latvia.[3][4] His office was at the Gestapo headquarters in Riga on Reimerstrasse.[1]
According to Joseph Berman, a Jewish man fromVentspils and a survivor ofThe Holocaust inLatvia, who was assigned to the work detail cleaning Seck's automobile, Seck was closely associated withRudolf Lange, the main SS leader in occupied Latvia.[1] Seck made it a habit to meet, at theŠķirotava Railway Station, trains of Jews deported fromGermany,Austria, orCzechoslovakia. Theoretically these Jews were to be sent to theRiga Ghetto or the Jungfernhof orSalaspils concentration camps, but usually this did not occur, as Seck would instead take them toBiķernieki orRumbula forests, near Riga, and shoot them.[1]
Seck also traveled about Latvia, theBaltic states andBelarus with Nazi convoys to fight partisans or liquidate various camps and ghettos.[1] TheGestapo maintained a clothing depot inRiga, on Peterholm Street, where the belongings of murdered Jews would be collected. Seck was seen at the clothing depot appropriating for himself suitcases of new clothing and jewelry.[1] Seck personally beat and maltreated prisoners on a regular basis.[1]
Seck was responsible for selecting between 1600 and 1700 Jews from among the Jungfernhof concentration camp inmates to be transported, on 26 March 1942, to the Biķernieki forest to be murdered in what became known as theDünamünde Action.[2][3][5]
Following the war, Seck was arrested by theBritish and sent to an internment camp. He was supposed to be tried by a British military court for atrocities in Latvia, albeit the trial was cancelled. Seck was released in January 1949, but re-arrested in May 1949. In July 1949, a denazification court classified him as a major offender years in prison.[6] In 1951, Seck was convicted for his atrocities in Latvia sentenced to life in prison.[5] Among his crimes were his personal murder of eight Jews, including seven in Jungfernhof. The court described these murders as follows:
One day in January or February 1942, the witness Le., who was on the Hamburg transport that arrived in Jungfernhof in December 1941 where she worked in the sewing room, walked across the yard looking for Seck from whom she required further instructions regarding a sewing job for him.
She observed the accused leave the so-called men's block driving five old men before him. The witness stopped near the accused; the five people had to stand to attention and then kneel (...) She addressed the accused with her question regarding the sewing work but received no answer. The accused repelled her with a movement of the hand and began to shoot the Jews one after the other with a shot in the back of the neck from a distance of 2 to 3 metres.When the witness tried to run away after the first shot, the accused threatened to shoot her, if she did not remain. The witness was forced to witness the further shootings.
The accused then shot the other four Jews. Between the individual shootings he paused to insult his victims by calling them lazy or venereal dogs. (...)[2]
Seck was released from prison in 1964, and died in 1974.[7]
