Hamann was of Baltic German parentage.[2] Trained as a chemist, he had difficulties finding a job due to the Great Depression. He joined SA in August 1931, NSDAP in December 1932, and SS in July 1938.[3] He served in the Wehrmacht during the invasion of Poland and Battle of France as a paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger).[4] He returned to Berlin where he joined the SS and completed training courses. In March 1941, he was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer (First Lieutenant).[3] After the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Hamann organized and commanded Rollkommando Hamann which killed at least 39,000 Jews in various locations across Lithuania[ and 9,102 people, almost all of whom were Jews, from the Daugavpils Ghetto.[7] Hamann's superior, Karl Jäger, documented these killings in the Jäger Report. Nevertheless Martin C. Dean sets the death toll of Rollkommando Hamann to 60.000 murdered people in Lithuania alone.[1]]
Hamann left Lithuania in October 1941 and continued his SS career.[9] In 1942, SS-Hauptsturmführer Hamann participated in the Operation Zeppelin, a scheme to recruit Soviet POWs for espionage behind Russian lines.[10] From 1943 he worked at Amt IV of RSHA (Gestapo). He was involved in apprehending and executing suspected members of the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler.[9] He was appointed aide to Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Director of the Reich Main Security Office.[4] In January 1945, Hamann was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer.
After the war, Hamann committed suicide.[4]
References
1. ^{{cite book |last=Dean |first=Martin C. |author-link=Martin C. Dean |year=2004 |chapter=Local Collaboration in the Holocaust in Eastern Europe |editor-last=Stone |editor-first=Dan |title=The Historiography of the Holocaust |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |p=127 |isbn=978-1-4039-9927-6 |ref=harv |quote=The case of the Rollkommando Hamann, which murdered some 60,000 Jews mostly in the small towns of Lithuania between July and September 1941,... }}.
2. ^1 {{cite book |authorlink=Andrew Ezergailis |last=Ezergailis |first=Andrew |title=The Holocaust in Latvia 1941-1944: The Missing Center |pages=276–279 |publisher=Historical Institute of Latvia |location=Riga |year=1996 |isbn= 9984-9054-3-8}}
3. ^1 2 3 {{cite book| title=Sowjetunion mit annektierten Gebieten I: Besetzte sowjetische Gebiete unter deutscher Militärverwaltung, Baltikum und Transnistrien |editor-first1=Götz |editor-last1=Aly |editor-first2=Bert |editor-last2=Hoppe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=97-iPND1jdwC&pg=PA531 |year=2011 |publisher=Oldenbourg Verlag |isbn=9783486589115 |page=531 }}
4. ^1 2 {{cite web| url=http://www.lithuanianjews.org.il/HTMLs/article_list4.aspx?C2014=14441&BSP=14430&BSS6=13971 |title=The Mechanized Commando Unit of Haman | first=Joseph A.|last=Melamed |publisher=Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel |accessdate=2014-10-12}}
5. ^1 {{cite book| first=Antonio J. |last=Muñoz |title=The Druzhina SS Brigade: A History, 1941-1943 |publisher=Axis Europa Books |year=2000 |isbn=9781891227370 |page=16}}
6. ^1 2 {{cite book| first= Knut |last=Stang| title=Kollaboration und Massenmord: die litauische Hilfspolizei, das Rollkommando Hamann und die Ermordung der litauischen Juden | publisher=Lang |year=1996 |isbn=9783631308950 |pages=153–54}}
7. ^1 {{cite book |first=Robert van |last=Voren |title=Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6RGlHunGIXMC&pg=PA76 |publisher=Rodopi |year=2011 |isbn=9789401200707 |page=76}}