12 Facts About Herbert Hagen

Herbert Martin Hagen was a German SS-Sturmbannfuhrer of Nazi Germany and a convicted war criminal.

Herbert Hagen was released after serving only four years of prison, he died in Ruthen in 1999.

Herbert Hagen was born on 20 September 1913, in Neumunster, Schleswig-Holstein, he joined the SS in October 1933 in Kiel.

From 1940 Herbert Hagen held positions in the Security Police in France, based in Bordeaux.

Herbert Hagen instituted measures to deport Jews; in December 1941, Hagen set up an internment camp for Jews in Merignac.

On 24 October 1941, in the Souges internment camp, Herbert Hagen was directly responsible for the execution by hanging of 50 hostages, thirty-five of them came from the Merignac camp.

On 5 May 1942, Herbert Hagen, who had previously served as a Nazi police official in Poland, was appointed to the position of political assistant of Carl Oberg, who commanded the SS and police forces in France, overseeing anti-Jewish matters as well as security under SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Helmut Knochen.

On 13 May 1945, Herbert Hagen was captured by the British in Klagenfurt, he was handed by the British to the French occupation forces in November 1946, but was released on 4 March 1948.

Herbert Hagen managed to convince the court that he had only been active in intelligence analysis and espionage and denied knowing what was happening to those deported.

In 1980, after 15 months of trial, Herbert Hagen was tried and convicted by the 15th criminal chamber of the Cologne Higher Regional Court and sentenced to twelve years in prison on charges of ordering and administrating the deportation of Jews.

The court learned that Herbert Hagen knew about the Nazi program to exterminate the Jews, was a central figure in its implementation and was heavily involved in the deportation of Jews from Occupied France.

Herbert Hagen served only four years of his twelve years sentence in prison before being set free, he died on 7 August 1999, in Ruthen.