August Becker

August Becker (17 August 1900 – 31 December 1967) was a mid-ranking functionary in the SS of Nazi Germany and chemist in the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA).

He helped design the vans with a gas chamber built into the back compartment used in early Nazi mass murder of disabled people, political dissidents, Jews, and other "racial enemies", including Action T4 as well as the Einsatzgruppen (mobile Nazi death squads) in the Nazi-occupied portions of the Soviet Union.

Generally his role was to provide important technical support, but on at least one occasion he personally gassed about 20 people.

August Becker was born on 17 August 1900 in Staufenberg in the German state of Hesse.

He was the son of a factory owner.

He was inducted into the German Army towards the end of World War I.

By September 1930, Becker had joined the Nazi party, and in February 1931, he also became a member of the SS.

Afterwards, Becker studied chemistry and physics at the University of Giessen where, in 1933, he earned a PhD degree in chemistry.

From 1933 to 1935, he remained as an assistant at the university.

From February to April 1934, he was occasionally active in the Gestapo office at Giessen before he finally left the university in 1935.

He remained with this regiment up to 28 February 1938.

Becker remained with RSHA Amt VI until December 1939, when, shortly before Christmas, he received an order by telephone to report to Oberführer Victor Brack in the Reich Chancellery (Reichskanzlei).

Becker went to Brack's office that same day.

Brack was part of the office of the Führer Chancellery (Kanzlei des Führers).

According to Becker, Brack told him the following:

This program was known as Action T4.

Becker participated in the first "test", gassing 18 to 20 mentally ill convicts in a former prison known by the euphemistic name of The Brandenburg an der Havel National Institute, which later became known to history as a Nazi killing center (NS-Tötungsanstalt).

Among the Action T4 personnel, Becker was called "the Red Becker" because of his hair color and also probably to avoid confusion with the similarly named Hans Joachim Becker, director of the Zentralverrechnungstelle welfare and institutes for care.

After the war, Brack was placed on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Brack named Becker among 24 main responsible people for Action T4 in a list Brack produced for the Allied occupying authorities.

According to Becker's testimony at the trial of Werner Heyde, the first medical director of Action T4, in the first half January 1940, Becker drove to the Brandenburg institute, where buildings had been prepared specially for this purpose.

An area resembling a shower room with shower heads was laid out, about 3 meters by 5 meters in floor size, with a ceiling about three meters high.

A pipe ran around the walls of the room, and in the pipe were small holes, out of which the carbon monoxide gas flowed.

The gas bottles stood outside the area and were already attached to the supply pipe.

The assembly of the plant was accomplished by a mechanic of the SS-principal office Berlin.

The gas-tight entrance door (Gasdichttur) included an observation port through which the behavior of the delinquents (Delinquenten) could be observed during the course of the gassing.

For the first gassing the maintenance personnel led about 18–20 persons into the disguised gas chamber.

These men had had to undress in an antechamber (Vorraum), so that they were completely naked.

The door was locked behind them.

According to Becker, the victims went calmly into the area and showed no signs of agitation.

As Widmann let in the gas Becker watched through the observation port.

After about one minute, the victims fell down and lay on top of one another.

At his trial on 4 April 1960, Becker testified that in May 1935 he was assigned to the SS-regiment "Germania" at Bad Arolsen, a small resort town near Kassel, the major city in the northern part of the German state of Hesse, in central Germany.

During this time, Becker held the rank of SS-Oberscharführer and was concerned only with military affairs.

According to his 1960 testimony, Becker was then transferred to Berlin, to the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA), Office (Amt)VI, foreign intelligence.

This agency was on the Bernerstrasse in the Grunewald.

At this time Werner Best was in charge of RSHA Amt VI.

Becker was responsible for the department replicating inks and photocopies.

He was employed to detect whether written communications used invisible ink.

At this time, he was promoted to rank of SS-Untersturmführer (Second Lieutenant).