English source-aligned edition
August Becker
August Becker served as RSHA chemist and technical inspector of T4 gassing installations and Einsatzgruppen gas vans. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Brandenburg · Grafeneck · occupied Soviet territories through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- He was an RSHA chemist assigned to the technical implementation of Aktion T4. (German History in Documents and Images)
- He delivered carbon monoxide and installed or operated gassing equipment, including at Grafeneck. (Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg)
- In 1942 he inspected gas vans of Einsatzgruppen C and D and issued instructions for their use. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
- A West German court sentenced him to ten years in prison. (German History in Documents and Images)
Place in the chain of responsibility
His responsibility rests on the documented conversion of chemical expertise into killing procedures and his direct technical supervision of equipment used for mass murder. (German History in Documents and Images; Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Key events and mechanisms
- Installed and operated gassing apparatus at Grafeneck during Aktion T4. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
- Inspected and adjusted gas vans serving Einsatzgruppen C and D in 1942. (Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg)
- Received a ten-year prison sentence after the war. (German History in Documents and Images)
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
He received a ten-year prison sentence but did not serve it in full because of ill health. (German History in Documents and Images)
Limits of the evidence
Accounts differ over who personally carried out the first Brandenburg gassing. This profile attributes only the tasks supported by the archival record, including his regulation of the second Brandenburg gassing and his work at Grafeneck. The identity record gives an exact death date, while the archive confirms only the year 1967. (German History in Documents and Images; Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.