English source-aligned edition
Julius Wohlauf
Julius Wohlauf served as commander of the 1st Company and deputy commander of Reserve Police Battalion 101. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in the Lublin District, Józefów Biłgorajski, Końskowola and Międzyrzec Podlaski 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
- In 1942, he commanded the 1st Company of Reserve Police Battalion 101 and served as deputy to the battalion commander, Wilhelm Trapp; this establishes his place in the chain of command but does not automatically attribute to him every act committed by the company.
- Before the massacre at Józefów on 13 July 1942, Trapp briefed him and Hartwig Gnade in advance about the assignment. During the operation, Wohlauf designated and inspected execution sites in the forest.
- When two policemen asked him at Józefów to be excused from taking part in the shooting, he refused and threatened that they could lie down beside the victims; other superiors subsequently excused them from the assignment.
- The Hamburg Regional Court sentenced him on 8 April 1968 to eight years' imprisonment for aiding murder in 9,200 cases legally attributed to him in the judgment. Following review by the Federal Court of Justice on 7 April 1970, eight years remained the final sentence in the case.
Place in the chain of responsibility
Wohlauf represents the company-command level that translated a battalion order into the organisation of execution sites, assignment of policemen and discipline of subordinates. The profile bases his responsibility on documented decisions and the final judicial outcome, rather than simply transferring to a commander the full record of crimes committed by Battalion 101.
Key events and mechanisms
- taking command of the 1st Company and serving as deputy commander of Reserve Police Battalion 101 in 1942
- the briefing, organisation of execution sites and refusal to excuse policemen during the Józefów massacre on 13 July 1942
- suspension from police service in January 1963 and arrest during the investigation in 1964
- the Hamburg Regional Court judgment of 8 April 1968 and the Federal Court of Justice review decision of 7 April 1970
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
After the war, he returned to the Hamburg police. He was suspended in January 1963 and arrested in 1964. The Hamburg Regional Court imposed an eight-year prison sentence in 1968; the Federal Court of Justice reviewed the case in 1970, and the final sentence was eight years.
Limits of the evidence
The figure of 9,200 describes the scope of legal attribution in the trial, not a victim ranking or the sum of every crime committed by the battalion. Police witnesses' reconstructions differ on details of the briefing and particular scenes at Józefów; the profile retains only elements supported by the judicial material and comparative scholarship.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.