Ernst Lerch
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Ernst Lerch (19 November 1914 – 1997) was said to be one of the most important men of Operation Reinhard (German: Aktion Reinhard), responsible for "Jewish affairs" and the mass murder of the Jews in the General Government (Generalgouvernement). However he was never convicted of war crimes.
Lerch was born on 19 November 1914 in Klagenfurt. He briefly studied at the Hochschule für Welthandel in Vienna. From 1931 to 1934 Lerch learned the hotel trade by working as a waiter in various hotels in Switzerland, France and Hungary. On 1 December 1932, Lerch joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) (Party Number 1,327,396). On 1 March 1934, he became a member of the "Protective Squadron" (German: Schutzstaffel, SS) (SS Number 309,700).
From 1934 until the incorporation of Austria into Germany (Anschluss) in 1938, Lerch was employed in his father's Café Lerch. The café, located in Klagenfurt, became a meeting place for Nazis such as Odilo Globočnik and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who frequented the café. While still in Austria, Lerch was promoted to an SS-Second Lieutenant (Untersturmführer) on 9 September 1936. By 1937, he was promoted to an SS-First Lieutenant (Obersturmführer). In 1938, Lerch moved to Berlin.
In Berlin he became an SS-Captain (Hauptsturmführer) in the Reich Security Directorate on 12 March 1938. At his wedding to a "Secret State Police" (Gestapo) employee, Oswald Pohl and Globočnik acted as witnesses.
Activities in Poland
In December 1938, Lerch joined the German Army. According to his testimony, he was involved in the 1939 Polish Campaign as a signals corporal. From February 1940 until September 1941, Lerch was employed at the "Reich Security Main Office" (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA) in Berlin. Then he was appointed as Rasse-und Siedlungsführer in Kraków.
From 1941 to 1943, Lerch served in Lublin as chief of Globočnik's personal office and Stabsführer der Allgemeine SS, responsible for the radio link between the Aktion Reinhard headquarters and Berlin. On 21 July 1942, he was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer. At the trial of Hermann Worthoff (former Gestapo chief in Lublin) after the war, it was mentioned that Lerch had overseen the murder of thousands of Jews from the Majdan Tatarski ghetto in Lublin at the nearby Krepiec Forest.
When Operation Reinhard (Aktion Reinhard) was finished, Lerch was ordered to Italy in September 1943. He went with most of the SS-men of Globočnik's staff. In Trieste, Lerch continued to serve as chief of Globočnik's personal staff in the OZAK (Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland). He was still Globočnik's right hand but had also military-related tasks. Lerch was very much involved in anti-partisan operations. For a few weeks, Lerch was provisional police commander in Fiume.
