Erich Naumann was born on 29 April 1905 in the town of Meissen, then part of the German Empire. In mid-November 1933, Naumann began working full-time for the SA organization in Dresden. Despite lacking a university education or student status, he was appointed head of the SA University Office. The Second World War started on 1 September 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. During the invasion of Poland, as the commander of the Einsatzgruppe VI, Naumann was responsible for the murder of over 6,000 people as part of Operation Tannenberg. This operation, which took place between September 1939 and January 1940, was one of the first large-scale extermination campaigns against the Polish elite in German-occupied Poland. Einsatzgruppen units, including Naumann’s, carried out mass executions, targeting individuals considered a threat to Nazi rule. Erich Naumann’s men worked closely with Herbert Lange, who later became the first commandant of the Chełmno extermination camp in German-occupied Poland. Lange’s unit was responsible for the murder of over 5,700 Polish patients in psychiatric hospitals across Owińska, Kościan, and Działdowo. Many were shot in the back of the neck or killed using gas vans, an early method that would later be expanded for mass killings.
The brutality of Operation Tannenberg laid the groundwork for later Nazi atrocities, including the Holocaust. Einsatzgruppen, initially formed to eliminate Polish resistance, would go on to systematically exterminate Jews, Slavs, and other groups across Eastern Europe. In April 1940, Erich Naumann was appointed Inspector of the Security Police and the SD for the Berlin Police Presidium. His authority extended beyond the capital to the city of Stettin, placing him in a direct reporting line to Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, and Reinhard Heydrich, who oversaw the Gestapo, the Reich Security Main Office, and other key branches of Nazi security and intelligence. Additionally, Naumann answered to the Berlin Police President, acting as the personal representative of the Chief of the Security Police and SD. His role was officially described as the “leader, educator, and supervisor” of all Security Police and SD personnel under his command.
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