Wilhelm Trapp
Wilhelm Gustav Friedrich Trapp, nicknamed Papa Trapp by his subordinates, was a German career policeman who commanded the Reserve Police Battalion 101 formation of Nazi Germany's uniformed police force known as the Order Police. The Battalion was the subject of Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men.
A World War I veteran, recipient of the Iron Cross First Class, and an "old Party fighter", having joined the NSDAP in December 1932, Trapp served in occupied Poland during World War II, subsequently leading his battalion of nearly 500 middle-aged men from Hamburg on genocidal missions against the Polish Jews.
After the war, Trapp was taken into British custody. After investigation by the Polish Military Mission, the British extradited him to Poland in 1946, where he was put on trial as a war criminal. Trapp was found guilty and sentenced to death by the Siedlce District Court on 6 July 1948, and executed by hanging on 18 December 1948, along with fellow officer Gustav Drewes.
Excerpts
The killing of 1,500 of the 1,800 Jews from Józefów located southeast of Biłgoraj in Distrikt Lublin on 13 July 1942 was performed by German policemen: the 1. Company, and, mostly, by the three platoons of the 2. Company. Trapp gave his commanders their respective assignments before the operation:The bodies of the dead carpeting the forest floor at the Winiarczykowa Góra hill were left unburied. Watches, jewelry and money were taken.
The Reserve Police Battalion 101 left for Biłgoraj at 9 pm. According to one policeman, Trapp told him "Man, … such jobs don't suit me. But orders are orders." Trapp later remarked to his driver: "If this Jewish business is ever avenged on earth, then have mercy on us Germans."