Paul Salitter

Confirmed findings

• During an escort mission lasting from 11 to 17 December 1941, he commanded the police escort of Transport Da 38; the journey carrying 1,007 Jews from Düsseldorf and the surrounding area to Riga itself lasted from 11 to 14 December.
• He wrote a confidential report describing the preparation, course, conditions and use of violence during the transport; the surviving document makes it possible to reconstruct the operational logistics of deportation.
• He subsequently served as a supervisory officer in Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft Battalion 101; Yad Vashem material also links him to securing at least one mass execution.
• After the war he was dismissed from the police, unsuccessfully sought reinstatement and, despite an investigation into his conduct, never stood trial.

Place in the chain of responsibility

The profile follows a rail deportation from the assembly of people, through the assignment of the escort and travel conditions, to the commander's report. Salitter's responsibility rests on his own command and document, not on automatically attributing to him the later murder of all those deported.

Key events and mechanisms

• taking command of the escort for Transport Da 38 in December 1941
• the journey carrying 1,007 people from Düsseldorf to Riga on 11–14 December 1941 within an escort mission lasting until 17 December
• writing the confidential report on the transport
• postwar dismissal from the police and an investigation ending without trial

Postwar accountability

Following internment and denazification proceedings, he was not readmitted to the police. Investigative authorities examined his activity, but no indictment or judgment followed; he died in 1972.

Limits of the evidence

Sources

The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.

• biografien.erinnerungsort.hs-duesseldorf.de
• Yad Vashem
• wiener.soutron.net
• collections.arolsen-archives.org