In his role at Poniatowa, Hantke helped coordinate the deportation of Jews to the camp during the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.[3]
For his participation during the Holocaust, Hantke was imprisoned in Germany from 1960 until 1967.[4] In 1974, at the age of 67, Hantke was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes committed in 1942 and 1943, including shooting to death at least four people during the deportation of Jews from Krasnik in November 1942.[5][6]
In his role at Budzyń, Hantke was responsible for the selection during the final liquidation of the Krasnik Ghetto in November 1942, in accordance with the orders from Christian Wirth, the Inspector of the Aktion Reinhard murder regime. Hantke chose about 150 men from Krasnik to be imprisoned at Budzyń, with the rest deported to the Belzec death camp. He later sent 50 prisoners from Budzyń to be expelled to Zaklikow. He shot dead others, including teenager Baruch Krumholz.[6]
He was replaced as commandant at Poniatowa by Gottlieb Hering, who had served as commandant of the Belzec death camp.[3] According to the testimony of Holocaust survivors, Hantke brutally mistreated the prisoners at Poniatowa.[4]
Other activities
In the summer of 1943, Hantke was sent to Pulawy in order to
establish another subcamp of Majdanek in the local sawmill. Although the sawmill operated profitably, thanks to the exploitation of the prisoners' work, the prisoners there, as in other camps of the Majdanek complex, were shot on 3 November 1943, as part of Operation Harvest Festival.[4]
Hantke survived the war and settled in Germany. Hantke was convicted in Hamburg in 1960, and was released in 1967.[4]
On 5 December 1973, 66-year old Hantke and co-defendant Georg Michalsen were put on trial in Hamburg for the murder of thousands of Jews during the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. They were also accused of sending 300,000 Jews to their deaths in Treblinka.[8] Hantke was convicted of killing four Jews between 1942 and 1943.[9] After Hantke's conviction, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment.[5]