Walter Wohlers, 1902-1945? Chief of the Hamburg Gestapo from 1942 to 1944 © Bundesarchiv Walter Wohlers was notorious for his brutality as a staff member of the Hamburg Gestapo's "Jewish Department". He conducted arrests and interrogations, abused his victims and took part in the deportations. In 1943, he accompanied a transport to Theresienstadt (Terezin, former Czechoslovakia), along with his superiors Claus Göttsche and Hans Stephan. Walter Wohlers was born in Hamburg on 5 May 1902 as the son of a printer. After attending a Volksschule he did agricultural work until entering service with the Hamburg Ordnungspolizei in 1924. He joined the Gestapo in 1937, and the "Jewish Department" in 1939. He remained there until 1945. Shortly before the collapse of the Nazi regime, Wohlers went into hiding. In May 1945, he was sighted in Heide, Holstein, before he disappeared again. The case brought against him by the Hamburg state prosecutor for crimes against humanity was suspended in 1964.