Who is Gerhard Erren from 'the Good Old Days': The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders and what is their importance?

Erren was an athletics instructor and joined the Nazi party in 1931 after difficulties with establishing his eligibility. From 1934 onward he was in the fulltime employment of the Nazi party and moved into political leadership positions with increasing responsibility from 1937 until the beginning of the war. From late 1941 to mid 1944 he was a politically significant administrator in Byelorussia and in March 1944 he was accepted by the SS. From early 1945 he was placed in charge of ideological training of the SS. From 1950 to 1960 he was employed as a schoolteacher in public schools, and from 1961 through 1971 as a school teacher in private schools. In 1974 he was sentenced to life imprisonment.