lange made himself one of the most feared officials among those responsible for the riga ghetto. he supervised the arrival of the transports, aided by ss-"obersturmbannführer" gerhard maywald, whom historian gertrude schneider, a survivor of the riga ghetto, describes as lange's "sidekick". lange personally shot a young man, werner koppel, who he felt was not opening a railway car door fast enough. schneider described lange's appearance: