Beheadings in the Third Reich

[Grootendorst]

Well, the original fallbeil was shipped to Berlin Zeughaus and in Brandenburg Gorden they have to build another one for the museum at that place. I read this in this part of the forum!

[switzerland]

I know that Hitler thought that decapitation was a particularly dehumanizing execution method and resultantly he ordered its implementation by judges such as Roland Freisler who to gain Hitler's favor usually ordered death sentences carried out this way with the example of the 'Weiße Rose' group. To end it all, the families of the executed men received the bill for the execution. More people were guillotined during the war by these 'people's courts' than were in the French Revolution.

[Pete26]

Well, the estimates range between 18,000 to 40,000 guillotined people in the French revolution, and between 12,000 to 16,500 guillotined people in the Third Reich.

[Pete26]

Well, the original fallbeil was shipped to Berlin Zeughaus and in Brandenburg Gorden they have to build another one for the museum at that place. I read this in this part of the forum!

According to Fredrick, the fallbeil presently displayed in the Brandenburg prison Totenhaus is the original Plotzensee fallbeil.

[Pete26]

I wonder why only some memorials have the fallbeils installed in their original location, while others do not, even if the original fallbeils are still in existence and displayed in a museum elsewhere. In my opinion, the Vienna fallbeil should be displayed in its original location, same for Plotzensee if the fallbeil presently at the Brandenburg prison is the authentic one.
The same goes for the Wolfenbuttel prison memorial. It almost seems that in some cases, the prison officials could not wait to get rid of the fallbeil so they gave it to the first museum that was interested.

[fredric]

I know that Hitler thought that decapitation was a particularly dehumanizing execution method and resultantly he ordered its implementation by judges such as Roland Freisler who to gain Hitler's favor usually ordered death sentences carried out this way with the example of the 'Weiße Rose' group. To end it all, the families of the executed men received the bill for the execution. More people were guillotined during the war by these 'people's courts' than were in the French Revolution.

Decapitation was the standard employed for centuries thoughout Germany and was considered a humane, honorable method. HItler did not feel beheading was "particularly dehumanizing". In fact evidence shows he favored it as shown by his directive standardizing the fallbeil thoughout the Reich. The neue fallbeil, designed by an engineering institute, was a reliable, more efficient method of carrying out a practice rooted in German tradition. Hanging was considered a dishonorable and humiliating execution method. Infrequently ordered by German courts, hanging was reserved for the most dispicable criminals. (Hitler personally specified slow hanging from hooks as how of the leaders in the failed July 20 assasination should be executed) To be accurate, hanging was used on occassions when a fallbeil was inoperable or for executing a very large number of persons in a short time span and the Central Execution sites were often equipped with hanging hooks. On the War front, public hanging was how resistance members typically were executed because it served as a warning and the victims could be left hanging for a long time. For the military the firing squad was the standard and honorable method and was the method both Keitel and Goring requested at Nuremburg.

[fredric]

I wonder why only some memorials have the fallbeils installed in their original location, while others do not, even if the original fallbeils are still in existence and displayed in a museum elsewhere. In my opinion, the Vienna fallbeil should be displayed in its original location, same for Plotzensee if the fallbeil presently at the Brandenburg prison is the authentic one.
The same goes for the Wolfenbuttel prison memorial. It almost seems that in some cases, the prison officials could not wait to get rid of the fallbeil so they gave it to the first museum that was interested.

Yes, while Germany acknowledged the existence of the "dark years" it chose not to put Reich momentos on display. I think the fallbeils would be considered horrible relics of a past Germany would like to forget. I am surprised at how much still remains though and how much is now coming back...such as the Gestapo cellars, the Bendlerblock Memorial building, etc. I think the Wolfenbuettel fallbeil is still at their prison and I have written about this on the Forum. In other cases (e.g. Dresden, Stuttgart, Keil and others) the fallbeil has disappeared possibly discarded as scrap or in a private collection.

[svenga]

Is there good Provence or evidence that genuine historical fallbiels might be privately owned?..

I had the impression the majority were state artifacts and stayed within prison, meuseum, or storage doors.. Of not destroyed at the time.

[Pete26]

What I do not understand is how the assistants could so quickly move the body/head away and prepare the machine for a subsequent execution. I understand a special type of wagon (?) was used at Pancraz...and you seem to be our Pancraz expert. Do you know anything about this? I think it is supposed to be pictured in one of the old photos.

There was no wagon. A wagon was used in the film Klic, and there were numerous other inaccuracies in that film too. The bodies were removed from the fallbeil bench and placed in a wooden tub called "necky" in Czech. The tub had handles and was carried by two assistants into the adjoining "morgue" room. The advantage of using a tub instead of a crudely built coffin (more like a crate really) was obviously the fact that the tub was watertight and would retain all the blood so the blood would not be dripping all over the place while the tub was being carried. Once inside the morgue room the tub was set down, the body and the head removed from it and placed with the bleeding neck next to the floor drain to finish bleeding, and the blood from the tub was most likely poured out into the drain. There could be several liters of blood in the tub by the time this was done. The tub was then apparently rinsed out and made ready for the next body. There were two water hoses in the Pankrac prison execution room. The one closer to the fallbeil was used to hose down the fallbeil, and the one near the sink on the opposite wall was apparently the one used to clean up the morgue.

Here is a picture of what that tub most likely looked like:

[vinnievega]

RE: More people were guillotined during the war by these 'people's courts' than were in the French Revolution.

I've heard this as well but would like to know if there are any reliable figures as to the number guillotined by the French Revolutionary Tribunals and the Nazi People's Courts.

What sources are you citing?

[Pete26]

In 2009, Pankrac prison celebrated 120 years of its existence. For some time, there were serious talks about closing the prison and selling the land to a developer, but those plans have apparently been postponed indefinitely.

During 123 years of its existence, a total of 1580 people were executed in this prison, 1075 of them by the fallbeil. There are no records available on how many prisoners were hanged there during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, so the total number is likely much higher.

The last execution (by hanging) took place on 2 February 1989.

http://prazsky.denik.cz/zpravy_region/p ... 91007.html

[Pete26]

The bodies of beheaded Pankrac prisoners were removed from the prison grounds on the same night and transported to the Strasnice Crematorium for cremation.

Two employees of Strasnice Crematorium in Prague, Jaroslav Jahoda and Josef Matejka, gave the following testimony after the War:

" It was horrible. Almost every night, from the spring of 1943 until May 1945, tall flames emanated from the chimney of the crematorium. Before the gate stopped trucks which just recently left the Pankrac prison grounds. Everything was carried out in haste and with a great deal of nervousness. Cremation had to be completed by the next morning. We had to unload the trucks quickly, carry the coffins with the bodies of the executed to the ovens quickly, remove the ashes quickly, dump the ashes into a pit and throw trash on top quickly. The Gestapo officers were drunk, they staggered among the corpses and looked for any gold that their colleagues in Pankrac prison might have missed. The less gold they found, the angrier they became and took out their frustration on the bodies of the executed. Then the drunk officers fell asleep in front of the ovens. We took advantage of this opportunity, took the ashes and hid them in a secret location."

(Translated from "Svedek z Cely Smrti" by Stanislav Motl)

Some time ago I posted about the testimony of Frantisek Suchy, who was the director of the Crematorium at that time, how he secretly copied the names of the executed and even asked his 14 year old son to do it occasionally. If Nazis had found out about that activity, he would have been sentenced to death. His son also mentions that he saw blood dripping from the coffins as they were being unloaded at the crematorium. The ashes of the prisoners were to be eventually taken to some farm and used as fertilizer. But because of heroic actions of employees who risked their lives, most ashes were secretly hidden and saved and they were properly placed in a columbarium of the Crematorium after the war.

What a revolting picture this must have been. A group of drunk Gestapo officers opening the coffins, picking up heads, opening the mouths, looking for gold teeth, and no doubt pulling them out if they found them. I imagine that this was about the only gold they would be able to find at that point. Any jewelry was probably removed in Pankrac prison.

Crematorium Strasnice is a fully functional crematorium today and cremates on the average 25 bodies a day. Here are some photos of the crematorium:







http://www.novinky.cz/koktejl/246410-de ... toriu.html

[history1]

[...] Here is a picture of what that tub most likely looked like:

Just as side note on the original use:
Those tubs are known as "Sautrog = pig vat" in eastern Austria and used during pig slaughtering. The dead animal is putted into the vat, sprinkled with rosin, scald with hot water and cleaned from the bristles.

[Pete26]

This only adds to the slaughterhouse image of the whole process.

[Pete26]

Eugene Callewaert, the mayor of Belgian town of Lichtervelde, and 12 other inhabitants of the same town were beheaded by the guillotine in Wolfenbuttel prison on 15 June 1944 for Nazi resistance activities. Here is an article describing their execution, including photographs of the victims:

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... CGwQ7gEwBw

Note:

The google translator garbles the ages and execution times under the photos of each victim. If you view the original article in Dutch, that information is clear.

The executed victims were:

Jules Hoorne, age 25, beheaded at 1809 hours

Hilaire Demeyer, age 31, beheaded at 1838 hours

Gaston Maertens, age 40, beheaded at 1840 hours

Andre Denolf, age 31, beheaded at 1854 hours

Georges Baert, age 30, beheaded at 1854 hours

Albert Craeynest, age 33, beheaded at 1856 hours

Theopiel Colpaert, age 38, beheaded at 1859 hours

Eugeen Callevaert, age 50, beheaded at 1901 hours

Dr Louis Debaecke, age 43, beheaded at 1903 hours

Gabriel Dewaele, age 29, behedaded at 1906 hours

Odiel Moyaert, age 38, beheaded at 1913 hours

Gerard Tanghe, age 24, beheaded at 1917 hours

Omer Vernandele, age 49, beheaded at 1920 hours