Beheadings in the Third Reich

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fredric
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Re: Beheadings in the Third Reich

#5716

Post by fredric » 21 Sep 2015, 18:15

Any information on the present location of the "Coswig fallbeil" ?

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Coswig fallbeil

#5717

Post by Pete26 » 22 Sep 2015, 03:15

fredric wrote:Any information on the present location of the "Coswig fallbeil" ?
This article mentions that Moabit fallbeil was scheduled to be transferred and loaned to Coswig prison at one time, but the execution in Coswig was cancelled so the fallbeil was shipped to Zwickau instead. I really do not know what happened to the last Coswig fallbeil, or even if it had more than one. It appears that after WWII fallbeils were once again occasionally shipped to various sites, as the number of executions drastically decreased and there was no need to maintain central execution sites. West Germany abolished the death penalty in 1949, but guillotine executions continued in East Germany until 1966.


http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/n ... 98296.html


https://translate.google.com/translate? ... edit-text=


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fredric
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Re: Beheadings in the Third Reich

#5718

Post by fredric » 22 Sep 2015, 06:29

I have so much information, disorganized, about the location of the Mannhardts and Tegels and where they are today.
This would include the provenance (various locations of the same machine) and some were moved from one prison to another and
eventually to museums. All evidence supports Waltenbacher's statement that six Mannhardts were built but the locations he gives
are not in every case the location to which they were first shipped and used. Tegels similarly were moved from point to point in some
cases and I think some vanished in East Germany. Tracking them down post-WW2 is difficult. Thanks for the Coswig information.

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Memorial stones

#5719

Post by Pete26 » 23 Sep 2015, 04:33

A list of 395 memorial stones placed in 125 German cities at the former residences of these victims of National Socialism. Many of these people were beheaded at various Central Execution Sites of the Third Reich.

http://www.bv-opfer-ns-militaerjustiz.d ... 131018.pdf

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Poznan(Posen) fallbeil

#5720

Post by Piotr1 » 24 Sep 2015, 21:15


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Pankrac wooden caskets

#5721

Post by Pete26 » 27 Sep 2015, 04:32

Prison officials inspecting the stacks of rough wooden caskets left by the Nazis in Pankrac prison execution suite morgue. The photo was probably taken in mid 1945, right after liberation of Prague.

Image


http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct24/sites/ ... k=zNPGNuNR

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Stanislaw Janicki

#5722

Post by Pete26 » 27 Sep 2015, 23:07

Stanislaw Janicki was a Polish resistance fighter who was guillotined in Katowice prison on 30 June 1942.

Image

http://klubzaglebiowski.pl/wp-content/u ... anicki.png

Image

http://klubzaglebiowski.pl/wp-content/u ... 5/06/3.png


http://klubzaglebiowski.pl/?p=1710

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Poznan prison on Mlynska Street

#5723

Post by Pete26 » 28 Sep 2015, 02:15

Image
This is the prison where Poznan fallbeil was used during the years of the the Third Reich. The photo was taken in 1956 during Poznan uprising.
http://www.poznan.pl/mim/main/en/pictur ... ,show2.jpg

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Katowice execution list

#5724

Post by Pete26 » 28 Sep 2015, 04:53

This is a list of 17 people who were guillotined in Katowice prison on 30 June 1942, among them Stanislaw Janicki and Marcin Skorupa. Three of the executed were only 20 years old. It is possible that Ludwig Zajac and Stanislaw Zajac were identical twins, as they were both from the same town, both 20 years old, born the same year, and had the same family name. Cyprian Kwiatowski and Genowefa Kwiatowska were likely either brother and sister, or husband and wife.


Image

http://klubzaglebiowski.pl/wp-content/u ... 5/06/5.png

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Re: Poznan(Posen) fallbeil

#5725

Post by Pete26 » 28 Sep 2015, 05:33

The narrator falsely identifies this as a "torture chamber in Majdanek". It was obviously located in Poznan prison on Mlynska Street, not in Majdanek concentration camp. And it was not a torture chamber, but an execution chamber. Poznan is hundreds of kilometers west of city of Lublin, which is close to Majdanek concentration camp.

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Joachim Gürtler

#5726

Post by Pete26 » 29 Sep 2015, 05:46

Cleric Joachim Gürtler was guillotined in Katowice prison on 3 December 1942.

Image

http://encyklo.pl/images/5/50/Guertler_joachim.jpg

http://encyklo.pl/index.php5?title=Gürtler_Joachim

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Wroclaw guillotine blade

#5727

Post by Pete26 » 01 Oct 2015, 04:51

See page 89 of the document. A new to me black and white photo of the Wroclaw Mannhardt guillotine blade. Also, on the same page is mention of the beheading on 27 november 1942 of Polish woman Wanda Daczkowska for spilling milk on a German woman.

There is an article on Wroclaw guillotine on page 88.

http://ipn.gov.pl/__data/assets/pdf_fil ... 1-8535.pdf

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Another Pankrac execution room image

#5728

Post by Pete26 » 03 Oct 2015, 03:37

This image was taken from the inner front corner of the execution room.


Image

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7_vtDa3osrQ/V ... EPO_p6.JPG

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An article on Graz Regional Court executions

#5729

Post by Pete26 » 04 Oct 2015, 19:44

Tod im Keller

155 Menschen ließ die NS-Justiz zwischen 1943 und März 1945 im Keller des Landesgerichts Graz exekutieren. Der Umgang mit Tätern und Opfern war auch nach 1945 teils skandalös



Als die Witwe des am 12. Mai 1944 im Landesgericht Graz hingerichteten Judenburger Widerstandskämpfers Johann Freitag bei der Verwaltung des Zentralfriedhofs nachfragte, wo ihr Mann begraben sei, wurde ihr mitgeteilt, dass sich das nicht sagen lasse, da er wahrscheinlich mit anderen Hingerichteten "in einem Massengrabe beigesetzt worden ist". Mehr als zwei Jahre nach der Hinrichtung sollten sie und andere Angehörige im August 1946 schließlich aus den Medien erfahren, wo die Leichen geblieben sind. Durch Zufall war ein Mitarbeiter des Landesverbandes ehemals politisch Verfolgter bei den Recherchen für eine Gedenkstätte am Zentralfriedhof in Graz bei der Durchsicht der Bücher in der Friedhofsverwaltung auf 44 namenlose Tote gestoßen. Bald war klar, dass es sich bei den Leichen um Hingerichtete handelte, die Anfang des Jahres 1946 vom Anatomischen Institut der Universität Graz hierher gebracht worden waren, ohne dass die Angehörigen, die Behörden oder der Opferverband informiert worden wären.

In knapp mehr als 18 Monaten waren im Keller des Landesgerichts Graz von Ende August 1943 bis Mitte März 1945 insgesamt 155 Personen exekutiert worden. Darunter waren 23 Soldaten, die von verschiedenen Gerichten der Wehrmacht wegen Desertion und Wehrdienstverweigerung, sowie 14 Frauen und 69 Männer, die wegen Widerstands gegen den Nationalsozialismus zum Tode verurteilt worden waren. Zuvor waren 62 in Graz zum Tode verurteilte Widerstandskämpfer nach Wien überstellt und in der Hinrichtungsstätte des dortigen Landesgerichts exekutiert worden.



Dass Graz eine eigene Hinrichtungsstätte hatte, ging auf die Forderung des steirischen Gauleiters Sigfried Uiberreither zurück, der seit 1942 immer wieder eine "beschleunigte Durchführung aller Verfahren" – den "kurzen Prozess" – forderte. So schlug er etwa auch die Errichtung eines eigenen Senats des Volksgerichtshofs Berlin in Graz vor, was aber sowohl vom Justizminister als auch dem Präsidenten des Volksgerichtshofs Roland Freisler abgelehnt wurde. Sein Drängen führte aber schließlich dazu, dass in Graz eine eigene Hinrichtungsstätte errichtet wurde. Zudem wurde 1944 am Oberlandesgericht Graz noch ein eigener Senat für Hoch- und Landesverrat und im untersteirischen Marburg (Maribor) ein Sondergerichtshof für politische Straftaten in der Untersteiermark errichtet. Diese beiden Gerichte sowie der Volksgerichtshof sollten bis zuletzt massenhaft Todesurteile gegen Mitglieder des steirischen und Kärntner Widerstands aussprechen. Oft genügten aber auch Spendenleistungen von nur wenigen Reichsmark für Familien politisch Verfolgter oder Äußerungen in Briefen oder gegenüber Arbeitskollegen, dass der Krieg nicht mehr gewonnen werden könne.



Als nach der Befreiung vom Nationalsozialismus noch im Mai 1945 erste Leichen von Hingerichteten in einem Massengrab auf der Militärschießstätte Feliferhof entdeckt wurden, gelobte Landeshauptmann Reinhard Machold "am offenen Grab der Gemordeten die Schuld zu tilgen". Er setzte noch im Mai 1945 eine Kommission ein, die die Aufgabe hatte, "alle amtlichen Feststellungen über den Hergang dieser Morde und die Feststellung der Schuldigen zu veranlassen". Der bereits 1946 vorgelegte und auch publizierte Bericht gab zwar einen ersten Einblick zu den Hinrichtungen in Graz, doch machten die darin wiedergegebenen Zeugen in ihren Aussagen vielfach keinen Unterschied, ob es sich bei den Hinrichtungen um solche in der SS-Kaserne, am Feliferhof oder im Landesgericht Graz handelte. Wie wenig von diesem Bericht zu erwarten war, geht allein schon aus der Tatsache hervor, dass dieser Kommission auch der Leiter des Anatomischen Instituts angehörte, der im Jänner und Februar 1946 die Leichen der hingerichteten Widerstandskämpfer von seinem Institut still und heimlich auf den Zentralfriedhof hatte bringen lassen.

Die unmittelbar nach der Befreiung vom Nationalsozialismus eigens geschaffenen Volksgerichte, die die NS-Verbrechen ahnden sollten, ermittelten u.a. auch gegen Juristen an den Sondergerichten. Kein einziger wurde aber wegen seiner Todesurteile juristisch belangt. Die Verfahren endeten nicht selten mit der Einstellung, wie etwa jenes gegen Staatsanwalt Dr. Leopold Makowksi. Er hatte in mehreren Fällen an Todesurteilen mitgewirkt. Unter anderem vertrat er die Anklage gegen die Grazer Hausfrau und kommunistische Widerstandskämpferin Hildegard Burger, die am 20. Mai 1943 zum Tode verurteilt wurde. In der Einstellungsbegründung heißt es u.a., dass er "seine Tätigkeit als Erster Staatsanwalt sehr menschlich ausgeübt" habe. Zudem – so hieß es weiter – "ist nicht ein einziger Fall nachgewiesen, in welchem aufgrund einer Hauptverhandlung, bei dem er als Staatsanwalt die Anklage vertrat, ein Todesurteil gefällt wurde oder in welcher er in irgend einer anderen Weise über seine Verpflichtung hinaus jemanden unmenschlich behandelt und in einen qualvollen Zustand versetzt hätte". In der Folge wurde auch der Bescheid seiner Entlassung aus dem Justizdienst aufgehoben und er wurde als Rechtsanwalt und Verteidiger in Strafsachen wieder zugelassen.



Der Nichtahndung der NS-Justizverbrechen entsprach auch der geradezu skandalöse Umgang mit jenen Männern und Frauen, auf die sich die Republik Österreich immer wieder berief, wenn es darum ging, den in der Moskauer Deklaration geforderten Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus zu betonen. Denn nachdem die 44 Leichen am Grazer Zentralfriedhof im Sommer 1946 gefunden worden waren, passierte genau nichts. Keine Untersuchung, kein Erinnern. Erst im November 1961 wurde an der Stelle, wo die Leichen gefunden worden waren, ein Mahnmal errichtet, das diese und andere Opfer der Steiermark namentlich nannte. Da rund die Hälfte dieser Männer und Frauen Opfer der sogenannten "Sühnemaßnahmen" waren, wie die Geiselerschießungen der Nationalsozialisten in der Untersteiermark genannt wurden, wurde das Mahnmal in den Medien als "Grazer ‚Partisanenstein'", als "Jugo-Mahnmal" oder als "Partisanendenkmal" denunziert. Der offizielle Vertreter des Landes Steiermark meinte bei dessen Enthüllung daher auch: "Anlässlich der Majestät des Todes wollen wir der Opfer gedenken, die hier, in den Nachbarländern und in Europa, ja in aller Welt, von vielen Völkern gebracht wurden. Das heute existierende Österreich trägt für diese Opfer keine Schuld, auch nicht dafür, dass sie hier bestattet sind."

1962 wurde schließlich im ehemaligen Hinrichtungsraum ein Gedenkraum eingerichtet, in dem seit November 2014 eine Gedenktafel erstmals die Namen aller 106 hier wegen ihres Widerstands gegen den Nationalsozialismus Hingerichteten nennt. Das Gedenkbuch "Sei nicht böse, dass ich im Kerker sterben muss. Die Opfer der NS-Justiz in Graz 1938 bis 1945" gibt diesen nun ihre Geschichte wieder. Es handelt aber auch vom Terror der NS-Justiz in der Steiermark und dem schlampigen bis skandalösen Umgang der Nachkriegsgesellschaft mit den Tätern und Opfern."

Heimo Halbrainer in FALTER 49/14





Translated by google:


Death in the basement

155 people were executed by the Nazi judiciary between 1943 and March 1945 in the basement of the Regional Court of Graz. Dealing with perpetrators and victims was also after 1945 partly scandalous.



When the widow of May 12, 1944, executed in the Regional Court Graz Judenburger resistance fighter Johann Freitag inquired in the management of the Central Cemetery, where her husband was buried, she was informed that the leave is not to say that he probably one other executed "in mass grave has been buried ". More than two years after the execution she and other relatives should finally learn in August 1946, the media, where the bodies have remained. By chance, an employee of the regional organization was formerly politically persecuted encountered in the search for a memorial at the central cemetery in Graz during the perusal of the books in the cemetery administration on 44 nameless dead. It soon became clear that it was at the corpses to Executed, the beginning of the year 1946 had been brought from the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Graz, without relatives, the authorities or the Victims' Association had been informed.

In just over 18 months a total of 155 people were executed in the basement of the Regional Court Graz from the end of August 1943 until mid-March 1945. Among them were 23 soldiers from different divisions of the Armed Forces, sentenced for desertion and conscientious objection, as well as 14 women and 69 men who had been sentenced to death for resistance against Nazism. Previously 62 in Graz sentenced to death resistance fighters had been transferred to Vienna and executed in the place of execution of the local regional court.



That Graz had its own place of execution, went to the call of the Styrian Gauleiter Siegfried Uiberreither back who since 1942 always a "speed up the implementation of all procedures" - the "short work" - called. So he suggested as well as setting up its own Division of the People's Court in Berlin Graz, which was rejected by both the Minister of Justice and the President of the People's Justice Roland Freisler. But his insistence eventually meant that in Graz own execution site was built. In addition, a separate Senate in 1944 at the Higher Regional Court Graz yet established a special court for political crimes in the Lower Styria for high treason and under Styrian Marburg (Maribor). These two courts and the people's court should pronounce to last en masse death sentences against members of the Styrian and Carinthian resistance. Often, however, sufficient donations performance of only a few Reichsmarks for families of political persecution or utterances in letters or compared with colleagues that the war could not be won.



When after the liberation from National Socialism nor in May 1945 first bodies were discovered from executed in a mass grave at the military shooting range Feliferhof, praised Governor Reinhard Machold "to pay off the debt at the open grave of the murdered". He sat still in May 1945 set up a commission which had the task of "all official determinations to cause about the course of these murders and the determination of the guilty". The 1946 presented and published report was indeed a first insight on the executions in Graz, but made therein reproduced witnesses in their statements often no difference whether it is in the executions to those in the SS barracks, on Feliferhof or Landesgericht Graz acted. How little was expected of this report, is alone from the fact shows that this Commission also belonged to the Head of the Anatomical Institute, which in January and February 1946, the bodies of the executed resistance fighters of his institute quietly on the central cemetery bring leave.

The Nazism specially created immediately after the liberation people's courts, which should punish Nazi crimes, determined, inter alia, against lawyers at the special courts. Not a single one was legally prosecuted for his death sentence. The process ended often with the attitude, such as that against Attorney Dr. Leopold Makowksi. He had been involved in several cases of death sentences. Among other things, he represented the prosecution against Grazer housewife and communist resistance fighter Hildegard Burger, who was sentenced on May 20, 1943 to death. In the setting justification states, inter alia, that he was "his activity exercised first prosecutor very human" have. In addition - so it was said - "is not a single case detected, in which the basis of a trial in which he represented as a prosecutor the indictment, a death sentence was passed or in which he dealt with in any other way about his commitment beyond someone inhuman and had put in an agonizing state. " As a consequence, the communication from his release from judicial service was canceled and he was admitted as a lawyer and criminal defense attorney again.



The impunity of Nazi crimes corresponded Justice and the downright scandalous handling of those men and women, to which the Republic of Austria appealed again, when it came to emphasize the information required in the Moscow Declaration resistance against Nazism. For after the 44 bodies had been found at the Graz central cemetery in the summer of 1946, happened exactly nothing. No investigation, no remembering. Only in November 1961 was a memorial on the spot where the bodies had been found, built, called the name of these and other victims of Styria. Since about half of these men and women are victims of so-called "sanctions" were, as the hostages of the Nazis were called in Lower Styria, the memorial in the media as "Grazer ?? partisan Stone '' was, as" Yugo-memorial "or as "Partisan monument" denounced. The official representative of the Styrian therefore said at the unveiling also: "At the majesty of death, we want to remember the victims who were here brought into the neighboring countries and in Europe, indeed in the world, by many nations today existing Austria. contributes for these victims is not at fault, not that they are buried here. "

1962 Finally, in the former execution chamber, a memorial room was set up in which since November 2014, memorial plaque for the first time all 106 calls the name here because of their resistance against the Nazis executed. The commemorative book, "Do not be angry that I have to die in prison. The victims of Nazi justice in Graz from 1938 to 1945" gives this now her story. But it is also the terror of the Nazi justice in Styria and the sloppy to scandalous handling of the post-war society with the perpetrators and victims."

Heimo Halbrainer in Falter 49/14


https://www.falter.at/falter/rezensione ... 3902542144

Image

Styrian Gauleiter Siegfried Uiberreither who was responsible for settting up a separate fallbeil execution site in the basement of Graz Regional Court, Graz, Austria.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73 ... d6d186.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Uiberreither

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Rudolf Wallner

#5730

Post by Pete26 » 05 Oct 2015, 04:51

Image

Rudolf Wallner was guillotined at Vienna Regional Court on 10 May 1944.

http://www.doew.at/cms/images/9f5u1/def ... Rudolf.png

Rudolf Wallner, deputy inspector of the Vienna power plants, was a senior official of the resistance group "Austrian Freedom Movement - Group Lederer". He was sentenced by the People's Court on charges of "conspiracy to commit high treason" to death on 3 March 1944, and executed on 10 May 1944 at the Regional Court of Vienna.

http://www.doew.at/cms/download/850nq/19793_102-2.pdf
Last edited by Pete26 on 05 Oct 2015, 05:13, edited 1 time in total.

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