KL Trials

[ansata1976]

I need more information about the following photo.It shows the execution of German KZ guards.Maybe Dachau.


http://images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=h ... e%26sa%3DN[/url]

...Col. Buechner wrote that there were only 19 Americans among the 27 or 28 witnesses to the Dachau massacre, and only three of them were positively known to still be alive when he wrote his tell-all book in 1986. One of them was Private First Class John Degro, whom Buechner credits with being the first man to enter the Dachau concentration camp. Those present when the 346 Waffen-SS soldiers were executed, on Lt. Bushyhead's orders, included 3 American officers, 3 non-commissioned medical officers under Col. Buechner's command, Col. Buechner's driver, 3 or 4 German medics from the nearby hospital, around 4 inmates, and 12 Infantrymen under the command of 1st Lt. Jack Bushyhead.
The 346 SS soldiers, who were lined up at the wall, could have rushed the 19 Americans and the 4 inmates, taken their weapons, and killed them all, but they didn't. According to Buechner's account, they continued to stand with their hands in the air until every last man had been mowed down by the Americans, and then finished off by a pistol shot from the inmates.
In the first hour of the liberation, while Col. Buechner was setting up his Aid Station in the town of Dachau, 122 SS men had allegedly been "shot on the spot," after they had surrendered to the 45th Division, according to George Stevens, Jr. who did a documentary film on the liberation; he was quoted by Col. Buechner in his book. The killing of 122 SS men in "the first hour," was also reported by Michael Seltzer in his book entitled "Deliverance Day," and subsequently repeated by many other writers.

Stevens also told Col. Buechner that 40 SS guards had been beaten to death by the inmates, or shot with guns given to them by the American liberators, and 20 more SS guards were killed by American soldiers when they attempted to surrender after descending from the guard towers. Another 100 SS guards were murdered in unrelated killings by individual soldiers of both the 42nd and 45th Divisions, according to George Stevens, as told to Col. Buechner. These events had taken place during the 30 minute period of chaos, at the beginning of the liberation, before order could be restored. Lt. Col. Sparks said that during this time, "battle hardened veterans became extremely distraught. Some cried, while others raged. Some thirty minutes passed before I could restore order and discipline."
When the situation was brought under control, 358 SS men were rounded up and herded into an enclosed area that had been used as a coal yard before the camp had run out of coal. Shortly thereafter, 12 SS men were machine-gunned to death in an execution in front of the coal yard wall.

The execution of the SS men at the coal yard was stopped by Lt. Col. Felix Sparks who kicked a machine gunner away from the gun. According to Lt. Col. Sparks, the machine gunner was a soldier whose nickname was "Birdeye." Birdeye had shouted "they are trying to get away," and had then cut loose with his .30 caliber machine gun. This incident brought the total number of dead to 174, according to Col. Buechner. Later, when the 346 Waffen-SS men were allegedly killed on the orders of Lt. Bushyhead, the total number of soldiers executed increased to 520. In addition, Col. Buechner wrote that 30 SS men had been "killed in combat" and 10 had escaped temporarily, but were captured and killed later, bringing the grand total to 560 SS men killed during the liberation of Dachau...

[ansata1976]

Or is the third photo the execution of:

Unteroffizier Manfred Pernass

Oberfähnrich Günther Billing and

Obergefreite Wilhelm Schmitt 23.12.1944 in Henri-Chapelle

[David Thompson]

ansata1976 -- You asked, of the third photo you posted:

Or is the second photo the execution of:

Unteroffizier Manfred Pernass

Oberfähnrich Günther Billing and

Obergefreite Wilhelm Schmitt 23.12.1944 in Henri-Chapelle

Death sentences passed in US trials of concentration camp guards usually involved death by hanging.

These look like photos of three Germans executed for wearing US uniforms, who were captured during the Battle of the Bulge. The tall fellow is Unteroffizier Pernass. http://www.ww2incolor.com/us-army/ww2_50.html

The prisoner on the left may be Oberfähnrich Günther Billing:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 7#p1357077

The first and photos were taken during the execution of Waffen-SS troops immediately after the liberation of KL Dachau. These killings were not pursuant to any war crimes trial, but were the result of a lack of discipline among some of the enraged US troops which captured the camp:

The US 45th Infantry Division at Dachau
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=1161
Massacre of SS POWs at Dachau
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=43919
Murder of Dachau guards
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=8497
Dachau guards
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=39246
April 30- The Day U.S. Troops Liberated Dachau
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=48745

[bf109 emil]

I need more information about the following photo.It shows the execution of German KZ guards.Maybe Dachau.

where were these photo's sourced from as rather then guessing a link to these might explain them as opposed to random photo's and asking after wards information regarding these...obviously they had to come from a source or book or the web, etc or a private collection and perhaps where not authorized to be republished and in violation of copyright rules?

provide a link or source and your question might be easier to answer, without this being done, one could be trying to place a name/date/reason to a pirated photo instead of a legal and authorized republished image for republication possibly at a later date or on another personal site without having garnered the correct or blessing of the original owner of said image

[David Thompson]

Let's get back on topic -- KL trials. Posts about the KL Dachau massacre can be posted on one of the threads I've already listed, since that subject has nothing to do with this one.

[ansata1976]

Sorry David, i thaught this execution belonged to a trial. Other questions i post on the correct subject.

[bf109 emil]

Let's get back on topic -- KL trials. Posts about the KL Dachau massacre can be posted on one of the threads I've already listed, since that subject has nothing to do with this one.

sorry David, but the pic Anasata1976 posted does refer to dachau, just the other way around
and i quoted this clip fromExecution of SS soldiers at Dachau sourced fromhttp://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScr ... illed.html

and yes I agree the subject has nothing to do with the one you state, likewise neither does the pics anasata1976 posted for comment and asking about either

apologize to you

[ansata1976]

Who is the man on the photo ????


source: http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScr ... nGuard.gif

Please David can you post this photo on the correct site.I am very confused because there are too much similar topics.I do not want to post it again on the wrong place. Must i delete the rest or can you do it too?

[David Thompson]

Please David can you post this photo on the correct site.

Done. See the announcement immediately after this post.

bf109 emil -- There's no copyright problem because the photographs were taken by one or more US Army Signal Corps cameramen, and they're in the public domain.

[David Thompson]

Two posts, beginning with http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 4#p1361994 , were merged into the thread at http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=43919 ("Massacre of SS POWs at Dachau").

[ansata1976]

What happened with Hans Heidingsfelder (KZ Mauthausen)????????? Was he sentenced in a trial???????What was his fate???

[huibert]

Hello Ansata,
Michael Rotschopf, born 13.12.1920;
Karl Schwanz (not Schwarz), born 19.7.1898;
Karl Cremer, born 4.8.1910.
Places of birth (still)unknown to me.
All executed at Zuchthaus Hameln.
See The Tilburg War Trial.
Huibert.

[Researcher]

Place of birth for Cremer is Hattingen
for Schwanz it is Brandenburg/Havel

For Rotschopf I have Buntschuh (but I have never heard of such a place) ?

regards
Researcher

[huibert]

The fourth person,also convicted to the death penalty at the Tilburg War Trial and also executed on 5.9.1947 at Zuchthaus Hameln, was Albert Rösener, born 30.12.1911.
With the other three he belpnged to the Sipo/SD Aussenstelle 's-Hertogenbosch.

[ansata1976]

I need a information:

Heinz Volkenrath
28.12.1920 in Lüdenscheid
SS-Unterscharführer in Auschwitz
Executed 13.12.1945 in Hameln

Was he the husband of:

Elisabeth Volkenrath
05.09.1919 in Schönau near Bad Landeck
KZ-Wärterin in Ravensbrück
Executed 13.12.1945 in Hameln