Beheadings in the Third Reich

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Pete26
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Benedictine priest Edmund Portiller

#5506

Post by Pete26 » 31 Mar 2015, 03:00


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Max
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Re: Beheadings in the Third Reich

#5507

Post by Max » 31 Mar 2015, 09:39

Perhaps this has been answered before, but is there any estimate of the number of executions [by any means] of so called political offenders?
I am not saying that all of the politicals were Innocent any crime but I'm trying to differentiate them from common criminals and murderers.
As a starting point, we could say anyone found guilty of crimes that would not be capital crimes in contemporary democracies.
We might also differentiate between those in opposition [speaking out against] the TR regime like the Scholls and numerous priests etc and those who could reasonably be accused of being traitors like the Stauffenberg plotters.
Where to put people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer? In the latter group I think.
I am not thinking the death camps and other extermination practices .
Greetings from the Wide Brown.


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More details on Valentina Archipowa case

#5508

Post by Pete26 » 04 Apr 2015, 01:22

More information on case of Valentina Arkhipova, guillotined in Frankfurt Preungesheim prison on 9 September 1943:

Die meisten auslandischen Frauen und Manner mussten in der Deutschen Industrie arbeiten. Andere wurden in der Landwirtschaft eingesetzt, um die eingezogenen deutschen Arbeiter zu ersetzen. Eine von den Frauen, die auf Bauernhofen arbeiten mussten, war Valentina Archipowa.

Valentina Archipowa, geborene Wolkowa, wurde am 17 Mai 1919 bei Saratow in der Sowjetunion geboren. 1935 heiratete sie in Stalingrad Michael Archipow, den sie als Schaffnerin bei der Eisenbahn kennengelernt hatte.

Sie hatte zwei Kinder. Am 27 April 1942 unterschrieb sie eine Arbeitsverpflichtung fur das faschistische Deutschland. Sie war zu der Zeit von ihrer Familie getrennt und hatte keine Moglichkeit, zu ihr zuruckzukehren, da der Krieg ausgebrochen war. Valentina Archipowa kam am 4 Mai 1942 mit einem Ostarbeitertransport nach Frankfurt am Main und wurde sofort der Witwe Rosina Bayer als Zwangsarbeiterin zugeteilt. Mehr als ein Dutzend Ostarbeiterinnen arbeiteten in dem Stadtteil Sindlingen,zumeist in der Landwirtschaft, und ihre Versorgung mit Textilien war, wie bei allen ostarbeitern in Deutschland, vollig unzureichend.

Bei einem Angriff in der nacht vom 12 zum 13 August 1942 verwustete eine Brandbombe das Haus der Frau Bayer. Valentina Archipowa half mit, den Brand zu loschen, bei dem vermutlich ein grosser Teil an Gegenstanden der Frau Bayer verbrannte. Am darauffolgenden Tag fand Valentina Archipowa unter dem Schutt, der im Hof zuruckgeblieben war, 2 Meter angebrannten Damast und 1 meter Linon Stoff.

Sie verstreckte die Stoffe und nahm sie mit, als sie kurze Zeit spater auf einen andeSieren Bauernhof wechselte. Dort tauschte sie den Stoff bei einem Polen, der ebenfalls auf einem Bauernhof arbeitete, gegen einen gebrauchten Mantel ein.

Der stellvertretende Ortsgruppenleiter, Hans Berninger, erfuhr durch einen Zufall von dem Tausch und erstattete gegen die 23 jahrige Valentina Archipowa Anzeige wegen Diebstahlsverdacht, Valentina Archipowa wurde verhaftet und kam in Untersuchungshaft. Ihr wurde ein weitaus Grosserer Diebstahl und ein eintragliches Geschaft mit weiteren Waschegegenstanden der Witwe Bayer angelastet.

Im Schussbericht der Gestapo vom 2 November 1942 war dann zum ersten mal die Rede von Plunderung. (Auf Plunderung stand nach der Volksschadlingsverordnung" der Tod).
Die Gestapo, deren Sitz in der Linderstrasse 27 war, "verhorte" Valentina Archipowa wohl in der Hoffnung, etwas mehr herauszuholen als Plünderung von 2 meter Stoff. Valentina ARchipowa blieb bei ihrer aussage, dass sie aus einem verbrannten Stoffballen ein noch verwendbares Stuck herausgetrennt habe, zusatzlich zu einem Meter Hemdstoff. Die Methoden der Vernehmung sind bekannt. Im Protokoll der Gestapo vom 29 April heisst es: "Vernehmung musste wegen Unwohlsein der Archipowa abgebrochen wenden".
Am 21 Juli 1943 fand die Verhandlung des Frankfurter Sondergerichtes statt. Der Assessor Putz beantragte die Todesstrafe.

Das Urteil lautete:

"Im namen des deutschen Volkes! Die Angeklagte hat am 13 August 1942 in Frankfurt-Sindlingen nach einem Fliegerangriff geplundert und mindestens 2m Damast sowie 1 m Linon gestohlen. Sie wird deshalb als Volksschadling zum Tode verurteilt. die burgerlichen Rechte werden ihr auf Lebenzeit aberkannt." (Sondergerichtsakte 86/43).

Der Pflichtverteidiger Valenina Archipowas reichte ein Gnadengesuch ein. Nach 6 Wochen Wartezeit in der Todeszelle, am 9 September 1942, erfahrt Valentina Archipowa, dass das Gnadengesuch abgelehnt wurde. Funf Stunden spater wurde sie in der Haftanstalt Preungesheim hingerichtet.
Translated:
Most foreign women and men had to work in the German industry. Others were employed in agriculture, to replace the retired German workers. One of the women who had to work on a farm was Valentina Arkhipova.

Valentina Arkhipova, born Volkova, was born on May 17, 1919 in Saratov in the Soviet Union. In 1935 she married Michael Arkhipov in Stalingrad, whom she had met working as a woman conductor on the railroad.

She had two children. On 27 April 1942, she signed an obligation to work for Nazi Germany. She was separated from her family at the time and had no way of going back to them because the war broke out. Valentina Arkhipova came on May 4, 1942, by the East worker transport to Frankfurt and was immedialy assigned to widow Rosina Bayer as a forced laborer. More than a dozen Eastern workers worked in the district of Sindlingen, mostly in agriculture, and their supply of textiles was, as for all Eastern workers in Germany, completely inadequate.

In an attack in the night from 12 to 13 August 1942 an incendiary bomb damaged the Bayer woman's house. Valentina Arkhipova helped to extinguish the fire, in which probably burned a large part of property of the Bayer woman. The following day, Valentina Archipowa found under the rubble that was piled in the yard, 2 meters of burnt damask and 1 meter of Leno fabric.

She stretched the materials and took them a short time later to another farm. There she exchanged the fabric for a used coat with a Pole who also worked on the farm.

The deputy local group leader, Hans Berninger, learned by chance about this exchange and filed a complaint against the 23 year old Valentina Arkhipova as a theft suspect. Valentina Arkhipova was arrested and remanded in custody. She was charged with a much more serious crime of theft and profiting from the property of widow Bayer.

In the report of the Gestapo, prepared on 2 November 1942, for the first time there is a mention of plunder. (Plundering was associated with People's pest regulation and punishable with death).

The Gestapo, whose headquarters was in the Linder 27, interrogated Valentina Arkhipova, probably hoping to get out a little more than pillage of 2 meters of fabric. Valentina Arkhipova stuck to her statement, that she had cut out from a burned bale of cloth a still usable piece, in addition to a meter of shirt fabric. The methods of interrogation are known. The minutes of the Gestapo of 29 April states that "interrogation had to be interrupted due to indisposition of Arkhipova".

On July 21, 1943, the trial of the Frankfurt Special Court was held. The prosecutor Putz applied the death penalty.

The sentence was:

"On behalf of the German people!

The accused has plundered on August 13, 1942 in Sindlingen after an air raid and stole at least 2 meters of Damask and 1 meter of Leno. She is therefore condemned as a people's pest to death. Her civil rights are forfeited for life. " (Special Court Act 86/43).

The public defender of Valenina Arkhipova's submitted a petition for clemency. After 6 weeks of waiting on death row, on 9 September 1943 Valentina Archipowa learned that clemency was denied. Five hours later she was executed in prison Preungesheim.

Source: Frauen und Frankfurt, by Barbara Bromberger and Katja Mausbach, 1997


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Documentary film about Benita von Falkenhayn

#5510

Post by rafalx » 06 Apr 2015, 11:41

New documentary film about Benita von Falkenhayn and her lover, polish spy Jerzy Sosnowski.
National Geographic Channel (PL), April 12, 22.00 and TVP1 (polish public television), April 13, 20.25
Sensacje XX wieku. Krew, miłość, zdrada.
Sensacions of XX century. Blood, love, treason.

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Pete26
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Re: Beheadings in the Third Reich

#5511

Post by Pete26 » 06 Apr 2015, 18:17

That "execution block" does not even have a cutout for the chin. Absence of this feature would force the person being beheaded to turn their head sideways on the block, as you can see in the photo. And there is obviously no bench attached to the block, as it was in actual axe executions done in Germany at that time.

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Re: Beheadings in the Third Reich

#5512

Post by rafalx » 06 Apr 2015, 21:37

Pete26 wrote:That "execution block" does not even have a cutout for the chin. Absence of this feature would force the person being beheaded to turn their head sideways on the block, as you can see in the photo. And there is obviously no bench attached to the block, as it was in actual axe executions done in Germany at that time.
I think these types of errors will be more.
Look at the ax. What do you think?

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fredric
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Re: Beheadings in the Third Reich

#5513

Post by fredric » 06 Apr 2015, 23:22

YUK!

Once again, a most inept depiction of an execution, in this case a famous execution, one of the last by richtbeil.
Why can't directors get executions right?

Negative press about this execution was worldwide and it influenced the switch to a uniform decapitation method (fallbeil) throughout the Reich.

The fallbeil was not installed at Plotzensee until two years after Von Falkenhayn and Natzmer were beheaded there,was although it was transported to Plotzensee on occasion. It is worth mentioning that this was a "double" beheading (Renate Von Natzmer was also beheaded that day). The executions took place on February 18, 1935. The director should have made this a cold, "wintry scene.

The executions were carried out outdoors in Hof 4, Plotzensee, a courtyard. Hof 4 was located slightly above the building we associate today with Plotzensee executions. The film seems to show the execution in what looks like a paved area with a drain line, maybe even indoors?

The people who made this film could easily have researched the actual setting and depicted it correctly. They are lazy.
Here are some other errors:

1. The block in the film is a tree stump, totally wrong except that it is made of wood. John Mortimer's book
includes a photo of what is claimed to be Groppler's block and axe used for this execution. Both are classic German execution equipment.
2. The block would have been bolted to a scaffold (no scaffold shown).
3. The block had a chin "cup" and spikes for a the strap securing the head, plus rings for ropes to hold her to the block. I think it was identical to the one shown on the old postcard we have discussed before...maybe even the actual block shown in the stereoptican image.
4. The medieval axe is wrong. Groppler had a classic, 13 lb. richtbeil, well described many places. We all know what Groppler's axe look like so I won't describe it. The axe is really strange...with the bolts?
5. The straw-filled basket is wrong. The head would have fallen into a sand bowl (see the actual execution photo of Anton Gypz) and there should be a lot of absorbent sand around the block.
6. The victim might have been blindfolded and certainly secured with more than handcuffs. Rope was typically used.
7. It is reported that Von Falkenhayn and Natzmer wore prison smocks, grey. The costumes for the victim and possibly for the executioners is
wrong. Sharfrichters wore white glove, tuxedo, top hat etc. although Groppler did, for a short while, wear a special buttoned tunic. He hated it
and eventually returned to the tux.

Doncha' get a laugh out of how inept filmakers can be? I will be interested to see the film because with this for openers, there must be many other errors concerning the execution.

Otherwise, some other scenes I saw in still photos look beautiful. Nice costuming, nice horses. (I have to say something nice)

BTW, the Scharfrichter was Carl Groppler and he was assisted in this execution by Ernst Reindel and probably three other assistants.
I have yet to get a look at the actor playing him. He should be big, beefy, unmoved by everything and have red hair and red mustache. He is described in Blazek's and Vlatine's books. Also the execution did have few witnesses (probably the mandated 12 good citizens plus the prosecutor, Dr. Jauch and prison officials and a doctor). No press was allowed.

Pete26
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Re: Beheadings in the Third Reich

#5514

Post by Pete26 » 07 Apr 2015, 02:14

Karl Gropler was already 67 years old when he beheaded these two women. By that time he had no hair left, he was completely bald. This was stated in one of the articles about him.

Also, I thought the name of the prosecutor was Paul Jorns. Who was this "Dr. Jauch"?

Here is a nice set of photos showing the correct equipment used in German axe executions in that period. These are of course only 1:5 scale models, but nevertheless very authentic looking.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/baumderju ... 816840753/
A complete set of equipment for the execution with an axe (1:5 replicas). Used in Germany at the end of the 19th and early 20th century. The executions took place in the gray morning in each prison yard. Around the block was sprinkled a lot of sawdust to soak up the blood. The convict was pushed down by the assistants of the executioner to the bench. Here, the arms of the condemned were pulled down by using the rope and shackles on the existing block rings around the block . The head was pushed into the notch on the block and was thus fixed.
Note: wording in the quoted part above slightly edited for clarity due to improper translation from German.

Here is a real Richtbeil and Richtblock (Execution block and ax from Zielerzig/Osternberg, 19th Century; Märkisches Museum Berlin):

Image
http://www.stadtmuseum.de/sites/default ... k=fMDZxyqX

Another Richtblock (made especially for and used in execution of of Johann Friedrich Hermann Dressel in 1840):

Image

http://www.museum-digital.de/san/images ... 657592.jpg

http://www.museum-digital.de/san/index. ... suinsa=490
On January 21, 1840, the last public execution took place in Zeitz. Johann Friedrich Hermann Dressel, draper from Freyburg on the Unstrut had draper champion Christian Cornelius Pistorius early after 6 clock when he was on his way to the market in Zeitz, with a sawed-off shotgun struck his head on December 18, 1834, robbed him.
Dressel was convicted and sentenced to death by the ax. He appealed against the verdict, so that the execution was delayed until January 21, 1840, and took place on the square in Zeitz. The executioner was John Beck from Querfurt. Peace and order was provided by a detachment from Weissenfels Military: 6 officers, 10 NCOs, 1 surgeon and 138 soldiers and 21 hussars formed a circle around the place of execution.
Council carpenter Dorn had made the executioner's block specifically for this execution. Oak wood was the material.
The height of the block is 62 centimeters or 24.4 inches.

Note (from Wikipedia):

Zeitz is a town in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Weiße Elster, in the triangle of the federal states Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony.


Another Richtbeil:


Image

http://www.az-online.de/bilder/2012/01/ ... FlDE09.jpg
Another photo of Benita von Falkenhayn with Jerzy Sosnowski :

Image

http://i.wp.pl/a//f/jpeg/33886/en_jerzy ... _635b.jpeg
Last edited by Pete26 on 07 Apr 2015, 11:05, edited 9 times in total.

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fredric
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Re: Beheadings in the Third Reich

#5515

Post by fredric » 07 Apr 2015, 07:16

I was incorrect. It was Jorns, not Jauch. Jauch is the name of the prosecutor in Vlatin's book who reads the execution order
to the Red Marines about to be beheaded by Groppler.
You are also right about Groppler being 67 and that he was reported to be bald although he did have the nickname "rote richter"...
Do you have a date for the block and axe in the photo you posted? I have seen it but do not know its history.

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Re: Beheadings in the Third Reich

#5516

Post by Pete26 » 07 Apr 2015, 10:50

fredric wrote:I was incorrect. It was Jorns, not Jauch. Jauch is the name of the prosecutor in Vlatin's book who reads the execution order
to the Red Marines about to be beheaded by Groppler.
You are also right about Groppler being 67 and that he was reported to be bald although he did have the nickname "rote richter"...
Do you have a date for the block and axe in the photo you posted? I have seen it but do not know its history.
I have added some information in my post above. As for Groppler, it is amazing that there is not a single photograph of him anywhere to be found. He must have had some agreement with the authorities while employed as an executioner not be photographed or have any photos of him ever published anywhere, thus not revealing his identity and profession. I think that authors like Matthias Blazek would have located photos of him in his research but even he apparently either could not or was not allowed to publish them if he had them. This is really strange.

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fredric
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Re: Beheadings in the Third Reich

#5517

Post by fredric » 07 Apr 2015, 16:24

Agree. Blazek, Evans and others have published much information about Groppler but no photos. Illustrations of him have been published including
one a caricature by George Grosz. With the exception of Reichhart, photos of sharfrichters are hard to locate. Blazek did contact a Groppler family
member but no mention of photos which is surprising. Groppler did not hide his part-time role as an executioner in addition to his business. Neither
did Rottger and others.

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Commemorative plaque

#5518

Post by Pete26 » 10 Apr 2015, 03:29

Commemorative plaque to France Bloch-Serazin and Suzanne Masson on the wall of Holstenglacis prison in Hamburg. Both French women were beheaded by guillotine in this prison.

Image

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... erazin.JPG

The inscription reads:

"These two French women were beheaded by guillotine in this prison for their resistance against National Socialist tyranny in occupied France".



And this is the modified Mannhardt fallbeil that beheaded them. The executioner was Friedrich Hehr.

Image
https://www.ndr.de/kultur/geschichte/ch ... paltig.jpg

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Place of execution

#5519

Post by Pete26 » 11 Apr 2015, 02:45

The plaque marks the approximate location of the former execution room where the fallbeil had stood in Hamburg Holstenglacis prison.
Der einstige Hinrichtungsraum existiert heute nicht mehr, er wurde im Zuge von Erweiterungsbauten abgerissen. An jener Stelle in der Südostecke des Gebäudekomplexes, im nicht öffentlich zugänglichen Innenhof, direkt neben dem damaligen Hinrichtungsort, mahnt seit 1995 eine große Bronzetafel des Bildhauers Klaus Luckey zum Gedenken; sie zitiert einen Bibelvers aus der Offenbarung: „Sei getreu bis in den Tod, so will ich dir den Märtyrerkranz des Lebens geben.“
Translated:
The former execution chamber no longer exists, it was demolished in the course of extensions. At that point in the southeast corner of the building complex, in the non-public courtyard, adjacent to the former place of execution, since 1995 called for a large bronze plaque commemorating the sculptor Klaus Luckey; it quotes a verse from Revelation: ". Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life martyrs"
ttp://www.luebeckermaertyrer.de/de/orte-des-g ... index.html

Image
https://gottonair.files.wordpress.com/2 ... jpg?w=1215

Last walk to the fallbeil in Hostenglacis prison:

Image

https://gottonair.files.wordpress.com/2 ... jpg?w=1215

Three Catholic priests and a Lutheran pastor were beheaded in this prison on 10 November 1943.

Image

http://www.unitas-ruhrania.org/images/c ... ebeck2.jpg

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Johann Friedrich Hermann Dressel

#5520

Post by Pete26 » 12 Apr 2015, 15:28

Portrait of murderer Johann Freidrich Hermann Dressel in a jail cell. He was beheaded with an axe on 21 January 1840 in Zeitz. He was 34 years old. This was the last public execution in Zeitz.

The inscription on the bottom of the portrait reads:

"Friedrich Hermann Dressel, robber-murderer, born in Freiburg on 3 December 1805 and beheaded with an axe at the marketplace in Zeitz on 21 January 1840."

Image

http://www.museum-digital.de/san/images ... 928560.jpg

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