Beheadings in the Third Reich

[Pete26]

Anton Streyczek, a Jehowah's Witness, was beheaded In Berlin Plotzensee prison at 5:45 AM on 22 December 1939 for refusal to serve in the military in accordance with his faith (a conscientious objector).



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A confirmation of execution sent to his wife by the authorities:



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[Pete26]

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Franz Jirak was guillotined at Vienna Reional Court (Landesgericht) on 10 May 1944.

Der Zahntechnikermeister Franz Jirak war Mitglied des Zentralkomitees der KPÖ und wirkte bei der Abfassung kommunistischer Druckschriften mit. Er wurde am 14. 7. 1942 festgenommen und am 10. 3. 1944 wegen "Feindbegünstigung" und "Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat" zum Tode verurteilt. Franz Jirak wurde am 10. 5. 1944 im Landesgericht Wien hingerichtet.

Translated:

"The dental technician Franz Jirak was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Austria and took part in the drafting of communist pamphlets. He was detained on 14. 7. 1942 and sentenced on 10. 3. 1944 on charges of "aiding the enemy" and "conspiracy to commit high treason" to death. Franz Jirak was executed on 10. 5. 1944 in the Regional Court of Vienna."

[Pete26]

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Felix Kolar was guillotined at Vienna Regional Court on 21 June 1944.

Der Bauhilfsarbeiter Felix Kolar war als Kassierer und Werber für die KPÖ tätig. Er wurde am 12. 8. 1943 festgenommen und am 20. 4. 1944 vom Volksgerichtshof wegen "Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat" zum Tode verurteilt. Felix Kolar wurde am 21. 6. 1944 im Landesgericht Wien hingerichtet.

Translated:

"The construction worker Felix Kolar worked as a cashier and advertiser for the Communist Party of Austria. He was arrested on 12 August 1943, and sentenced to death on 20 April 1944 by the People's Court on charges of "conspiracy to commit high treason". Felix Kolar was executed on 21 June 1944 in the Regional Court of Vienna."


"

[Pete26]

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Jozef Laznicka was guillotined at Vienna Regional Court on 19 September 1944.

Der Schlossergehilfe Josef Laznicka aus Wien-Floridsdorf wurde am 29. November 1943 wegen Betätigung für die KPÖ festgenommen. Er wurde 1944 vom Volksgerichtshof zum Tode verurteilt und am 19. September 1944 im Wiener Landesgericht hingerichtet.

Translated:

"The locksmith's assistant Josef Laznicka from Vienna Floridsdorf was arrested on 29 November 1943 for being an operative of the Communist Party of Austria. He was sentenced in 1944 by the People's Court to death and executed on September 19, 1944 in the Vienna Regional Court."

[Pete26]

Pawel Musiol was guillotined in Katowice prison on 19 February 1943.

http://img.audiovis.nac.gov.pl/SM0/SM0_1-N-1235.jpg

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paweł_Musioł

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

[fredric]

Has anyone read the book "Im Todehause; Paul Vacano, head of Plotzensee 1928-1943" (in German)?
It is by a relative/lawyer named Dolezal. Could be of importance to this topic. Cannot find a copy.

[Pete26]

Has anyone read the book "Im Todehause; Paul Vacano, head of Plotzensee 1928-1943" (in German)?
It is by a relative/lawyer named Dolezal. Could be of importance to this topic. Cannot find a copy.

http://www.epubli.de/shop/buch/Im-Todes ... 5453/37062

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/im-tode ... 3844265453

https://nook.barnesandnoble.com/product ... 3844265453

https://books.google.com/books?id=GXCLA ... al&f=false

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=b ... 3844265453

https://store.kobobooks.com/de-US/ebook ... iFc27mB1Dg


I have not read this book.

[fredric]

For ages 12-18 ????
I meant cannot find a free copy... translated.

[Pete26]

For ages 12-18 ????
I meant cannot find a free copy... translated.

I seriously doubt there is a hardcopy of this book translated into English anywhere. $ 8 for an E-copy from Barnes and Nobles is not bad - and you can possibly use google translator to translate the book. And that's something you cannot do with a hardcopy.

[fredric]

good idea. book was written by a lawyer who researched his Uncle Paul Vacano in the RMJ files
and pieced together the story. It sounds interesting.
I understand Paul Vacano died a "broken" man after his years managing
Plotzensee. I am sure the book has some new info.

We all know Vacano is the one Waltenbacher says inspected the Bruchsal fallbeil before it was moved to Plotzensee and he must have
overseen executions with it many, many times. The book synopsis references our illusive Willi Rottger so that is significant too.
I also hope the book contains some new photos. I believe it is possible many photos and film were shot of the
prison by the Soviets and probably now residing in Russian archives gathering dust.

On a related note, Die Zeit published a heretofore unknown (to me) exterior photo of
Plotzensee Haus III and the nearby execution room. It was in an article by Tuchel, now the head of the
Gedenstatte Widerstand in Berlin. It concerning the last days at Plotzensee, a topic of great interest to me. I hope he writes more. I tried unsuccessfully to get information about the photo through DPA who referred me to their U.S. reps who have not helped much.

From another source I just got confirmation that the Soviet 79th Rifles, who took the prison, later made it
their headquarters and "housed" Germans soldiers their after the city fell.
The photo agency (DPA's U.S. agent) has been difficult to work with when I inquired about the photo)

Wouldn't it be interesting to talk to a person who worked at Plotzensee during the War? At least one inmate is still alive (Tuchel interviewed
him) and maybe some admininstrative employees or military guards. The prison had, for a while, soldiers as guards, not necessarily old men who served
as "beamten". In the end, probably only men beyond military age who had police backgrounds were guarding the place and most disappeared with the
approach of the Soviet Army.

[Pete26]

Interesting information Fredric. I read somewhere that the execution building in Plotzensee prison was originally a storage shed used for storing cleaning supplies, and perhaps other supplies needed for day to day prison operation. Conversion of existing garages or storage buildings into execution buildings seems common in many German prisons designated as Central Execution Sites. The execution building in Stadelheim prison also appears to have been converted from a storage shed. In Brandenburg-Gorden prison they supposedly converted several garages into an execution complex. Where no such buildings were available, they found some room inside some large building , suitable for installation of a fallbeil. A good example here is Vienna Regional Court, or Graz Regional Court. Vienna Regional Court execution room was originally a laundry room, located right next to the main entrance to the courthouse. Regional Court in Graz had its execution room located in the basement. Berlin Moabit prison execution room was also in the basement. In Pankrac prison, three large prison cells were converted into an execution complex on the first floor of one of the prison cell block buildings. In Katowice prison, there was a separate red brick building which housed the guillotine. It is not clear if it was a former storage shed, or if this building was specially built to provide an execution room. In Wolfenbuttel prison, the former locksmith shop was converted into an execution building. And if a suitable building or room could not be found, fallbeil executions were also conducted outside in one of the inner courtyards, as in Dresden Munchner Platz prison, or in Stuttgart.

Supposedly the oldest prisoner executed in Plotzensee prison was 83 years old. Any idea who that was?

Pankrac and Brandenburg-Gorden prison execution rooms were both located in the same building as the condemned cells and very close to those condemned cells, so other prisoners could hear and feel the noise associated with falling of the guillotine blade. In Dresden Munchner Platz prison the guillotine stood in the courtyard, just outside the row of condemned cells, so those prisoners probably heard the fall of the blade clearly too. This must have been traumatic beyond comprehension.
In Stanislav Motl's book "Svedek z cely smrti" condemned prisoner Bartonicek in Brandenburg-Gorden prison describes how on execution days he could see caskets delivered on a wagon at the main prison entrance when he stood on a chair and looked out the tiny barred window of his cell. By counting the number of caskets, he had an idea how many prisoners would be executed that day.

[fredric]

All information you give corresponds with my research.

The RMJ specified beheading with the fallbeil to be the uniform execution method throughout the Reich and the "greater Reich" and
that executions were to take place in a closed, interior room with limited observers.

Adhering to this ruling was tough. The 12 central execution prisons had to scramble and this is well-described by Waltenbacher. As more
prisons were designated as central execution sites, a lot of construction was underway in a time when building materials were at a premium.

Bruchsal had to build an execution chamber when the decision was made to resume executions
there. Up to 1936, beheadings took place outdoors. Bruchsal followed the "two room" scheme created by a dividing curtain but did not have cells for holding the condemned. The chamber was built against a prison wall. The plan for an ideal execution
chamber is discussed in at least two places: in Waltenbacher and in the book about the Mainz guillotine (do not recall the title). Hehr
is quoted in that book, saying that ideally, the execution room and condemned cells are adjacent and that the execution room has a connected
storage room for coffins and another room for dissection/preparation of a body for transport. He was the consultant for Mainz.

Plotzensee's "lagerschuppen" converted to its "Hinrichtungstatte" was large.
I believe executions were always carried out in the same area of this large storage shed before and after the bombing.
The size of the building can be seen from the familiar aerial photograph taken probably before the War.
Even more interesting is the glimpse of the full building, post-War, in the British Pathe film.
Although much of the bombed out part of the building had been cleaned up when the film was taken (1946?), I was surprised to
see that the "shell" was standing. It was a multi-roomed building, each section with a number above the door.
The bombed section was demolished when the Memorial was built and the execution chamber was left intact although "sanitized". The film shows
the interior before this happened. From what I have seen, the building extended about twice its width to the left of what we know today. It was perfect for the tall Mannhardt. The Tegels of course made it possible to either adapt an existing building with low ceilings or build a shorter structure. Plotz of course did not have holding cells.

Where did you hear that Moabit had an execution room in a basement? I knew executions were held outdoors in Moabit ( by axe) but when
Plotz became the central site, I thought Moabit was used to holding people for trial and transfer to Plotz for execution. I have seen photos however
of a Tegel in Moabit but this was after the War...and I know it was a holding point for stuff collected by the Russians.

Yes, Brandenburg-Gorden converted a garage. Garages and repair shops were nearby as well. It was demolished after the War, then a replica built.
I did not know that Stadelheim converted a storage room but that seems to be typical. After the War it became a auto repair shop and then was demolished. Only the cross from the execution room remains.

Stuttgart did not have an inside execution chamber. The erected the fallbeil in a courtyard like Dresden. They had what they called an "old fashioned" fallbeil obtained in 1857, thus most likely a Mannhardt. The base was crumbling but the mechanism worked although it needed a new blade. I think Stuttgart eventually had an inside execution room, per RMJ requirements. The Allies reported the Stuttgart fallbeil was bolted to the floor (Evans) and it probably was the old Mannhardt fitted to a new base. If so, it disappeared.

[Pete26]

Has anyone seen a photo of the Moabit prison execution room? The last person executed there was Berthold Wehmeyer for murder on 11 May 1949. According to one description of his execution, the execution room with the guillotine was in the basement of a building adjacent to the cell block where the condemned were kept.

Yes I have seen a few pictures. There is no tile floor, it appears to be concrete ,it looks exactly like a basement with exposed pipes on the wall along with a huge large size radiator heater on the wall---perhaps for the whole building above. A portion of the black curtain is being pulled back for the view of the fallbeil by someones hand ( partof the arm is visable).

Moabit execution room in the basement of a building adjacent to the condemned cell block was perhaps only used in postwar years to execute more than a dozen people, including convicted Nazi criminals.

[fredric]

Paul, your thought that the Moabit basement execution room was returned to use after the War makes sense.
I have never seen a photo of the "basement execution room" but it makes sense that post-War executions were held there. This is interesting
information.

[Pete26]

These people were all executed by beheading in Moabit prison after WWII:



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