Beheadings in the Third Reich

[iancandler]

Does anyone have any information on German pastors/priests/christians who where executed during the Nazi regime ?

[fredric]

Research the "Lubeck Martyrs" (three Roman Catholic priests and one Lutheran minister) who together were beheaded in Hamburg's Holstenglacis Prison in 1943. You will find much information about them on the Internet. Sister Restituta Kafka is another, beheaded by the nazis. Also, thousands of German pastors/priests and German Christians were beheaded, hanged, shot or sent to KZ's where they were subjected to fatal medical experiments or gassed. They were executed for acts of resistance, not for being clergy or Christian.

[Pete26]

Does anyone have any information on German pastors/priests/christians who where executed during the Nazi regime ?

Some additional German and Austrian Catholic priests executed during the Third Reich era:


Joseph Muller - beheaded on 11 September 1944 in Brandenburg-Gorden prison

Paulus Worndl - beheaded on 26 June 1944 in Brandenburg-Gorden prison

Jacob Gapp - beheaded on 13 August 1943 in Plotzensee prison

Max Joseph Metzger - beheaded on 17 April 1944 in Brandenburg-Gorden prison

Friedrich Lorenz - beheaded on 13 November 1944 in Roter Ochse prison in Halle

Heinrich Maier - beheaded on 22 March 1945 in Vienna

Franz Reinisch - beheaded on 21 Auguest 1942 in Plotzensee prison

Edmund Portiller - beheaded on 9 February 1945 in Munchen Stadelheim prison

Johann Schwingshackl - died in his prison cell in Stadelheim prison on 27 February 1945 while waiting to be beheaded



http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articl ... -holocaust

[von thoma]

Do you know who is this hangman in Pankrác Prison ?
Thanks.

[Pete26]

This one shows the morgue in the execution complex. You can clearly see the wooden tub (left lower corner) which was used to carry beheaded bodies from the guillotine to the room next door where they were placed in a star pattern with the necks next to the floor drain to finish bleeding. Someone also brought the photographic equipment(lamp, stand and swivel chair) used to take photos of Pankrac prisoners into this room when the photo was taken. I have never seen another photo of this morgue with the large wooden crate in the corner.

http://vcdn.valka.cz/html_images_cache/ ... B8zYVq.jpg





Another photo of Antonin Nerad, who was one of the assistants to Prague executioner Alois Weiss.

http://vcdn.valka.cz/html_images_cache/ ... w5XscY.jpg




This photo show the Pankrac fallbeil after the first restoration attempt with a very wide bench which was later replace with a narrower one. This image is somewhat different from the similar ones already posted, as it is somewhat more of a close-up view.

http://vcdn.valka.cz/html_images_cache/ ... q9h8Ru.jpg



Executioner Frantisek Nenahlo and one of his assistants are preparing the post gallows for the execution of Karl Hermann Frank.

http://vcdn.valka.cz/html_images_cache/ ... 9ruK0j.jpg

[Pete26]

Do you know who is this hangman in Pankrác Prison ?
Thanks.

This is the executioner who hanged Alois Kriz, Rudolf Novak, and A.J. Kozisek. I do not know his name though.



http://c8.alamy.com/comp/BX56WC/alois-k ... BX56WC.jpg



http://c7.alamy.com/comp/BX56WA/alois-k ... BX56WA.jpg



http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/b8b132b4fdd94 ... bx54k9.jpg



http://c8.alamy.com/comp/BX56W9/rudolf- ... BX56W9.jpg



http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/3fef30d6c3394 ... bx54kb.jpg



http://c8.alamy.com/comp/BX56WD/aj-kozi ... BX56WD.jpg



http://c8.alamy.com/comp/BX54KC/nationa ... BX54KC.jpg



http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/d8fed04c677e4 ... bx56wf.jpg


Here is another Czech executioner, "The last "executioner of Ceske Budejovice" Adolf Plachy. He carried out 68 executions after WWII.

http://severniceskobudejovicko.cz/2015/ ... vicky-kat/



http://severniceskobudejovicko.cz/wp-co ... 77x300.jpg





http://severniceskobudejovicko.cz/wp-co ... 08/240.jpg


Here is some interesting information about the first post war Czech executioner Frantisek Nenahlo:


http://www.expres.cz/kat-frantisek-nena ... pravy_pali

Supposedly he had a serious drinking problem and criminal past going back to the age of 14. Supposedly he was inebriated when he hanged Karl Hermann Frank. Even though he was paid good money for his services (2 thousand Czech crowns for each execution, which was an average monthly pay), he sold the nooses on which the most famous Nazis died for a lot of money and that got him in trouble with Pankrac prison authorities. He sold the noose on which Karl Frank died for 10 thousand Czech crowns. Nenahlo executed about 100 people during his two year term as an executioner. He never overcame his drinking problem and he literally drank himself to death in 1961 at the age of 47.

[Pete26]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... l.1958.gif


A prison photo of Karl Rames, the author of "Zaluji: Pankracka Kalvarie" books, after he was arrested in 1958 and sentenced to a ten year prison term by communists for his efforts to expose the communists in post war Czechoslovakia for what they really were. He was working on a book to expose the communist crimes and apparently frequently spoke against the regime.

After his release from prison, Karel Rames made a living selling ice cream on street corners, and died a forgotten man in 1981. Such a sad ending for an intelligent man who so hoped that the end of Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and Pankrac prison horrors associated with it would end one day. Little did he know that the regime which followed would not be much better. Karel Rames was serving a prison sentence in Pankrac prison starting in 1941 for violation of some farming rule. Karl Rames painstakingly concealed and saved hundreds of personal notes and last letters from condemned prisoners who were later beheaded in Pankrac prison, and his Zaluji books represent a truly remarkable account that has a unique place in history. The books contain photographs of over 700 beheaded victims, and also of those who were saved from certain death by Prague uprising.

[Pete26]

http://www.ctyrkazije.cz/wp-content/gal ... C03754.JPG



http://www.ctyrkazije.cz/wp-content/gal ... C03702.JPG



http://www.vscr.cz/client_data/1/photog ... g-3590.jpg



http://www.tyden.cz/obrazek/201311/5286 ... 383d4c.jpg

[Pete26]

Death cells in the cell block IIA in Pankrac prison where the condemned waited to be beheaded.

http://img.blesk.cz/img/1/full/574047_.jpg

[Pete26]

Do you know who is this hangman in Pankrác Prison ?
Thanks.

I was able to find the name of this executioner. His name is Tomáš Stejskal. He was paid 4000 Czech crowns for the execution of Alois Kriz, and the same amount for execution of Rudolf Novak, and Antonin j. Kozisek. It is interesting to note that according to the Retribution Decree, the condemned had to be executed within two hours after they were sentenced to death. They had a right to submit a request for clemency, which had to be done immediately after sentencing, but in all three cases the clemency was denied. Kriz was executed as the first of the three, at 1645 hours, followed by Kozisek and Novak.

[Pete26]

1933: 5 executions

1934: 4 executions

1937: 9 executions

1939: 39 executions

1940: 163 executions

1941: 221 executions

1942: 764 executions

1943: 876 executions

1944: 730 executions

1945: 51 executions

Total executions by the end of WWII: 3008, of those 2949 were by guillotine and 59 by hanging

Total executions (by hanging) after WWII in Landsberg prison: 156

Total executions: 3164

Total number of women executed: 250


http://suite101.de/article/massenhinric ... V2aDiq5bhc_

[history1]

[...] His name is Tomáš Stejskal. He was paid 4000 Czech crowns for the execution of Alois Kriz, and the same amount for execution of Rudolf Novak, and Antonin j. Kozisek. [...]

Hi Pete, it was easy to find out that Alois Kříž [= Cross] and Antonín Jaromil Kožíšek were both journalists but do you know the profession of Rudolf Novak? This name is so common that it´s impossible for me to get further infos online.

[David Thompson]

Let's get back to beheadings, which is the subject of this thread.

[Pete26]

[...] His name is Tomáš Stejskal. He was paid 4000 Czech crowns for the execution of Alois Kriz, and the same amount for execution of Rudolf Novak, and Antonin j. Kozisek. [...]

Hi Pete, it was easy to find out that Alois Kříž [= Cross] and Antonín Jaromil Kožíšek were both journalists but do you know the profession of Rudolf Novak? This name is so common that it´s impossible for me to get further infos online.

He was a journalist, like the others. The following 2012 thesis has detailed information on his life and actions for which he was sentenced to death. There are some interesting photos at the end of the dissertation.

http://is.muni.cz/th/85625/fss_m/Dufkov ... _Novak.pdf

After WWII, the following journalist collaborators were sentenced to death in Czechoslovakia: Rudolf Novák, Antonín Jaromil Kožíšek, Alois Kříž, Vladimír Krychtálek and Karel Werner; Jaroslav Křemen and Emanuel Vajtauer. Except for Křemen and Vajtauer, all were also executed.

[history1]

Thanks, Pete, much appreciated!