Beheadings in the Third Reich
I have again some additional information. A few years ago I taped a documentary on Dutch tv about the fact that during the nazirule in Austria.the heads and corpses of the people that were guillotined in Vienna were used as studymaterial for medical students and that some of it is still in use.There was also a shot of the executionroom in I believe the basement of the palace of justice and the Guillotine which is still present there.This room is a memorial now.A most intriguing fact was that this Guillotine was constructed of wood.instead of steel.indicating that it could have been one of the Guillotines that were introduced immediately after Napoleons occupation of parts of Germany.As to the fact that the Nazi slet the families of the codemned pay for the executions>I recall having read somewhere that this habit existed already before the Nazi s came into power.Could you believe it.... Paul53
The last bit of information for today.... in 2000 I visited Stadelheim prison in Munich.The shed that the executions took place in was demolished in the late 60s.In the conversation that I had with one of the correctional officers it was confirmed that prior to the advance of the US army.the Guillotine was diposed of in a branch of the Danube river Two years ago i visited St. Pankraz prison in Prague. The executionroom there is still intact and exactly as the photo in the book on ReichardtGreetings from Paul53
One very last bit of information.....I once had a conversation with one of the guards of the Plotzensee memorial in BERLIN.He told me that for a while it was customary to use the blood of the executed persons for Transfusion....A few days before the execution some blood was taken from the condemned to establish the bloodgroup. When the execution took place,the prison docter already waited with correspondently marked bottles. This same procedure was followed in Brandenburg Gorden prison.and no doubt in other prisons as well Paul53
What i know of some of the executioners during nazirule follows here.... Ernst Reindel lived in the region Magdeburg and his official occupation was printer.Friedrich Hehr lived in Hannover,a former day labourer and an alcoholic.He once performed an execution on an individual called Josef Bender,who was sentenced to death for looting/he stole a suit from a burning buildingduring a bombardement.Bender was already under the Guillotine when the blade didnt drop...Hehr had to finish the job by using his hand ax.Executioner Kleine was himself executed in Leipzig in 1946 I believe that executioners Ulitzke and Roselieb were shot by the Russians.I have not yet information about the rest of them.As I have stated before the construction of the Guillotine that I was requested to make two years ago follows as exactly as possible the overall construction of the originals which demanded a lot of research and effort.The documentary for which it was intended is not yet made,but a very similar Guillotine is used in the execution that can be seen in the film Sophie Scholl that was released some two years ago.The whole thing weighs about 300 kilos,the blade itself and the slide that it is attatched to about 70 kilos The constrution is entirely of steel with the exception of the bench,exacly as original.Next week I will Try to put some photos on this site.As far as we know it is the only Guillotine in the Netherlands and one of the very few in private posession in EuropeBy the way,during the German occupation of Holland,death sentences here were carried out by shooting or hanging in Herzogenbusch concentration camp.The Guillotine was not used here.althoug some 200 Dutch in Germany are belived to be executed thereThis figure is hihgly uncertain however and open to debatePaul53
Hi Fredric..The complete title of the book you asked about is...Geschichte der Henker...Scharfrichterschicksale aus acht Jahrhunderten....Written by Tankred Koch.publshed 1988 by Kriminalistik Verlag Heidelberg, ISBN 3 88199 882 9 The vast majority of information about this subject is in German,as is this book.Also. some information that I wrote is from the book of Mortimer that I already purchased 27 years ago.Newspaperarticles as well,I collect everything that I can find about this subject for the last 27 years.As for the film.very little is known about the fate of Dutch prisoners in German prisons during the war. It is known however that there were a number of executions'...one of them was hanged during the notorios executionrally in september 43....so it was felt that a documentary on this subject would be interesting. The information on this topic is extremely difficult to find as most of the German records were either intentionally destroyed or otherwise lost in the war. Budget was till now inadequate so this documentary has yet to be made. However,having made this Guilloyine and considering the unwelcome fact that support for reintroducing the death penalty is growing here, especially among young people,we may give some fake demonstrations with the thing to show people what it was really about to be beheaded.The machine is stored with a friend of mine who owns a company ...ANTA BV.. that rents out uniforms and weapons for the film industry and to re enactment groups.This week I will try to put some photos of the thing on this site.Best wishes paul53
Fredric I forgot something....two or three years ago a film about Die Weisze Rose was released, dealing with interrogation and subsequent execution of Sophie Scholl. Title SOPHIE SCHOLL It is on dvd, I rented it from the video shop.Surely it is obtainable in Usa too.The Fallbeil used is almost exactly like ours,furthermore the procedure of execution is absolute realistic Paul53
No doubt that members of nazi organisations were also executed,wehrmacht soldiers were.I know of at least one incident.In1940 the guillotine in Danzig prison was taken in use by the beheading of three german soldiers who had had sex with Jewish girls during one of the death transports.I have by the way a correction to make..Scharfrichter Kleine was executed in Halle,not Leipzig in 1946 Paul53
I can't say for sure but I think that the cases you mentioned were handled by the special courts for police & SS personnel. At least during the late stages of war, executions of SS personnel were carried out usually by other SS men such as the case of Karl Koch. Sometimes these were carried out in a concentration camp were some of the SS sentenced were posted, usually into the cell block.wolfguy wrote:Does anyone know if any of these 11 scharfrichters executed members of the SS, SD, Polizei, during the war for crimes such as treason, desertion, defeatism, cowardice, espionage, race defilement, etc.?
Wolfman
As servants of the state rather than the party, the cases dealing with policemen at home might have ended up more regular way and thus scharfrichters may well have executed them like other sentenced.
Some more details about the Guillotine in Danzig prison...a little party was made, speeches were held, the machine was blessed by a German priest,champagne was offered, one of the invited was the dr. Rudolf Spanner, who invented the so called RJF soap, made of human fat.This person was an anatomy professor at Danzig university.In the backyard of the anatomical institute he had a small factory build in 1943 to process human fat into soap.{ see the corresponding site} As a conclusion oTf this little party that I mentioned, the three German soldiers that I already spoke of in an earlier chapter, were beheaded.Spanner got his supply at first from those executed in Danzig prison, That number however soon fell short of his demands.He then turned to an lunatic asylum in the Danzig area, but that too was soon stripped from its inmates. In order to continue his so called tribute to the war effort, he then contacted the Stutthoff concentration camp,15 miles up east of Danzig which was able and willing to supply him with more corpses than he could process. Spanners soap factory was repeatedly visited by for instance the Gauleiter,Arthur Greiser, prof Rielke"{anatomy institute Berlin, gauleiter Erich Koch {Ukraine{[ and many others. Spanner fled to Halle a.d.Saale when the German front collapsed 1944/45.His faith is unknown to me, I hoped to find something on the internet.Nobody seems to know.Paul53
Question for all Scharfrichter experts.
According to the Plotzensee Prison Memorial Center in Berlin, about 90 men where hanged in Plotzensee in connection with the July 20th plot.
Can anyone confirm that Scharfrichter Friedrich Wilhelm Rottger was the executioner for all 90 of these men?
The reason I ask is because apparently during the night of Sept. 7/8, 1943 or somewhere around there, over 100 were hanged in a single night in Plotzensee but the Scharfrichter was Reindel not Rottger. So did Rottger handle all the July 20th hangings by himself or did Reindel do some of them also?
wolfman
According to the Plotzensee Prison Memorial Center in Berlin, about 90 men where hanged in Plotzensee in connection with the July 20th plot.
Can anyone confirm that Scharfrichter Friedrich Wilhelm Rottger was the executioner for all 90 of these men?
The reason I ask is because apparently during the night of Sept. 7/8, 1943 or somewhere around there, over 100 were hanged in a single night in Plotzensee but the Scharfrichter was Reindel not Rottger. So did Rottger handle all the July 20th hangings by himself or did Reindel do some of them also?
wolfman
Hi Wolfguy I checked it out for you. In the night of 7 to 8 september 43 it was executioner Rottger who hanged the condemned. thereby earning 5500 Reichsmark in one night. Information is from....Der Tod von Plotzensee by von Gostomsky and Loch.To my knowledge it was Ernst Reindel who hanged the July 20 condemned.Paul53
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David Thompson
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