Beheadings in the Third Reich

[Paul53]

The time for this came end 1943:

"" As a result of the terror bombings and by the evacuation of the population and the relocation of victims to the rest of the available hospitals,the requests for body transportation piled up.Conditions were complicated by this in such way,that the local population is increasingly ignorant to the present situation-possibility of transporting corpses that are not yet buried,and a ban on the exhumation of already buried corpses.The population is especially ignorant of the fact that exhuming the body should be illegal, when, as it is now quite common,the report of the death of their family member is only received by the family when the convict is already buried.
And another important reason is this.:Transporting corpses by railway-or shipping traffic in solid, well closed wooden coffins instead of zinc coffins or zinc lined coffins worked out well enough sofar as these coffins were available.But regarding the inevitable saving on wood products,some rationalisation had to take place. As a result of this,the reduction of amount of wood that could be used for a coffin resulted in coffins that were no longer usuable to transport bodies in to further destinations, so that in regard to hygiene, undesirable situations had to be counted with, especially in the warmer months of the year.
All these grounds force me to impose a ban.""

[Paul53]

Ä reworked supplying table for the transportation of corpses to the various An.Inst.was planned to come into effect in the beginning of 1942,but could not be realized anymore by the rapidly deteriorating war situation.""A general shortage of corpses,needed for the educational purpose in Universities, could not be established.The majority of the Ana.Inst. however, could do with more corpses as they are now allocated.Therefore I regard it as necessary that a general rule is established, to which the corpses are to be divided between the Anatomical Institutes of the various Universities, so that a just allowance of corpses is secured to each University,and each of the Anatomical Institutes receive the amount that is needed so far is possible.

However, a general rule in relation of the allowance of corpses to the various Anatomical Institutions cannot be imposed yet,as it has no War Priority.What is more, the Various Universities are well equipped with bodies now, so that such a measure would be unneeded.

In case a shortage of corpses of executed would hinder some University,it would largely depend on that Universities lack of organisation skill regarding the transport of the corpses.This defect would then have to be solved by local measurements.Also, it is possible, that the agreements made by these Universities with the local execution sites, are not without flaws""

[Paul53]

This concludes this chapter.
I will continue with ""Single favourable oppertunities."" which is about the medical aspects of the use of the executed corpses, such as the research and the blood letting,discussed before.

[fredric]

This concludes this chapter.
I will continue with ""Single favourable oppertunities."" which is about the medical aspects of the use of the executed corpses, such as the research and the blood letting,discussed before.

Great work, Paul. Those of us non-German-speakers could never have done the fine translation you provide. I assume the book has no photographs in this section. I doubt the anatomical work was photo-documented but documentation exists in anatomical drawings and lab specimens. Germany probably still has many doctors who experienced this aspect of the NZ years first hand. Thanks.

[Paul53]

Certainly Fredric.One of the last of these KZ docters,Aribert Heim,was notorious for dissecting living patients wihout any sedation.
Next chapter deals among other things with the already discussed blood letting. I will do a WBW though,as it contains some new info and clarifies some of the questions that came up in previous discussions.

[Paul53]

By the way, it is a nice feeling to be recognized, but it is Waltenbacher who wrote the book and did all the research,and Piotr who gave the tip.The translator is but a minor player in this.

[Paul53]

If there is a Hell, we are living in it.

[Paul53]

Single favorable oppertunities.

""The Institute for Pathology of Jena University needs in order to clear some scientific questions,eyes freshly cut out from the heads of executed and made a request for an obducation participant, to remove the eyes,or to send over the entire head to the obduction expert of the Pathology department of Jena University,as soon as possible after decapitation""

Since the beginning of recorded human history,research on humans was carried out on the bodies of executed.In the earliest of time,this was motivated by curiousness,later, the research was increasingly motivated from scientific purposes, into the present day situation.The use of central execution sites proved itself invaluable for the biological/medical research that took place at german Universities.Caused by the new organisational structure in executing the Death sentence, and the large number of executions,numerous research possibilities emerged,that were untill that time difficult to realize,or not possible at all.

As an example,two medical/biological research studies are given,carried out in Poznan Anatomical Institute,for study of the pancreas, and the research in relation to the process of sight,carried out by Halle zoological Institute,in close collaboration with the Execution sites that were erected by the RJM.

[Piotr1]

By the way, it is a nice feeling to be recognized, but it is Waltenbacher who wrote the book and did all the research,and Piotr who gave the tip.The translator is but a minor player in this.

Paul, you are the last but not the least. Your translation is priceless for us. Thank you very much.
P.S Any informations(from the book) about executions in Katowice and/or Breslau?

[Paul53]

Yes,from page 133 onwards.

[Pete26]

In case the deceased was convicted for High Treason,or was sentenced for some other political crime ,the handing over to the family of the corpse needs the approval of the Gestapo.""

We know that the Scholls and Ch. Probst were executed for High treason and therefore this new rule would require that release of their bodies to their families be approved by the Gestapo. It is almost certain however, that their bodies were never released to the families - rather the families were merely allowed to attend their funeral, which was prearranged by the prison authorities, and the families were probably not even allowed to view the bodies. It would have been a great shock anyway to see the body of a loved one in a coffin in blood soaked clothes, with their severed blood smeared head between their legs. And if the bodies were not kept in a refrigerated space, then the decomposition would set in quickly. We know that the bodies were buried in the Perlach Woods cemetery, right next to the prison where they were beheaded. If the bodies had been released to the families, a different burial place may have been selected.

The Scholl and Probst's case is quite special. Their execution by beheading at Stadelheim on the same day they were sentenced was ordered by Himmler and Roland Freisler merely went through the court motions to pass the verdict of death. A different type of execution was also proposed for the Scholls and Probst. It was suggested by the local Munich authorities that a gallows be erected right in front of the University in Munich and all three be publicly hanged. It went so far that workers were hired and instructed to start building the gallows. However, the higher Nazi authorities wanted them to disappear quietly and quickly. And this is why they were beheaded in a prison behind walls, out of the sight of public, only hours after the verdict of death was passed.

Anybody has any more information on this?

[Pete26]

The simple coffin-like and completely rectangular cases were made of unplaned spruce, but were very well closed.The simple form enabled simple stacking for transport.
The slim cases, about 1.60 meters long and 40 centimeters wide,were much to small for an average human being,but beheaded required less space so that the coffins could be made 20 centimeters shorter than usual.For prevention of body fluids running out, the coffin was filled with a layer of 20 centimeters of absorbing material such as wood pulp,peat dust, wood dust,ground charcoal and the like.
After execution, the coffins were nailed up.The transports of bodies, increasing as the war dragged on, soon exceeded the transport capability of the available traffic ,and especially that of the German Reich's railway system.Therefore, there was a prohibition of transporting corpses of executed declared,which was widened to a general transport ban for all corpses.
This general transport ban was time and again ignored however,as authorities feared the reaction of the population as long as the Reich's Minister of Transport was not convinced of the absolute necessity of this ban.

Apparently the dimensions of the coffins were not standardized. From the Zaluji books description, the coffins delivered to the Pankratz prison execution site were also rectangular crates and made of rough cut (unplaned) pine boards, but they were about 2 meters long, not 1.6 meters as mentioned above. There is no mention of using sawdust or other absorbing material inside the coffins. In fact, it is mentioned several times that blood dripped from the coffns as the bodies were being removed from the execution site, and even when they were being delivered to the Strasnice Crematorium in Prague.

I am surprised that Nazis did not go even further to reduce the size of the coffins. Think about it. You take the executed body, place it again under the raised guillotine blade and chop off the legs. Now all you need is a 1 meter long coffin, and you can stack the other parts on top of the body. Sounds ghastly? Not after you chop someone's head off while they are alive in my opinion. And I would not be surprised if, during times of severe shortage of wood during the War, somebody would actually adopt such a suggestion into practice.

Recently there was a law suit here in the USA against a funeral home which cut off the legs from the corpse of a very tall man so he could be fitted in a standard size casket. So the concept is probably nothing new.

A note about restrictions on transporting the bodies by train, etc. This is obviously due to the fact that bodies were not embalmed and after a short time they began decomposing and and presented a health hazard. Here in the US, a body which is transported across state lines, must be embalmed prior to transport.

[Pete26]

The simple coffin-like and completely rectangular cases were made of unplaned spruce, but were very well closed.The simple form enabled simple stacking for transport.
The slim cases, about 1.60 meters long and 40 centimeters wide,were much to small for an average human being,but beheaded required less space so that the coffins could be made 20 centimeters shorter than usual.For prevention of body fluids running out, the coffin was filled with a layer of 20 centimeters of absorbing material such as wood pulp,peat dust, wood dust,ground charcoal and the like.
After execution, the coffins were nailed up.The transports of bodies, increasing as the war dragged on, soon exceeded the transport capability of the available traffic ,and especially that of the German Reich's railway system.Therefore, there was a prohibition of transporting corpses of executed declared,which was widened to a general transport ban for all corpses.
This general transport ban was time and again ignored however,as authorities feared the reaction of the population as long as the Reich's Minister of Transport was not convinced of the absolute necessity of this ban.

Apparently the dimensions of the coffins were not standardized. From the Zaluji books description, the coffins delivered to the Pankratz prison execution site were also rectangular crates and made of rough cut (unplaned) pine boards, but they were about 2 meters long, not 1.6 meters as mentioned above. There is no mention of using sawdust or other absorbing material inside the coffins. In fact, it is mentioned several times that blood dripped from the coffns as the bodies were being removed from the execution site, and even when they were being delivered to the Strasnice Crematorium in Prague.

I am surprised that Nazis did not go even further to reduce the size of the coffins. Think about it. You take the executed body, place it again under the raised guillotine blade and chop off the legs. Now all you need is a 1 meter long coffin, and you can stack the other parts on top of the body. Sounds ghastly? Not after you chop someone's head off while they are alive in my opinion. And I would not be surprised if, during times of severe shortage of wood during the War, somebody would actually adopt such a suggestion into practice. However, this would result in a dull blade quickly, so this would not be practical either.

Recently there was a law suit here in the USA against a funeral home which cut off the legs from the corpse of a very tall man so he could be fitted in a standard size casket. So the concept is probably nothing new.

A note about restrictions on transporting the bodies by train, etc. This is obviously due to the fact that bodies were not embalmed and after a short time they began decomposing and and presented a health hazard. Here in the US, a body which is transported across state lines, must be embalmed prior to transport.

[Paul53]

:roll: More practical still, to chop them up to mince meat ,which should fit a box the size of an orange crate.
The families were still allowed to claim the body, so the authoreties could not go too far,although I am sure they would have loved the thought.

[Paul53]

The Anatomical Institute Poznan.

Research on the composition of the human blood was always stimulated.For example by Prof. Robert Herrlinger, who was researching the blood in the human Pancreas arterie.He too, used the oppertunity to tap the pancreas arterie blood in the central execution site Poznan from a row of previously executed persons.In this process, the fate of the individual beheaded was also recorded,that is,their intestines did not cease to function with the lightninglike stroke of the blade but were subjected to deterioration of the function by gradual bleeding.

Herrlinger writes:""The research done in the last three decennia indicated, that the pancreas of the human race is very different from its counterpart in a large row of mammals, and is in some ways even different from the pancreas of the dog,up to now the most used experimental animal.The pancreas seems to be the organ,which shows within a given collection of mammals,the greatest morphological differences,as is shown by research carried out on monkeys and cows,cats and swine,dogs, humans,porcupines and rats.Here we should only consider the questions regarding the open or closed circulation of the blood.Regarding the function, it would seem that there are even greater differences,or even oppositions to be existant .Therefore, in relation to the pancreas it is even less allowed than in other research, to draw conclusions from animal research in relation to humans.We have to experiment on humans.The research was done on 8 male bodies,that were available to us after 40-80 seconds after death, for blood letting and Laparotomie(opening of the abdomal area,Waltenbacher)""