Beheadings in the Third Reich

[Pete26]

"Plotzensee executioner in August 1942 was Ernst Reindel, who received an annual salary of 3000 Reichsmarks and a special bonus of 60 - 65 Marks for each execution. This bonus was also paid to his three helpers. He was a stocky man who wore an absurd black costume for his work: top hat, tails, no shirt, dark trousers, and a mask.
When it was Sala Kochmann's turn on the guillotine, she was wheeled in her hospital bed from "the house of the dead" to the execution chamber. Because of her spinal injuries she could not move, she also had plaster casts on her neck and other areas of the body. After wheeling the bed as close to the machine as possible, the executioner and his three assistants lifted Sala from her bed and carried her to the board of the guillotine. Since moving even slightly caused Sala much pain, the process of being lifted and carried must have been excrutiating. She was a heavy set woman, which made it even more difficult to carry her. While being carried, Sala would have been able to see the guillotine and the gallows behind it. Given her injuries, she likely cried out in pain as the executioner and his three assistants dropped her on the board - probably face up - and then adjusted the top of the lunette firmly around her neck. One can only imagine the effect her screams had on her comrades waiting their turn on the fallbeil. The emotional impact of the sound of the heavy blade landing with a thud, followed by absolute silence, and then a second, much lighter thud, is unimaginable."

Source: Berlin Ghetto by Eric Brothers

Notes:

Sala Kochmann was a member of the Baum resistance group. She was guillotined on 18 August 1942 at the age of 30. Several other Baum group members were also guillotined that same day.

The "second, much lighter thud" following the heavy thud of the blade is most likely the sound of the head falling into the metal basket of the guillotine.

Beheading a severely wounded woman unable to move is not surprising. Marianne Golz, who took poison just prior to her scheduled execution, was beheaded while deeply unconscious, in Pankrac prison.

Some of the statements in the above article are questionable. For example, the executioner "not wearing any shirt" and wearing a mask. Also, the executed prisoners were brought to the execution shed at Plotzensee one at a time from the Death House which was some distance away. Therefore, those still locked in their cells would not be able to hear the screams of those being guillotined, and most likely not even the noise the falling blade made when it crashed down. This was not the case in Pankrac prison, where the preparation cells were in close proximity to the execution room in the same building.

Sala Kochmann

Born on June 7, 1912 in Rzeszow, Poland, Kochmann studied to become a kindergarten teacher and worked at the nursery school in Jerusalemer Strasse, Gipsstrasse. In 1938 she married Martin Kochmann. She was one of the first members of the group and active within it, participating in the attempt to set fire to the exhibit. Arrested on May 23, 1942, she tried to evade torture by jumping from the window of the police station and was critically injured. While she was in the Jewish hospital on Iranische Strasse, she conveyed information and warnings to the group members who had not yet been arrested via Charlotte Päch, a group member who was a nurse in the hospital. Taken to her trial on a stretcher, she was sentenced to death on July 16, 1942 and executed on August 18, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee Prison.

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bau ... wish-women



http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fMFsKqfc5to/U ... asseur.jpg

Sala Kochmann is standing in the middle of the boat


http://en.tracesofwar.com/upload/2936091204190432.JPG

A memorial plaque for Martin and Sala Kochmann.

[Pete26]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DYjH3nkCfNA/U ... rnbaum.jpg

Heinz Birnbaum was guillotined in Berlin Plotzensee prison on 4 March 1943. His execution is described in some detail in Berlin Ghetto by Eric Brothers:

Heinz Birnbaum awoke in Plotzensee prison, in cell 46 on morning of 4 March 1943. His knew that his life would end that evening. He had applied for a pardon but there was little chance. At 1:00 PM footsteps approached his cell, and the door was open to reveal the prison administration inspector Rohde, who was impeccably dressed in red, and Plotzensee prison doctor, Dr Schmidt who wore a crisp white gown. Inspector Rohde told him that his appeal for a pardon, according to the decree of the Reich Minister of Justice, has been rejected. He also told Heinz that the sentence would be "enforced" at 6:00 PM. According to the two men, Birnbaum was "calm and collected" when told of his imminent death.

A few hours before his scheduled execution, Heinz was taken to a cell in Haus III. Once inside the cell, he was shackled and placed under armed guard. From there is was a short walk to the execution chamber. At precisely 6:30PM, Judge Dr Beselin, the prison enforcement director, dressed in red, and Karpe, the Court Clerk, dressed in green, were standing in front of his cell. The guard then removed the shckles from Birnbaum's wrists and ankles and Heinz rubbed the back of his neck. The night before an old shoemaker had carefully shaved his hair short to expose the skin. Firmly pulling Heinz's hands behind his back, the guard tied them together with a length of rope. The condemned did not resist. A police sargeant escorted Heinz from the cell to the guillotine; each time he ushered a prisoner from the "house of the dead" to the execution chamber, he received a payment of eight cigarettes.

At 6:32 PM Birnbaum stood facing the execution chamber. Heinz looked straight ahead as his identity was "demonstrated" by Beselin. Karpe started a stopwatch and stared as the seconds ticked away. The executioner Rottger, bare chested and wearing a top hat, tails, dark trousers and a mask, was accompanied by his three assistants, the brothers Thomas and Richard Arnold and a man named Hehnen, all dressed in black. A pastor wearing a black robe was standing nearby. There was no rabbi. Rottger received his command from Dr Beselin: "Executioner exercise your office!" The pastor muttered a short prayer as the executioner slithered up to Heinz, leading him by the arm to the fallbeil. Heinz allowed himself to be placed on the guillotine without any struggle. Standing on the left side of the machine, the executioner pulled the lever. The heavy blade fell and Rottger declared: "Mr Prosecutor, the ruling is enforced." The clerk then clicked the stopwatch and wrote a number on a small notepad.

A document signed by Beselin and Karpe reads: "The execution from the demonstration until its completion took 18 seconds". That day also saw the deaths of Hella Hirsch (Heymann), Marianne Joachim, Hildegard Loewy, Hanni Meyer, Helmuth Neumann, Heinz Rotholz, Siegbert Rotholz, and Lothar Salinger.

Comments:

Some of the events described in this execution are questionable. For example, it is highly unlikely that the state prosecutor Baselin and the court clerk would personally come to the cell door and witness escorting each prisoner to the execution chamber, especially in multiple guillotine executions that happened on 4 March 1943. Rather, the state prosecutor and the court clerk would be sitting behind a table in the execution room anteroom. Two guards (not one as described in the article) would then escort the prisoner to the execution chamber. This is the case in several other execution accounts I have read. I also question binding the hands with a rope after removing the handcuffs. It makes more sense to simply handcuff the hands behind the prisoner's back. This was certainly done in Pankrac prison. Rope would be more time consuming to remove after the execution and everything had to be done quickly. And rope must be tied very securely to ensure the prisoner will not be able to free his hands while being escorted.

Again the executioner is described as "bare chested", i.e not wearing any shirt and wearing a mask. Is there any proof that this was the case? The article states that the executioner approached Heinz and led him to the fallbeil." This step was almost certainly performed by two executioner's assistants, one of whom probably cover the eyes of the condemned so he would not see the guillotine. The executioner would be standing by the release lever while the condemned was being led to the guillotine.
The article also states that the condemned was standing in front of the execution chamber when his identity was being verified. This is certainly not the case. The Plotzensee execution chamber was divided in two halves with a black curtain. The condemned was brought into the anteroom of the execution chamber and there his identity was verified, not outside the execution room.

The article also fails to mention opening and closing of the black curtain. The curtain was typically opened by the executioner himself after the state prosecutor handed the condemned over. Then two of his assistants hiding behind the curtain would seize the condemned and lead him to the guillotine, one assistant covering the eyes of the condemned during the short walk. It took only a few step to reach the guillotine bench as the black curtain was almost directly behind the guillotine bench. The black curtain was closed by the executioner after the blade fell and he reported to the state representative that the verdict has been enforced. Removal of the body and head from the guillotine, and cleaning the guillotine and the floor, and raising the blade took place behind a closed black curtain. In the meantime, another prisoner was being escorted from the cell in House III to the execution shed. Everything was timed for maximum efficiency.


Marianne Joachim

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R2veQkuD7hI/U ... anne+P.jpg


Lothar Salinger

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8WIcrUdTOis/U ... linger.jpg


Hella Hirsch

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7vCzRE-tGaI/U ... hirsch.jpg


Siegbert Rotholz

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rXEKYKiQYpA/U ... 11303c.jpg

[Pete26]

It seems nearly impossible to find a movie, a book, or even an article that accurately depicts or describes a beheading done per approved execution protocol in Nazi Germany. People embellish and invent things.

There are hollow mercury filled axes and guillotine blades for maximum weight and effect.

Guillotine blades are matched to the size of the condemned being guillotined and changed out as required to "ensure maximum efficiency".

Severed heads are removed from the guillotine metal basket with a poker and presented to the execution committee as the proof that a successful execution has taken place.

Condemned are strapped to the Tegel guillotine bench which never had any straps or provisions for any straps.

Condemned are strapped to a removable guillotine bench on wheels which is then pushed over to the Tegel type guillotine vertical frame.

The executioner pushes a button to release the blade on a Mannhardt guillotine.

The executioner alone drags or escorts the condemned to the guillotine.

The executioner is winching up the sledge while the condemned is being led to the guillotine.

The condemned is strapped to the bascule on a Tegel type guillotine, which never had a bascule.

The guillotine makes a whirring noise, suggesting a running electric motor.

Axe execution blocks are unfinished tree stumps without a cutout for chin

Axes that do not carry any resemblance to a modern German Richtbeil are used to depict one of the last axe beheadings in Germany

A shower head is mounted on top of the guillotine to clean the blood after each execution.

A wagon with wheels is used to remove the bodies from the guillotine.

All these ridiculous assertions presented as facts and copied word for word in numerous articles make it rather difficult for a researcher to come up with a credible execution sequence as it actually took place.

[fredric]

A few other absurd assertions:

Victims were laid face-up to the blade so the would see the blade fall. Maybe done a few times, literally backing a struggling victim to the board so he would not see the machine but that was not the standard practice. Execution protocol was strict although scharfrichters did develop some individual techniques. Still, the execution was supervised by the RMJ and prison officials so major deviations were not permitted.

The scharfrichter rarely laid hands on the victim. That was the assistants' job.

Struggling, screaming victims got a towel in their mouth. Doubt that is true.

The victim's had their eyelids glued open so they would see the fallbeil...really, I found this is in a book!

Hair was cut off and the victim were told it would be sold for wigs.

Victims were routinely drained of blood prior to beheading. This is an assertion from a book about Brandenburg and it states this was the practice
at Plotzensee too. There is no proof this was done but blood was collected by a Dr Bimler as an experiment to see if it worked for transfusions. it did.

Victim were often secured to the board by a flexible metal rod.

Victims wore a black rubber mask over their eyes.

The executioner did not wear a shirt but did wear a tux, top hat and white gloves. Nonesense. No such report ever. The formal attire was begun by
Krautz and the RMJ saw it as a way to maintain the dignity of the executionary ritual. As the war progressed and the number of beheadings skyrocketed, some executioners seem to have adopted more casual dress...Rottger for one....but this met with criticism. Reichhart maintained
a formal, arrogant demeanor during his work.

The "mercury-filled" axe and schlitten legs is a rumor that persists. Just crazy.

Executioners liked to crack morbid jokes. Not all did as is sometimes implied. However Rottger was reported to have often done this. If anything, the reports I have read imply the executioner focused on speed, just getting the job done. Seems doubtful he would have taken time to crack jokes...even for the July 20 bunch.

Of course we have no visual record, either still or cine, of a fallbeil execution. Descriptions of beheadings seem to be just "boiler plate" reports. My guess is that guillotinings were either horribly shocking (screaming, fighting, tears, loss of bowel/urine contol (see description of the axe execution of Renate Von Ratzmer for example), and very bloody or a rather quiet, fast operation. We do have reports that guards who "volunteered" for fallbeil duty sometimes could not stand to see the horrible, bloody operation and vomited. I think most witnesses either decided themselves not to give details or were told never to do so. Still I am willing to bet photos and films were taken.

[Pete26]

27 victims of Fritz Haarmann. The youngest was only 11 years old. He was suspected of having killed twice as many. Finally he was convicted of 24 murders, sentenced to death and guillotined in 1925.


Friedel Rothe 17
Fritz Franke 16
Wilhelm Schulze 17
Roland Huch 15
Hans Sonnenfeld 18
Ernst Ehrenberg 13
Heinrich Strauss 18
Paul Bronischewski 17
Richard Graf 17
Wilhelm Erdner 16
Hermann Wolf 16
Heinz Brinkmann 13
Adolf Hannappel 15
Adolf Hennies 19
Ernst Speiker 17
Heinrich Koch 18
Willi Senger 19
Hermann Speichert 15
Alfred Hogrefe 16
Hermann Bock 22
Wilhelm Apel 15
Robert Witzel 18
Heinz Martin 14
Fritz Wittig 17
Friedrich Abeling 11
Heinrich Koch 16
Erich de Vries 17

Fritz Haarrmann killed these boys by biting into their throats, ripping out their jugular vein and carotid artery. Hence his nickname "Vampire of Hannover". If they did not die right away, he would beat them to death. He cut up their bodies in his butcher shop and sold the meat on the market to unsuspecting citizens.

To get rid of some of the bodies, Haarmann would grind up the flesh and would sell it as meat or sausages. There was also another man in on the murders, his name was Charles, who worked with Haarmann as a butcher. He would help grinding the meat and cutting up the bodies. It was said an unaware coworker helped make the human sausages, cooked it, and him and Haarmann both ate the sausages.

While in court, Haarmann said he wasn’t insane, but told the jury when he would commit these murders he would be in a trance and wouldn’t know what he was doing. The court didn’t believe him because his confessions were very descriptive and was well aware what was happening. He was then accused of 24 murders, but some think that he killed about 50 boys. Haarmann himself said he killed around “30 to 40″ boys. He was judged as sane and was executed, beheaded on April 15, 1925. His final death wishes were that his grave read, “Here lies Mass-Murderer Haarman,” and requested Grans to lay a wreath on his grave every year on his birthday.

http://www.bloodylexicon.com/people/fri ... 1879-1925/

[rafalx]

...

Of course we have no visual record, either still or cine, of a fallbeil execution. Descriptions of beheadings seem to be just "boiler plate" reports. My guess is that guillotinings were either horribly shocking (screaming, fighting, tears, loss of bowel/urine contol (see description of the axe execution of Renate Von Ratzmer for example), and very bloody or a rather quiet, fast operation. We do have reports that guards who "volunteered" for fallbeil duty sometimes could not stand to see the horrible, bloody operation and vomited. I think most witnesses either decided themselves not to give details or were told never to do so. Still I am willing to bet photos and films were taken.

Where is it?

[fredric]

Time Magazine reported on the execution of Von Natzmer. It can be accessed in Time's archives and it describes her just before being beheaded. It is
a rather sensational, probably more fiction than fact and not very good. The article was based on comments from witnesses. Reporters were no longer permitted among the witnesses so they had to watch the "comings and goings" outside Plotzensee. The exectuions were extensively reported however, world-wide, and the Nazi leadership was condemned for its barbarity. I have read several articles about this "last axe execution" (which it is not) in Germany.

Although not on the topic, if you are looking for descriptions of guillotine victims' reactions, you will find comments concerning reactions of victims by Fernand Meyssonnier in his biography "Paroles de Bourreau" (not about Nazi Germany of course).

[Pete26]

Interrogation of Alois Weiss's assistants Antonin Nerad and Robert Tyfa after the WWII gave us some insight into behavior of people about to be beheaded in Pankrac prison. According to that testimony most went to their deaths proudly and quietly, some sang patriotic songs or spoke patriotic slogans. There were exceptions of course. Some cried and begged for mercy, there is even mention of some cases like that by Karl Rames in the Zaluji books. Also, Stanislav Motl in his book "Svedek z Cely Smrti quotes Borivoj Bartonicek, who was waiting to be beheaded in a death cell in Brandenburg-Gorden prison for 5 months and who later received a commutation of his death sentence so he lived to tell the tale. His cell was in the same Death House where the guillotine was located. He claimed that when the executions were taking place, he could hear screams and noises associated with desperate struggle some victims put up before being beheaded.
Johann Reichhart himself had to help restrain convicted murderer Erna Hasselbach who struggled desperately when being guillotined in Munich Stadelheim prison. Another convicted murderer, Caroline (Martha) Marek who feigned a paralysis just prior to her execution, and who was taken to the guillotine in a wheelchair, struggled hard and managed to land a heavy kick on her executioner. Scholl siblings went to their deaths proudly, witnesses described Sophie as "not batting an eyelash".

[Pete26]

A few other absurd assertions:


Victim were often secured to the board by a flexible metal rod.

In one article I read about Plotzensee execution, there is a mention of a rigid metal rod placed on the back of the victim about to be guillotined. The rod was then held firmly by several assistants until the execution was done. The purpose of the rod was to supposedly prevent the body from arching abruptly as a result of decapitation. I am of the opinion that this is a mere fabrication. Two or three executioner's assistants held the victim in place until the execution was completed, which was typically only a few seconds.

[rafalx]

Time Magazine reported on the execution of Von Natzmer. It can be accessed in Time's archives and it describes her just before being beheaded. It is
a rather sensational, probably more fiction than fact and not very good. The article was based on comments from witnesses. Reporters were no longer permitted among the witnesses so they had to watch the "comings and goings" outside Plotzensee. The exectuions were extensively reported however, world-wide, and the Nazi leadership was condemned for its barbarity. I have read several articles about this "last axe execution" (which it is not) in Germany.

Although not on the topic, if you are looking for descriptions of guillotine victims' reactions, you will find comments concerning reactions of victims by Fernand Meyssonnier in his biography "Paroles de Bourreau" (not about Nazi Germany of course).

Thanks. I thought that there is another source
I have got one Time Magazin article, 25.02.1935

Fragment:

To find out anything whatever at Plotzensee Prison, even when correspondents arrived armed with official passes, proved almost impossible. Not until the enormous prison hearse drew up and two bodies were slid in, would anyone reconstruct what had been done in the cold, misty dawn.

"They were shot," said officials at first, then "They were beheaded." Accustomed to such bare-faced lies, the newshawks patiently pecked for details, finally satisfied themselves that an axing had occurred. With the backs of their heads shaved bald, the Baroness von Berg and Frau von Natzmer were led in coarse, nondescript prison garb to the blood-caked block from which so many heads now roll in the sawdust. The headsman, incongruous in his yellowish celluloid shirtfront, his old silk hat and his red-spotted tailcoat, raised the gleaming ax. Twice it swished down to sever a lovely neck and send the blood of a German woman spouting high. According to Nazis, the Baroness von Berg was the first female aristocrat to lose her head to their New Justice.

[fredric]

...

Of course we have no visual record, either still or cine, of a fallbeil execution. Descriptions of beheadings seem to be just "boiler plate" reports. My guess is that guillotinings were either horribly shocking (screaming, fighting, tears, loss of bowel/urine contol (see description of the axe execution of Renate Von Ratzmer for example), and very bloody or a rather quiet, fast operation. We do have reports that guards who "volunteered" for fallbeil duty sometimes could not stand to see the horrible, bloody operation and vomited. I think most witnesses either decided themselves not to give details or were told never to do so. Still I am willing to bet photos and films were taken.

Where is it?

Check out "Love, Espionage and the Axe" on the web. This description is lifted from
an article I think was in Time Magazine.

[Pete26]

http://watchingrobertpickton88015.yuku. ... WWmtK5bhc8

[rafalx]

Check out "Love, Espionage and the Axe" on the web. This description is lifted from
an article I think was in Time Magazine.

I know it. There are some errors in the article.
I have a photo of Paul Jorns (right) and some information about him:
http://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichsk ... a2_48.html

[Pete26]

http://www.oocities.org/drlouis2001/falkenhayn.htm

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

The cylinder is strangely out of place three feet behind him in the yard, as he now appears before the woman and takes the axe in both hands. He raises it just a little above head height.

According to this article the executioner raised the axe just above his head . It was a heavy axe so that a hard overhead swing was not required.

[rafalx]

The article is based on the court file. Description "Sosnowski affair" without errors.
In my opinion very interesting is fragment: berichtete später Benitas Verteidiger (later reported Benita's defender).
I didn't know that there is something like raport/memories of Dr. Wolfgang Zarnack