Beheadings in the Third Reich

[Hans1906]

In the "tradition", before there was "Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este", this sicko shot tenthousands of animals just for fun.
Not for the hunt, no, he killed for his very own fun.

Finally, he was shot by Gavrilo Princip with just two shots, a fair end for an eternal animal killer, no idea ?
(The docu is strange, the man was really very sick!)

Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Fer ... reich-Este

The docu is online, I do not recommend this, a sick person, more than sick stuff...


Hans

[fredric]

Yes, killing inferior peoples is a goal of the "master race"... as it has been
for centuries. I am of German ancestry.
An example: Hunters formed in a huge circle and shot anything they saw. This was a joyful experience ending in a feast.
But this also happened in Britain, etc.
On one hunt, an ancestor of mine said that another hunter was killed.
My ancestor never hunted again..The family left Germany before WW!.
Mass murder, legalized by politics, was soon to be the rule.

[Pete26]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFg_nSa0CJc

[David Thompson]

Let's stay on the topic -- Beheadings in the Third Reich -- in this discussion and not wander off into the bushes.

[fredric]

Sorry if I went off topic. I responded to good prior submissions.
I agree. Stay on topic.
Hope to have more pertinent info.
Best to all.
Fredric

[Pete26]

Execution Notice of 4 resistance fighters.jpeg

All four were guillotined in Stuttgart on 1 June 1943.


https://www.gedenkorte-europa.eu/de_de/colmar.html

On 1 June 1943, a red 'notice' was affixed to the walls of Colmar and neighbouring towns. It announced the execution of the four Resistance fighters René Birr, 20 years old, Auguste Sontag, 27 years old, Eugène Boeglin, 36 years old, and Adolphe Murbach (from Colmar), 40 years old. As members of the resistance network of the Wodli group, they had distributed leaflets against the German occupation of Alsace, collected money for those arrested and organized escapes across the border. They had been arrested by the Gestapo at the end of May 1942 for railway sabotage, distribution of forbidden writings, escape assistance and spreading "communist ideas" and interrogated and tortured in the "security camp" Schirmeck. At the beginning of May, four other resistance fighters had already been arrested on the same grounds: the railway workers René Kern, 31 years old, Alphonse Kuntz, 32 years old, Édouard Schwartz, 42 years old, and the crane operator Marcel Stoessel 38 years old.


All eight Resistances were sentenced to death on 23 January and 19 March 1943 in Strasbourg by the German "People's Court" under its President Roland Freisler – for "preparation for high treason and treasonous favoring of the enemy." The 20-year-old René Birr is said to have said to Freisler: "We will die for a noble cause, but in a year you will pay for your crimes." The eight resistance fighters were beheaded in Stuttgart prison on 1 June and 29 June 1943 respectively. The corpses were left to the anatomy of Heidelberg University "for research purposes" and then cremated. Only the Stoessel family received the urn, as he was, according to witnesses, not a communist. Seven urns were placed anonymously in a collective grave. In 1950 they were buried honorably in the Memorial to the Victims of National Socialism in the Heidelberg Mountain Cemetery.

[Hans1906]

Pete26,

at least, to make the "poster" a little more reconisable, I will add this copy:



Hans

[Pete26]

Execution Notice of two Poles.jpg

These two Polish men from the city of Lodz were executed for illegal slaughter of cows and pigs. It is not clear what the mode of execution was, but most likely beheading by guillotine, either in Katowice or Poznan. Lodz is about 100 miles north of Katowice, so it is most likely that Katowice was the execution site in this case. Note that Germans renamed the city of Lodz as "Litzmannstadt".

[fredric]

As always, fine research Pete26.
I cannot to this day know why no still photos or cine
have been found for fallbeil executions. Of course we all know
photography was forbidden (has anyone seen the sign across from the
fallbeil in Kiev? In German it says "execution site. Photography is forbidden"
But someone, perhaps a member of the execution team, may have taken photos.
So many deaths under the blade. Someone, sometime must have felt documentation
must be done.

[enrico985]

Hello, I would like to make some considerations on Johann Dachs' book Tod durch das Fallbeil, a biography of the prolific Bavarian executioner Johann Reichhart. There are in fact some information in the book that leave me perplexed. To get an idea of what Dachs claims you can read the article (https://www.focus.de/politik/deutschlan ... 70973.html) which briefly summarizes what the author says.
First of all on p. 64 appears in detail the story of the murderer Erna Hasselbeck, guillotined on 10 July 1932 in the Munich-Stadelheim prison, who was therefore the first woman to be beheaded by Reichhart. I regret, however, to say that nowhere else have I found news of this Erna Hasselbeck. On Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von ... n_Personen), the only woman beheaded during the Weimar Republic appears to have been Anna Schellhardt, who was executed in Gera on 24 April 1925 together with her son Otto Seifert. Even Richard Evans, in his Rituals of Retribution, does not mention Hasselbeck at all; on p.646 he says that "The first woman to be executed since the Kaiser's time was Emma Thieme, who went to the block on 26 August 1933, followed by Christina Liess on 12 September, and a third communist woman on 7 November ". It seems strange that this execution (if it really took place) left no trace. Let us think, for example, of the notoriety of the cases of Grete Beier (1908) and Martha Marek (1938). Furthermore, in 1932 there were very few executions in Germany (only 3, see https://www.google.it/books/edition/Ret ... +1932+++52 +++ 3 +++ 5.8 & pg = PA125 & printsec = frontcover) and this should have made this story even more famous.
But that's not all: in the book Beiträge zur altbayerischen Kirchengeschichte (p. 164) it is said that in the Stadelheim prison during the Weimar republic there were 9 executions (1 shooting in 1921, 3 shootings in 1922, 1 shooting in 1923, 2 shootings in 1924, 1 beheading in 1925 and 1 beheading in 1927); there were no executions in the years 1926, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932! (see Google books, keywords: Erschießungen, Enthauptung 1932)
Second point: Reichhart's alleged post-war involvement in the preparations for the executions of the Nazi hierarchs in Nuremberg (p. 120). This was openly denied by Colin Pateman in Beheaded by Hitler ("He [Reichhart] was not involved in any way with the executions at Nurenberg").
Third and final point. In the book it is said that after the war Reichhart would have hanged 156 Nazi criminals (this figure is repeated on many sites). In reality there were far fewer; according to Pateman there were only 21! ("Records indicate that he hanged twenty-one condemned men at Landsberg prison"). Furthermore, a more serious problem, on p. 119 Dachs claims that Reichhart hanged O. Pohl and O. Ohlendorf, but they were executed in Landsberg on 7 June 1951, when clearly Reichhart had been no longer an executioner for some years!
So I ask you kindly: is such a book really to be considered a reliable historical source?

[grootend]

There is a film (on YouTube) where Reichart actualy is hanging nazi warcriminals. There were, on the spot, two gallows. One operated by the US-hangman, the other by Reichardt. Reichardt and his helpers are dressed in black and also removing the boddies in coffins. The spot is Landsberg.

[fredric]

What you have found are the only film documentation of Reichardt I have ever seen.
Perhaps somewhere there are more.
The two assistants are said to be Reichardt's sons. They wore dark suits;Reichardt is wearing his black, execution suit. He is
impassive (no emotion or acknowledgement of the US officers present). He does his work swiftly. He follows the British drop it is
said in some books, a drop perfected by Pierrepont. Some writings also say that the US hangman, master sgt John Woods hated "that Nazi)
and that it was Reichardt who designed the dual gallows.
There is so much to note in the films. I have some a single writing that describes Reichardt being hired by the US Army to do this work.

[grootend]

Maybe because Sgt. Woods was a notorious drunk. He make the nazicriminals in Neurenberg suffer when they were hanged. Pierepont does his work on a professional manner, Reichardt was a fan .......

[fredric]

MSrgt Woods was known to be a brutish, heavy drinker.
Now please don't generalize that he thought he "made the NZ criminals die suffer on the gallows. Only one died painfully.
MsSgt Woods was interviewed after the hangings. You can find this.
ask any questions please... this is not our Topic's subject; I can and will comment as I can.

[von thoma]

Stanislaus Wesolek, guillotined in Plötzensee prison on 5 August 1943, with his wife Frida Wesolek, née Hübner.