Beheadings in the Third Reich

[Paul53]

Yes i have a bit of trouble operating this machine sometimes.The fault is most probably mine Paul53

[David Thompson]

That's ok, Paul53. I've made duplicate posts myself, and your original messages are still up, so no harm done.

[Paul53]

Thank you David \I will do my best Paul 53

[Paul53]

I have some information from the book....Der Tod von Plozensee ..by von Gostomsky and Loch.....Vollstreckungsorte\places of execution\were the following sites>Berlin/Plotzensee,Brandenburg Gorden,Breslau,Bruchsal,Danzig,Dortmund,Dreibergen/Buelsow,Dresden,Frankfurt am Main>Preungesheim,Graz, Halle, Kattowitz,Koln,Konigsberg,Munchen/Stadelheim,Prag/St.Pankraz,Poznan,Stuttgart,Weimar,Wien and Wolfenbuttel.Al these prisons had their own murder equipment.Furthermore executions were held with transportable guillotines in the following plces"....Aachen,Augsbug,Bielitz,Bochum,Bromberg|Brunn,Bultow,Celle,Duisburg,Dusseldorf,Eger,Erfurt,Essen,Frankfurt>Oder,Graudenz,Hamburg,Hamm,Hohensalza,Hannover,Insterburg,Kalisch,Kassel,Kiel,Klagenfurt,Konitz,Leipzig,Leitmeritz,Leslau,Lingen,Linz,Lodz,Luxemburg,Lyck, Magdeburg, Mannheim,Memel,Nurnberg,Oldenburg,Oppeln,Plock\Plonsk,Ried,Rostock,Saarbrucken,Schwarzach,Siegburg,Stettin,Strassburg,Thorn,Tilsit,Troppau,Wuppertal,Zichenau.It has been reported that there were executions in Hameln also.The administration and organisation of this complx system was to a large extend carried out by the staff of Rolan Freisler.Nickname >Rasende Roland.> Roaring Roland. The procedure of execution was eshtablished>the condemned had to pack his clothing very neatly in his cell prior to the execution.He or she was led to the executionroom by five or six members of the prison staff,including a priest.Arrivig at the site, his or her name was asked and the verdic was read once more by a state prosecutor.Men were to wear only trousers with the jacked loose over the shoulder,women were allowed underwear.Hands were tied at the back.On the words>Scharfrichter, walten Sie Ihres Amtes.\Executioner carry out your profession"\ the condemned was seized by the executioners assistants,placed on the bench,usually face down,the neck piece of the machine was closed and the fall of the blade was immediately induced.After the execution which took only about 7 seconds,the corpse ws trasferred to a coffin,head between the legs.The remains were either transported to a local crematorium,ir to an anatomical instituteIt was customary to have the condemneds family pay for the costs of the execution,usually about 300 to 400 ReichsmarkAll very efficiently arranged,only the execution itself was an unbelievable messy thing of course.In Brandenburg Gorden prison executions were as a rule carried out on thursday,quite often up to 25 a day.Usually by Ernst Reindel,who lived in Gommern rear Magdeburg and apart from his activities as executioners owned a so called Abdeckerei,the equivalent in English should be something like a destruction fascility for dead animals.Most of the German executioners were quite wealthyas they got 50 to 60 Reichsmark per severed head. Paul53

[Paul53]

I wrot down a lot of information but it is obviously not accepted for some reason and has disappeared mysteriously as I tried to send it.What could be the reason for that Paul53

[David Thompson]

Paul53 -- That happens occasionally when the forum server gets overloaded. See, for example, this thread:

Copy your post before submitting it...
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=13712

[Paul53]

I have still a lot to learn considering this I ll do my best.

[aperson]

Dear Paul53,

Please not the soap. Search this site, read further at least a couple of the very many threads on the subject.

You certainly seem enthusiastic and interested enough.

Best regards

Maurice

[K.Kocjancic]

Does anyone have any info how many members of Wehrmacht, Polizei and/or Waffen-SS were beheaded? I know for several Slovene soldiers, who were forced into Wehrmacht, they deserted, were caught and executed (by beheading); most of them in Austria.

Regards,
Klemen

[Paul53]

Maurice what do you mean. The soap thing is an estabished fact and no fantasy.Paul53

[David Thompson]

Let's stay on the topic of this thead, please.

[wolfguy]

Are we ever going to have a photo of Executioner Friedrich Wilhelm Rottger?
Why are there no pictures of him anywhere? Was he camera shy?

I've always wondered what the hangman of July 20th looked like.

[aperson]

Dear Paul

as David suggested, let's stay on topic. This particular issue has been discussed very extensively, you could read further at:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=2670

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... c&start=15

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... c&start=45

Even the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has walked away from the topic (see posts in the above links). You could also check out Yad Vashem etc.

So experimental attempts, very probably, industrial production no.

Otherwise an old but extremely interesting thread.

As a summary of some of the gems among the suggested links:

http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.c ... tents.html

http://boisdejustice.com ("Excuse me sir, would you like a classic 1792 revolutionary guillotine or are you more inclined toward a definitive top grade 1907 Berger guillotine w/basket.")

http://www.metaphor.dk/guillotine/Pages/Guillot.html

http://www.metaphor.dk/guillotine/Pages/30sec.html Has a very disturbing report made by a french doctor about his impressions regarding the persistence of consciousness following decapitation.


Interestingly, although discussed in other threads on this site noone seems to have ventured into the murky waters surrounding WWII-era Balkan peoples having their heads misplaced as a result of the actions of other Balkan peoples..

For example see

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=75481

The most utterly grim of topics indeed...

...yet truly compelling reading

[Paul53]

O.K.Paul53

[Pete26]

Hi, I am new to this forum. My name is Pete and I am interested in learning more about the German guillotines, the execution process itself, executioners, and the victims. I came across an interesting photo which shows a pile of guillotined heads. I never saw this one before.
Can somebody shed some light on the origin of this photograph?

http://itwasjohnson.impiousdigest.com/Heads.jpg

Also, the following short film on youtube shows an actual video footage of guillotining of Eugene Weidmann in Versailles, France in 1939. It was the last public guillotining in France. The short clip starts at 4.20 and ends at 4.32. The whole process takes only 12 seconds from the time Weidmann touches the bascule to the time his headless body is pushed into the basket. This may be the only clear video recording of actual guillotining in existence.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dXels5zsE_M

Are there any photographs or a video of actual guillotining by Germans from WWII era?