Pictures of Kurt Dalüge before hanged in Prag

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Boby
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Pictures of Kurt Dalüge before hanged in Prag

#1

Post by Boby » 05 Nov 2005, 20:59

The source of pictures comes from a documentary of Heydrich in "History Channel"

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sum
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#2

Post by sum » 06 Nov 2005, 15:12

i never seen these pics (film) Thanks very much


michael mills
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#3

Post by michael mills » 07 Nov 2005, 03:28

The last photo in the series is very informative, as it illustrates the method of hanging used in Czechoslovakia at the time.

As is obvious from the construction of the gallows seen in the background, there could not have been any drop sufficient to cause fracture of the cervical vertebra, the method used in Britain (and also in the United States, albeit less efficiently).

The condemned person was simply put into a noose attached to the cross-beam at the top, and the top flap of the low platform at the bottom of the gallows fell away, leaving the condemned person suspended in the air by the noose. The weight of his body would then pull the noose tight, constricting the carotid arteries and causing unconsciousness and eventually death by strangulation.

During the war, German authorities often used a similar method of hanging, a practice that is usually attributed to some sort of specific Nazi barbarity, given that the German State normally carried out legal executions by decapitation rather than by hanging. However, it appears that the German authorities were simply copying the more inhumane execution methodology used by their neighbours to the East, the Czechs and the Poles.

Last week the final episode of the BBS series on Auschwitz was broadcast here, showing photographs of the hanging of Hoess at Auschwitz in April 1947. Exactly the same methodology was used as in the case of Daluege; a simple gallows with a low platform with a flap that could be dropped to leave the condemned man suspended. One of the photos actually showed Hoess undergoing the process of strangulation; the flap had dropped leaving a gap in the platform in which his feet were dangling. It was apparent that there was no drop, only a tightening of the noose.

Another feature shown in the photographs of the hanging of Hoess was the fact that the noose was attached to the cross-beam by means of a large hook.

On other threads, certain posters have waxed indignant over that fact that the men condemned for the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler were hanged from hooks attached to the ceiling of the execution chamber, and have attributed that methodology to a specific Nazi barbarity, even a personal sadism on the part of Hitler himself, a putative desire to see them "strung up like meat".

In answer to all that foaming at the mouth, I advanced the propositon that the German authorities were using a methodology of infliction of the death penalty practised in Poland or Czechoslovakia, not acting out some sort of brutal fantasy.

The photographs of the hanging of Hoess broadcast by the BBC have fully vindicated my supposition.

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#4

Post by Brumbar » 07 Nov 2005, 03:49

Imagine our surprise at learning this. :roll:

By all means rush out and have a drink on the "vindication of my supposition".

Jon G.
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#5

Post by Jon G. » 07 Nov 2005, 03:52

michael mills wrote:...During the war, German authorities often used a similar method of hanging, a practice that is usually attributed to some sort of specific Nazi barbarity, given that the German State normally carried out legal executions by decapitation rather than by hanging. However, it appears that the German authorities were simply copying the more inhumane execution methodology used by their neighbours to the East, the Czechs and the Poles...
In his memoir Panzer Leader, Heinz Guderian calls the introduction of hanging to the German penal system a practice imported from Austria. IIRC, he is opposed to hanging, but apparently mostly due to the undignified nature of hanging as a method of execution.

Obviously, hanging as a method of execution is a good deal older than both the modern Czech and Polish states. If death by strangulation was their preferred method of execution, they in turn must have imported it from somewhere. However, for both Hoeß and Deluege, retribution in kind may have been part reason for the method of execution used.

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#6

Post by michael mills » 07 Nov 2005, 04:20

Obviously, hanging as a method of execution is a good deal older than both the modern Czech and Polish states. If death by strangulation was their preferred method of execution, they in turn must have imported it from somewhere. However, for both Hoeß and Deluege, retribution in kind may have been part reason for the method of execution used.
I doubt that there were any changes to the legal method of execution, either by Czechoslovakia in the case of Daluege or by Poland in the case of Hoess, specific to those two individuals as a form of retribution.

Everything about the trials of both men suggests that the authorities of the two countries concerned were sticklers for the letter of the law, and that would have applied also to the method of execution.

In the case of Czechoslovakia, the hangings of the Communists found guilty of "treason" at the Slanksy Trial were also carried out by strangulation, the same methodology as depicted in the photographs of the hanging of Daluege. At the time, the method of execution of Slansky and his co-accused was commented on in the Western press, and has been described in later histories, as particularly brutal, and during the Cold War period was cited as an instance of "Soviet/Communist barbarity". However, it was simply the normal method of execution of death sentence in Czechoslovakia.

In the thread "The Truth about the execution of the July 1944 conspirators", I surmised that the methodology used had been borrowed from Poland or Czechoslovakia, and that those states had in turn inherited the methodology from the former Habsburg Empire. The statement by Guderian, advanced by Shrek, supports that view.

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#7

Post by David Thompson » 07 Nov 2005, 05:54

Let's get back on topic, please.

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maxxx
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#8

Post by maxxx » 09 Nov 2005, 12:49

The method of hanging is just the classical austrian method. Of course czechs used it, as it was, beside the methods used by germans during the nazi period, the only one they ever used.

Its a little like garotting, and Josef Lang, last austrian executioner, discribed it as "more human" as the "long drop" (which also failed often).

Boby
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#9

Post by Boby » 09 Nov 2005, 13:17

Hello Forum!

Sorry, but the last picture is not the hanging.

This is the picture (sorry for the disturbing image)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/ ... fbedc0.jpg

Best Regards

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#10

Post by polskifone » 23 Nov 2005, 20:01

But of course you have to remember that Hoess was hoisted on HIS gibbet in Auschwitz. A fitting piece of historical irony from the Poles... so lets not get too misty eyed about strangulation!!!!

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#11

Post by michael mills » 24 Nov 2005, 00:52

Polskifone,

I think you will find that the gibbet on which Hoess was hanged was erected by the Polish authorities for the execution.

Whatever gibbet had existed in Auschwitz while it was under German control had been removed when the German evacuated the camp.

The stills from the film of the execution of Hoess show that it was carried out according to the normal Polish method of hanging.

The gibbet was erected over a platform which looked to be less than one metre high. In the middle of the platform was at trapdoor stationed under the crossbeam of the gibbet to which the noose was attached.

The rope with the noose was only long enough to reach the neck of the person to be hanged, ie there was no drop. After the noose was fastened around the neck of the person to be hanged, the trapdoor was opened, leaving the victim dangling in mid-air, allowing the bodyweight to draw the noose tight and cut off the flow of blood to the head, causing rapid unconsciousness and death within 15 minutes. That is how death by strangulation eventuates.

Other descriptions of regular executions by hanging in Poland show that they correspond to the method of hanging Hoess that is revealed in the stills from the film.

It may be that both National Socialist Germany and Poland independently derived the above methodology of hanging from Austria. The normal method of legal execution in Germany was beheading with the guillotine; Germans condemned to death in National Socialist Germany were usually executed by that method, including some plotters against Hitler, eg the members of the Scholl group "White Rose".

Descriptions of the execution of the participants in the bomb plot against Hitler mention the presence of a guillotine in the execution chamber. That was for normal executions; the hanging of the bomb-plotters was a departure from the normal German method of executing a legal death sentence, and appears to have been an imitation either of Austrian or of Polish or Soviet practice.

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#12

Post by michael mills » 04 Dec 2005, 13:32

Here are some photos of the hanging of former female staffmembers of Stutthof Concentration Camp.

http://max.mmvi.de/ssfrauen/biskupia.htm

They illustrate the Polish method of hanging. Enjoy.

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Kim Sung
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#13

Post by Kim Sung » 04 Dec 2005, 15:08

michael mills wrote:Here are some photos of the hanging of former female staffmembers of Stutthof Concentration Camp.

http://max.mmvi.de/ssfrauen/biskupia.htm

They illustrate the Polish method of hanging. Enjoy.
Interesting. The photos do not show women were crying or pleading for their life.

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#14

Post by yabint » 05 Dec 2005, 02:24

michael mills wrote:Here are some photos of the hanging of former female staffmembers of Stutthof Concentration Camp.

http://max.mmvi.de/ssfrauen/biskupia.htm

They illustrate the Polish method of hanging. Enjoy.
Interesting link. But you can hardly call that "the Polish method of hanging" since it was clearly orgainised as a public display. I strongly doubt that it is normal pratice in the Polish legal system for the condemed to be pushed off the back of a lorrie or that the executioner was one of the victims of the condemed.
Ehemalige Häftlinge des Lagers Stutthof wirkten als Henker - 10 Männer und eine Frau . Sie trugen die gestreifte KZ-Uniform - die "Pasiaki" . Viele Zuschauer beobachteten die öffentliche Hinrichtung der 11 Kriegsverbrecher
According to the online translator I used: former prisoners of Stutthof acted as the hangmen, 10 men and one woman. They wore the KZ uniform.

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polskifone
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Michael Mills wrote

#15

Post by polskifone » 10 Dec 2005, 16:15

the hanging of the bomb-plotters was a departure from the normal German method of executing a legal death sentence, and appears to have been an imitation either of Austrian or of Polish or Soviet practice.
I hardly think the Germans needed to imitate anyone - gifted as they were in disposing of people!!! Where does piano-wire come into the Polish Penal Code... or perhaps that also never happened! F.Y.I. the Soviets always preferred the bullet in the head method viz Katyn, the 1936 purges et al.

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