Beheadings in the Third Reich

[Pete26]

only one woman ...Therese Müller?

More than 1000 people were guillotined in Stadelheim prison during the Third Reich era. This is a list of 59 people who were guillotined in Stadelheim prison and whose bodies were transported to Innsbruck Anatomical Institute for dissection. There was definitely more than one woman guillotined in Stadelheim prison.

I you read the article, they mention some families requesting bodies for burial after they were used for dissection by the Anatomical Institute in Innsbruck. If they were persistent enough, they were allowed to view the bodies for identification of their loved one. Can you imagine looking at a bunch of partially dissected headless bodies and then a pile of human heads and trying to come up with a positive identification? This had to be a horrible experience for the family members.

[marko10]

what was the criterion for choosing the bodies to be sent to the anatomical institutes?

[Pete26]

what was the criterion for choosing the bodies to be sent to the anatomical institutes?

I think the main reason for this was that it was the cheapest and quickest way to get rid of bodies without having to bury them. Anatomical institutes and medical schools would use these bodies for dissection and also research, and once they were done with them they would cremate the remains. So no expense for the state to bury these bodies. We know however, that with ever increasing number of executions, there were too many bodies, so anatomical institutes and medical schools only used as many as they needed and the rest had to be buried by the state. For example, in Vienna many guillotined victims were buried in Vienna Central cemetery in mass graves rather than being dissected by institutes or universities because local anatomical institutes or medical schools could not store or use so many bodies.

[Pete26]

https://www.svz.de/regionales/mecklenbu ... 93606.html

Adolf Seefeld, a German serial killer, was guillotined on 23 May 1936 in Schwerin, Germany. He killed twelve boys, between 4 and 12 years of age.

[Hans1906]

Good afternoon to the topic,

strange, one of the most clicked topics here in the AHF forum...

As a collector of historical photos, I am not even able to to look at the photos from my collections, showing so called
"Partisanen", hanging from a tree, or whatever, executed (murdered) by german troops.

In my photo collections, there are more than 20 of these photos, taken by ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers, a few of the pictures
even taken by doctors in the armed forces.
It was incomprehensible and sick to take such photos, but probably, not unusual at the time.

Fascination of death, for me a completely sick topic, and I am very sorry that I got involved in this thread years ago.
I wanted to get rid of that, for whatever it's worth.


Hans1906

P.S. I always thought about to destroy the pictures, all these photos are not from the own family.
How to handle it, there are no answers.

[Rmouse]

Good afternoon to the topic,

strange, one of the most clicked topics here in the AHF forum...

As a collector of historical photos, I am not even able to to look at the photos from my collections, showing so called
"Partisanen", hanging from a tree, or whatever, executed (murdered) by german troops.

In my photo collections, there are more than 20 of these photos, taken by ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers, a few of the pictures
even taken by doctors in the armed forces.
It was incomprehensible and sick to take such photos, but probably, not unusual at the time.

Fascination of death, for me a completely sick topic, and I am very sorry that I got involved in this thread years ago.
I wanted to get rid of that, for whatever it's worth.


Hans1906

P.S. I always thought about to destroy the pictures, all these photos are not from the own family.
How to handle it, there are no answers.

Destroying photographs is evil. History must be preserved.

[marko10]

Good afternoon to the topic,

strange, one of the most clicked topics here in the AHF forum...

As a collector of historical photos, I am not even able to to look at the photos from my collections, showing so called
"Partisanen", hanging from a tree, or whatever, executed (murdered) by german troops.

In my photo collections, there are more than 20 of these photos, taken by ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers, a few of the pictures
even taken by doctors in the armed forces.
It was incomprehensible and sick to take such photos, but probably, not unusual at the time.

Fascination of death, for me a completely sick topic, and I am very sorry that I got involved in this thread years ago.
I wanted to get rid of that, for whatever it's worth.


Hans1906

P.S. I always thought about to destroy the pictures, all these photos are not from the own family.
How to handle it, there are no answers.

Destroying photographs is evil. History must be preserved.

I agree ..... beautiful or ugly photos are evidence of the past

[Hans1906]

Good afternoon to the topic,

not really my intention to torpedo this issue, because it is an important issue.

The corresponding photos in my collections are stored in sealed envelopes, and these photos do not belong in a publicly viewable internet forum.
Most of these photos were found in the 1980s/1990s, in containers for waste paper, etc.
The legal rights to publish these photos are not known to me, because most of the photos were disposals, discarded image material.
So to speak, we used to tie up corpses, photographic corpses, which could be found in almost every waste paper container.

Difficult subject, which is probably very similar to most collectors of photographic images...

Hans1906

Shoa, part1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n7_gSUVCwc
part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj2pj6Mt-OA

And I am not in the mood, to watch all this for another time again, it is to much.

[heraldika]

Dear Hans1906,

did you consider giving the photo material to some archive? For example, there is Arolsen Archives, International Center on Nazi Persecution. This could be right institution for such donation. They may do a deed of gift where you can specify that the photos will not be displayed online etc.

Your collection may be utilised for research. It is memorable artefact (in bad way) which should be preserved, not forgotten or destroyed.

[Pete26]

The last surviving Scholl sibling died this year one day after her 100 birthday (1920-2020).

https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/wi ... en,Rs0oECl

[Pete26]

https://www.vscr.cz/vazebni-veznice-pra ... tani-2020/












The following photo, taken most likely around 1946, clearly shows the wooden tub with handles which was used to carry decapitated bodies and heads from the guillotine execution room to the adjacent morgue room.

[Hans1906]

Strange photos of the two soldiers standing next to Fallbeil in the Pankrác prison.


Hans1906

[Hans1906]

In the latest series of the german TV series "Babylon Berlin", there is a scene with the execution of a female prisoner
in the yard of the Berlin prison, discreetly depicted from a distance, but still quite shocking.

The female delinquent was decapitated with a hand axe.

"Babylon Berlin" : https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_Berlin

Hans1906

Execution scene was shown sunday evening prime time on german TV, yesterday evening, before 22:30

[Hans1906]

"Executions in Switzerland"

Translation from the swiss website:
"On October 18, 1940 at 1.55 a.m., the head of the policeman-killer Hans Vollenweider is cut off with the guillotine - in the Sarnen Penitentiary in the canton of Obwalden. It was the last civil execution in Switzerland. So far, so well known."

Link to the article from the swiss website SRF: https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/hinrich ... -entschied

Podcast also, sorry, I do not understand the swiss dialect at all...
Information about former beheadings with the hand-axe also.


Hans1906

* I understand maybe 10% of the swiss dialect, not enough, to put a translation of the podcast here in the forum, sorry...

[Pete26]

Strange photos of the two soldiers standing next to Fallbeil in the Pankrác prison.

These uniformed officers were a part of the ceremony held in the Pankrac memorial to honor the victims of the fallbeil and those who died in Prague uprising in May of 1945.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_uprising