The Gruesome Secret of Hamelin

In order that the reader may ascertain whether Bad Nenndorf, as described in the previous article, is a unique exception to British occupation policy in post-war Germany, articles from the German weekly newspaper Deutschen Wochenzeitung are reprinted in translation below.[1] They also show that, for the past 30 years, anyone who wished to inform himself as to British occupation policy since 1945 could easily do so.

The British hangman Albert Pierrepoint reigned in Hamelin in 1945.[2] In the prison yard of that town, those who had been sentenced to death by the conveyor-belt British military tribunals died by his hand. They were about 200 Germans, men and women.

First there were the eleven members of the Bergen-Belsen camp staff who had obeyed orders to stay at their posts in order to turn over to the English the camp, which had been reduced to starvation by the Allied bombing campaign.

In addition to them were many men and women whose only crime was to have obeyed their orders and fulfilled their duties in the hardest of times. Such as Captain Mackensen, who at first was released from PoW detention by the British without further ado, only to be hanged in the end. He had commanded a prisoner-of-war camp in Thorn, Poland. His lawyer Bernhard Pfad never succeeded in addressing the court, his widow never received notice of his sentence. She learned of the death of her husband in the newspaper.

The Canadian Murder Orders

Battalion Commander Bernhard Siebken was hanged in 1949. His defense attorney Mrs. A. Oehlert, since all her efforts came to naught, turned to Archbishop Herntrich and wrote:

“I defended Battalion Commander of the 12^th SS Armored Division “HJ” Bernhard Siebken at the Curiohaus in Hamburg. Mr. Siebken is accused of having taken part in the shooting of three Canadian soldiers in the headquarters of his battalion on June 9, 1944. The British military tribunal in the Curiohaus sentenced him to death by hanging on November 9, 1948. The case is styled in the British calendar as ‘Le Mesnil Patry Oase.’

I have defended many such cases in the Curiohaus, but never have I seen such a gross miscarriage of justice as in this case. The verdict and the sentence stand in clear contradiction to the implications of the evidence taken in court. While I have been able, in previous cases in the Curiohaus in which I have functioned as defendant’s counsel, to reconcile in fairness the conclusions of the rights consultant with the verdicts entered, I must solemnly state in this case that the summation of the evidence given in this case fails to meet even the most-rudimentary standards of objectivity. Many witnesses for the defense (and these were numerous) were never mentioned in the trial record, much less evaluated. It is true that the three Canadian soldiers were shot on the morning of June 9, 1944 in Le Mesnil Patry (area of Bayeux-Caen) by soldiers in the battalion of my client.

I have, however, proven through testimony no longer deniable in open court not only by witnesses of the Waffen SS but also by officers of the General Staff of the Army, that Canadian divisional orders were found in this sector of the front already on June 7, 1944 that these Canadian troops were commanded to take no prisoners. I have further shown through these witnesses that the Canadian units to which these orders applied, followed them. A captain of the German army who, with his men in the sector of the battalion of my client had surrendered, was shot down together with them in cold blood after having given up their weapons.

By happenstance he remained alive and was later rescued by members of my client’s battalion. This captain, the present-day citizen of Austria Count Clary-Aldringen, recounted this heinous event in great detail. On the basis of that report, the regimental commander of my client ordered the shooting of three Canadian soldiers captured shortly after the incident, in order to put a stop to the enemy’s practice of violating human rights. My claim that this shooting of the three Canadian soldiers was a justifiable reprisal was rejected by the court as inadmissible.

My claim, under the doctrine of tu quoque, that one party may not prosecute another party for rights violations when the prosecuting party himself is guilty of the same violations, and in greater measure, was likewise rejected.

Later in the course of taking evidence, I established, unambiguously in my opinion, through various witnesses that my client not only countermanded the order of his regimental commander, but further did everything he could to prevent the order being carried out. All these exonerating circumstances went entirely unmentioned in the court’s decision.”

Hangman Made in England

On a foggy afternoon in December 1945 a transport aircraft of the Royal Air Force left the air base at Northolt near London. Among the officers and officials of the “British Military Government of Germany” aboard was also England’s professional hangman Albert Pierrepoint. His destination was the penitentiary at Hamelin on the Weser, now called “B.O.A.R. War Crimes Prison No. 1.” His assignment was to execute 13 German “war criminals,” eleven of whom were members of the staff at Bergen-Belsen who had been sentenced in November 1945 to death by hanging by an English military tribunal. Among the condemned were three women of ages between 22 and 52 years; the 22-year-old Irma Grese, the 26-year-old head matron Elisabeth Volkenrath and the 52-year-old Johanna Bormann.

In order to avoid his becoming confused with the civilians on board, Pierrepoint had been made an honorary lieutenant colonel and he enjoyed his newfound importance, since he had never previously been a soldier. He had been needed for other work during World War II. He hanged murderers, American soldiers sentenced to death by courts martial, and 16 spies of various nationalities including Britons and Germans. One of these, a powerful North German, had made the task very difficult for him, for which reason he held no good opinion of Germans.

Battle on Death Row

Five years earlier, during the “Battle of Britain,” he took his first German victim on the gallows in Wandsworth Prison. A German agent had parachuted from a Dornier aircraft in 1940 near a village in Hertfordshire County and subsequently captured by the English police. We’ll call him Gerhard Buchner here, since his true identity remains a secret of World War II to this time. [Since revealed to be Karel Richard Richter, a Sudeten German – Ed.] His gravesite is marked with the number 149 on the wall of the prison.

The trial was held under strictest secrecy in the Central Criminal Court of London and concluded with the sentencing of Buchner to death by hanging. Despite all the machinations and chicanery of the British MI5 counterespionage agency, Buchner revealed no secrets to them!

On the day before the execution, Pierrepoint observed through a window the blond German who, accompanied by two burly guards, spent his exercise hour in the prison courtyard. At 6 feet, one inch and 265 pounds, Buchner made an imposing figure even in the gloomy shadows of the high prison walls.

The next morning shortly before 9 o’clock, the British executioner and his assistant waited before the door of the execution chamber. They both held the leather straps with which to bind their victim’s hands behind his back. As the door opened, Buchner was no longer sitting, as before, with his back to the door, but had moved around behind the table and stood with clenched fists ready to take on his malefactors. As Pierrepoint approached him, he broke loose from his restrainers and made a lunge for the door. One guard managed to grab his left arm, and with a sudden tug, Buchner slammed into the cell wall with full force. He bled from a forehead wound, shook his head like an angry bull, and jumped back into the fray.

The attending prison chaplain sought his deliverance in flight. Both guards set upon the German and received help from two colleagues standing in the hall. The German defended himself with sheer bodily strength, punched wildly about himself with his fists, and aimed well-placed kicks. They finally wrestled the blond Hun to the floor, and Pierrepoint succeeded in binding him. The guards pulled him up and shoved him toward the execution chamber. But suddenly, he was free again. With superhuman strength, he had broken loose from his fetters and again attacked his torturers.

A wild melee followed with punches and kicks, but finally the weight of five against one told. Holding the dangerous German down with a knee in the back, Pierrepoint reapplied the fetters, this time so tight that they cut into his skin and Buchner cried out with pain. Then they hustled him onto the gallows, where the witnesses, who had watched the proceedings passively, were waiting. His legs were bound, the hangman pulled a sack over his head and put the noose around his neck. Two guards, one left and one to the right of the trap door, held him upright, but even as Pierrepoint pulled the lever to open the trap door, he managed to jump forward. As the body fell through the door, the noose had loosened and shifted upwards and tightened with a heavy shock between the nose and the upper lip. Buchner’s face was thus badly mangled, but the prison doctor determined that death had been brought about by breaking the neck, and he congratulated Pierrepoint on his “good work.” Thus experienced, he arrived in Germany.

“Conveyor-Belt” Executions

His plane landed in the late afternoon of December 11, 1945 at the Bückeburg airport and Pierrepoint was received by an English major and his driver, who in a three-quarter-hour drive through the devastated landscape brought him to the penitentiary in Hamelin. A conference with army officers was held immediately upon his arrival. The discussion was much consumed by negotiations, since the execution of 13 persons in one day, three women among them, had never previously been called for, and would impose a significant challenge even to a practiced man such as Pierrepoint.

Preparations began the next morning. The gallows was erected on the second floor at the end of a prison wing and equipped with two trap doors so that two executions could be performed at the same time. In contrast to the American hangings in Landsberg, in which after each hanging, the noose used was cut off with shears and the rope lengthened, Pierrepoint had developed a method in which one noose could be used for a number of executions. He attached a chain to the crossbeam of the gallows that could be shortened or lengthened according to the weight and height of his victims, and by this means the length of the rope was longer or shorter. A staff sergeant of the English Control Commission, one RSM O’Neill, was appointed assistant to Pierrepoint, since he spoke German fluently. “I’ve never seen an execution,” he noted with satisfaction, “but I’ll see one now, since I will be your assistant.” He would remain this for some time, since he took part in the executions of several hundred Germans.

Workers were busy in the prison courtyard digging a mass grave. The earth was frozen solid, and the picking and shoveling were clearly audible. The prisoners must also have understood from standing at their cell windows and seeing their executioners walking slowly by. The camp commandant of Bergen-Belsen, Josef Kramer, had been assigned the last cell, probably to make his last walk as hard as possible for him and to provide the waiting journalists with a sensation.

The Sufferings of the Condemned of Hamelin

The eleven condemned of the “Belsen Trial” as well as two other Germans condemned by another military tribunal had been transported to Hamelin from the Lüneburg Trial Prison under heavy guard four days before their execution. Their sufferings had begun with their arrest in the Belsen camp and continued in the prisons of Celle and Lüneburg. They were subjected to the worst mistreatment and oppression the entire time. Now they awaited their deaths.

These faces distorted by sustained mistreatment affected even the hangman Pierrepoint. A soldier later commenting on this repeated, “These beasts deserve no other fate.” (!)

Next, they tested the gallows. Two heavy sandbags were attached to the ropes and several times allowed to drop through the trap doors to the ground floor. The hangmen were satisfied that the gallows functioned flawlessly; the builders had done their job well. In order to pre-tension the cables, the sandbags were left hanging overnight.

Now the next task could proceed, but first they fortified themselves with a hearty lunch, while the prisoners in their frigid cells received a thin, watery soup.

The gallows was lit brightly with spotlights, and the individual prisoners were brought out of their cells in order to be weighed and measured. Six German guards helped in this procedure, because even though this prison was under English governance, German staff continued to be used for its operation. They stayed on their jobs in order to enjoy extra rations, while it must be said to the credit of some few of them, they gave up their jobs when the planned executions became known.

Josef Kramer was the first in line. The Wehrmacht doctor Klein followed him and after him, the other nine; the three women came last. Their cells were right next to the gallows.

At this point Pierrepoint went to his room and calculated by hand his specification for the length of the rope for each execution. He decided to do the women first and then the men in order of their height and weight. So that no mix-up should occur, he wrote out a list and consulted it while on the gallows. His victims’ eyes followed his gaze as it traversed up and down the corridor.

Friday, December 13, 1945

On the following day, December 13, 1945, the hangman was early to rise.

While the people of Hamelin went about their daily business, a tragedy began to unfold in the prison completely commandeered by English soldiers and surrounded by their armored vehicles.

The first witnesses straggled in, among them Brigadier General Paton-Walsh, former deputy warden of the English penitentiary Wandsworth and with him Miss Wilson, the deputy warden of the women’s prison in Manchester.

Shortly before 9 o’clock, all the invited witnesses were assembled, and the group reported to the second floor. They went past death row and formed a half-circle around the gallows. The executions could begin.

The English Brigadier Paton held his wristwatch in his hand. Just before nine o’clock he gave Pierrepoint a signal, and Pierrepoint summoned Irma Grese. The German attendants threw the bolts on the door and opened the door of the first cell. The 22-year-old Irma Grese came out of her cell and her hands were tied behind her back in the corridor. “Follow me!” commanded Pierrepoint and his assistant O’Neil translated, “Folgen Sie mir!” Two German attendants followed the group to the gallows.

Irma Grese stood upright and scanned the faces of the witnesses gathered around her for a moment. Her gaze fell upon the faces of her countrymen. Then she stood in the middle of the trap door, which Pierrepoint had marked out with chalk. The attendants’ grips restrained her. The hangman threw a white hood over her head and placed the noose on her. Her last word was “fast” as Pierrepoint stepped back and threw the lever.

The body fell into the first floor where the English doctor after 20 minutes confirmed death. The lifeless body was freed of the noose, stripped of its clothing and placed in a waiting coffin. Only the precautionary rubber pants were left undisturbed, and these, as left on all the other women executed, were of help to the German authorities in identifying the bodies when they took over the facility and made these grisly discoveries.

Ten minutes later the hangman had marked off Elisabeth Volkenrath and Johanna Bormann followed her half an hour later.

Then followed a break for tea and then the gallows were rearranged for double hangings.

Josef Kramer was the first to be brought from his cell. The hangman bound him, placed him on the gallows, threw the hood over his head and then placed the noose around his neck. He was left standing that way until Dr. Fritz Klein was brought up and stood next to him. One minute elapsed during which Kramer awaited his death and Dr. Klein was prepared for his own, and both bodies fell.

The Death Schedule – Confirmed Times of Death

9:34 Irma Grese
10:03 Elisabeth Volkenrath
10:38 Johanna Bormann
12:11 Obersturmbannführer Josef Kramer and Dr. Fritz Klein
12:46 Karl Franzioch and Peter Weingärtner
1:00 – 3:00 lunch
3:37 Ansgar Plchen and Franz Hössler
4:16 Wilhelm Dörr and Franz Starfl

Hangman Pierrepoint struck off each name from his list, until there were no names left. The long suffering of the staff of Bergen-Belsen was complete.

At the end of the executions, it was noted that one too few coffins had been delivered. The 13^th body was summarily stuffed into a sack and thrown into the grave with the twelve coffins.

In the evening the Englishmen celebrated in their club and presented Pierrepoint with a clock with the date and a memorial engraved on it.

Celebrated Hangman in England

The English hangman got his best business in Hamelin, especially on October 8, 1946, when he executed 16 Germans.

One of the last victims of the gallows of Hamelin was SS Obersturmbannführer and bearer of the Knight’s Cross Bernhard Siebken, battalion commander of the 12^th “Hitler Youth” Division, who died there on January 20, 1949.

The last execution occurred on December 6, 1949, as a 25-year-old German had to die because of his having been found possessing five cartridges. After that, the gallows was dismantled and shipped to England. The victory dance of the victors’ justice of the English occupation authorities was at an end.

After the mass executions in Hamelin, Pierrepoint was feted like a hero upon his return to England. Indeed, more work awaited him, as on December 19, 1949 at 9:00AM he hanged John Amery, son of the minister for India L. S. Amery in the Wandsworth Penitentiary. John Amery was convicted of treason because, in German captivity, he had raised a British legion to fight against Bolshevism. He had at that time promoted this legion in German radio broadcasts together with the likewise-later-hanged William Joyce.

Injustice

In vain was the staff of Bergen-Belsen subjected to foul injustice. In Himmler’s network of concentration camps dispersed over Germany and the occupied countries, Bergen-Belsen was one of the best-run. The treatment of the inmates was correct to the very end. The high death toll was due not only to the four-fold overfilling (with the exception of the “luxury quarters” occupied by the Jewish diamond traders and diamond cutters, which were not affected by this) toward the end of the war and the consequent epidemics and infestations ensuing therefrom, but also to the catastrophic disruption of supplies toward the end of the war. The staff members under their commandant Josef Kramer stayed at their posts until the end, in reliance on the agreement with the English army according to which they would be dealt with as prisoners of war per the Geneva Convention and be guaranteed free release to rejoin units of the Wehrmacht that were still fighting. They had no awareness of any guilt on their part for the conditions in the camp, and thus became one of the first German units whose case disclosed what the enemy’s agreements and word of honor were actually worth.

German Accomplices without Honor

The conduct of the German supervisory personnel in the holding prisons of Celle and Lüneburg as well as the Hamelin penitentiary give occasion for criticism. With few exceptions, it amounted to collaboration with the English and slighted the fortunes of their countrymen.

The number of Germans executed and killed by mistreatment in the Celle, Lüneburg and Hamelin prisons is estimated at around 407. A large number of these victims are buried in the Cemetery on the Wehl in Hamelin who found their final resting places there after exhumation from the Hamelin Penitentiary.

When control of the penitentiary was returned to the Germans in 1950, a large number of bodies were found in the courtyard that had been piled up in several layers there. Later in other places a great heap of bones, which absent any means of identification were interred in a mass grave in the Cemetery on the Wehl. Ten of the bodies were women, as could be discerned from the presence on them of the precautionary rubber pants. Their death certificates showed their ages to be from 20 to 61.

Greater Germany on the Gallows

In the penal institution of Hamelin, the victims of the victors’ gallows were: Berliners, Viennese, Prussians, Austrians, Bavarians, Volksdeutsche, West Germans and even Ukrainians. We present below the lists of those hanged at Hamelin. [date format d/m/yyyy]

Johanna Bormann
born 10/9/1893
executed 13/12/1945

Elisabeth Volkenrath
born 5/9/1919
executed 13/12/1945

Irma Grese
born 7/10/1923
executed 13/12/1945

Elisabeth Marschall
born 24/5/1886
executed 2/5/1947

Greta Bösel
born 9/5/1908
executed 2/5/1947

Dorothea Dinz
born 16/3/1920
executed 2/5/1947

(Note: Oskar W. Koch, Langenscheidt/Diez, came upon evidence in his research into the fates of the victims that some of the women were raped before their execution. Oral remark to the author.)

Otto Sandrock,
born 05/11/1898,
executed 13/12/1945

Ludwig Schweinsberger
born 03/08/1901
executed 13/12/1945

Josef Kramer
born 10/11/1906
executed 13/12/1945

Dr. Fritz Klein
born 24/11/1888
executed 13/12/1945

Peter Weingärtner
born 14/06/1913
executed 13/12/1945

Franz Hössler
born 04/02/1906
executed 13/12/1945

Karl Franzioch
born 15/10/1912
executed 13/12/1945

Ansgar Pichen
born 26/09/1913
executed 13/12/1945

Franz Starfl
born 05/10/1915
executed 13/12/1945

Wilhelm Dörr
born 09/02/1921
executed 13/12/1945

Johannes Braschoss
born 19/09/1899
executed 08/03/1946

Alfred Büttner
born 10/05/1902
executed 08/03/1946

Otto Franke
born 23/04/1914
executed 08/03/1946

Erich Heyer
born 27/09/1887
executed 08/03/1946

Friedrich König
born 26/03/1895
executed 08/03/1946

Willy Mackensen
born 09/12/1893
executed 08/03/1946

Johannes Renoth
born 30/06/1896
executed 08/03/1946

August Bühnig
born 14/01/1896
executed 08/03/1946

Herbert Gernoth
born 12/01/1906
executed 16/04/1946

Wilhelm Hardler
born 14/02/1898
executed 16/04/1946

Dr. Eberhard Schöngarth
born 22/04/1903
executed 15/05/1946

Karl Amberger
born 09/03/1914
executed 15/05/1946

Bruno Böttcher
born 09/09/1897
executed 15/05/1946

Otto Bopf
born 17/07/1895
executed 15/05/1946

Emil Günther
born 02/10/1899
executed 15/05/1946

Erich Hoffmann
born 23/04/1900
executed 15/05/1946

Franz Kirchner
born 08/07/1904
executed 15/05/1946

Hermann Lommes
born 01/05/1899
executed 15/05/1946

Ludwig Lang
born 08/09/1899
executed 15/05/1946

Wilhelm Scharschmidt
born 02/06/1907
executed 15/05/1946

Friedrich Uhrig
born 05/03/1912
executed 15/05/1946

Friedrich Beck
born 05/08/1886
executed 16/05/1946

Erwin Knop
born 16/08/1905
executed 16/05/1946

Bruno Tesch
born 14/08/1890
executed 16/05/1946

Karl Weinbacher
born 23/06/1898
executed 16/05/1946

Wilhelm Friedrich Bahr
born 25/04/1907
executed 08/10/1946

Andreas Brehms
born 12/01/1913
executed 08/10/1946

Wilhelm Dreimann
born 18/03/1904
executed 08/10/1946

Heinrich Gerike
born 22/02/1904
executed 08/10/1946

Walter Grimm
born 23/01/1911
executed 08/10/1946

Georg Hessling
born 20/02/1889
executed 08/10/1946

Ludwig Knorr
born 14/04/1896
executed 08/10/1946

Dr. Bruno Kitt
born 09/08/1906
executed 08/10/1946

Karl Mumm
born 30/12/1901
executed 08/10/1946

Max Pauly
born 01/06/1907
executed 08/10/1946

Johann Reese
born 05/05/1906
executed 08/10/1946

Heinrich Ruge
born 01/12/1912
executed 08/10/1946

Adolf Speck
born 14/10/1911
executed 08/10/1946

Dr. Alfred Trzebinski
born 29/08/1902
executed 08/10/1946

Anton Thumann
born 31/10/1912
executed 08/10/1946

Willi Warnke
born 28/04/1907
executed 08/10/1946

Franz Berg
born 17/10/1903
executed 11/10/1946

Kasimir Cegielski
born 28/07/1915
executed 11/10/1946

Friedrich Fischer
born 20/02/1909
executed 11/10/1946

Johann Frahm
born 28/04/1901
executed 11/10/1946

Heinz-Züder Heidemann
born 23/04/1908
executed 11/10/1946

Georg Hartleb
born 12/05/1893
executed 11/10/1946

Ewald Jauch
born 23/04/1902
executed 11/10/1946

Walter Quakernack
born 09/07/1907
executed 11/10/1946

Heinrich Redehase
born 03/05/1893
executed 11/10/1946

Werner Rohde
born 11/06/1904
executed 11/10/1946

Peter Straub
born 12/12/1907
executed 11/10/1946

Adolf Wolfert
born 12/06/1901
executed 11/10/1946

Johannes Esser
born 28/03/1896
executed 23/01/1947

Fritz Hollborn
born 17/06/1911
executed 23/01/1947

Hans-Chr. Knab
born 06/06/1887
executed 23/01/1947

Max Köchlin
born 19/02/1918
executed 23/01/1947

Wilhelm Niklas
born 16/11/1911
executed 23/01/1947

Sebastian Schipper
born 16/09/1911
executed 23/01/1947

Wilhelm Schneider
born 11/12/1907
executed 23/01/1947

Anton Brunke
born 15/01/1909
executed 23/01/1947

Emil Hoffmann
born 03/07/1912
executed 23/01/1947

Max Markwart
born 17/01/1889
executed 23/01/1947

Albert Ernst
born 01/06/1910
executed 23/01/1947

Dr. Hansg Koerbel
born 02/06/1909
executed 07/03/1947

Friedrich Ebsen
born 06/06/1888
executed 02/05/1947

Johann Heitz
born 18/10/1923
executed 02/05/1947

Karl Truschel
born 03/10/1894
executed 02/05/1947

Heinz Stumpp
born 05/07/1912
executed 02/05/1947

Artur Grosse
born 12/05/1906
executed 02/05/1947

Gustav Binder
born 13/04/1910
executed 03/05/1947

Ludwig Ramdohr
born 15/06/1909
executed 03/05/1947

Dr. Gerhard Scheidlausky
born 14/01/1906
executed 03/05/1947

Dr. Rolf Rosenthal
born 22/01/1911
executed 03/05/1947

Johann Schwarzhuber
born 29/08/1904
executed 03/05/1947

At the Cemetery on the Wehl

These 91 victims of Allied vengeance were buried where they fell. In 1954, they were reinterred in the Cemetery on the Wehl. It was not permitted to raise any burial mounds nor did the English permit markings of any other sort. A few weeks later, the cemetery management received a list of the names of the disinterred bodies. The cemetery management then undertook a re-exhumation and managed to identify a number of the dead. It happened that a number of families were thus able to reclaim the bodies of their loved ones. These were ultimately few, however.

There are cases in which the women whose husbands had disappeared mysteriously and who discovered only indirectly that they had been executed, have not received official notice of the executions to this day. The vital statistics office in the Hamelin city hall maintains a resolute silence on this matter.

These 91 were in no way the only victims of British revenge trials. A new wave of executions swept through in 1947. 105 men and four women were executed after a single trial:

Vera Salvequart
born 11/26/1919
executed 6/26/1947

Ruth Closius, née Hartmann
born 7/5/1920
executed 7/29/1948

Emma Zimmer, née Menzel
born 8/14/1888
executed 9/17/1948

Gertrud Sehreiter
born 12/27/1912
executed 9/20/1948

(Note: During his research into the fates of the victims, Oskar W. Koch, Langenscheidt/Diez, came upon evidence that some of the women were raped before their execution. Oral remark to the author.)

Theophil Walasek
born 29/11/1923
executed 15/08/1946

Kazinierz Bachor
born 16/03/1912
executed 26/06/1947

Waclaw Winiatski
born 03/07/1923
executed 26/06/1947

Zongin Nowakowski
born 27/11/1906
executed 26/06/1947

Josef Klingler
born 24/02/1904
executed 26/06/1947

Gustav Jepsen
born 01/10/1908
executed 26/06/1947

Albert Zutkemeyer
born 17/06/1911
executed 26/06/1947

Wilhelm Keus
born 20/05/1901
executed 26/06/1947

Hans Kieffer
born 04/12/1900
executed 26/06/1947

Richard Schnur
born 12/11/1909
executed 26/06/1947

Karl Haug
born 27/10/1895
executed 26/06/1947

Kurt Rasche
born 19/04/1909
executed 26/06/1947

Alfred Peck
born 25/04/1909
executed 26/06/1947

Wilhelm Dammann
born 27/03/1910
executed 05/09/1947

Friedrich Hochstätter
born 15/12/1901
executed 05/09/1947

Heinz Stellpflug
born 08/11/1911
executed 05/09/1947

Josef Knoth
born 22/10/1890
executed 05/09/1947

Johann Lutfring
born 20/02/1908
executed 05/09/1947

Karl Cremer
born 04/08/1910
executed 05/09/1947

Tadeusz Kun
born 02/02/1928
executed 05/09/1947

Eduard Kubik
born 09/10/1922
executed 05/09/1947

Stefan Streit
born 04/12/1914
executed 05/09/1947

Franz Smok
born 12/02/1924
executed 05/09/1947

Michael Rotschopf
born 13/12/1920
executed 05/09/194/7

Albert Rösener
born 30/12/1911
executed 05/09/1947

Karl Schwanz
born 19/07/1898
executed 05/09/1947

Fritz Schulze
born 16/03/1898
executed 14/11/1947

Josef Bussem
born 29/04/1917
executed 14/11/1947

Hermann Dinge
born 27/01/1892
executed 14/11/1947

Georg Gawliczek
born 02/01/1909
executed 14/11/1947

Marian Bisset
born 17/05/1922
executed 14/11/1947

Josef Stanczyk
born 17/04/1920
executed 14/11/1947

Tadeus Bielski
born 16/08/1923
executed 14/11/1947

Stanislaw Dziekn
born 17/03/1916
executed 14/11/1947

Jan Waskiewicz
born 24/12/1920
executed 14/11/1947

Kasimir Bogdanowicz
born 07/01/1923
executed 14/11/1947

Wasillie Kiwiak
born 23/03/1925
executed 14/11/1947

Hubert Sternicki
born 13/05/1927
executed 14/11/1947

Jan Borkowski
born 26/05/1926
executed 14/11/1947

Franz Soltys
born 09/04/1927
executed 14/11/1947

Wladislaw Gowronski
born 18/11/1915
executed 14/11/1947

Cornelius Kayser
born 14/04/1915
executed 14/11/1947

Udo Kettenbeil
born 16/05/1907
executed 29/01/1948

Ansis Zunde
born 08/11/1922
executed 29/01/1948

Peter Bartsch
born 24/02/1922
executed 29/01/1948

Wilhelm Hennings
born 13/09/1913
executed 29/01/1948

Otto Fricke
born 08/01/1901
executed 29/01/1948

Willi Tessmann
born 15/01/1908
executed 29/01/1948

Otto Schütte
born 02/01/1890
executed 29/01/1948

Mihaylo Kordic
born 21/11/1919
executed 29/01/1948

Pasaka Mehmedovic
born 20/09/1923
executed 29/01/1948

Monaylo Nicolic
born 10/05/1922
executed 29/01/1948

Stojadin Mitrasinowic
born 15/04/1914
executed 29/01/1948

Franc Safranauskas
born 24/01/1902
executed 29/01/1948

Milosan Pavkovic
born 12/12/1923
executed 29/01/1948

Czeslaw Borowicz
born 08/10/1924
executed 29/01/1948

Andrey Patuszkiewicz
born 09/11/1915
executed 29/01/1948

Friedrich Opitz
born 07/08/1898
executed 26/02/1948

Johann Schneider
born 20/09/1909
executed 26/02/1948

Emil Schulz
born 17/08/1907
executed 26/02/1948

Oskar Schmidt
born 01/06/1901
executed 26/02/1948

Johannes Post
born 11/11/1908
executed 26/02/1948

Alfred Schimmel
born 05/04/1906
executed 26/02/1948

Hans Kähler
born 03/05/1911
executed 26/02/1948

Walter Herberg
born 13/08/1905
executed 26/02/1948

Walter Jacobs
born 03/03/1913
executed 26/02/1948

Friedrich Hauser
born 28/04/1901
executed 26/02/1948

Eduard Geith
born 23/09/1899
executed 26/02/1948

Josef Gmeiner
born 22/12/1904
executed 26/02/1948

Emil Weil
born 01/01/1910
executed 26/02/1948

Otto Preiss
born 21/07/1906
executed 26/02/1948

Erich Zacharias
born 16/12/1911
executed 26/02/1948

Johannes Hehmann
born 01/04/1898
executed 24/03/1948

Wasyl Iwanowitsch (alias Zenon Lichola)
born 17/03/1923
executed 24/03/1948

Wasyl Skiba
born 03/08/1924
executed 24/03/1948

Nikolay Naumow (alias Steblinski)
born 17/06/1926
executed 24/03/1948

Jurko Dobocz
born 05/05/1924
executed 09/06/1948

Josef Czerwick
born 07/04/1924
executed 09/06/1948

Georg Griesel
born 26/07/1915
executed 09/06/1948

Karl Finkenrath
born 19/04/1909
executed 09/06/1948

Heinrich Heeren
born 08/12/1914
executed 09/06/1948

Peter Klos
born 11/04/1914
executed 09/06/1948

Otto Mohr
born 05/06/1898
executed 09/06/1948

Otto Baumann
born 17/08/1908
executed 09/06/1948

Alois Schmid
born 08/03/1908
executed 29/07/1948

Jerczy Trawinski
born 17/04/1925
executed 29/07/1948

Dr. Walter Sonntag
born 13/05/1907
executed 17/09/1948

Artur Conrad
born 26/06/1910
executed 17/09/1948

Dr. med. Benno Orendi
born 29/03/1913
executed 17/09/1948

Friedrich Dikty
born 28/03/1905
executed 29/09/1948

Adolf Wodenko
born 17/07/1921
executed 09/12/1948

Roland Zylinski
born 03/01/1922
executed 09/12/1948

Günther Kuhl
born 14/12/1907
executed 09/12/1948

Stanislaus Fialkowski
born 07/11/1923
executed 09/12/1948

Bernhard Siebken
born 05/04/1910
executed 20/01/1949

Czeslaw Swiderski
born 15/05/1923
executed 20/01/194/9

Dietrich Schnabel
born 16/06/1920
executed 20/01/1949

Friedrich Knöchlein
born 27/05/1911
executed 21/01/1949

Theodor Jaremchuk
born 13/09/1919
executed 17/02/1949

Josef Cieplak
born 24/01/1924
executed 18/05/1949

Casper Schmidt
born 07/01/1924
executed 26/07/1949

Friedrich Theilengerdes
born 09/10/1894
executed 26/07/1949

Roman Klinske (alias Szygmund Zarzycky)
born 22/10/1922
executed 30/09/1949

Mieczeslaw Antenowicz
born 10/10/1926
executed 30/09/1949

Jerzy Andziak
born unbekannt
executed 06/12/1949

“An oath of silence has cloaked the shameful fate of these graves for all these years, an oath we now break,” wrote Erich Kern of himself in the German Weekly (Vol. 10, No. 42, October 10, 1975, p. 7.) “We know that the Gardens and Cemeteries Department of Hamelin no longer maintains the individual graves. Shall these graves, which bear witness to the one-sided war-crimes proceedings now be effaced? Is it hoped thereby to obliterate the tragedy from the memory of man?”

In 1986, these graves were in fact leveled. While Holocaust memorials spring up everywhere, we Germans are denied the memory of our own dead and above all of the victims of the brutal occupation regime.

* * *

First (re)published as “Das grauenhafte Geheimnis von Hameln [sic]” in Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung, Vol. 9, No. 4 (2005), pp. 419-428; translated from German by N. Joseph Potts.

[1] Taken from the issues of Deutsche Wochenzeitung No. 42, 10 October 10, 1975, page 7; No. 39, 30 September 30, 1977; No. 41, 14 October 14, 1977, page 7.

[2] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Pierrepoint.