1946: Eleven from the Stutthof concentration camp

1570: Aonio Paleario, Italian religious reformer 1947: Ding Mocun, not as hot a lay in real life

1946: Eleven from the Stutthof concentration camp

July 4th, 2008 Headsman

On this date in 1946, officials of Soviet-occupied Poland publicly hanged eleven convicted war criminals of the Stutthof concentration camp.

Set up immediately upon Germany’s September 1, 1939 invasion of Poland and not liberated until after official German capitulation in 1945, Stutthoff handled over 100,000 prisoners during its long service.

This day’s condemned — camp commandant Johann Pauls, five male kapos, and five female guards — were the product of the first of four Stutthof trials held in 1946-1947. At a hill in Gdansk known as Biskupia Gorka (Bishop Hill), upon a specially-erected row of four T-shaped double gallows centered around a pi-shaped triple gallows, and before a crowd of thousands, the doomed eleven were noosed on the back of military trucks which then drove away to leave them strangling to death with a “short drop” hanging.

The following gut-twisting images are among a number to be found here.

Above: on one end of the gallows row, the truck has just pulled away from Jenny Wanda Barkmann — a modish Hamburg lass in her mid-20′s known to Stutthof prisoners as “the Beautiful Specter” for her cruelty. Down the row, one can see that some of the prisoners are already swinging, while others have not yet been dropped.

Upon hearing her sentence, Jenny Barkmann retorted, “Life is indeed a pleasure, and pleasures are usually short.” (More about Barkmann, including trial photos, here.) In this closer view of her, just as in the first photo, she is still alive and struggling. Next to her, Ewa Paradies, another guard, is prepared for the same fate.

The central triple gallows. Commandant Johann Pauls hangs in the middle with Gerda Steinhoff — one of the senior female guards — in the foreground. The line of five male kapos recedes behind them into the enormous crowd of onlookers.

There’s more about Stutthof’s history at the Holocaust Research Project, and at the current memorial facility’s home page.

Also on this date

Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Concentration Camps,Death Penalty,Execution,Germany,Hanged,History,Mass Executions,Mature Content,Occupation and Colonialism,Poland,Public Executions,Russia,USSR,War Crimes,Women

Tags: 1946, bischofschugel, biskupia gorka, danzig, elisabeth becker, ewa paradies, fascism, franciszek szopinski, gdansk, gerda steinhoff, holocaust, jan breit, jenny wanda barkmann, johann pauls, joseph reiter, july 4, kapos, nazi, naziism, stolzenberg, stutthof, sztutowo, tadeus kopczynski, waclaw kozlowski, wanda klaff, world war ii

15 Responses to “1946: Eleven from the Stutthof concentration camp”

1
ExecutedToday.com » Executed Today’s First Annual Report: One Year of Dying Languorously Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 10:28 am
[...] July 4, 1946: Eleven from the Stutthof concentration camp [...]
2
Krzysztof Says:
September 2nd, 2009 at 6:45 am
Drama……, Tragedy……. :(:(
3
ExecutedToday.com » Executed Today’s Second Annual Report: Once Bitten, Twice Die Says:
October 31st, 2009 at 1:28 pm
[...] 5. July 4, 1946: Eleven from the Stutthof concentration camp [...]
4
Max Says:
February 25th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
The link refering to a Geocities site is no more valid

Find the story here

http://max.mmvi.de/ssfrauen/danzig.htm
5
Headsman Says:
February 25th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Wow, Geocities links. This blog has been around for a while.

Thanks, Max — the link is fixed in the entry now as well.
6
Damb Says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Frankly, a nice sight. I wish many more Nazis suffered the same fate.
7
ExecutedToday.com » Executed Today’s Third Annual Report: Third Time Lucky Says:
October 31st, 2010 at 1:24 pm
[...] 5. July 4, 1946: Eleven from the Stutthoff concentration camp [...]
8
Dave Says:
November 13th, 2010 at 5:42 am
You are fucking FILTH! We will rise again and we will destroy ALL of you scum who revel in this disgusting obscene filth.
You excuses for human beings are no better than you “accuse” the National Socialists of being.
The “people” who did this and all adults who watched it (I notice there are even very young children watching, says a lot about the sort of “people” perpetrating these disgusting CRIMES) should be tried and punished. It is totally illegal, hanging has to be done in a certain way and this was certainly not. It is an obscenity and should be punished, if there are still any of these scum around today, they should be brought to justice.
National Socialism was RIGHT and we will return and we will remember things like this, so lowlife like you had better beware.
9
Fiz Says:
November 13th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Get back into the undergrowth you crawled from, Dave. National Socialism is destruction , terror, repression, waste, and death. Hitler shot his brains out in despair. Go and do the same, you BNP piece of sh-t.
10
Robert Says:
February 12th, 2011 at 10:23 pm
Loved seeing the nazi scum hanging,i hope they suffered a long agonising death.
11
Jerimi Says:
April 5th, 2011 at 9:44 am
Dave,
you are right, they should have been soaked in gasoline and torched right before they were hanged.
12
Jim Says:
July 3rd, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Dave with an atitude like that you should be #12.
13
John Foster Says:
August 22nd, 2011 at 4:24 pm
“National Socialism was RIGHT and we will return and we will remember things like this, so lowlife like you had better beware.”

If I ever meet up with you I WILL kill you. I PROMISE.
14
Fiz Says:
August 22nd, 2011 at 6:01 pm
Headsman, you ought to investigate this nutter above who is issuing death threats on your site.
15
ExecutedToday.com » Executed Today’s Fifth Annual Report: Hang Five Says:
October 31st, 2012 at 4:04 am
[...] Ted Bundy (January 24, 1989) 2. Eleven from the Stutthof concentration camp (July 4, 1946) 3. Samuel K. Doe (September 9, 1990) 4. Mohammad Najibullah (September 27, 1996) [...]

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