1945: Ewald Ehlers lynched
1 comment April 25th, 2012 Headsman
On this date in 1945, the commandant of Waffen-Grenadier Regiment 73 was lynched by his own men.
These were remnants of a regiment within the notorious Dirlewanger brigade comprised largely of ex-prisoners set at liberty to do the dirtiest of SS work.
So there was a certain poetic justice to Ehlers’ fate. An SS man since 1938, Ehlers had fought all over in the bloody preceding years (he’d been in the army and the Luftwaffe during the interwar period), and served in several different SS formations.
The Dirlewanger forces at this point had been beaten to a pulp by the Red Army, and were bleeding deserters every day. The remnants of Ehlers’ regiment mustered on this day in an attempt to reorganize. Instead, Ehlers was lynched by his men for reasons unknown: his previous turn commanding Dachau, where many of his men might have once been imprisoned, is one possible factor.
April 25, 1945 is more illustriously marked in the annals of World War II as Elbe Day, when American troops coming from the west and Soviet troops from the east met at Torgau on the Elbe River, splitting the Reich in two.
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The canned publicity shot of U.S. and Soviet officers meeting in Torgau.
From the Themed Set: The Death Rattle of the Third Reich.
On this day..
- 1328: Pierre de Remi, royal treasurer - 2020
- 1804: Hans Jakob Willi, Bockenkrieger - 2019
- 1827: Blue Jimmy - 2018
- 1859: Oscar Jackson lynched, precipitating the Wright County War - 2017
- 1952: Lloyd Edison Sampsell, the Yacht Bandit - 2016
- 1864: Thomas Dawson, manhood sealed - 2015
- 1683: Yaoya Oshichi, fire horse - 2014
- 1900: Bill Brown, Sonnie Crain and John Watson - 2013
- 1938: Yakov Peters, Siege of Sidney Street survivor - 2011
- 1644: Looters in conquered Beijing - 2010
- 1649: John Poyer, the lucky winner - 2009
- 1792: Nicolas Pelletier, Madame Guillotine's first kiss - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Borderline "Executions",Execution,Germany,Hanged,History,Lynching,Occupation and Colonialism,Soldiers,Summary Executions,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1940s, 1945, april 25, ewald ehlers, sonderbatallion dirlewanger, world war ii
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