1940: The Sass Brothers, Weimar burglars
March 27th, 2019 Headsman
On this date in 1940, the Sass Brothers — notorious scofflaw thieves from the Weimar Germany era — were extrajudicially executed by the Nazis at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Pioneers of the then-novel art of blowtorching their way into bank safes, die Brüder Sass — Erich and Franz — became public celebrities after their arrest in 1929, especially when the state failed to stick the case against them and the lads remained as free men, publicly flaunting their stolen wealth.
The position of being well-known unpunished crooks became a good deal less comfortable after the 1933 rise of the Nazis, so the Sasses (wisely) moved to Denmark and (less wisely) did some crimes there, too. They copped a short Danish sentence, and after its expiration in 1938 the Danes transferred Erich and Franz Sass back the Third Reich. But even the severity of 13- and 11-year sentences for bank robbery back home, according to Nikolaus Wachsmann,
did not satisfy Heinrich Himmler, who ordered the brothers’ execution. On 27 March 1940, Erich and Franz Sass were taken from penal institutions to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Here, they were murdered by SS men under the command of Rudolf Hoess, who recalled the execution after the war: ‘They [the brothers] refused resolutely to stand against the post, and I had to let them be tied up. They resisted with all their strength. I was extremely relieved when I was able to give the order to shoot.’ Their murder was promptly reported in the Nazi press. This case demonstrates clearly the difference between punishment in the Weimar and the Nazi period. In the Weimar Republic, the two brothers had walked free because there was not sufficient evidence to convict them. In Nazi Germany, they were murdered, irrespective of legal regulations.
On this day..
- 1915: Pandit Kanshi Ram, Ghadar plotter - 2020
- 1728: Five at Tyburn - 2018
- 1634: John Bartendale survives hanging and burial - 2017
- 1894: Walter Smith - 2016
- 1889: Mark Francis and James Turney - 2015
- 1878: The Brassell boys - 2014
- 1811: Adam Lyal, highwayman - 2013
- 1947: Hisakazu Tanaka, Hong Kong occupier - 2012
- 1677: Giles Bland - 2011
- 2009: Two thieves in Riyadh - 2010
- 1836: Goliad Massacre - 2009
- 2001: Robert Lee Massie, who spent a lifetime dying - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Concentration Camps,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,Germany,History,No Formal Charge,Notable Jurisprudence,Notable Participants,Shot,Theft,Wrongful Executions
Tags: 1940, 1940s, erich sass, franz sass, heinrich himmler, rudolph hoess, sachsenhausen concentration camp, weimar germany
