War crime hangings at Landsberg in May 1946.

War crime hangings at Landsberg in May 1946.

With special thanks to Traugott Vitz for his help with this article.

Over two days at the end of May 1946, 28 German war criminals were hanged at Landsberg am Lech prison in Germany (US War Criminals Prison No. 1).

The Dachau concentration camp was liberated by two divisions of the U.S. Seventh Army on the 29th of April, 1945.  40 members of it staff were tried at the camp by a US General Military Court, presided over by Brigadier General John Lenz. The trials lasted from the 15th of November to the 13th of December 1945.  36 defendants received the death sentence.

 Eight of these sentences were reduced to terms of imprisonment by the Reviewing Authority, the remaining 28 death sentences being confirmed.

The trial went under the designation “USA against Martin Gerhard Weiß (Weiss) et al.”, Case No. 000-50-2. Martin Gerhard Weiss was the camp commandant at Dachau.  This trial became the “Parent Case” for 488 other trials (all dealing with concentration camp atrocities) against 1672 defendants, of whom 1416 were convicted and 426 condemned to death.

The first charge of the Dachau trial alleged that the accused “acting in pursuance of a common design to commit the acts hereinafter alleged, and as members of the staff of Dachau Concentration Camp and camps subsidiary thereto, did, at, or in the vicinity of Dachau and Landsberg, Germany, between about January 1,1942 and about April 29, 1945, wilfully, deliberately and wrongfully encourage, aid, abet and participate in the subjection of civilian nationals of nations then at war with the then German Reich to cruelties and mistreatment, including killings, beatings, tortures, starvation, abuses and indignities, the exact names and numbers of such civilian nationals being unknown.”  The court heard evidence from survivors of beatings, starvation, hangings and other abuse.  Also a lot of photographic evidence was presented.

The hangings were carried out by US Army Master Sergeant John C. Woods and German executioner Johann Reichhart using two US style gallows.  See photo.  Woods typically used the left hand gallows and Reichhart the right hand set. 

Each man was escorted from his cell by four Military Policemen (M.P.’s). 

 As they came into the courtyard, before mounting the steps to the gallows, the prisoners were stopped for the pinioning of their hands with cord by Woods and with hinged handcuffs by Reichhart.  Once they were on the trap door, the ankles were pinioned with cord by both men. 

When all the formalities (reading of death warrant, etc.) were completed, the black hood was put on.

Reichhart, who worked without assistant, then put on the US style thirteen coil noose, holding it in position with his left hand, while operating the lever with his right.

Woods’ assistant held out the noose to Woods who took it and placed it with the knot at the back of the neck. The assistant held the coil upright behind the head of the condemned, while Woods worked the lever.

It would appear from filmed recording of a number of these executions that the men were given a drop of their own height plus a few inches.  However this seemed to be adequate in most cases and there were no obvious signs of struggling.

On Tuesday the 28th of May 1946, the first batch of 14 men were hanged.  They were:

41 year old SS-Obersturmführer, Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert, who was certified dead at 0954 hours.  He had beaten prisoners with a riding crop and arranged for the gassing of 90 Russian officers.  His last words were “Tell my wife I was thinking of her and died bravely.”  He was then hanged by Woods.

Simon Kiern, (32) an SS-Hauptscharführer, died at 1013 hrs.  Kiern had been a block leader and was fond of beating prisoners.

43 year old Otto Förschner, an SS-Sturmbannführer, was dead at 1022 hrs. Förschner was the former Commandant of Nordhausen Concentration Camp and had transferred to the Kaufering I sub-camp of Dachau.  He was convicted of beating a prisoner to death with an iron bar.

Franz Xaver Trenkle (47), an SS-Hauptscharführer, was dead at 1044 hrs.  He had been in charge of the punishment block and oversaw executions.

Rudolf Heinrich Suttrop, aged 34, an SS-Obersturmführer, died at 1054 hrs.  Suttrop was Weiss’ adjutant.

42 year old Josef Jarolin, another SS-Obersturmführer, died at 1111 hrs.

Engelbert Valentin Niedermeyer, aged 34, an SS - Unterscharführer, was dead at 1121 hrs.  He had been the administrative officer of the crematorium.

At 1327 hrs. Vinzenz Schöttl (40), an SS-Obersturmführer, was certified dead.

Dr. Klaus (or Claus) Karl Schilling (74) was dead at 1337 hrs.  He was not an SS member, but rather a retired professor and physician, who did malaria research, experimenting on inmates of whom hundreds died as a result. His last words were “Schnell, bitte, schnell” (Hurry, please, hurry in English). 

30 year old Josef Seuss, (Seuß in German) an SS-Hauptscharführer, was pronounced dead at 1354 hrs.  He was convicted of torturing inmates.

Walter Adolf Langleist, (52) an SS-Oberführer, died at 1407 hrs.

Anton Endres, (36) an SS-Oberscharführer, died at 1423 hrs.  He had assisted in freezing experiments on prisoners.

31 year old Otto Moll, an SS-Hauptscharführer who was in charge of cremations, died at 1436 hrs.  

He had led a death march of 450 prisoners from Kaufering II sub-camp.

55 year old Johann Viktor Kirsch, an SS-Hauptscharführer, was the last to die this day, at 1447 hrs.  Kirsch had worked at Kaufering I sub-camp and had been convicted of murdering an inmate.

Johann Reichhart had been a German executioner before the war and according to his records carried out 3,165 executions, mostly by guillotine (Fallbeil in German).

Although he had been a member of the Nazi Party he was employed as an executioner at Landsberg am Lech by the US Army until the end of May 1946.  He may have offered his services to them.  The by then 53 year old Reichhart seemed to have adapted well to the US Army method of hanging. 

 He still wore a dark suit and black bow tie but had dispensed with the tail coat, top hat and white gloves which were the German executioner’s uniform. Reichhart resigned after this series of executions, apparently because he was concerned that he had been asked to hang two innocent men due to an administrative mix up.  It is thought that in total he hanged 21 men at Landsberg.