The Evening Star (May 29, 1946)
Hanging of 28 Nazis for Dachau slayings completed by Army
Commandant of camp and 13 associates executed for deaths of 300,000
LANDSBERG, Germany (AP) – Grimly methodical, the U.S. Army completed today the hanging of 28 Germans responsible for the deaths of 300,000 tortured inmates of the Dachau concentration camp.
The grisly drama of the gallows continued for four hours, in which 14 men dropped to quick death. Fourteen others were hanged yesterday.
The seventh man to climb the 13 steps to one of the twin black scaffolds in old Landsberg prison courtyard today was Martin Gottfried Weiss, 43, who until the last minute hoped for a reprieve from the war crimes branch of the Army. Weiss was commandant of the camp and a former prisoner at Dachau had volunteered a statement that he had done everything he could for the inmates.
‘Giving life for Germany’
The Army considered the case several times and refused to intervene.
Weiss was cool and phlegmatic as the hangman bound his feet and prepared to slip the black hood and noose over his head. He spoke his last words with his eyes fixed on the green Bavarian hillside beyond the prison wall.
“I am giving my life for Germany,” he shouted.
His body was cut down 15 minutes later and placed in a pine coffin.
All 28 were convicted by an American Military War Crimes Court last December for murdering more than 300,000 men, women and children at Dachau – once a synonym in Germany for terror. The court heard testimony that men were burned alive at Dachau, that others were immersed in ice water for experimentation and that thousands were beaten.
Regains composure on gallows
Over a harrowing three-hour period yesterday one Nazi dropped through the trap of the twin black gallows every 15 minutes. Each walked up the 13 steps alone and unaided.
Dr. Klaus Karl Schilling, 74-year-old physician who had gained wide renown in pre-Nazi days, shuffled to the gallows trembling but regained his composure as the hangman bound his feet in the shadow of the cell block where Adolf Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf.”
Asked if he cared to make a last statement, Schilling lifted his bearded chin in a defiant attitude.
“Nein,” he snapped. “Schnell, bitte schnell.” (“No. Hurry, please hurry.”)
The hangmen did.
It was Schilling who used 1,200 unwilling inmates of Dachau to test his theories of malaria immunization. More than 400 of them, mostly Polish priests, died. He asked the court at his trial for time to conclude his malaria experiments.
Executioners work swiftly
As one body was being cut down, another condemned man was led to the second gallows. The executioners worked swiftly. One of them was Master Sgt. John C. Wood of San Antonio, Texas, formerly official executioner of Texas and Oklahoma. The other, a German, is a member of a Landsberg family which has killed men legally for 200 years. Together they have hanged or guillotined nearly 3,000 persons.
Josef Seuss, whose pleasure it once was to string up Dachau prisoners by their arms tied behind them and then kick and beat them as they hung in torture, misread his curtain speech.
“I only hope Germany will be strong–,” he shouted. “No! No! I mean I hope Germany will be beautiful again.”
Simon Kiern, who used Dachau inmates for pistol practice and who once killed a man with one blow, walked to the gallows carrying a bouquet of pink and white flowers.