Massacre in the Arnsberg Forest

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Exhumation of 57 bodies of Soviet forced laborers outside Suttrops by German civilians. A US Army captain takes information to identify a murder victim. Photo taken on May 3, 1945.

The massacre in the Arnsberg Forest was an end- stage crime shortly before the end of the Second World War . It took place in the Arnsberg Forest near Warstein , Suttrop and Eversberg . Between 20./21. and March 23, 1945, by members of one of the Waffen SS and Wehrmacht composite Division , under the command of SS Group leader and general of the Waffen-SS Hans Kammler was male and in several killings in the area Warstein and Eversberg 208 female Forced laborers and two children murdered. After the invasion of the US Army, the mass graves were discovered and the corpses were exhumed by German civilians and buried in individual graves. In 1957/58 there was a trial against six accused of complicity before the Arnsberg Regional Court . The process met with a great response from the public; the national press reported in detail about it. The generally mild judgments of 1958 were consistently criticized by the reporters and politicians. Revision processes led to an increase in the sentence for the three main defendants.

prehistory

The “final battle” that NSDAP members, the Waffen-SS and parts of the Wehrmacht intended to wage was associated with the killing of “undesirable elements”. This included in particular Soviet prisoners of war, concentration camp inmates and forced laborers. Until shortly before the Allied invasion, there were mass shootings in numerous places on the Rhine and Ruhr . The procedure followed that of the task forces in the eastern regions.

The murder in the Sauerland also belongs in this context . The region lies on the periphery of the eastern Ruhr area . Since the summer of 1944 there were three groups of forced laborers in the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area, depending on the type of accommodation. The largest of these were those who were still held in camps and forced to work. There were also numerous forced laborers whose camps had been destroyed by bombing and who hid in the ruins of the cities until they were liberated. A third group had left the cities on their own and tried to survive in rural areas such as Münsterland , Bergisches Land or Sauerland until the end of the war.

At the end of 1944, the German authorities began to relocate those forced laborers, who had lost their jobs and accommodation in the bombing , eastwards. The forced laborers were divided into groups and guarded. However, the guards often left after a few days, and the workers were stranded in the Sauerland and followed as marauders by the Gestapo and other security forces . The number of forced laborers brought out of the Ruhr area increased sharply in early 1945; therefore the regional council in Arnsberg drew up a plan for an orderly course of the evacuations with certain routes, rest and overnight stops.

At the beginning of March 1945, around 1,000 people per day passed through the stations on the route. Because the march ran into difficulties, the people in the area around Meschede were jammed and were initially distributed to different villages and towns. Accommodation was soon exhausted and there was a lack of food. For example, many forced laborers fled into the forests in order to make their way there until nearby troops of the US Army arrived . To survive, they stole chickens from farms or committed field theft. Apart from such minor thefts, there were no robberies or violent attacks during this period. According to the then Gauleiter and highest Reich Defense Commissioner for West Germany, Albert Hoffmann , in the later trial of the killings in the Arnsberg Forest there was an order to shoot all plundering and marauding slave laborers.

Course of action

Murder assignment

Hans Kammler (1932)

In Suttrop , a village 2 km from Warstein, the staff of Division zV (for retaliation) was on the premises of the local school . The name comes from the National Socialist propaganda term “ retribution weapon ”. These referred to the cruise missile V 1 and the rocket V 2 , which this unit was able to fire at the advancing Allies in the Netherlands until the beginning of March . The troops consisted of Wehrmacht soldiers and members of the Waffen SS. The unit was commanded by the SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the Waffen-SS Hans Kammler, who also worked as a special commissioner for technical warfare outside of Suttrop throughout the Reich. On a trip to Warstein he became aware of the large number of forced laborers marching on the streets. When his car had to stop because of such a group, he told his companions that this "rabble" had to be eliminated. A few days later, the general came across a group of camped slave laborers in the woods who were plucking stolen chickens. Kammler then convened his staff on March 19 or 20, 1945. He described the forced laborers as a major security risk against which measures must be taken. The danger can only be reduced by decimating the Eastern workers . He reported on alleged or actual riots by forced laborers in the Reich. It is true that "this has not yet happened in this area, but these are to be expected and that must be prevented." In addition, the food supply is also critical, and the supplies for the Germans are reduced by the foreign workers. Therefore it is necessary to "decimate foreign workers" .

Kammler, who left Suttrop for his other tasks, left the implementation to his subordinates, who acted largely independently. In the rifle hall on the Herrenberg in Warstein and next to the school in neighboring Suttrop there were makeshift camps where the forced laborers were temporarily housed and poorly fed. The victims were taken from these accommodations.

Suttrop and Warstein crime scenes

One action was directed against the people housed on the edge of the school premises. It is unclear who put together the killing squad from NCOs and staff and who commanded the action. The then SS-Untersturmführer Heinz Zeuner was a witness of the deed . The group of 35 men, 21 women and one child housed in the school in Suttrop was ordered to prepare for removal.

In addition, the first victims were selected from among the forced laborers in Warstein. The SS-Oberfeldrichter Wolfgang Wetzling, together with SS-Untersturmführer Bernhard Anhalt and Ernst-Moritz Klönne, had an interpreter announce to the 800-1000 forced laborers crammed into the Schützenhalle that he was looking for volunteers who would be brought to another better camp. Thereupon 14 men and 56 women answered. One of them had a one-year-old child with her. This group was also murdered.

Wetzling and Klönne had chosen the execution site in Langenbachtal on March 20. Klönne was the son of a Dortmund entrepreneur who owned a villa in Warstein. He was not subordinate to Kammler and participated voluntarily in the company. For the killing operation, the soldiers had prepared a mass grave in the Im Stein forest between Suttrop and Körtlinghausen . People had to line up at the edge of the pit and were shot in the head . One man from the last group managed to break free and ran towards SS man Zeuner, who shot him several times. Most of the murder squad had scruples about killing the group's only child. An SS man agreed and smashed the child's head on a tree trunk. Given the large number of women, Zeuner evidently had doubts as to whether they could actually be looters . He said to Kammler the next morning: “There were a lot of women and children there.” He replied: “You can't kill enough of this stuff.” The Chief Justice Wetzling testified against him later in the trial that he was about the big one Number of women thought about it. "I made sure that only men were shot at the next execution so that parity was restored ..."

Valuables, papers and recyclable items of clothing were taken from the victims and handed over to the chief paymaster in return for a receipt . On the night of March 22nd to 23rd, the rifle hall in which the Soviet forced laborers and French prisoners of war were housed burned down . In Warstein it is believed that the SS men were also responsible for this. In the larger part, which was firmly barricaded, the slave laborers were housed and in another part the prisoners of war. In this area only the door was locked. The French tore a hole in the wooden wall that separated the two areas. So all people could escape the fire.

Crime scene Eversberg

Soviet stele in the Fulmecke forest cemetery

On the night of March 22nd to 23rd, 1945, another 80 men from the camp in the Warsteiner Schützenhalle were murdered. This act took place near Eversberg, roughly where the road to Eversberg branches off from the B 55 today . The Wehrmacht officer Helmut Gaedt was, as he later testified as a defendant, ordered to be the division's first general staff officer , Johann Miesel. He said that Russians had been caught looting. These are to be shot. When asked what he had to do with it as a weapons officer, Miesel replied: “You are an officer like everyone else.” He received further instructions from Chief Justice Wetzling, who confirmed the order. There was no official court martial for looting; rather, a lump sum of 80-100 forced laborers should be executed.

Gaedt received the order to prepare an execution site. In the evening the delinquents would be handed over to him. To prepare for the execution site, he ordered twenty slave laborers and had a mass grave excavated with the aid of explosives. Together with a sergeant, Gaedt planned the next steps. The unit was supposed to leave around 10:30 p.m. because the Warsteiners went to bed after the late news. So one hoped not to cause a stir. At around 10 p.m., the NCO reported with his subordinates. Some of the troops turned to the execution site, while others went to the forced laborer's quarters.

The victims were handed over to the command under Gaedt. Some of them had to get on trucks, while the rest followed on foot. After arriving at the execution site, each soldier had to accompany a Russian to a meadow. The forced laborers had to leave luggage and clothing there. This caused a certain amount of unrest, but nothing else. The victims were taken to the pit and shot in the head at close range. Gaedt then went into the pit with a flashlight to check whether everyone was dead. So that the next group of victims did not notice anything, some earth was shoveled over the corpses.

As a result, groups of 15 forced laborers were always murdered. The action lasted from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Gaedt testified during the trial: “We had worked hard all night and were torn inside. I had cigarettes and alcohol distributed. Most of the soldiers refused alcohol. ” He went on to report that one soldier had refused to actively participate in the execution for religious reasons. Gaedt stated in court that he had respect for this attitude, but that he had "squeezed" the soldier with a view to the discipline. In the end, the soldier didn't have to shoot. “Then we burned the Russians' things. Everything went very neatly: Nobody had misappropriated anything. Then we cleaned our shoes and bulwark and drove to the accommodation. I couldn't sleep, I was so excited… ” The next morning Gaedt reported to Miesel by telephone. When asked how many had been killed, Gaedt replied "eighty". "Miesel asked very excitedly: 'Why eighty and not a hundred?' I said I only received eighty. Miesel said: 'Well - it doesn't matter, more of this pack will be shot anyway.' ... "

After the fact

The Mescheder atonement cross to commemorate the massacre was hotly contested among the population and had to be dismantled for decades.

Although the perpetrators tried to keep the action a secret, there were rumors among the population of Warstein that "something terrible" must have happened in the forest. After the occupation by the US Army in early April 1945, the mass graves were discovered. The bodies were exhumed in early May 1945 . Former members of the NSDAP were used for this purpose. The Americans let the entire Warsteiner and Suttrop population pass by the bodies. The victims were then dignified and buried in individual graves. The former NSDAP members were also used for this purpose. In 1964 the remains were transferred to the Fulmecke forest cemetery in Meschede , also known as the "French cemetery".

The mass grave near Eversberg was discovered a few weeks later by the property owner, but was not reported to the Allied military authorities for fear of the forced laborers still in the area. The murdered slave laborers were exhumed in 1947 under the supervision of District Medical Councilor Petrasch. The corpses were placed in coffins in twos and buried in the French cemetery.

In Meschede, the news that the bodies had been found in parts of the population caused deep dismay. Georg D. Heidingsfelder , Father Harduin Bießle and others initiated the erection of an atonement cross. The local pastor and parts of the population spoke out against this. Above all people who had lost relatives in the Soviet Union during the war could not see why one should "put up a cross for the Russians". Nevertheless, the cross was consecrated in 1947. It was subsequently violated several times. At Pentecost, the perpetrators tried to pull the cross out of the ground. It was later sawed, apparently with the intention of forcibly removing it. Finally an attempt was made to set it on fire. After the attempt at a reconciliation between supporters and opponents had failed, the initiators had the cross removed and buried. Mesched's students dug up the cross again seventeen years later. Even at this time there were still major reservations, so the cross was initially stored in a garage. It was not until 1981 that it found a place in the Church of the Assumption of Mary .

Trials against the perpetrators

Investigations

Immediately after the end of the war, American investigators tried in vain to investigate the crimes. In 1950 the public prosecutor's office in Arnsberg had also investigated the matter without any result . In late 1955 and early 1956, several German public prosecutors received anonymous reports. The Arnsberg public prosecutor then resumed the investigation. A detective managed to identify a soldier who was in Warstein at the time of the crime. Various participants could be identified through him. It then took the prosecution eleven months to prepare the charges.

In 1957 the three main suspects were arrested. The person in charge, Hans Kammler, could no longer be prosecuted because he had committed suicide in May 1945 . In the process before the Arnsberg district court , six defendants finally had to answer.

Process in Arnsberg

The hearing took place in the former civil casino Arnsberg , which served as the town hall from 1946 to 1975

The trial did not take place in the courthouse, but in the town hall. The proceedings were led by District Court Director Kurt Niclas. In addition, there were the district judges Rudolphi and Wilhelm Flocke. Since it was a jury trial , six lay judges were also added. The defendant Klönne was represented by, among others, the legal scholar and experienced defense attorney Hans Dahs . The prosecution was represented by Chief Public Prosecutor Büchner and Public Prosecutor Kiehler. He had worked out the indictment to a large extent and also did most of the investigative work himself. The relationship between prosecution and defense is portrayed as binding and factual. Numerous witnesses from all over Germany were invited to the trial. In the first two weeks of the trial alone, over 50 witnesses were heard; 40 of them were under oath . At the end of the hearing, 86 witnesses had been heard. The quality of the statements varied greatly. Some actually or allegedly had few memories, others were mainly rumors, while some could give precise information. The process comprised 21 days of negotiations and lasted several months.

The main responsible for the murder was once the then 48-year-old SS-Obersturmbannführer and SS-Oberfeldrichter as well as chief judge of the Division zV , Wolfgang Wetzling. At the beginning of the trial he was the legal advisor . Secondly, it was the then 44-year-old Waffen SS members, Sturmbannfuhrer later governmental assessor and as mayor representative of Grömitz make Johann Miesel. The third main responsibility was the then 39-year-old Wehrmacht hauptmann and manufacturer's son Ernst Moritz Klönne. Klönne took part in the act as a private individual without any official assignment. Since February 1, 1945, he had been exempt from military service to work in his parents' company and was living in Warstein at the time of the crime. There he had met some officers of the unit who were based in Warstein and had heard from them about the matter. After 1945 he was a partner in the Klönne company in Dortmund. The other defendants were the former SS-Sturmführer and later commercial clerk Bernhard Anhalt, the former Wehrmacht officer and later commercial instructor Helmut Gaedt as well as the former SS-Sturmführer and later surveying technician Heinz Zeuner.

The former division adjutant, Captain Schmoller, also testified during the trial. At the time, he was living as the manager of a textile company in the USA . Schmoller, he admitted, had ordered one of the murders on Kammler's telephone orders. Since he was assured safe conduct as a witness, he remained unmolested as one of those directly involved.

Another potentially seriously incriminated witness was the former member of the SS judiciary, former SS-Hauptsturmführer and later higher regional judge from Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Helmut Merz (* 1911). He managed to deny his own complicity. The defendant Wetzling replied: "I would not have expected this from an old comrade."

When questioned, Wetzling did not speak of killing or even murder, but used the term "decimation". This was done “according to the law of large numbers”. According to Wetzling's statements, this law says: “Such a proportion of potentially publicly dangerous people among the arbitrarily selected foreign workers is shot as the total proportion of foreign workers.” Although more women than men and one child fell victim to the first killing, this was for Wetzling "not illegal according to the customs of total war." When asked why a child was also killed, the defendant replied that a lengthy selection of the death row inmates would have caused too much attention in the hall. The reporter for the Westfalenpost noticed that the accused kept using expressions from the dictionary of the monster, despite all the assertion of how heavy the crime later weighed on him. In addition to “decimation”, he also spoke of “ catching shot ” when it came to checking whether the victims were dead.

The public prosecutor's office applied for life imprisonment for murder for Wetzling , five years in prison for Anhalt, Gaedt, Miesel and Klönne and for Zeuner to cease the proceedings.

The defense, especially Dahs, placed the person of Kammler in the foreground to relieve their clients. Dahs felt that Kammler could not have been charged with murder because he could not have been accused of cruelty or malice. The defense attorney asked how his subordinates could be accused of murder or accessory to murder if Kammler only wanted manslaughter.

judgment

Reporters from television , Westdeutscher Rundfunk , various news agencies and newspapers were present when the verdict was announced . The court found that, in contrast to comparable proceedings, there was no charge of guilt against the victims at all. They would not have robbed or looted. The presiding judge: "You were hungry and wanted to eat." The court was of the opinion that the migrating foreign workers posed a threat to public order. But the chairman also emphasized: “It seems outrageous and inhuman that one simply wanted to get rid of foreign workers by killing them. The only reason for these shootings is the crime committed by the foreign workers, that the state, which brought them into the country against their will, no longer needed them as labor. ”On the earlier admission of the defendant Wetzling to the“ law of large numbers ” the presiding judge stated that this was to be seen "as cold cynicism, as an almost incomprehensible attitude towards man as God's creature". As a reason for the act he stated: “This act can only be explained from the Nazi ideology , from the attitude that war does not mean wrestling down, but annihilating the enemy. And according to this ideology, the foreign workers were nothing more than racially inferior. The shootings cannot be regarded as the destruction of the enemy. Ultimately, they only served to destroy unworthy life , dangerous and no longer useful workers. Here in Warstein, with the justification of total war, the same thing happened in the end as with the other types of 'unworthy life', with the mentally ill, anti-social and the so-called final solution of the Jewish question . "

The court came to the conclusion that the shooting was neither in the interests of waging the war nor to protect the population. Niklas described this as "absurd". The killings were " forced through the exploitation and abuse of the military command structure , as in the concentration camps of the time." Although the officers recognized the illegality of the orders, they followed them for fear of the consequences of refusing to order . "One also had to measure the times with other standards, quite apart from the fact that the evidence was also narrowed by the fact that actually only witnesses to the crime, i.e. accomplices, could be heard, whose statements all appeared personally colored and therefore lost weight."

The result of this assessment were mild sentences in February 1958. The court found that the acts were unlawful and that Wetzling had known about the illegality and was fully criminally responsible. The latter also applies to the other defendants, but with these the emergency situation ( command emergency ) must be taken into account. Zeuner and Anhalt might have been in "acute danger" themselves if the order had been refused. In the case of Gaeth, there was also the fact that he had resisted taking over the command. For these reasons, these three accused were acquitted.

The court found Miesel and Klönne only guilty of aiding and abetting manslaughter . Miesel was only marginally involved in the act and also disapproved of Kammler's order. Since the expected sentence would be less than three years, the court decided to apply Section 4 of the 1954 Law on Exemption from Penalties. The court gave the defendant Klönne high credit for his alleged motive to protect the city of Warstein from the possible consequences of the execution of foreign workers. It was negative, however, that he helped to carry out Kammler's order without being in a conflict situation. The law on impunity did not apply to him because he was not acting within the scope of his official duties. Klönne received a year and six months in prison for assisted manslaughter in 71 cases.

Wetzling was seen as the main culprit because the "will to rule" was strongest in him. The court assessed that he had also been under a certain amount of pressure and that he later suffered from the act. He was sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter on 151 cases.

Reactions to the process

Although the number of war crimes trials had fallen sharply, they received increased public attention. This also included the process before the Arnsberg Regional Court in 1957/58. Not only the regional and national German daily press reported, but also magazines and weekly newspapers in some very extensive form.

The regional newspapers, the Westfälische Rundschau and the Westfalenpost (which saw itself as a Christian-Catholic newspaper) reported in great detail and almost daily on the process, not only in the local section. The Westfalenpost supplemented its reports with a series in which readers could share their mostly negative experiences with the forced laborers at the end of the war. After the end of the process, the reporter for the Westfalenpost reported in a long article about impressions from the time of the process. Some people complained about the disproportionately low sentences. The reporter also reported threatening letters and anonymous calls because he had reported on the crime. Some were motivated by local patriotism, others showed that there were still many incorrigible people. The author showed a great deal of understanding for the predators' plight. He wrote: “The court had to specifically sentence the six accused. And for her spoke the situation in which she, in which we all stood then. That is why the judgment of the court on the National Socialist system was devastating. It was truly 'sine ira et studio', without zeal and without anger, factually and legally impeccable. ”In the end, the author was able to state with satisfaction that no Sauerlander was involved in the acts. “In this respect, the population of this country, the Sauerland itself, was acquitted. But what we learned about an unfortunate piece of our home history in the process - it was terrible. And no judgment, however favorable, exempts us from that. "

Much more critical was a large part of the national press. The star brought an illustrated five-page report under the title Because they had to know what they are doing . However, the pictures did not show the crimes, but the alleged perpetrators as friendly family fathers with children. The Revue and The Mirror overwrite their reports based on the famous film of 1946: "Murderers Among Us". Heinz D. Stuckmann reported on the process in three detailed articles for Die Zeit . In it he presented the biographies of the accused, described the deeds, the course of the trial and the verdict.

For trial observers it was frightening to realize that the perpetrators were not fanatical National Socialists, but “normal men”. Time and again, the reporters were amazed at the discrepancies between the acts and the role as respected, professionally successful, caring fathers at the time of the trial.

The judgment was met with incomprehension by the reporter Stuckmann, mainly because the judges did not recognize murder, as the prosecution demanded, but only manslaughter. Other observers were similarly critical. Herbert Hausen spoke in a comment for the broadcaster Free Berlin of a dismaying and shameful process outcome. But he warned against a blanket condemnation of the judiciary. However, the critical attitude did not necessarily correspond to the attitude of the readership. Readers wrote to the Stern: “Stop the madness of condemning German people who had no time to think about what they were doing or should do” or “I am amazed that you are now inciting against a brave one Troop and participate in the black painting ”.

The process also received a lot of attention from politicians. The social democratic legal expert Adolf Arndt spoke in the legal committee of the Bundestag of a "murder of the law". The verdict would dishonor the Federal Republic and encourage "all mass murderers from Katyn to Tunis". The chairman of the legal committee Matthias Hoogen ( CDU ) also felt the sentence in a statement for the star as "completely incomprehensible to the public". It cannot be that the protection provisions for wine counterfeiters are rated higher than those for human life. Arndt also said in Stern that there was an “outrageous disproportion” between acts and punishments. With the amnesty of 1954 (Law on Exemption from Punishment of July 17, 1954) the Bundestag had already gone very far. But where the requirements are not met, appropriate penalties would have to be applied. For him it was worrying that the killing of more than 100 people would be punished with a maximum of only a few years in prison, while for normal murderers a sentence of no less than ten years is usual. In the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia , Gerhard Koch ( SPD ) said that the verdict "caused great astonishment in broad circles". The judgment is reminiscent of the “softening of the judiciary” with regard to politically motivated crimes during the Weimar Republic . Joseph Bollig (CDU) agreed with Koch in this criticism.

Revision procedure

The judgments against Wetzling, Klönne and Miesel did not become final in 1958 because the public prosecutor's office and, in some cases, the defense appealed to higher courts. These processes led to several BGH decisions and referrals to a regional court . Wolfgang Wetzling was finally sentenced to life imprisonment. Johannes Miesel was sentenced to four years in prison on May 5, 1961. Klönne was finally sentenced to three years in prison. Wetzling was released on March 1, 1974 after 13 1 ⁄ 2  years in prison in various institutions. Klönne was released shortly before Christmas 1961 after just 14 months of imprisonment, which he served mainly in Münster . Miesel spent six months in Neumünster .

Monument protection for found objects at the crime scenes

In 2019, numerous personal finds that came from the murdered, such as shoes, Soviet coins, a prayer book, dictionaries, were shown publicly for the first time by the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe , LWL, as the responsible NRW state authority for monument protection . The finds also include relics of the murderers related to the crime, such as cartridge cases and shovels. Those killed had been Poles and Soviet citizens . According to the law, these relics will be preserved forever.

“On the one hand, the finds tell of the victims. But science also gains insights into the approach, the way of thinking and 'movement profiles' of the National Socialist perpetrators. "

- Matthias Löb , LWL, March 2019

In May 2020, the preservationists found an obelisk that had been erected in 1945 at the instigation of the Soviet Union to commemorate 71 victims of the war crimes of the National Socialists. The obelisk had been gone for decades. Warsteiner citizens are said to have disposed of it in 1964 after the dead were transferred to a prisoner-of-war cemetery near Meschede in 1964. It was an obelisk several meters high, the inscription of which in three languages ​​named the crime, the perpetrators and the victims in drastic terms.

literature

Court judgments

Press reports

  • The murderers are among us. In: Der Spiegel. 50, December 11, 1957. (online)
  • Heinz Stuckmann: Twelve years ago: At the end of twelve years. In: The time. December 12, 1957. (online)
  • Heinz Struckmann: The "basis" for mass murder. Again: The deeds in the Warstein trial, and how two defendants see them. In: The time. January 2, 1958. (online)
  • Heinz Stuckmann: Twelve days per murder. The strange judgment of Arnsberg. In: The time. February 20, 1958. (online)
  • Hst: Not-12-Days-Per-Murder. About the decision of the Arnsberg Regional Court of February 12, 1958 on Wetzel, Klönne and Miesel and the renegotiation in Hagen. In: The time. March 20, 1959. (zeit.de)

Secondary literature

  • Peter Bürger , Jens Hahnwald, Georg D. Heidingsfelder : “Between Jerusalem and Meschede.” The mass murders of Soviet and Polish forced laborers in the Sauerland during the final phase of World War II and the history of the “Mescheder Atonement Cross”. Eslohe 2015 ( Daunlots 76 ).
  • Andreas Eichmüller: No general amnesty. The prosecution of Nazi crimes in the early Federal Republic. Oldenbourg, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-70412-9 .
  • Jürgen Funke: Remembering a barbaric war crime in the Sauerland. In: Sauerland - magazine of the Sauerländer Heimatbund. 2/1995, p. 43 ( digital version ; last viewed October 16, 2013; PDF; 4.3 MB).
  • Ulrich Herbert : Foreign workers. Politics and practice of the "deployment of foreigners" in the war economy of the Third Reich. Berlin / Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-8012-0108-2 , new edition 1999. English edition: Hitler's Foreign Workers. Enforced Foreign Labor in Germany under the Third Reich. Cambridge Press, New York 1997, ISBN 0-521-47000-5 . (Reissued in 2006).
  • Dietmar Lange: "You could cry at the thought of so much inhumanity." Mass shootings of foreign forced laborers by SS commandos in the Arnsberg Forest in March 1945. In: Zimmermann Balve (Ed.): Zero hour. Years of reconstruction and a new beginning in the Sauerland. Schmallenberg 1995, ISBN 3-89053-055-9 , pp. 77-82.
  • Marcus Weidner: Crimes at the end of the war against forced laborers in the Sauerland in 1945. In: 200 years of Westphalia. Now !, Münster 2015, pp. 342–347.
  • Jens Hahnwald: The “Massacre in the Arnsberg Forest” and the burden of memory. In: Matthias Frese, Marcus Weidner (ed.): Negotiated memories. Dealing with honors, monuments and memorial sites after 1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-657-78798-2 .
  • Nadja Thelen-Khoder: The 'Franzosenfriedhof' in Meschede. Three massacres, two memorial stones, one memorial plaque and 32 tombstones. Documentation of a search for clues. Norderstedt 2018, ISBN 978-3-7528-6971-2 .

Web links

Commons : Massacre in the Arnsberg Forest  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arnsberger Rundschau. February 13, 1958.
  2. ↑ Ralf Blank: Nero command ( online version ).
  3. ^ Ulrich Herbert: Foreign workers. Politics and practice of the "deployment of foreigners" in the war economy of the Third Reich. Berlin / Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-8012-0108-2 , pp. 339f.
  4. ↑ Westfalenpost . 15/1958 of January 17, 1958.
  5. ^ Ulrich Herbert: Foreign workers. Politics and practice of the "deployment of foreigners" in the war economy of the Third Reich. Berlin / Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-8012-0108-2 , p. 340. Ders .: History of foreigner policy in Germany. Munich 2001, p. 181.
  6. ↑ a b c d e The murderers are among us. In: Der Spiegel . No. 50, 1957 ( online version ).
  7. ↑ a b Jürgen Funke: Memory of a barbaric war crime in the Sauerland. In: Sauerland - magazine of the Sauerländer Heimatbund. 2/1995, p 43 ( Digitalisat ( Memento of the original October 16, 2013 Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link is automatically inserted and not yet tested Please review the original and archive link under. Instructions and then remove this notice. ; Last viewed October 16, 2013; PDF; 4.3 MB). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sauerlaender-heimatbund.de
  8. ^ Fritz Schumacher: Home under bombs. The Arnsberg district in World War II. Zimmermann Brothers, Balve 1969, p. 104.
  9. ^ History of the Bürgererschützengesellschaft Warstein ( Memento from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ Heinz Struckmann: The "basis" for mass murder. Again: The deeds in the Warstein trial, and how two defendants see them. In: The time . January 2, 1958, p. 7 (online version).
  11. ↑ Heinz Struckmann: The "basis" for mass murder. Again: The deeds in the Warstein trial, and how two defendants see them. In: The time. January 2, 1958, p. 5 (online version).
  12. ↑ a b City Archives Meschede: End of the war - zero hour. P. 24f. ( PDF file ).
  13. ↑ Jürgen Funke: Memory of a barbaric war crime in the Sauerland. In: Sauerland. 2/1995, p. 44.
  14. ↑ Jan Niko Kirschbaum: memorials as signs of time. National Socialism in the culture of remembrance in North Rhine-Westphalia . transcript, Bielefeld 2020, ISBN 978-3-8376-5064-8 , pp. 52-71.
  15. ^ Contribution to the atonement cross
  16. ↑ Student project on the atonement cross , Alexandra Rickert: The Mescheder atonement cross. In: Yearbook Hochsauerlandkreis 1995, pp. 96–98.
  17. ↑ Westfalenpost. 1/1958
  18. ↑ a b c d Andreas Eichmüller: No general amnesty. The prosecution of Nazi crimes in the early Federal Republic. Munich 2012, p. 175.
  19. ↑ Westfalenpost. 1/1958 of January 1, 1958; 34/1958 from 8./9. February 1958.
  20. ↑ a b Heinz Stuckmann: Twelve days per murder. The strange judgment of Arnsberg. In: The time. February 20, 1958 ( online version ).
  21. ↑ Westfalenpost. 19/1958 of January 22, 1958.
  22. ↑ a b Westfalenpost. 34/1958 from 8./9. February 1958.
  23. ↑ Westfalenpost. 283/1957 from 7./8. December 1957.
  24. ↑ Westfalenpost. 38/1958 of February 13, 1958, cf .: Detlev Schlüchtermann: Mild sentences for cruel executions. In: Der Westen, March 18, 2008 (last viewed on October 25, 2013).
  25. ↑ See also Justice and Nazi Crimes Print of the legal proceedings at the Arnsberg Regional Court under serial number 458. There is only a short version there for everyone ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. to see. This does not include all of the circumstances of the offense, hence the lower number of victims than above. The entire 70-page process can be purchased from the editors of the decision collection for a license fee. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www1.jur.uva.nl
  26. ↑ Westfalenpost. 38/1958 of February 13, 1958.
  27. ↑ Westfalenpost. 28/1958 of February 1, 1958, 34/1958 of February 8th / 9th February 1958.
  28. ↑ Westfalenpost. 40, 15./16. February 1958.
  29. ^ Andreas Eichmüller: The criminal prosecution of Nazi crimes and the public in the early Federal Republic of Germany 1949-1958. In: Jörg Osterloh, Clemens Vollnhals (Hrsg.): Nazi trials and the German public. Occupation, early Federal Republic and GDR. Göttingen 2011, p. 70.
  30. ↑ a b c Andreas Eichmüller: No general amnesty. The prosecution of Nazi crimes in the early Federal Republic. Munich 2012, p. 176.
  31. ↑ Michael Schornstheimer: How the "Operation Barbarossa" became an adventure vacation. In: Cicero. May 27, 2011 ( online version ).
  32. ^ Andreas Eichmüller: No general amnesty. The prosecution of Nazi crimes in the early Federal Republic. Munich 2012, p. 177.
  33. ↑ "Decimate Vigorously". In: The time. October 16, 1959.
  34. ↑ Life sentence. The judgment of Hagen. In: The time. November 27, 1959 ( online version ).
  35. ↑ Justice and Nazi Crimes Procedure No. 486. Court decisions LG Hagen 591117, BGH 590313, BGH 601007. There is only a short version for everyone ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. to see. This does not include all the circumstances of the offense. The entire process can be purchased from the editors of the rulings for a license fee. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www1.jur.uva.nl
  36. ↑ Justice and Nazi crimes Reprint of the legal proceedings at the Hagen Regional Court and a BGH decision in 1961 under serial number 508. There is only a short version for everyone ( memento of the original from February 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was used automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. to see. The entire process can be purchased from the editors of the rulings for a license fee. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www1.jur.uva.nl
  37. ↑ Justice and Nazi crimes Reprint of the legal proceedings at the Hagen Regional Court and the corresponding BGH decisions under serial number 530. There is only a short version for everyone ( memento of the original from September 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. to see. The entire process can be purchased from the editors of the rulings for a license fee. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www1.jur.uva.nl
  38. ↑ Marcus Weidner : Crimes at the end of the war against forced laborers in the Sauerland in 1945. In: 200 years of Westphalia. Now! Catalog for the exhibition of the City of Dortmund, the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe and the Westphalian Heimatbund, August 28, 2015 - February 28, 2016. Münster 2015, pp. 342–347, here p. 345 ( link to PDF file in the lower part of Page, accessed November 4, 2019).
  39. ↑ Researchers excavate 400 objects from victims of the Nazi regime . In: New Press . March 8, 2019.
  40. ^ Yuriko Wahl-Immel: Massacre 1945: Young women murdered by the SS with a shot in the neck . In: The world . March 8, 2019.
  41. ↑ Warstein: Archaeologists discover a lost Nazi memorial , WDR, May 28, 2020