Parrot swing

Re-enactment of the parrot swing during student protests in Brazil, 2012

Parrot swing (also called Bogerschaukel or Stalinschaukel ) describes a method of restraint for torture purposes , in which the person concerned is hung upside down from a pole with the back of the knees and the wrists are tied in front of the shins, to the ankles or to the bar.

The term comes from Brazil ( called pau de arara there) and refers to the fact that the bar in the parrot cage is the only support for the bird. If he loses his balance, he hangs upside down.

This method was and is used in many countries because no visible traces remain on the body of the person concerned and the necessary device is available everywhere or can be produced with little effort. A cross bar is used in each case, which is attached like a horizontal bar or a carpet bar or can be hung like a trapezoid. The pull of the body weight into the hollow of the knee leads to onset and increasing pain after a short time. The posture into which the person in question is forced is completely immobile and defenseless, which already leads to fear and humiliation . The prisoners are mostly undressed, which increases the feeling of powerlessness and vulnerability and also promotes the aspect of humiliation. Often the people concerned are also blindfolded, which leads to spatial disorientation .

In Auschwitz concentration camp , the corresponding torture method used during interrogation was called Bogerschaukel , named after Wilhelm Boger , who worked as a name giver in the political department , as he preferred to use this method. He called it a "speaking machine". During the interrogations, the people concerned were usually beaten with a stick or bull piz , mainly on the buttocks , the soles of their feet or the back . Wilhelm Boger had adopted this torture method from a Gestapo officer who came to Auschwitz for interrogation and introduced this torture method there. A similar, less intrusive variant consisted of bending the person standing over a waist-high bar, with the hands cuffed behind the legs below the bar. The Bogerschaukel was later abolished by the commander Arthur Liebehenschel .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.auschwitz-prozess.de/index.php?show=Morgen-Konrad
2. ^ The parrot swing ( Memento from August 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Amnesty International Ulm)
3. ^ Henry Leide: Nazi Criminals and State Security. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2007, p. 259
4. ↑ The biggest Nazi trials (news.de.msn.com)
5. ↑ The dubious career of the "Devil of Auschwitz" began in Friedrichshafen (www.schwaebische.de)
6. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Ullstein, Munich and Frankfurt am Main 1980, p. 433