Black Forest Blood Week

The Black Forest Blood Week was a massacre of members of the French resistance group Réseau Alliance by the Gestapo , which took place from November 23 to 30, 1944. 70 people were killed in the massacre.

background

After landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944, the Allies fought their way through France to Strasbourg. This led to hectic action among the Gestapo in occupied Strasbourg . 107 members of the resistance group Réseau Alliance, against which the Gestapo had taken lead action in Strasbourg, were at the time in the Schirmeck-Vorbruck security camp ; other members were spread over seven prisons in Baden . When the enemy troops approached, the Gestapo chief Helmut Schlierbach gave the order for all prisoners to be executed. Julius Gehrum, head of Section III, personally brought the order to camp commandant Karl Buck . On the night of September 1 and 2, the 107 prisoners were taken to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp , where they were shot. On November 23, 1944, the Allied troops liberated the camp, but found only a few prisoners. The Allies also reached Strasbourg on the same day.

The massacre

Memorial plaque in Kehl for the nine resistance fighters shot there

While most of the Germans had fled Strasbourg and the surrounding area, Buck and Gehrum began to implement Schlierbach's last order to murder all remaining members of the resistance group. In the week of November 23rd to 30th, they toured the seven prisons and gave the order to kill them. The individual locations are listed in chronological order below.

Kehl on November 23

The first stop was Kehl , the place where Gehrum worked as Gestapo chief before he was sent to Strasbourg. Gehrum and his two helpers Reinhard Brunner and Erwin Schöner visited the prison in Kehl, where they had a total of nine members of the Réseau Alliance brought to the banks of the Rhine and shot them with their own hands. They then threw the naked corpses into the Rhine.

The victims were Maurice Mandin, Hugues Moulin, Oscar Hosch, Joseph Singer, Joffre Lemeunier, Louis Helault, Eugen Proton, André Coindeau and Armand Troudet.

Rastatt-Plittersdorf on November 24th

Gehrum, Brunner, Schöner and Buchner shot twelve prisoners near a wooden bridge in Plittersdorf . The victims were Rene Treboute, Robert Frumin, Jean Sabatier, Jean Ethevenard, Charles Fredin, Maurice Rivet, Andre Chanson, Daniel Bourgey, Andre Rerolle, Leon Mury, Etienne Pelletier and Jean Perrache.

Offenburg on November 27th

On November 27th, Gehrum, Brunner, Erwin Irion, Jean Rowoldt and Buchner visited the prison in Offenburg, where the four women Henriette Amable, Lucienne Barnet, Marie-Thérèse Mengel and Simone Pauchard had been imprisoned since 1943 without trial. The five men took the women to the Bohlsbacher Forest, where they were shot and buried. The four bodies were only found in December 1945 and initially buried in the cemetery in Offenburg until they were later transferred to their homeland.

Freiburg on November 28th

The day before, Freiburg im Breisgau was almost completely destroyed by bomb attacks as part of Operation Tigerfish . Gehrum, Buchner, Brunner, Irion and Rowoldt nevertheless managed to get hold of the Réseau Alliance members Édouard Kauffmann , Emile Pradelle and Jean Lordey. All three had previously been sentenced to death by a court. The men were shot in the neck in a bomb hole. Kauffmann was one of the best-known members of the Alliance and had been regional chief of the south-west sectors until his arrest. Before that he had been a lieutenant colonel in the French Air Force .

Bühl on November 29th

On the morning of November 29th, the eight resistance fighters Jean Barnet, Edgard Joblot, Gabriel Moncel, Raymond Pader, Francois Robe, Roger Rougeot, Francis Roux and Jean Serruau were taken from the prison in Bühl to Greffern in a team van from the fire brigade under the watchful eye of SS men brought. From there, Gehrum, Brunner, Irion and Rowoldt beat the prisoners onto a boat. The eight men were shot in the neck on an island in the Rhine and then thrown into the Rhine.

Gaggenau on November 30th

In security camp Rotenfels nine people in the resistance group were. These were Joseph Bordes, André Joriot, André Sousssotte, Robert Gontier, Martin Sabarots, Jean-Henri Durand, Pierre Audevie, Sigismond Damm and Arnold Gartner. Camp manager Karl Buck himself passed the order for the execution to Oberleutnant Karl Nussberger, platoon sergeant Bernhard Ulrich and Oberwachtmeister Heinrich Neuschwinger. They drove the nine prisoners in a truck to the Ehrlichwald in Gaggenau , where they shot the nine men and buried them in a bomb crater.

Pforzheim on November 30th

The last stop of the blood week was Pforzheim . At the same time, it was also the worst crime. Eight women and 17 men were not only shot, but also tortured and severely ill-treated beforehand. Evidence of torture was found on eight people, including broken jaws and torn eyes. The atrocities were committed by Gehrum, Rowoldt, Irion, Buchner and Brunner, who took the prisoners to the nearby Hagenschießwald under the pretext of an alleged release from prison. There they tortured and shot Suzanne Chireix, Alice Coudol, Pierre Dayné, Raymond Descat, Marcel Dufosset, Jean Eozenou, Marcel Fontenaille, Marie Gillet, Félix Jacquet, René Jamault, Georges Lacroix, Marie-Jeanne Le Bacquet, Clara Matchou, Henry Marano, Francois Marty, Paul Masson, Jean Mathé, Augustin Parrot, Louis payen, Marguerite Premel, René Premel, Amélie Simottel, André Sondaz, Rosa Storck and Louis Viret. Yolande Lagrave, who was in the same prison as the other 25 people, was spared because she was allowed to stay in prison on the instructions of the Gestapo thugs.

The victims of the massacre were initially buried in the main cemetery in Pforzheim, but were later transferred to their home communities.

Legal dispute

After the end of World War II , most of the main perpetrators had withdrawn and were on the run. Gradually, however, they were arrested and interned by the French occupying forces. The first trial took place on April 23, 1946 against Gauleiter Robert Wagner , who surrendered to the authorities on July 29, 1945. Julius Gehrum, who was arrested on November 5, 1945, testified as a witness at the trial. Wagner tried to blame Police Chief Erich Isselhorst for the murder . Gehrum, who described his actions in front of the court, also put the blame on Isselhorst. The court did not follow the statements and sentenced Wagner and three other defendants to death . The four defendants were on August 14, 1946 in Fort Ney north of Strasbourg executed .

Gehrum was born on May 13, 1947 together with Reinhard Brunner, Hermann Darmstätter, Wilhelm Koch, Rudolf Peters, Paul Stasik, Gertrude Schulz, Fritz Fischer, Karl Fischer, Erwin Irion, Ernst Maier, Hans Orstadt, Christian Sachs, Schlude, Hermann Schulz, Specht, Heinrich Hilser, Hans Wolters, Erwin Schöner, Erich Isselhorst, Buchner and Jean Rowoldt were indicted, with only the first seven present. The rest were negotiated in absentia. The verdict was announced on May 17: Gehrum, Stasik and Brunner were sentenced to death. The execution was carried out in Strasbourg on November 10, 1947. Peters and Koch were sentenced to 20 years of forced labor, and Darmstätter to ten years in prison. There were also seven death sentences and long prison sentences for those absent.

Isselhorst also received the death penalty in another trial on July 23, 1947 and was shot dead in Strasbourg on February 23, 1948 . Helmut Schlierbach received only ten years in prison and was released from prison in 1952. He was even recognized as a late returnee. Although he was sentenced to death in absentia in a trial in Metz in 1954, the Federal Republic did not extradite him. He escaped further investigation by claiming that he could not remember anything. He remained unmolested until his death in 2005.

Nussberger, Ostertag, Ulrich and Neuschwanger, the perpetrators of Gaggenau, had to answer before a British military court from May 6-10, 1946. All four were sentenced to death. The death sentence against Neuschwanger was carried out on September 26, 1946. The three other defendants were extradited to the French occupying forces. Here, too, all three received the death penalty, which was only carried out on Bernhard Ulrich. The other two sentences were later commuted to 20 years' imprisonment.

literature

Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 73-84 .

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 77 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 78 .
^ ^A ^b Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 79 .
^ ^A ^b Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 80 f .
↑ Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 81 .
^ ^A ^b Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 83 f .
↑ Brigitte and Gerhard Brändle: The Nazi series of murders in the south-west of Germany began in Karlsruhe. In: Karlsruhe: Blick in die Geschichte Nr. 100 from September 20, 2013. Accessed on December 22, 2018 .

[lit77-1] A ^b Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 77 .

[lit78-2] Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 78 .

[lit79-3] A ^b Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 79 .

[lit80-4] A ^b Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 80 f .

[lit81-5] Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 81 .

[lit83-6] A ^b Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 83 f .

[7] Brigitte and Gerhard Brändle: The Nazi series of murders in the south-west of Germany began in Karlsruhe. In: Karlsruhe: Blick in die Geschichte Nr. 100 from September 20, 2013. Accessed on December 22, 2018 .