The murder of a captured RAF Sergeant in Eutingen/Pforzheim Warning:graphic images

Keith

I assume you know of the TNA files :

Reference:WO 309/1148 Description:
Eutingen, Pforzheim, Germany: killing of British airmen

Date: 1945 May-1948 Jan Held by: The National Archives, Kew Former references: in its original department: WCG/C/64/FIS



Reference:WO 309/187 Description:
Eutingen, Pforzheim, Germany: killing of British airman

Date: 1945 Nov - 1948 Mar Held by: The National Archives, Kew Legal status: Public Record


Drew5233 may be able to look at them for you - if you ask nicely

TD

 

Hi Keith
I was waiting for a pm reply of you and didn´t see your post here. So sorry for my late answer.
And I was two days in France to look for eyewhitnesses of a killed canadian airman.
It´s very nice to get in contact to you.
First let´s check our sources....
I have 670 documents about the murder in english from the national archive in Kew which Drew kindly photographed for me. Of course some are in german but there is always an english translation included.
Their numbers are:
WO 235-421
WO 309-187
WO 309-783
WO 309-1148
WO 311-503

Then I do have nearly 300 german documents from the denazification files of the accused anf of the whitnesses. I also have photos of the murderers and the people who planned the murder except Julius Zorn. The Problem with Julius Zorn is that he had no children and that he was an immigrant from the US. I tried to find his files in Ellis Island by contacting the people there but didn´t get any answer yet. But I haven´t give up searching. The old people still know how he behaved and looked like but thats very unsatisfying.
But I have photographes of the Co killers Schwab,Schroth and Issel and the coordinator Knab.
I also have a photo from the deathscene outside. Unfortunately not from the room itself. Nowadays it is a bureau of the townhall.

The last person who spoke to your uncle was a 15 year old boy who is still alive. He lives in northern Germany and is still able to remember and to speak clearly.
Unfortunately noone else is alive who saw or spoke to your uncle.
I´m in contact with a few members of the Schwab family and they are very friendly. There exists a daughter of Knab but she cannot remember her father and she was not really pleased to talk about her father and the stuff he did.
Issel and Zorn didn´t have relatives and what happened to Schroth I don´t know.

I wrote a book about the things which happened to british airmen in Pforzheim but unfortunately it isn´t published yet cause of some copyright problems of some photos and other doubts of the publisher. But it will be released.
One chapter is about the killing of Cyril Ludlow. If you like I can send it to you. Unfortunately it is in german. Do you have a person around you who could translate it for you?
Or I could write the long story short in english here and post the photos. I also would like to share my whole stuff with you but the english documents consist of 700MB so i have to send you a disc or upload it to a one click hoster. For the geman documents it´s a bit harder. I first have to digitalize them.
And I´m also very very curious about the material you have. Do you maybe have other photos or documents of your uncle?
What did your grandparents and your mother told you about him how he was? Is there still someone alive who knew him?

With the very best regards

 

350 cases in the then German Reich alone are considered to be a reliable estimate. (This means: not counting cases which happened in occupied France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy etc.)

 

The Death Warrant is a curious document in that it states the place of the trial was JUGESHEIM which is nonsense. There is no place of that name in Germany. There is one JÜGESHEIM (with u-umlaut), part of the town of RODGAU (Offenbach county, Hesse). If I am not mistaken, this place (20 kilometres or so south-east of Frankfurt/Main) must have been in the American Occupation Zone of Germany at the time of the trial - I don't think a British Military Court would have been allowed to sit there.
I think the solution is this: The trial actually took place at ESSEN, in a building where teenagers used to have their leisure activities, in German "Jugendheim", "youth home". Someone with a very defective knowledge of German took this to be the place of trial, and in copying made a mess of the German word JUGENDHEIM at that. The "Jugendheim" in question is still standing. It is in Essen-Steele, Fürstinstrasse, and currently serves as a gymnasium to the school next door. I attach an old image from the time when it served as a court of justice (the British held several rather famous war crimes trials there.)