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Galle, Americo S. (WO 235/102A)

Verbatim trial transcript available: WO 235_102A Enschede Trial.zip Please contact us via helpdesk.

Goff, Homer Wallace (012-1168)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Goldstein, Charles Bernard (12-0926 & 12-0926-1)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Good, John B. (12-1545 (Charge 1) )

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Gough, Victor Albert (WO 235/185 Gaggenau Trial )

A British Military Court was convened in Wuppertal, Germany, between the 6th and 10th May 1946, the trial record of which may be obtained via Helpdesk (WO 235_185 Gaggenau Trial).

Eleven German nationals were charged with committing a war crime in that they, at Rotenfels Security Camp, Gaggenau, Germany, on the 25th November 1944, in violation of the laws and usages of war, were concerned in the killing of six British prisoners of war, namely Major D.B. Reynolds, Capt. Gough, Capt. A.R. Whitely-Smith, Parachutist M.A. Griffin, Lieut. G.D. Dill, Gunner C. Ashe, all of 2nd Special Air Service Regt.; four American Prisoners of war, namely Michael Pipcock (sic), Garis P. Jacoby, Curtis E. Hodges, Maynard Latten and four French nationals namely Abbé Pennrath, Abbé Claude, Abbé Roth and Werner Jakob.

Since there were French nationals among the victims, a French Air Force Captain (Capt.) was a member of the court, sitting with one Brigadier (Brig.) four Majors (Maj.) and a Judge Advocate.

The accused were Karl Buck, SS-Hauptsturmführer (Capt.) and commander of the Sicherungslager (Security Camp) Schirmeck La Broque (Alsace) and Sicherungslager Rotenfels/Gaggenau, Robert Wünsch, SS-Untersturmführer (2nd.Lt.) and administrative officer at the Gaggenau camp, Karl Nussberger, Oberleutnant (1st.Lt.) in the Police and Commanding Officer (CO) of the police unit responsible for the security at Gaggenau camp, one Karl Zimmermann, SS-Sturmscharführer (Sgt.Maj.) and several police Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) of varying rank, Erwin Ostertag, Josef Muth, Bernhard Josef Ulrich, Heinrich Neuschwanger, Karl Wilhelm Dinkel, Helmut Korb, and Franz Xaver Vetter.

The court heard that during November 1944 at Schirmeck La Broque, prisoners of various categories were held, some of them in the “Block“ (a prison within a prison). When the Allied forces approached, orders were given to move the “Block“ prisoners from Schirmeck La Broque further to the east. The victims named in the charge were transported to Rotenfels/Gaggenau, which was also under Buck's orders.

On the morning of 24th or 25th November 1944, Buck came to Rotenfels/Gaggenau and issued orders to Wünsch that certain prisoners were to be killed. Wünsch related this order to Nussberger who in turn conferred with his subordinates who then started to make the preparations they thought necessary. At 1400 hrs on the 25th November 1944, a van appeared at the camp gate to take the prisoners and their escort, comprising the accused policemen, except for Nussberger, plus four Russian prisoners who had picks and shovels with them.

The lorry drove to a place outside Gaggenau called Erlichwald (Erlich woods). There the accused made the prisoners, in four groups of three and one group of two, dismount from the lorry and walk some distance into the wood where they were shot dead from behind, their bodies falling into a bomb crater. The individuals who did the shooting were Neuschwanger, Ulrich and Ostertag. The bodies were stripped of their clothes and personal effects. The bomb crater was then filled in and the clothes and effects burned on the spot, although in their haste they left several vital clues which later assisted in identifying the remains.

When French troops reached Gaggenau end of April 1945, word of the atrocities reached them fairly quickly, and they ordered the exhumation of the bodies from the bomb crater, using local Nazis as the workforce. Identification was only partly successful, and the victims were reburied in individual graves in the local cemetery on 13th May 1945. On 10th June, Maj. Eric ‘Bill’ Barkworth of the 2nd Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment arrived and ordered a fresh exhumation. Careful examination of the bodies and graves, together with investigations at the bomb crater site, established the identities of the victims as named in the charge. Maj. Barkworth, in his evidence in court, gave detailed information on the facts and findings upon which he based his identifications.

Ashe, Christopher, Private (Gunner), service number 847426, SAS (Special Air Service). 27 years old. According to www.specialforcesroh.com he was born in the Republic of Ireland and belonged to Operation PISTOL. He was taken prisoner on 23 September 1944.

Based on his dental records, he was identified as the body found in row 4 grave 7 of the Gaggenau Cemetery. Today his grave is in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 12.

Dill, David Gordon, Lieutenant, service number 265704, originally served with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps before joining the SAS (Special Air Service). According to www.specialforcesroh.com he took part in Operation LOYTON and was taken prisoner on 6 October 1944. On 8 November 1944 he was seen alive in Security Camp Schirmeck-La Broque by a representative of the American Red Cross. 20 years old, son to an officer from South Stoke, Oxfordshire.

He was identified thanks to his service issue wrist watch bearing a number which identified it as having been issued to Lt. Dill. Originally buried in row 4 grave 5 of the Gaggenau Cemetery, he is now buried in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 10.

Gough, Victor Albert, Captain, service number 148884, originally served with the Somerset Light Infantry before joining the Special Operations Executive. He was born 11 Sept 1918 in Hereford. As a member of Jedburgh team JACOB he took part in Operation LOYTON. His group parachuted into the Vosges mountains on 12 August 1944. His last radio message to headquarters dated from 18 September 1944, 1900 hrs. He must have been captured on one of the following days while trying to reach Allied lines. On 8 November 1944 he was seen alive in Security Camp Schirmeck-La Broque by a representative of the American Red Cross.

Based on his dental records, he was identified as the body found in row 4 grave 9 of the Gaggenau Cemetery. Today his grave is in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 22.

Griffin, Maurice Arthur, Private (Parachutist), service number 873123, SAS (Special Air Service). According to www.specialforcesroh.com he served originally with the Royal Artillery before joining the SAS. According to the same source he was born in London, lived in Bristol (his parents residing at Sea Mills, Gloucestershire) and was part of Operation LOYTON. He was taken prisoner some time during Sept.-Oct. 1944. 23 years old.

Based on his dental records, he was identified as the body exhumed from row 2 grave 5 of the Gaggenau Cemetery. Today his grave is in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 1.

Reynolds, Denis Bingham, Major, service number 130586, originally served with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps before joining the SAS (Special Air Service). According to www.specialforcesroh.com he took part in Operation LOYTON and was taken prisoner on 30 October 1944. On 8 November 1944 he was seen alive in Security Camp Schirmeck-La Broque by a representative of the American Red Cross.

The body found in grave 3 of row 3, Gaggenau Cemetery, bore his ID tags. Today his grave is in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 5.

Whately-Smith, Anthony Robert, Major, service number 113612, SAS (Special Air Service). 29 years old (born in 1915), son of a priest from Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire. According to www.specialforcesroh.com he took part in Operation LOYTON, he was taken prisoner on 30 October 1944. On 8 November 1944 he was seen alive in Security Camp Schirmeck-La Broque by a representative of the American Red Cross.

The body found in grave 6 of row 2, Gaggenau Cemetery, bore his ID tags. Today his grave is in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 2.

The court found all accused, with the exception of Muth, guilty of the charge and rejected their defense of Superior Orders (in this case: Hitler’s Commando Order of 18th October 1942). The court pronounced sentences as follows:

Buck, Neuschwanger, Nussberger, Ostertag and Ulrich were to die by shooting, Wünsch got 4 years imprisonment, Dinkel 8 years, Korb 3 years, Vetter 2 years and Zimmermann 10 years. The sentences were confirmed by the Commander in Chief of the British Army of the Rhine on 6th July 1946, but not all of them were promulgated and executed.

The French authorities wanted to try some of the accused in this case for other, similar crimes and demanded their extradition. It is not clear why Neuschwanger was the only one to pay with his life for the murders of 25 November 1944. He was executed in the shooting range adjacent Neheimer Straße, Werl, Germany, by a British firing party on 26th September 1946 at 0800 hrs. It is speculated that he may not have been named on the extradition list.

Buck, Nussberger, Ostertag, Ulrich and Wünsch, but also the acquitted Josef Muth were extradited to the French and stood trial before the Tribunal Général at Rastatt, Germany, in the French Zone of Occupation, from 20th February to 18th March, 1947.

The charge accused them of war crimes under Control Council Law No. 10, committed by murder and ill-treatment of Allied nationals in Security and Work Camps.

Buck, Muth, Nussberger, Ostertag and Ulrich were sentenced to death; Wünsch received 1 year imprisonment.

Upon appeal, the (French) death sentences of Buck and Nussberger were commuted to life imprisonment with hard labour. The sentences of Muth and Ostertag were both commuted to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour.

Ulrich’s (French) death sentence was carried out by shooting on 26th August 1947 at 0700 hrs in a gravel pit to the southwest of Sandweier (today part of Baden-Baden).

It is not quite clear at which date the British decided to reprieve Buck, Nussberger and Ostertag and to commute their sentences to prison terms, seeing that (a) the French would not hand the prisoners back any time soon and that it (b) would be very much against British tradition anyway to execute a death sentence years after sentencing.

Buck and Nussberger stood another trial in January 1953 in Metz, in which Robert Wünsch, too, was tried in absentia. All three of them received a death sentence, and again Buck and Nussberger were reprieved, their sentences being shortened to 20 years. Both were released from the British prison at Werl on 9 September 1955. It is not known since when they were back in British custody.

According to archival records, Ostertag was still in prison in 1954.

Otherwise, the final disposition of the sentences for Muth, Ostertag, Wünsch, Dinkel, Zimmermann and Korb is unknown.

Gouws, Johannes Stephanus (WO 235/425ff - 6th Count (Law-Reports_Vol-11))

Verbatim trial transcript available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Graham, Howard S. (012-0489, 012-0489-1)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Graham, Newell (No Trial)

Greenwood, Bruce Frederick (WO 235/82 and WO/235/84)

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_82 Dreierwalde 1 Trial and WO 235_84 Dreierwalde 2 Trial. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Griffin, Maurice Arthur (WO 235/185 Gaggenau Trial )

A British Military Court was convened in Wuppertal, Germany, between the 6th and 10th May 1946, the trial record of which may be obtained via Helpdesk (WO 235_185 Gaggenau Trial).

Eleven German nationals were charged with committing a war crime in that they, at Rotenfels Security Camp, Gaggenau, Germany, on the 25th November 1944, in violation of the laws and usages of war, were concerned in the killing of six British prisoners of war, namely Major D.B. Reynolds, Capt. Gough, Capt. A.R. Whitely-Smith, Parachutist M.A. Griffin, Lieut. G.D. Dill, Gunner C. Ashe, all of 2nd Special Air Service Regt.; four American Prisoners of war, namely Michael Pipcock (sic), Garis P. Jacoby, Curtis E. Hodges, Maynard Latten and four French nationals namely Abbé Pennrath, Abbé Claude, Abbé Roth and Werner Jakob.

Since there were French nationals among the victims, a French Air Force Captain (Capt.) was a member of the court, sitting with one Brigadier (Brig.) four Majors (Maj.) and a Judge Advocate.

The accused were Karl Buck, SS-Hauptsturmführer (Capt.) and commander of the Sicherungslager (Security Camp) Schirmeck La Broque (Alsace) and Sicherungslager Rotenfels/Gaggenau, Robert Wünsch, SS-Untersturmführer (2nd.Lt.) and administrative officer at the Gaggenau camp, Karl Nussberger, Oberleutnant (1st.Lt.) in the Police and Commanding Officer (CO) of the police unit responsible for the security at Gaggenau camp, one Karl Zimmermann, SS-Sturmscharführer (Sgt.Maj.) and several police Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) of varying rank, Erwin Ostertag, Josef Muth, Bernhard Josef Ulrich, Heinrich Neuschwanger, Karl Wilhelm Dinkel, Helmut Korb, and Franz Xaver Vetter.

The court heard that during November 1944 at Schirmeck La Broque, prisoners of various categories were held, some of them in the “Block“ (a prison within a prison). When the Allied forces approached, orders were given to move the “Block“ prisoners from Schirmeck La Broque further to the east. The victims named in the charge were transported to Rotenfels/Gaggenau, which was also under Buck's orders.

On the morning of 24th or 25th November 1944, Buck came to Rotenfels/Gaggenau and issued orders to Wünsch that certain prisoners were to be killed. Wünsch related this order to Nussberger who in turn conferred with his subordinates who then started to make the preparations they thought necessary. At 1400 hrs on the 25th November 1944, a van appeared at the camp gate to take the prisoners and their escort, comprising the accused policemen, except for Nussberger, plus four Russian prisoners who had picks and shovels with them.

The lorry drove to a place outside Gaggenau called Erlichwald (Erlich woods). There the accused made the prisoners, in four groups of three and one group of two, dismount from the lorry and walk some distance into the wood where they were shot dead from behind, their bodies falling into a bomb crater. The individuals who did the shooting were Neuschwanger, Ulrich and Ostertag. The bodies were stripped of their clothes and personal effects. The bomb crater was then filled in and the clothes and effects burned on the spot, although in their haste they left several vital clues which later assisted in identifying the remains.

When French troops reached Gaggenau end of April 1945, word of the atrocities reached them fairly quickly, and they ordered the exhumation of the bodies from the bomb crater, using local Nazis as the workforce. Identification was only partly successful, and the victims were reburied in individual graves in the local cemetery on 13th May 1945. On 10th June, Maj. Eric ‘Bill’ Barkworth of the 2nd Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment arrived and ordered a fresh exhumation. Careful examination of the bodies and graves, together with investigations at the bomb crater site, established the identities of the victims as named in the charge. Maj. Barkworth, in his evidence in court, gave detailed information on the facts and findings upon which he based his identifications.

Ashe, Christopher, Private (Gunner), service number 847426, SAS (Special Air Service). 27 years old. According to www.specialforcesroh.com he was born in the Republic of Ireland and belonged to Operation PISTOL. He was taken prisoner on 23 September 1944.

Based on his dental records, he was identified as the body found in row 4 grave 7 of the Gaggenau Cemetery. Today his grave is in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 12.

Dill, David Gordon, Lieutenant, service number 265704, originally served with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps before joining the SAS (Special Air Service). According to www.specialforcesroh.com he took part in Operation LOYTON and was taken prisoner on 6 October 1944. On 8 November 1944 he was seen alive in Security Camp Schirmeck-La Broque by a representative of the American Red Cross. 20 years old, son to an officer from South Stoke, Oxfordshire.

He was identified thanks to his service issue wrist watch bearing a number which identified it as having been issued to Lt. Dill. Originally buried in row 4 grave 5 of the Gaggenau Cemetery, he is now buried in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 10.

Gough, Victor Albert, Captain, service number 148884, originally served with the Somerset Light Infantry before joining the Special Operations Executive. He was born 11 Sept 1918 in Hereford. As a member of Jedburgh team JACOB he took part in Operation LOYTON. His group parachuted into the Vosges mountains on 12 August 1944. His last radio message to headquarters dated from 18 September 1944, 1900 hrs. He must have been captured on one of the following days while trying to reach Allied lines. On 8 November 1944 he was seen alive in Security Camp Schirmeck-La Broque by a representative of the American Red Cross.

Based on his dental records, he was identified as the body found in row 4 grave 9 of the Gaggenau Cemetery. Today his grave is in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 22.

Griffin, Maurice Arthur, Private (Parachutist), service number 873123, SAS (Special Air Service). According to www.specialforcesroh.com he served originally with the Royal Artillery before joining the SAS. According to the same source he was born in London, lived in Bristol (his parents residing at Sea Mills, Gloucestershire) and was part of Operation LOYTON. He was taken prisoner some time during Sept.-Oct. 1944. 23 years old.

Based on his dental records, he was identified as the body exhumed from row 2 grave 5 of the Gaggenau Cemetery. Today his grave is in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 1.

Reynolds, Denis Bingham, Major, service number 130586, originally served with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps before joining the SAS (Special Air Service). According to www.specialforcesroh.com he took part in Operation LOYTON and was taken prisoner on 30 October 1944. On 8 November 1944 he was seen alive in Security Camp Schirmeck-La Broque by a representative of the American Red Cross.

The body found in grave 3 of row 3, Gaggenau Cemetery, bore his ID tags. Today his grave is in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 5.

Whately-Smith, Anthony Robert, Major, service number 113612, SAS (Special Air Service). 29 years old (born in 1915), son of a priest from Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire. According to www.specialforcesroh.com he took part in Operation LOYTON, he was taken prisoner on 30 October 1944. On 8 November 1944 he was seen alive in Security Camp Schirmeck-La Broque by a representative of the American Red Cross.

The body found in grave 6 of row 2, Gaggenau Cemetery, bore his ID tags. Today his grave is in Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany, field 3 row K grave 2.

The court found all accused, with the exception of Muth, guilty of the charge and rejected their defense of Superior Orders (in this case: Hitler’s Commando Order of 18th October 1942). The court pronounced sentences as follows:

Buck, Neuschwanger, Nussberger, Ostertag and Ulrich were to die by shooting, Wünsch got 4 years imprisonment, Dinkel 8 years, Korb 3 years, Vetter 2 years and Zimmermann 10 years. The sentences were confirmed by the Commander in Chief of the British Army of the Rhine on 6th July 1946, but not all of them were promulgated and executed.

The French authorities wanted to try some of the accused in this case for other, similar crimes and demanded their extradition. It is not clear why Neuschwanger was the only one to pay with his life for the murders of 25 November 1944. He was executed in the shooting range adjacent Neheimer Straße, Werl, Germany, by a British firing party on 26th September 1946 at 0800 hrs. It is speculated that he may not have been named on the extradition list.

Buck, Nussberger, Ostertag, Ulrich and Wünsch, but also the acquitted Josef Muth were extradited to the French and stood trial before the Tribunal Général at Rastatt, Germany, in the French Zone of Occupation, from 20th February to 18th March, 1947.

The charge accused them of war crimes under Control Council Law No. 10, committed by murder and ill-treatment of Allied nationals in Security and Work Camps.

Buck, Muth, Nussberger, Ostertag and Ulrich were sentenced to death; Wünsch received 1 year imprisonment.

Upon appeal, the (French) death sentences of Buck and Nussberger were commuted to life imprisonment with hard labour. The sentences of Muth and Ostertag were both commuted to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour.

Ulrich’s (French) death sentence was carried out by shooting on 26th August 1947 at 0700 hrs in a gravel pit to the southwest of Sandweier (today part of Baden-Baden).

It is not quite clear at which date the British decided to reprieve Buck, Nussberger and Ostertag and to commute their sentences to prison terms, seeing that (a) the French would not hand the prisoners back any time soon and that it (b) would be very much against British tradition anyway to execute a death sentence years after sentencing.

Buck and Nussberger stood another trial in January 1953 in Metz, in which Robert Wünsch, too, was tried in absentia. All three of them received a death sentence, and again Buck and Nussberger were reprieved, their sentences being shortened to 20 years. Both were released from the British prison at Werl on 9 September 1955. It is not known since when they were back in British custody.

According to archival records, Ostertag was still in prison in 1954.

Otherwise, the final disposition of the sentences for Muth, Ostertag, Wünsch, Dinkel, Zimmermann and Korb is unknown.

Griffith, Donald Otis (012-1182-2)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Griggs, Dennis H. (12-1542)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Grisman, William Jack

No Trial - Breslau Group (Great Escape)

Grubisa, George J. (012-1368/4)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Grunberg, Manfred

Grundy, Kenneth (WO 235/468)

During the trial, neither the names of the victims nor the serial number of the aircraft were identified by the Court. The identification made in this database is based on historic research which will be published in a book. As soon as this book is available, this Note will be replaced by an Archive Report which will then reference the book.

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_468 is available via helpdesk.

Gunn, Alistair Donald Mackintosh

No Trial - Breslau Group (Great Escape)

Gunn, Richard Francis

Guard, Peter (TS 26/857)

Habgood, Frederic Harold (WO 235/171)

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_171 Struthof-Natzweiler or Habgood Case. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hadley, James Frederick (WO 235/211 - Opladen Case)

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_211 - Opladen Case.zip. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hahn, James T. (012-1106)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hake, Albert Horace

WO 235/573ff - 3rd Count (Great Escape)

Hale, Raymond William

Hales, Richard Benjamin

Hall, Bertram Edward William

Hall, Charles Piers Egerton

No Trial - Liegnitz Group (Great Escape)

Hall, Gordon Albert (WO 235/235, WO 235/420)

Hall, Roderick S.G.

Full trial transcript of this trial ("Bolzano Gestapo Case") is available via helpdesk.

Hambel, Lawrence Allen (012-1960, 012-1960-1)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hamblin, Herschel O. (012-1368/4)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hamlin, Howland Joseph (012-43)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hammarlund, Carl O.

No record of a trial.

Hammond Jr., George Willis

Complete trial transcript (Bolzano Gestapo Case) available via Helpdesk

Hammond, Reginald (No Trial)

Hammond, Warren George (12-0926 & 12-0926-1)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hamrick, Jr. Charles M. (012-1299, 012-3193B (3rd of four))

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Harkey, Rubin F. (012-1203)

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Harmon, Robert Louis (012-2036)

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Harrell, Lynwood C.

Harris, Gilbert John (WO 235/339 Rheine Airfield Case (Charge 10))

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_339ff Rheine Airfield Case. Please contact us via Helpdesk.

Harrison, George Thomas (012-1502)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hart, Donald L. (008-0027)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Harvey, Roscoe William (012-1182)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hauss, Lesley Horace (012-1973)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hayter, Anthony Ross Henzell

Heathman, Jimmie Ray (012-2000 (Incident 9 of 10))

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hedeen, Frank R. (012-1993)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hedley, Vernon James

Heline, Carl Wilfred (WO 235/385, WO 235/386)

Helton, Edwin M. (012-1368/4)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hein, Donald Ley (12-1397)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Henderson, Gordon Wayne (No Trial)

Herrmann, Ray Francis (12-2000 (Charge 6))

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Hert, Carl Joseph (012-1140)

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Hildebrand, Robert Andrew (12-2337)

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Hill, Preston Joseph (005-100)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hislop, Edward

Hodges, Curtis Eugene (WO 235/185 Gaggenau Trial)

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_185 Gaggenau Trial. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hoenshel, Wendel Lorance (012-1833)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via the Helpdesk

Holden, Willard Milton (012-1814)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via the Helpdesk

Holdren, Edward Cooper (12-2409)

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Hollenbeck, Charles Ernest (012-0481, 012-2064)

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Hollis, Terrell Leonard (012-1742)

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Honig, Herbert Walter

Hood, Gerald (WO 235/8)

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_8 Almelo Trial. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Horsey, Harry Alfred (WO 235/49)

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_49. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hosie, Bruce James

Houston, Ross S. (012-1894)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Howie, Donald Emerson (012-2018)

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Huffman, Lee R. J. (012-472)

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Huish, Billy Hugo (Belgium war crime trials - not available)

Hughes, Donald John (Case No 12-3193B (4th of four))

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Humphreys, Edgar Spottiswoode (No Trial - Liegnitz Group (Great Escape))

Hunter, Geoffrey Colin Devas (TS 26/613; WO 309/106, WO 309/804; WO 309/1012)

No Trial. Investigation files WO 309/106, WO 309/804; WO 309/1012 available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Hunter Jr., George T.

Hyde, Robert M.

Hynes, Brian Maurice (WO 235/472)

Inayat Khan, Noor

On the south wall of the crematorium at the former Dachau concentration camp, right next to one of the ovens, hangs a plaque honoring four British SOE agents: Noor Inayat Khan, Yolanda Beekman, Elaine Plewman, and Madeleine Damerment.

Noor Inayat Khan - codenamed Madeleine - was a wireless operator for the Cinema sub circuit of the Physician Network, headed by Francis Suttill, whose code name was Prosper. She was flown to France on a RAF Lysander plane on the night of June 16, 1943 and was captured on or around October 1, 1943.

The cerebral Noor Inayat Khan, George Cross (GC)

The remark of the Dutch witness above may refer to SS-Obersturmbannführer (SS Lt Col.) Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert. He was tried in US vs. Martin Weiss & al. (Case no. 50-2, aka 'Main Dachau Trial'), sentenced to death and executed on 28th May 1946. [In the opinion of Aircrew Remembered, execution was too easy a death for this sadistic bastard.]

We salute the heroines of SOE!!

See: Borrel, Andrée • Leigh, Vera • Olschanezky, Sonya • Rowden, Diana

See also: tribute to Violette Szabo GC on this site

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Ingram, Kenneth Herschel Callender

Isenberg, Henry Morris 'Hank' (012-1833)

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Ivy, Thearson O (12-1542)

Review and Recommendation paper, 12-1542 available. Please contact Helpdesk

Jacobs, Kurt R. (6-56)

Kurt R. Jacobs was a German Jew who had made it to the United States. Due to his language abilities and his undoubted enmity towards the Nazi creed he was selected for training in Military Intelligence duties at Ft. Ritchie, Maryland, and afterwards served in IPW (Interrogation of Prisoners of War) Team #154 with 106^thInfantry Division. On 18th December 1945, he was taken prisoner, along with many other GIs and his team comrade Technician 5^thGrade Murray Zappler, by members of the 2^ndBattalion, 293^rdRegiment, 18^thVolksgrenadierdivision, during the initial stages of the Battle of the Bulge. This battalion was commanded by Hauptmann (captain) Kurt Bruns. On this occasion a number of German POWs were freed again who, on reaching their unit together with the American POWs on the next day, informed Bruns that Zappler and Jacobs had been interrogating them during the previous days in the German language and presumably were emigrated German Jews. Thereupon Bruns ordered both prisoners to be shot immediately. Their bodies were found at the place of the crime on 13 February 1945 by T/4 John H. Swanson of the Service Company, 12^thInfantry. Captain Bruns was tried by a Military Commission on 7 April 1945 at Düren, Germany, and sentenced to death by shooting. The sentence was carried out on 14 June 1945 in a gravel quarry at 38159 (Vechelde-)Denstorf. This was the earliest execution of a WW2 war crimes death sentence in Germany.

Jacoby, Garis Phillip (WO 235/185 Gaggenau Trial)

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_185 Gaggenau Trial. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Jakob, Werner (WO 235/185 Gaggenau Trial)

A British Military Court was convened in Wuppertal, Germany, between the 6th and 10th May 1946, the trial record of which may be obtained via Helpdesk (WO 235_185 Gaggenau Trial).

Eleven German nationals were charged with committing a war crime in that they, at Rotenfels Security Camp, Gaggenau, Germany, on the 25th November 1944, in violation of the laws and usages of war, were concerned in the killing of six British prisoners of war, namely Major D.B. Reynolds, Capt. Gough, Capt. A.R. Whitely-Smith, Parachutist M.A. Griffin, Lieut. G.D. Dill, Gunner C. Ashe, all of 2^ndSpecial Air Service Regt.; four American Prisoners of war, namely Michael Pipcock (sic), Garis P. Jacoby, Curtis E. Hodges, Maynard Latten and four French nationals namely Abbé Pennrath, Abbé Claude, Abbé Roth and Werner Jakob.

Since there were French nationals among the victims, a French Air Force Captain (Capt.) was a member of the court, sitting with one Brigadier (Brig.) four Majors (Maj.) and a Judge Advocate.

The accused were Karl Buck, SS-Hauptsturmführer (Capt.) and commander of the Sicherungslager (Security Camp) Schirmeck La Broque (Alsace) and Sicherungslager Rotenfels/Gaggenau, Robert Wünsch, SS-Untersturmführer (2nd.Lt.) and administrative officer at the Gaggenau camp, Karl Nussberger, Oberleutnant (1st.Lt.) in the Police and Commanding Officer (CO) of the police unit responsible for the security at Gaggenau camp, one Karl Zimmermann, SS-Sturmscharführer (Sgt.Maj.) and several police Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) of varying rank, Erwin Ostertag, Josef Muth, Bernhard Josef Ulrich, Heinrich Neuschwanger, Karl Wilhelm Dinkel, Helmut Korb, and Franz Xaver Vetter.

The court heard that during November 1944 at Schirmeck La Broque, prisoners of various categories were held, some of them in the “Block“ (a prison within a prison). When the Allied forces approached, orders were given to move the “Block“ prisoners from Schirmeck La Broque further to the east. The victims named in the charge were transported to Rotenfels/Gaggenau, which was also under Buck's orders.

On the morning of 24th or 25th November 1944, Buck came to Rotenfels/Gaggenau and issued orders to Wünsch that certain prisoners were to be killed. Wünsch related this order to Nussberger who in turn conferred with his subordinates who then started to make the preparations they thought necessary. At 1400 hrs on the 25th November 1944, a van appeared at the camp gate to take the prisoners and their escort, comprising the accused policemen, except for Nussberger, plus four Russian prisoners who had picks and shovels with them.

The lorry drove to a place outside Gaggenau called Erlichwald (Erlich woods). There the accused made the prisoners, in four groups of three and one group of two, dismount from the lorry and walk some distance into the wood where they were shot dead from behind, their bodies falling into a bomb crater. One of the French victims, a priest, “tried to break away. He made it 100 yards into the woods before being gunned down.” (Reference: Lewis, Nazi Hunters, p. 254)

The individuals who did the shooting were Neuschwanger, Ulrich and Ostertag. The bodies were stripped of their clothes and personal effects. The bomb crater was then filled in and the clothes and effects burned on the spot, although in their haste they left several vital clues which later assisted in identifying the remains.

When French troops reached Gaggenau end of April 1945, word of the atrocities reached them fairly quickly, and they ordered the exhumation of the bodies from the bomb crater, using local Nazis as the workforce. Identification was only partly successful, and the victims were reburied in individual graves in the local cemetery on 13th May 1945. On 10th June, Maj. Eric ‘Bill’ Barkworth of the 2nd Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment arrived and ordered a fresh exhumation. Careful examination of the bodies and graves, together with investigations at the bomb crater site, established the identities of the victims as named in the charge. Maj. Barkworth, in his evidence in court, gave detailed information on the facts and findings upon which he based his identifications.

In one case it took years to identify the French victims, but meanwhile it has been established that they were:

Abbé Joseph Claude, born 24 November 1891 at L. Vallois. One of his fellow prisoners called him “the quietest, most God-loving and selfless person in the prison”. (Reference: Lewis, Nazi Hunters, p. 352)

Werner Jakob, born 18 August 1914 at Strasbourg,

Abbé Jean Justin Pennerath, born 14 June 1902 at Barst,

Abbé Joseph Alphonse Roth, born 7 September 1911 at Roppwiller.

The court found all accused, with the exception of Muth, guilty of the charge and rejected their defense of Superior Orders (in this case: Hitler’s Commando Order of 18th October 1942). The court pronounced sentences as follows:

Buck, Neuschwanger, Nussberger, Ostertag and Ulrich were to die by shooting, Wünsch got 4 years imprisonment, Dinkel 8 years, Korb 3 years, Vetter 2 years and Zimmermann 10 years. The sentences were confirmed by the Commander in Chief of the British Army of the Rhine on 6th July 1946, but not all of them were promulgated and executed.

The French authorities wanted to try some of the accused in this case for other, similar crimes and demanded their extradition. It is not clear why Neuschwanger was the only one to pay with his life for the murders of 25 November 1944. He was executed in the shooting range adjacent Neheimer Straße, Werl, Germany, by a British firing party on 26th September 1946 at 0800 hrs. It is speculated that he may not have been named on the extradition list.

Buck, Nussberger, Ostertag, Ulrich and Wünsch, but also the acquitted Josef Muth were extradited to the French and stood trial before the Tribunal Général at Rastatt, Germany, in the French Zone of Occupation, from 20th February to 18th March, 1947.

The charge accused them of war crimes under Control Council Law No. 10, committed by murder and ill-treatment of Allied nationals in Security and Work Camps.

Buck, Muth, Nussberger, Ostertag and Ulrich were sentenced to death; Wünsch received 1 year imprisonment.

Upon appeal, the (French) death sentences of Buck and Nussberger were commuted to life imprisonment with hard labour. The sentences of Muth and Ostertag were both commuted to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour.

Ulrich’s (French) death sentence was carried out by shooting on 26th August 1947 at 0700 hrs in a gravel pit to the southwest of Sandweier (today part of Baden-Baden).

It is not quite clear at which date the British decided to reprieve Buck, Nussberger and Ostertag and to commute their sentences to prison terms, seeing that (a) the French would not hand the prisoners back any time soon and that it (b) would be very much against British tradition anyway to execute a death sentence years after sentencing.

Buck and Nussberger stood another trial in January 1953 in Metz, in which Robert Wünsch, too, was tried in absentia. All three of them received a death sentence, and again Buck and Nussberger were reprieved, their sentences being shortened to 20 years. Both were released from the British prison at Werl on 9 September 1955. It is not known since when they were back in British custody.

According to archival records, Ostertag was still in prison in 1954.

Otherwise, the final disposition of the sentences for Muth, Ostertag, Wünsch, Dinkel, Zimmermann and Korb is unknown.

Johnson, Bertil S. (012-1368/4)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Johnson Jr., Carl B. (No record of a trial)

Johnson, Robert A. (No record of a trial)

Jolly, William (008-0027)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Jorgensen, Owen Howard (012-865)

No Trial

Jumeau, Clement Mark (WO 235/191)

Kalinejko, Stanley J. (012-1247)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Kalinowsky, Eugene (3 Ks 1/54 of Landgericht Mainz, 18/03/1955)

Kane, William H. (012-0531)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Kantor, Henry (WO 235/339 Rheine Airfield Case (Charge 3))

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_339ff Rheine Airfield Case. Please contact us via Helpdesk.

Kee, Kevin Anthony (WO 235/205 and WO 235/153)

Kelley, Charles W. (WO 235/339 Rheine Airfield Case (Charge 7))

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_339ff Rheine Airfield Case. Please contact us via Helpdesk.

Kells, Sherwood L. (012-1247)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Kelly, William Alexander (TS 26/857)

Kerman, Sheppard (012-1104, 012-1104-1)

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Keymer, Michael (No record of a trial)

Kidder, Gordon Arthur (WO 235/425ff - 9th Count (Law-Reports_Vol-11))

Kierath, Reginald Victor (WO 235/425ff - Brüx Grp)

Verbatim trial transcript available, Please contact us via Helpdesk

Kiewnarski, Antoni Władysław (WO 235/573 - 2nd Count)

Kimball, William R. (012-1299, 012-3193B (3rd of four))

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

King, Dale Eugene

Verbatim trial transcript available, Please contact us via Helpdesk

Kinkade, Victor Irwin (012-1395)

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Kirby-Green, Thomas Gresham (WO 235/425ff - 9th Count (Law-Reports_Vol-11))

Verbatim trial transcript available, Please contact us via Helpdesk

Klucha, Lucjan

Took off from Faldingworth 23.21 12 June 1944 in Avro Lancaster JA683 from 300 Squadron (Polish) on an Operation to bomb Gelsenkirchen. After bombing the target, the aircraft was shot down by a German night fighter and crashed at Sondern, 3 km North of Radevormwald, Germany.

CREW : Fg Off. H M Burkiewicz; Sgt E Porowski; Plt Off. K Andruszkiewicz; Fg Off. E S Jozefowicz; Sgt J E Sumiga; Flt Sgt M Golec were all killed except for Sgt Lucjan Józef Klucha who evaded capture but was found by a civilian in the Radevormwald area in Germany a few days later and was subsequently murdered by Germans.

Commemorated on the Polish Air Force Memorial at Northolt UK, and buried at Reichswald Forest War Cemetery - Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Plot Xxvii Row G Grave 2

Knowles Jr. Charles L. (012-1368/4)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Knox, John Philip (005-100)

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Knupp, Daniel Francis (WO 235/339 Rheine Airfield Case (Charge 4))

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_339ff Rheine Airfield Case. Please contact us via Helpdesk.

Kohlhaas, Thomas Knapp (012-0468)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Kolanowski, Wlodzimierz Adam

No Trial - Liegnitz Group (Great Escape)

Kolasinski, Felix Walenty (012-1885)

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Kornblau, Leonard Aaron (012-779)

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Kowalski, Robert F.

Kozekowski, Felix Dominick (005-100)

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Kralick, Joseph G. (No record of a trial)

Kreite, Robert Charles (012-57)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers available. Please contact us via the Helpdesk

Krol, Stanislaw Zygmunt 'Danny'

No Trial - Breslau Group (Great Escape)

Kromer, Jack C. (012-1395)

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Kuhn, Robert E. (012-1034, 012-3193B)

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Lake, Gordon P. (No record of a trial)

Lamarre, Joseph Yves Jean Claude (WO 235/569)

Lambertus, William W. (012-0489, 012-0489-1)

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Lamm, Marion H. (012-2162)

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Langford, Patrick Wilson (No Trial - Liegnitz Group (Great Escape))

Lapides, H. Leonard (11-511)

Memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Epinal American Cemetery, Epinal, France. AWARDS: Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman Badge, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal

Tablets of the Missing: Epinal, France

Named as the victim of murder in US vs. Otto PAULY and Hans SCHNEIDER (case no. 11-511), tried at Dachau in 1947. It seems that Lapides was badly wounded when captured by German troops on 19 January 1945, and was killed by medical M/Sgt SCHNEIDER two days later (21 January 1945) at Stattmatten (Alsace/Lorraine, France) upon instigation of regimental physician CPT PAULY who was his superior. On 14 January 1949, SCHNEIDER was hanged at War Criminal Prison #1 Landsberg/Lech in Bavaria, Germany. PAULY who had received a 'Life' sentence was paroled in March 1957

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Latten, Maynard A. (WO 235/185 Gaggenau Trial)

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_185 Gaggenau Trial. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Le Baron, Warren F. (PRO WO 219/5049)

Leigh, Thomas Barker (WO 235/573 - 3rd Count)

Leigh, Vera (WO 235/336)

Vera Leigh was born Vera Glass on 17 March 1903 in Leeds, England. She had been abandoned as a baby and adopted while still an infant by H. Eugene Leigh, a well-known American racehorse trainer with an English wife, who renamed his adopted daughter Vera Eugenie Leigh. After Mr Leigh’s death his wife married Alfred Clarke, whose son V.A.D. Clarke, became Leigh’s brother-in-law and friend. When it came necessary to name a next-of-kin Leigh chose Clarke. Vera grew up around the stables of Maisons Laffitte, the fashionable racetrack hear Paris. After gaining experience as a vendeuse at the house of Caroline Reboux, she went into partnership with two friends to found the grande maison Rose Valois in the Place Vendôme in 1927, when she was only 24.

When Paris fell in 1940 she left for Lyon to join her fiancé of seven years, a M. Charles Sussaix, the managing director of a Portuguese-owned film company. She had intended to find a way, with his help, to get to England, but she became involved with the underground escape lines guiding fugitive Allied servicemen out of the country and it was not until 1942 that she herself took the route over the Pyrenees into Spain. Spanish authorities put her in the internment camp at Miranda de Ibro, about 65 kilometres south of Bilbao. She was released through the efforts of a British embassy official, and was helped to make her way to England via Gibraltar.

Leigh arrived in England at the end on 1942 with the intentions of offering her services for the war effort and was soon identified by SOE. She struck her recruiter as 'a smart businesswoman'.

Her preliminary training report described Leigh as supple, active and keen, confident and capable, 'a very satisfactory person to teach' and one with 'a very pleasant personality'. Her commandant’s report said she was 'full of guts', had kept up with the men and was 'about the best shot in the party'. Leigh was 40 years old when she returned to France as Ensign Vera Leigh of the FANY, as it was common for such women to be nominally employed by the FANY while actually SOE agents (as was Andrée Borrel and many other female SOE agents).

Leigh returned to France on 13/14 May 1943, arriving in a Lysander at a field near Tours, and was one of four new arrivals that night who were received by F Section's air movements officer, Henri Dericourt. She arrived with Juliane Aisner (an old friend of Dericourt who would be a courier in his pick-up operation codenamed Farrier), Sidney Jones (an organizer and arms instructor) and Marcel Clech (a W/T operator). Leigh was to be a courier and three of them (Leigh, Jones and Clech) were to form a sub-circuit known as Inventor), to work with the Paris-based Prosper circuit, and would later serve as the liaison officer of the Donkeyman circuit. Circuits were also known as networks.

Leigh’s codename among fellow agents was Simone (she chose it herself), and Almoner for radio communications with London; while her assumed identity in France was Suzanne Chavanne, a milliner's assistant. With papers in her assumed name she moved around Paris and as far away as the Ardennes in the east, carrying messages from Jones to his various wireless operators and to Henri Frager (who headed a sub-circuit of the Prosper circuit). The reports she sent to her superiors in London were described as 'extremely cheerful'. She moved into an apartment in the elegant Sixteenth Arrondissement, made rendezvous routinely at cafés frequented by other agents, and took up life as a Parisienne again.

She came across her sister’s husband and at first pretended not to know him, then threw her arms around him. This chance encounter led to the discovery that he too was involved in clandestine activity for the Allies by hiding fugitive Allied airmen and passing them on to an escape line that would try to get them over the Pyrenees across the frontier into Spain. In her spare time she began escorting some of these downed fliers, who spoke no French, through the streets form the safe house to their next point of contact on the escape line.

She spent time with Julienne Besnard, in an imposing building in a courtyard off the Place des Ternes from which she ran her husband’s business, an effective cover for her activity as Déricourt’s courier. Leigh frequently met other agents at a café on the other side of the Place des Ternes, a short walk from the Place de l’Etoile in the Seventeenth. It was there in the Chez Mas, on 30 October 1943, in the company of Jones’ bodyguard, that she was arrested. Taken to the bleak Fresnes Prison several kilometres outside Paris, she was registered as Suzanne Chavonne and placed in Cell 410 of the Troisième Section Femmes. She had been taught in training to hold out for 48 hours after capture in order to give fellow agents a chance to vacate any premises and destroy any records she might be forced to reveal, but is almost certain she had no need to do so. There was nothing her captor didn’t already know about her activities.

On 13 May 1944, Leigh together with three other captured female SOE agents, Andrée Borrel, Sonia Olschanezky and Diana Rowden, were moved from Fresnes to the Gestapo's Paris headquarters in the Avenue Foch along with four other women whose names were Yolande Beekman, Madeleine Damerment, Eliane Plewman and Odette Sansom (aka Odette Churchil), all of whom were F Section agents. Later that day they were taken to the railway station, and each handcuffed to a guard upon alighting the train. Sansom, in an interview after the war, said:

'We were starting on this journey together in fear, but all of us hoping for something above all that we would remain together. We had all had a taste already of what things could be like, none of us did expect for anything very much, we all knew that they could put us to death. I was the only one officially condemned to death. The others were not. But there is always a fugitive ray of hope that some miracle will take place.'

Some time between five and six in the morning on 6 July 1944, not quite two months after their arrival in Karlsruhe, Borrel, Leigh, Olschanezky and Rowden were taken to the reception room, given their personal possessions, and handed over to two Gestapo men who then transported them some 100 kilometres south-west by closed truck to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in France, where they arrived around three in the afternoon. They were led down to the cell-block at the bottom of the camp by SS men and held there until later that night. They were initially together but later put into individual cells.

Through the windows, which faced those of the infirmary, they managed to communicate with several prisoners, including a Belgian prisoner, Dr Georges Boogaerts, who had passed one of the women (whom he later identified as Borrel from a photograph) some cigarettes through the window. Borrel threw him a little tobacco pouch containing some money.

Albert Guérisse (a Belgian army physician who had helped set up an escape organization in Marseille), whose PAT escape line Borrel had been part of and known her, recognized Borrel but had only managed to exchange a few words with another one of the women before she disappeared, who had said she was English (Leigh or Rowden). At the post-war trial of the men charged with the murder of the four women, Dr. Guérisse had stated that he was in the infirmary and had seen the women, one by one, being taken from the building housing the cells (Zellenbau) to the crematorium a few yards away. He told the court:

'I saw the four women going to the crematorium, one after the other. One went, and two or three minutes later another went. The next morning the German prisoner in charge of the crematorium explained to me that each time the door of the oven was opened, the flames came out of the chimney and that meant a body have been put in the oven. I saw the flames four times.'

The prisoner Dr. Guérisse referred to was Franz Berg, who assisted in the crematorium and had stoked the fire that night before being sent back to the room he shared with two other prisoners before the executions. The door was locked from the outside during the executions, but it was possible to see the corridor from a small window above the door, so the prisoner in the highest bunk was able to keep up a running commentary on what he saw. Berg said:

'We heard low voices in the next room and then the noise of a body being dragged along the floor, and he whispered to me that he could see people dragging something along the floor which was below his angle of vision through the fanlight. At the same time that this body was being brought past we heard the noise of heavy breathing and low groaning combined…and again we heard the same noises and regular groans as the [next two] insensible women were dragged away.

The fourth, however, resisted in the corridor. I heard her say 'Pourquoi?' and I heard a voice as I recognized as the doctor who was in civilian clothes say 'Pour typhus'. We then heard the noise of a struggle and the muffled cries of the woman. I assumed that someone held a hand over her mouth. I heard the woman being dragged away too. She was groaning louder than the others. From the noise of the crematorium oven doors which I heard, I can state definitely that in each case the groaning women were placed immediately in the crematorium oven.

When [the officials] had gone, we went to the crematorium oven, opened the door and saw that there were four blackened bodies within. Next morning in the course of my duties I had to clear the ashes out of the crematorium oven. I found a pink woman’s stocking garter on the floor near the oven.

The women were told to undress for a medical check and have an injection for medical reasons by a doctor, which was in fact what was considered a lethal 10cc dose of phenol. More than one witness talked of a struggle when the fourth woman was shoved into the furnace. According to a Polish prisoner named Walter Schultz, the SS medical orderly (Emil Brüttel) told him the following: 'When the last woman was halfway in the oven (she had been put in feet first), she had come to her senses and struggled. As there were sufficient men there, they were able to push her into the oven, but not before she had resisted and scratched [Peter] Straub's face.' The next day Schultz noticed that the face of the camp executioner (Straub) had been severely scratched.

Only the camp doctor (Werner Rohde) was executed after the war. The camp commandant (Fritz Hartjenstein) received a life sentence, while Straub was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Franz Berg was sentenced to five years in prison.

We salute the heroines of SOE!!

See Borrel, Andrée • Olschanezky, Sonya • Rowden, Diana

See also: tribute to Violette Szabo GC on this site

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_336 Struthof-Natzweiler Case No I. Please contact us via Helpdesk

Leith, William Browning (No record of a trial)

Lesh, Wilbur Laverne (No record of a trial)

Levine, Samuel Joseph (012-1745)

Review and Recommendations Trial Papers Available. Please contact us via Helpdesk.

Lightwood, Eric Emanuel (WO 235/291)

Pte. Lightwood died at BAB 20 (a Work Camp for POWs under Stalag Lamsdorf) situated near a synthetic oil plant, near Blechhammer (now Blachownia Śląska, Poland) when on 7th August 1944 the oil plant was raided by elements of the 15th US Air Force.

Being denied any air raid protection other than slit trenches which they had to dig themselves in the sandy soil, the POWs were jammed in during an air raid, one man tight to the next. Several bombs fell in between the zig-zag of the trenches causing one of them to collapse and bury 12 prisoners of war. Two or three of the prisoners were safely extracted but another prisoner, Pte. Lightwood, when dug out required the immediate application of oxygen in an endeavour to save his life. The POWs had been able to steal a cylinder of oxygen from the factory, but unfortunately it was of no avail, and Lightwood died five minutes after being dug out. After having been first buried in Cosel (now Koźle, Poland), he was transferred to Krakow Rakowicki Cemetery after the war and now rests there in plot 4, row C, grave 8.

His name is entered in the VitzArchive because his death was the subject of a war crime charge against Lieutenant General Kurt Wolff, officer in charge of prisoners of war in Wehrkreis VIII, for failing to provide air raid shelter for the prisoners of war or to move them to safer quarters outside the target area, thereby causing the deaths of four named British prisoners of war of whom Lightwood was one. A British Military Court found Wolff guilty of the charge and sentenced him to 7 years imprisonment of which he served about four and a half.

Full verbatim trial transcript available via helpdesk

Limbu, Dilbahadur

Lindenboom, Kevin Patrick

Lindley, Everett Sandborn (012-581)

This was a case of assault/mistreatment of a PoW which was brought to trial.

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During the trial, neither the names of the victims nor the serial number of the aircraft were identified by the Court. The identification made in this database is based on historic research which will be published in a book. As soon as this book is available, this Note will be replaced by an Archive Report which will then reference the book.

Full trial transcript of this trial ("Bolzano Gestapo Case") is available via helpdesk.

Livingstone, James Keith (WO 235/385, WO 235/386)

Logan, Boyd Wilson (012-1812)

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Long, James Leslie Robert (No Trial - Breslau Group (Great Escape))

Lower, Edward Jay (012-1034, 012-3193B)

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Loyd, Daniel T.

Ludka Jr., Richard J. (012-1368/4)

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Lupinsky, Jack (WO 235/351)

Verbatim trial transcript available. WO 235_351 Solingen Case. Please contact us via Helpdesk.

Lyford, George E.