After the liberation of the concentration camps, there were thousands of prisoners who
were starving, struggling with their health and also many were dying from diseases.
It was the Allied liberators who were left to clean up the horrific environments of places
such as Auschwitz, and at Bergen-Belsen, the British found over 10,000 unburied bodies
that they had to then bury with dignity.
The relief on the prisoners faces when they realised they were going to be liberated was
captured on film, but many were so terrified of soldiers that they could not believe what
was happening.
After they were cared for, and were given food they were then released and many headed
back to their homes and found that their houses had been destroyed and been stolen by others.
But there was one former Polish concentration camp prisoner of war, who then after he was
freed went on a killing spree of his own, and he murdered a German family who had provided
him with shelter and food.
Today we look at the BRUTAL execution of Peter Chemy, remember to support our channel, please
make sure to subscribe.
Piotr Chemy was born in Tarnopol in which was in the Second Poland Republic on the 18th
June 1918.
During the Second World War, the Germans invaded this area in 1941, and they committed huge
scale deportations and killings.
In 1941 they killed 2000 Jewish people, and then created the Tarnopol Ghetto for the Jews
who still remained inside of the city.
Inside of the ghetto, the mortality rate was huge and many were forced to bury the dead
in huge graves.
There were also selections that took place with prisoners being sent straight to Belzec
extermination camp, where they were driven into the gas chambers as soon as they arrived.
A few hundred people managed to survive by living in hidden places in the town.
Peter Chemy was one of those who was deported to a concentration camp during the Second
World War as he was detained by the Nazis.
It’s not really know for certain which concentration camp that Peter Chemy was taken too, however
it’s possible that it may have been Mauthausen.
This is because this was one of the major camp complexes liberated by the American army
In May 1945, and it was said Peter Chemy was freed by American soldiers in May 1945.
It’s also possible that he may have been held inside of Dachau, as at the end of April
this camp was liberated by the Americans.
Also after his liberation Chemy was found wandering around Germany in different areas,
with this it’s possible that Dachau was where he was imprisoned as this is also found
in Germany, as opposed to Mauthausen which is found in Austria.
Dachau was also not thousands of miles from his place of execution.
But inside of the concentration camps, it’s certain that Peter Chemy would have seen untold
horror and evil on a daily basis.
Chances are that his family were split up and many of them were killed inside gas chambers,
or by poor conditions and execution.
This was incredibly common at the camps, and executions were carried out in public at roll
call yards for those who were guilty of infringing the camps rules.
The complete conditions and horrors of the concentration camps had a hugely profound
impact on the prisoners for the rest of their lives.
Some could not cope with the loss inflicted by the Nazis and Germans after the war and
would also become further victims as they took their own lives.
The horrors of the camps were told at trials after the war, but for many people who were
released they had lost their homes, many which had been stolen with new families living in
them.
Also they had to cope with their family members and friends dying and being victims of the
extermination and concentration camps.
The aftermath for many of the prisoners was too much to cope with, and reprisals by former
prisoners did take place.
At Dachau there was a true reign of terror inflicted onto the prisoners every day, and
many struggled to cope after liberation living with their freedom.
Peter Chemy following his liberation spent months wandering around Germany, it’s not
known what he was doing there, or where he was intending on going.
He may have been trying to find a way back home, or may have been exploring his options,
but all we know is that he was wandering around Germany for months after the war had come
to an end.
Maybe more could have been done to help him as a displaced person, and if this had happened
maybe he would not have committed his crimes.
Many prisoners of war also had very anti-German sentiment because of the treatment of guards,
and many believed that all German civilians and citizens were ardent Nazis and people
who supported and also propped up Hitler in his regime.
There were many attacks against Germans because of this, by soldiers and also freed POWs.
But in December 1945, Peter Chemy in the freezing cold German winter and the snow was found
wandering aimlessly inside Allied occupied Germany.
He was found by a family who offered him kind shelter for the evening and food.
Peter accepted and went with the family, and for the night they gave him a warm evening
meal, and also a bed sheltering him from the freezing cold winter which could have killed
him.
After the family went to sleep, Peter could not settle and he went outside and he found
an axe or a hatchet.
What he did next would secure his fate.
He took the axe, and went back inside the home and he then brutally murdered the couple
who offered him shelter and also their young daughter whilst they slept in their beds.
It’s likely that he inflicted a brutal and barbaric death for these, with them being
bludgeoned to death with the axe.
Peter Chemy then went on the run, and after the crime was discovered he was arrested by
the occupation police after.
He had committed a brutal crime, and technically as the war was over this was treated as a
bloody act of revenge against the German people.
This made him also a murderer, and as he had committed these crimes within the US Occupation
zone, then he was brought to trial in front of a US military court.
Inside the down of Ochsenfurt he was tried, and interestingly on the the 6th august 1946,
Peter Chemy was found guilty of three counts of premeditated murder.
This meant that he must have had some degree of planning when he entered the home, knowing
that he was going to commit murder.
But because of this he was also sentenced to death.
On the 21st March 1947, he was executed by a firing squad at Landsberg Prison.
The prison was where hundreds of Nazi war criminals were executed following the Second
World War on gallows here, but Chemy was executed by firing squad.
This was considered a more honourable way to die, and as he was a common criminal this
is why he was executed in this manner, as he was not a war criminal.
He was brought into a clearing at the prison and a courtyard where a firing range had been
made.
At one end stood the American shooters and soldiers that would take his life, and at
the other was a wooden stake with sandbags behind to protect from ricochets.
Peter Chemy was led from his cell, flanked by American military policemen, and was then
taken to the stake and was accompanied by a priest.
He was secured to the stake by rope which was tied around his legs and also around his
arms, which left him a target for the firing range who could not move.
His sentence was read out, before the firing squad then readied and they waited for their
signal.
When it was given they shot straight into Peter Chemy and he was then killed instantly.
Peter Chemy’s story is one in which the victim became the victimiser.
What he had seen and witnessed inside the concentration camps its probable led him to
enact revenge on any Germans.
There’s no doubt he would have been treated terrible and awfully inside of the camps,
but what he did was not right and was a bloody act of murder and reprisal.
It’s likely he developed an anti-german ideology because of his treatment, and his
execution was one which was rare at Landsberg in the years after the war.
It was not a war criminal who was executed that day, but it was a common criminal and
a murderer.
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