The guillotine was an execution device which was made famous during the French Revolution,
but it would be used inside of Nazi Germany to condemn many different people who were
accused of treason against Hitler’s government. But at the end of the Second World War, the
guillotine would be used to execute some people accused of crimes that occurred inside of
the concentration camps. One such man was Erich Zoddel, a 32 year old prisoner functionary
who worked and was held inside of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Zoddel’s story was one
which was unique at the end of the Second World War, and he would be accused of murdering
another prisoner based on the fact she would not agreed to go on a date with him. But the
setting for this was one of the most barbaric concentration camps used by the Nazis, and
Zoddel’s actions led to one more death inside of the camps. Join us today as we look at
the horrific guillotining of Erich Zoddel, and as always to support our channel please
make sure to subscribe.
During the Second World War, there were many prisoners who were recruited inside of the
concentration camp systems to work as Kapos, or prisoner functionaries. These were in a
sense a number of prisoners who were given some power to laud over other inmates, and
they would often be targeted at the end of the conflict and many would be seen as in
collaboration with the guards. Many Kapos were beaten to death when the camps were liberated.
But Erich Zoddel was born in August 1913 in Berlin, and he was a prisoner of the concentration
camps who would not necessarily be incarcerated by the Nazi policies and race laws. He was
a common criminal and because of this was sent to the camps because of this. Specifically
in 1941, he was imprisoned for a year for theft and he would then in 1942 be sent to
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.
He was held inside of Sachsenhausen for some time before he was then forced to conduct
labour inside of the Heinkel factory, making airoplane parts for the German war effort
inside of Oranienberg. But he was moved yet again to Buchenwald Concentration Camp and
then Mittelbau-Dora. With this, Erich Zoddel despite being only sentenced to a year in
prison was a prisoner inside many of the most horrific and brutal Nazi concentration camps.
But like many pother prisoners he would be sent towards Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Belsen in the final days of it’s operations was a sorry overcrowded state as thousands
of prisoners were sent there to try to keep them out the hands of the enemy, and because
of this the conditions broke down. But Erich Zoddel was there for over a year, and he would
rise throughout the ranks of the prisoners at the camp. He was trusted by the SS and
would have been involved in keeping the prisoners in check. However the crime that Erich Zoddel
was accused of and would ultimately sent to his execution for would be carried out after
the liberation of the camp.
When the British entered the camp on the 15th April 19455, they found around 13,000 unburied
bodies and around 60,000 inmates who were suffering and dying. Many were very sick,
and they had been without food or water for days. Amongst the prisoners they also found
a number of SS guards who had remained including Irma Grese, Elisabeth Volkenrath and the Beast
of Belsen, commandant of the camp Josef Kramer. A British reporter stated of the scenes, ‘Here
over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which...
The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly
procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable
to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them ... Babies
had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live ... A mother, driven mad, screamed
at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms,
then ran off, crying terribly.’ It was hell on earth and the British would then use the
guards to help clean up the bodies, but around 170 of the Kapos and prisoner functionaries
like Erich Zoddel had been killed and were turned on by the inmates.
Om the 18th April 1945 following the liberation, Erich Zoddel pulled out his weapon and he
shot a female prisoner named Maria Konatkwicz. He would state Maria was his girlfriend, however
others claimed that Zoddel had threatened the woman as she rejected his romantic advances.
She refused to date Zoddel on the basis that he was German and Maria was Polish, but allegedly
Erich could not handle this. He later said in his trial that, ‘Maria KONATKWICZ was
my girlfriend at BELSEN Camp. She had been my girlfriend since April 12th. She was shot
on April 18 between 2200 and 2300 hrs. She came to my house at 2100 hrs that night and
I went with her to the camp. I was with her when the shots were fired. The shot were fired
immediately outside her building - the first block on the right hand side when entering
the main gate, in front of the block where she had been living. I do not remember its
actual number. I was coming from my house from the prisoners camp with Maria, walking
in the direction of the canteen where there was a dance to which we wanted to go. Just
as we arrived at the canteen, the lights went out. As we therefore could not dance, we went
off to her block when a tall Russian - whose name I do not know - came up.
He had a girl on his arm - I would not know her, but I would know him again. When he got
near us, he pulled out a revolver pointed it at us and said: "That's the end now". Then
he fired 2 shots, one of which struck me on the back of the neck and one killed Maria.
I lay on the ground next to her. The Russian ran into the block. The girl who had been
with the Russian bent down, pushed me on one side and said to the Russian that I was dead.
After they had gone, I got up and went to another block. Someone was looking for me
with an electric torch, so I went through the window and went to the toolstore where
I gave myself up to the British. I told them the whole story. A Sgt took me to the Commandant
to have my wound dressed. I had my clothes searched, I was put on a lorry and driven
the BERGEN to an officer. He said it was "up to me", and released me at 0030 hrs. So I
was driven back to BELSEN with 2 soldiers as a protective escort, and taken back to
my block and ordered to report to the Commandant again the following day. I only remained there
two more days. Then 2 soldiers and a Captain came and took me into custody - I do not know
why.
That day I was dressed in blue trousers, a brown waistcoat of sheepskin and an overcoat.
I was not wearing jackboots. I did possess a pair. It was dark, and there was an air
raid warning on. I was, at the end, Lagerälteste (spokesman) No 3 in the camp. I did not think
I had any enemies - otherwise I would have been taken away on the day the SS were. The
man in charge of my block told me not to walk out after dark because it would not be safe
because the other inmates were hunting down Germans. Two others who worked with me in
the kitchen had been killed the day before. It was impossible to leave the camp. One could
have escaped through the wire fence - if bent on escaping - it was possible that way. After
my arrest all the other Germans "beat it".
He claimed that he was shot before Maria and that a Russian fired a bullet into him and
said, ‘That’s the end now.’ His lawyers tried to claim that the witness testimony
against him was nonsense. One witness would state of Zoddels crime that, ‘ I remember
a girl called Maria. I remember her death, which took place after the British came - about
13 or 14 days afterwards. I was by building No 201 when her death took place, inside the
building standing by the window. It was evening time. Maria was walking with a man, when Zoddel approached
them, fired twice and Maria fell down. I identify Zoddel in Court. Maria was at
that time walking in front of the building. Accused approached them from behind. He fired
twice and Maria fell down. He had the pistol in his pocket. After he had fired, Maria fell
to the ground. Her companion was wounded as well and was taken to the hospital. He did
not fall down, but disappeared. I hurried out from the building and found Maria lying
in a pool of blood in front of the building. She was dead. I could not stay there long,
so I went away. I do not know exactly where she was hit but it was somewhere in the head.
I did not see if she was hit elsewhere in her body, because she was taken away with
her clothes on. Her body was covered with a blanket. I do not remember what day of the
week this was. The day before, Maria had told me that Erich had threatened he would
kill her, because he had fallen in love with her but she would not go out with him because
he was a German and she a Pole.’
It was claimed that after he fired the shots, Zoddel disappeared and he could not be found
and he was allegedly wearing jack boots and that Zoddel was identifiable as he wore the
armband of a chief Kapo. There were some witnesses who spoke out for Erich, but these defences
were rejected. Others claimed that he only wanted to frighten Maria and that he did not
want to kill the young Polish girl and that this may have been an accident. However these
were rejected and because of this Erich Zoddel was found guilty of murder. He was condemned
to death by a military court in Celle on the 31st August 1945.
On the 17th November 1945, he was sentenced to life imprisonment during a second trial
for his conduct at Bergen-Belsen, and the court found that he had violently assaulted
and beaten fellow prisoners whilst he was at the camp, and that in his role as a Kapo
he would beat the inmates with sticks very badly. But whilst he was in prison, his death
sentence would be then carried out. He was held in Wolfbuttel Prison and on the 30th
November 1945, the 32 year old Erich Zoddel was led out of his prison cell and into the
execution chamber. He was not to be hanged for murder as his conviction was under German
civilian code, and because of this he was to be executed on the guillotine.
This famous execution device in Germany was known as the fallbeil and it was adapted and
mostly made from metal, as opposed to the guillotine in France which was mostly wooden
except for the blade. But the German executioners became known for their ruthless efficiency,
and they would execute in a matter of seconds. Zoddel had his identity confirmed in the execution
chamber, before the assistant secured his hands and legs and then he would be secured
onto a metal board using a variety of straps. He was then slid under the guillotine blade,
and once everything was checked the blade was released, and his head taken clean off
which then fell into a basket at the foot of the device.
Erich Zoddel was one of a few German people who was executed on the guillotine at the
end of the Second World War, but he was accused of war crimes and also murdering a young woman
who turned down his advances. It was a callous act of cold blooded killing as he could not
cope with rejection, and his victim was just one of thousands of victims
and prisoners who perished inside of the walls of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.
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