Inside of Stutthof Concentration Camp, there were a number of SS guards who became known
for their brutality and evil.
There were many female guards who were schooled In evil, and they had been taught how to treat
prisoners and inmates terribly.
After the Second World War had come to an end, there were a series of executions that
occurred on Biskupia Gorka, a huge hill in Gdansk.
This sought to deal with the criminals and guards of Stutthof that had been condemned
to death.
Amongst them were a number of women such as Jeny Wanda Barkmann and Ewa Pardies, but also
a man who was considered the most senior guard at Stutthof, the Commandant Johann Pauls.
He was a man who was responsible for the running of Stutthof and it’s deadly policies and
practices, and he was known for being an ardent Nazi who was executed on the huge gallows
structure that stood on the hill in front of 20,000 people.
He ultimately paid the price for his crimes, join us today as we look at the execution
of the commandant of Stutthof Concentration Camp, to support our channel please make sure
to subscribe.
Stutthof Concentration Camp was a huge site set up in the north, to the east of the city
of Gdansk.
It was a site which was set up and opened almost straight after the war broke out with
the Invasion of Poland.
The SS had drawn up lists of people to be arrested and imprisoned there, and these original
prisoners had to establish the infrastructure creating the barracks.
Over time Stutthof became a huge site, and it held during the war around 110,000 prisoners,
and around half of those would never make it out alive.
The camp was surrounded by a high voltage electrified fence, and a crematorium and gas
chamber were also added, and mass executions did occur there, with 150 people being driven
into the gas chamber at a time.
The camp’s staff were made up of German SS guards, and there were also many female
guards such as Hertha Bothe who were employed there.
Bothe became known as the Sadist of Stutthof for her evil antics, with the over 6 foot
tall woman stomping prisoners with her jackboots.
Many women were conscripted from Danzig and the surrounding cities as the war went on,
but one man who also came to Stutthof towards the end of World War 2 was Johann Pauls who
became the Commandant.
Johann Pauls was born in Danzig, on the 9th February 1908.
He joined the Nazi Party early on, and also then joined Heinrich Himmler’s SS on the
1st April 1931.
He was an ardent and long standing member of the party, and he would then as the Second
World War broke out serve inside of the reserve police force.
But as the war expanded following the Invasion of the Soviet Union and Operation Barbarossa,
Johann Pauls served as an infantryman in the Waffen SS, and also in the SS Schutz reserve
as a rifleman.
Pauls served in this capacity until he was then transferred to the SS Totenkopfsturmbann,
and he was then assigned to work at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.
Sachsenhausen was another brutal site, which it’s believed claimed the lives of around
100,000 inmates, roughly half of those who entered the camp.
The prisoners were forced to witness executions there on a daily basis, and conduct incredibly
hard labour and work, and they were systematically starved to death, and many succumbed to the
conditions of the camp which also included disease which spread around the camp quickly.
The guards of Sachsenhausen were known for their brutality and harshness, and many forced
prisoners to march around the roll call yards constantly and some were forced to march around
40kms a day for little reason.
Prisoners were also subjected to medieval style torture, but at some point Johann Pauls
was noticed by Heinrich Himmler and the hierarchy of the SS.
He was scouted by the head of the SS to go and become the new commandant of Stutthof
concentration camp, and he was transferred to the site near to his hometown.
He was in control of the guards who worked at the site until the camp closed down.
But at Stutthof, there were prisoners from many different countries, and the conditions
of the camp were terrible.
Dozens of thousands succumbed to disease, starvation and the labour conditions and the
guards drove those who were too weak or sick to work into the gas chamber at the camp.
The first executions occurred in 1940, and continued up until the camp shut down.
Johann Pauls would have ordered executions, and some of these took place with prisoners
who were too sick to work being injected with Phenol.
Inmates were also drowned in the mud by the guards, and executions were carried out in
the firing range there.
Stutthof was evacuated on the 25th January 1945, and the evacuations continued.
Many were marched towards the sea and were then shot inside of the sea by machine gunners
who were stood on the shore.
Thousands died in the death matches, and it’s believed that over 25,000 people succumbed
to the evacuations.
But Johann Pauls remained in charge of the guards, and after the war he was captured
and he was then brought to the Stutthof Trials.
These trials were held in Pauls’ hometown of Gdansk, and from the 25th April 1946 to
the 31st May Paul’s was accused of war crimes.
In total there were a group of 12 other guards and Kapos on trial with Johann Pauls’, but
as he was responsible as the commandant of the guards, then he was sentenced to death
for his crimes.
The execution of Johann Paul’s would take place on the 4th July 1945 on the Biskupia
Gorka, a huge hill in Gdansk.
On the hill were around 20,000 people who had gathered to witness the execution of the
guards of Stutthof.
There were also a number of huge gallows that had been assembled, and these were large structures
which is where the guards were executed.
One a central Gallows, Johann Pauls was brought out in front of the crowd along with the other
guards which included women such as Gerda Steinhoff.
Pauls the commandant was placed on the back of a truck, and then from the wooden gallows,
a noose was placed over the structure and whilst he was sat on a stool on the truck,
the noose was fastened around his neck.
Then slowly, the truck drove off and Johann Pauls was left hanging from the gallows.
HE was then left for a short period of time before he was confirmed dead, and his remains
were cut down and were placed inside of a coffin.
Johann Pauls was the commandant of the guards of Stutthof concentration camp, and along
with many of his other guards and staff he was sentenced to death and was executed on
the huge gallows in front of the crowd of 20,000.
He was a man who was in charge of the brutes of the camp, and for this he was sent to his
death at the end of the Second World War.
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