During the Second World War, the Nazis established a huge network of concentration camps across
the occupied lands.
Inside of these camps, the true evils of the Third Reich occured with millions being sent
to their deaths.
Concentration camps varied in their sizes, Auschwitz was the largest and saw the biggest
death toll, but there were camps that were a lot smaller than that.
When the Germans invaded new lands, the sought to deal with the civilian population brutally,
and one way of doing so was by instilling a reign of fear.
This occured inside of what today is the Czech Republic, and through organisations such as
the Gestapo they struck fear into the population.
One part of the Czech Republic in a town called Terezine, a large prison was established where
brutality occurred inside.
The Small fortress was a gestapo prison, and inside of here there were many who were executed,
and it was overseen by the commandant SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Heinrich Jockel.
However he eventually met his end at the gallows.
So join us today as we look at, ‘The JUSTIFIED Execution Of Heinrich Jockel,’ remember
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Henrich Jockel was born on the 10th July 1898 in Offenbach am Main.
It’s assumed that he had a normal upbringing and schooling, and after he left school in
1913 he worked as a farm labourer.
He was mobilised for service within the German Army during the First World War, and then
as the conflict came to an end he returned to work in the fields.
After the First World War, like so many who turned to extreme politics to deal with the
problems that Germany faced.
Hyperinflation and issues caused the Weimar Republic to crumble and people to turn to
Hitler’s Nazi Party.
Jockel joined the NSDAP in 1931 and was member number 763,122.
He then later joined the SS in 1933, after Hitler seized power and control.
His role inside of the SS is rather undisputed, but he must have been highly rated as he had
risen to the position as an untersturmfuhrer in November 1935.
He then also was promoted yet again to Oberstrumfuhrer and then he began a Hauptsturmfuhrer in November
1938.
It’s believed that he was involved in the concentration camp system possibly and gained
some degree of experience from this.
As the Second World War broke out, he was kept away from the frontlines in terms of
combat fighting, and within the SS he was involved in establishing labour camps.
The NAzi occupation of Czecholslovakia began with the annexation of the Sudetenland in
1938, and then continued a year later with the invasion of Czech lands and the establishment
of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which encorporated all parts of former Czechoslovakia.
The Nazis set up huge scores of camps and detainment centres across occupied lands,
and in February 1939, Jockel was sent to the Sudetenland as a commander of an ORPO detachment.
Under his control, they set up two different labour camps and it’s assumed that this
was successful as he gained more high profile work.
In autumn 1939, Jockel had been established as the camp commandant of the Skrochowitz
concentration camp.
This was part of a number of forced labour camps inside of the Sudetenland, but it belonged
to a larger network including camps inside of Poland and Silesia.
This specific camp that Heinrich Jockel oversaw was found in a former sugar refinery, and
was seen as a labour reformatory by the Germans.
These camps were built for slave labour and they had a permanent German staff as well
as forced workers who had been captured as the Germans captured more territory.
Jockel must have been noticed by his SS superiors, as after his job as the commandant of this
small camp, he was transferred to work in the Gestapo Prison, the Small Fortress of
Theresienstadt in June 1940.
This camp was operated by the Gestapo, and Jockel had already worked for them in some
capacity.
The small fortress operated long before it became a Nazi work camp known as Terezin,
and even the assassin Gavrilo Princip who shot Franz Ferdinand, the gunshot that started
WW1 was impirosned here and died from TB.
In the early days of the camps establishment, mostly Czech prisoners were kept there.
The Nazis needed to use the small fortress as existing prisons became full as they were
arresting many members of resistance groups and also communists.
Those who helped resistance and people who committed sabotage along with Jews who broke
antisemitic laws were imprisoned there.
Following the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich who oversaw the protectorate,
the Nazis imprisoned huge scores of people at the small fortress.
It was divided into a number of areas and courtyards.
The first courtyard was for men and roll call took place ever morning and evening, and prisoners
were split by nationality and up to 90 people were kept in cells of barrack buildings.
They had to sleep on wooden planks three stories high, and there was only one toilet and sink,
and water had to be reused.
Prisoners were banned from using light, and there was no heating and lice often were common
such was the bad hygiene.
The second courtyard was for administration and the transports arrived there.
Often it took hours to admit prisoners, and here inmates gave over their belongings.
Prisoners were given old Czech army uniforms and women were allowed to keep their civilian
clothes.
If the inmate was Jewish they were forced to wear a yellow star, and all the men were
shaved bald.
Jews were also kept in nearby ghettos, but those who escaped and involved themselves
in the resistance were sent to the small fortress for punishment.
The were tortured and often murdered within the walls.
The Jewish cells were incredibly cramped and had no toilets or fresh air.
Another courtyard was built in 1943, and prisoners were forced to watch executions inside of
this.
These barracks held up to 600 people who slept on the floor or in beds, there were two toilets
per 600 people and disease was rampant.
There were no showers in 1945, and typhus broke out killing dozens.
There were also 20 solitary confinement cells at the camp overseen by Jockel, and a tiny
and small infirmary was set up but this was not good enough.
Jewish and Russian prisoners were not allowed to receive any medical treatment, and this
instruction came from Heinrich Jockel the camp’s commandant.
He regularly denied people the treatment they should have been given.
One of the most sinister parts of the camp was the Gate of Death that opened up onto
the execution courtyard a former shooting rang.
Executions were common at Terezin, but only a few prisoners were hanged, but most were
shot.
It’s believed that up to 300 were executed there, and then after they were killed their
bodies were thrown in an unmarked mass grave.
At the camp, Jockel who was in charge as mentioned denied medical help to Jewish prisoners, and
also assigned them with the most difficult work.
Many often died because of their overworking, and it was known that Jockel lived in the
camp with his own family.
As the Second World War turned against the Nazis and the Germans, in May 1945 with the
Red Army approaching, Jockel gave one final deadly order where he sentenced 53 prisoners
to death and these were shot but within a few days he had left Theresienstadt with his
family.
His timing was 3 days before the Red Army seized the camp and liberated the small fortress
camp.
For a while he went on the run and he ordered his family to leave him and to head back to
Germany without him.
Jockel found sanctuary briefly in Offenbach, however within weeks of going on the run,
the Americans had located him and he was arrested by counterintelligence services who then interrogated
him.
Jockel was then handed over to the Czechs and was extradited on January 26th 1946.
He was then interrogated, and in an act of justice he was imprisoned inside the very
camp that he oversaw with great brutality.
He was kept inside the cells for the Jews that were noted during the camps opening to
have been very cramped and awful.
Whilst here he was then imprisoned alongside his wife and eldest daughter who were also
caught and taken there.
Eventually Heinrich Jockel was placed on trial and inside of a Czech courtroom in Litomerice,
he was sentenced to death.
The court heard all of the tales of the camp, and heard from many witnesses who told of
the mistreatment inside of the camp, and also told of how Jockel had ordered and preceded
over executions that took place there.
For his crimes he was to pay for them with his life.
Close to the camp he oversaw in Litomerice he was brought to a small gallows for his
execution.
The Czechs didn’t use the long drop method or a specifically sophisticated method to
carry out hangings, but more insisted on using something such as the pole method.
Heinrich Jockel on the October 26th 1946 was brought out into a courtyard where the stake
for his execution and the executioner was ready for him.
To witness the proceedings, a large amount of people where there including members of
the military and also those who had been imprisoned inside the camp.
He was brought into the courtyard, and then was led up to a number of steps and a wooden
platform.
Whilst on here, he was secured around his waist to a wooden post with a belt, and then
his legs were tied together with a rope.
A hook was found on the post above his head, and he was suspended off the ground.
Eventually once everything was prepared, the noose was place around his head, and the rope
jerked suspending him in the air and snapping his neck.
His execution was rather swift, and for those who witnessed proceedings it was a tiny piece
of justice for the crimes exerted by the Nazis during the Second World War for the Czech
people.
Heinrich Jockel had overseen the Terezin fortress camp with much brutality.
Although there wasn’t a gas chambers installed inside the camp unlike many other concentration
camps, it was known for its incredibly tough conditions and also its executions.
Jockel like so many oversaw a huge number of deaths inside concentration camps and contributed
to the horrific crimes of the Second World War that the Nazis committed.
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