On the 15th April 1964, almost 20 years after the Second World War had ended, a former commandant
of a concentration camp made his way to the guillotine inside of Leipzig prison.
Roland Puhr was a man who worked at a number of concentration camps, and he would be then
involved in a number of executions of prisoners inside different camps.
He became known for being a brute and a violent guard, but after the Second World War had
finished in Europe, he went on the run and for decades managed to live out a life in
East Germany under the noses of the Soviets.
But he would then be brought to justice and he would be executed on the guillotine.
Join us today as we look at the justified execution of the guillotined nazi commandant.
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Roland Puhr was born on the 21st January 1914 in Bohemia, and little is known about his
early life, but as a young man he would join the Czechoslovakian military.
But he would also in 1936 join the Sudeten German Party.
He would then as the German and Nazi influence inside of Czechoslovakia increased desert
from the Czech army and military and he would then join the German army.
But in 1939 he became a paid up member of the Nazi party, and he then joined the SS
and would be part of the SS Deaths Heads unit, and he would then serve as a guard inside
of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.
Sachsenhausen was a huge concentration camp which would see 200,000 people being imprisoned
within the barbed wire fences.
It was a site where many different prisoners were held including important prisoners such
as Stalin’s son, and other politicians.
Inside of the camp 50,000 prisoners were killed by the brutal and barbaric conditions, and
it was a place where many prisoners were executed in the open.
The inmates were poorly fed and they were not given the correct level of treatment,
which led to more death.
There was a punishment centre at the camp where prisoners were held in solitary confinement
and they were then tortured by the SS guards.
But executions were carried out at the camp each day, with shootings and hangings taking
place in front of the other prisoners.
The punishment at the camp was very rough, and some would be ordered to perform a ‘sachsenhausen
salute’ where a prisoner would squad with their arms outstretched in front.
They would then be forced to march huge distances each day.
Many prisoners would be suspended from posts with their wrists tied behind their backs
in a medieval form of torture.
When he arrived at Sachsenhausen, Roland Puhr slaughtered and executed many people with
his own hands.
There were scores of Soviet prisoners of war who were executed at the camp, and Puhr himself
participated in these shootings.
It’s believed that he murdered with his own hands between 30 to 40 prisoners at the
site.
One of those who he executed was an Austrian prosecutor and lawyer who would be involved
in the protection of a Nazi who murdered the Austrian Chancellor.
It’s also believed that Roland Puhr was a member of an SS execution squad who carried
out a series of killings of a construction brigade near to the city of Dusseldorf.
After working at Sachsenhausen for some years, Roland Puhr would then be rewarded in a sense
by the SS and Himmler and he would be promoted to become a commandant of his own concentration
camp.
But this camp would be considered the only one established on British soil on the Channel
Islands.
This was a camp on Alderney and it was a labour camp where many forced labourers and slabe
labourers were ordered to make military fortifications and installations throughout the Channel Islands.
Sylt as it was known, would be a place where dozens of prisoners were forced to work, and
there were a number of deaths at the site as well as terrible treatment at the hands
of the guards.
These prisoners were forced to make bunkers, gun emplacements and much else including tunnels.
The commandant’s house was to begin with inside of the camp, but then it was moved
to a different part of the island.
The most popular form of killing in Salt by the SS was strangulation and hanging as rebellious
prisoners were hanged.
Prisoners who were sick were left to lie in the camp for days without being given anything
to eat, and one SS officer then shot the men.
One witness said that, ‘“While doing jobs in Alderney we were near Sylt one day where
we saw a Russian strung up on the main gate.
On his chest he had a sign on which was written ‘for stealing bread’.
His body was left hanging like this for four days”
But after working here for some time, Puhr then returned back to German as the Second
World War turned against the Germans.
But following the end of the war, he would then try to hide out like many members of
the SS also would.
Concentration Camp guards either remained at the camps during liberation when they were
then arrested, or they tried to hide out to evade justice.
Roland Puhr went into hiding and he managed to obtain false papers and he then began a
new life in the north of Germany, and he would manage to escape any form of justice for some
time.
Decades passed however in June 1963, Roland Puhr was arrested after his identity was exposed
by the East German authorities.
Roland Puhr was then arrested and he was interrogated, and he was then charged with war crimes and
crimes against humanity.
Evidence was heard about his execution and slaughter inside of Sachsenshausen and the
other concentration camps, and witnesses came forward about what had happened.
This was in 1963, and was almost 2 decades after the war had come to an end.
But despite many war criminals being freed after they were imprisoned, and a general
feeling in Germany regarding trials that executions for SS members were a thing of the past, Roland
Puhr was sentenced to death.
This may have been because he was within East Germany, who wanted to deal with a man who
had executed many Soviet soldiers.
But Roland Puhr was then sent to Leipzig prison where he was to await for his execution.
Appeals were lodged but were turned down, and he was then on the 15th April 1964 brought
from his cell into the execution chamber of Leipzig Prison.
He was to be executed on the guillotine, which was considered a swift execution method.
The prison was an East German execution chamber where many nazi war criminals and former Stasi
officials were executed.
Many were given false death certificates.
Puhr would be amongst one of 19 Nazi war criminals executed between 1960 and 1978.
He was then led towards the guillotine where an executioner and his assistant secured his
arms and then secured Puhr to a wooden board.
Following this he was slid under the guillotine and the blade was released, and the former
SS guard’s head was taken clean off.
Roland Puhr was a man who began his military career in Czechoslovakia, but he would then
become a member of the Nazi party.
He then participated in many executions and shootings inside of Sachsenhausen and he was
a ruthless executioner.
But he would also be the commandant of his own concentration camp inside of Alderney
on the Channel Islands.
But he would decades later lose his head on the guillotine at the age of 50.
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