Throughout the Second World War, there were many people who defied and resisted Hitler
and his regime, even within Germany.
There were many who paid the ultimate price for this, for example Sophie Scholl and her
brother Hans who distributed anti nazi propaganda at a university, they both were executed by
guillotine.
There were many who lost their heads in this way using the German Fallbeil, the metal guillotine
that Hitler used to execute thousands of dissenters.
Many more were sent to concentration camps but to speak out against Hitler was incredibly
dangerous.
The most serious threat that Hitler faced to his life came in the form of the July 20th
Plot, when Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in the Wolf’s Lair which detonated
injuring the Fuhrer of Nazi Germany.
But in the aftermath of this assassination attempt there were thousands who were executed
and rounded up, and the gestapo ordered executioners to work double time to instil the iron fist
of Hitler’s regime.
But there was one German family who lived a rather quiet life during the war, however
they sheltered one of the plotters of the July 20th plot, and when they were betrayed
the family were decimated with a series of executions taking the lives of the Gloeden
family.
But what is the story of the family that were executed by the guillotine?
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The Gloeden Family was made up of Elisabeth Lilo Gloeden and her husband Erich.
Lily was a lawyer and Erich was an architect, and he was the son of a Jew who had married
a Christian.
Erich’s family were rather important in German society, as his father had established
a successful bronze foundry, and they were often prominent people inside of the royal
court in 1910 before the First World War broke out.
However Erich was later adopted by high school teacher Bernhard Gloeden in 1918 with the
consent of their parts to hide their Jewish background, and he was given a non Jewish
surname and was baptised.
This in a sense was a blessing in disguise as when Hitler would seize control, it would
hide Erich Gloeden’s true heritage and would save him from deportation to a concentration
camp.
But as the Second World War broke out, Erich Gloeden worked for Organisation Todt as an
architect.
Operation Todd was an organisation which looked after a large range of engineering projects
in Germany, and occupied lands.
It became an organisation that became infamous and notorious for using forced labour, and
they also built concentration camps, and supplied forced labour groups to different industries
and organisations.
But Erich himself would be designing the construction projects for the slave labour to then be carried
out on these.
He would also be assessing sites suitable for the projects, but whilst they lived in
Berlin the Gloeden’s secretly opposed the Nazis, and hated Hitler.
Inside of their home they began to house Jewish people who were fleeing persecution, and secretly
provided a safe haven for them before they would try to make it to the German border.
This was of course very dangerous and if they were found out by the Gestapo, the Gloeden’s
could have been arrested for treason, which would have resulted in their torture and also
possibly their execution or deportation to a concentration camp.
Many people were executed for treason for hiding and sheltering people who the Nazis
were actively persecuting.
But in July 1944, the Gloeden’s learned of a plot against Hitler.
They learned about the July 20th Plot which had failed.
As mentioned a bomb had exploded inside of the Wolf’s Lair, and this could have easily
killed Hitler if fate was slightly on the plotter’s side.
The July 20th plot caused Hitler minor injuries including problems with his ears and scrapes,
but failed to kill him.
The subsequent military coup broke down within 5 hours also, but more than 20 people had
also been injured.
But the Gloedens upon hearing of the plot, agreed to take in and shelter General Fritz
Lindemann, who was hiding from the manhunt and the gestapo who were rounding up plotters.
Lindemann had served as a commander of the 132nd Infantry Division, and then he became
the Chief of Staff of the Artillery Oberkommando des Heroes.
However he began to plot with the other conspirators against Hitler and was friendly with General
Helmuth Stieff who also plotted.
It was said that after the assassination of Hitler and the success of the plot, that it
would be Lindemann who over the radio would read the proclamation devices by the conspirators
following Hitler’s death.
Lindemann did not appear at the headquarters of the plot on the 20th July 1944, and after
the failing he went into hiding.
The Gloeden family managed to hide Lindemann for a few months, and they passed him off
as a retired major and a journalist named Exner.
But on the 3rd September 1944 the Gloeden home was raided by the Gestapo, as the family
had been betrayed.
They seized Lilo, Erich and Lilo’s mother Elisabeth and took them into custody.
But Lindemann did not go down without a fight, during the arrest he was shot in the stomach
and leg and was seriously injured.
Some sources claim that he died of his wounds around 3 weeks later, but others say that
he was executed by guillotine.
However the Gloeden’s would be then brought to trial.
They had been interrogated before, and they were then brought before the People’s Court,
which was a pro-Nazi court which usually resulted in the executions of people who resisted.
Nazi judges would rant and rave in the faces of the defendants, and would dish out the
ultimate penalty to many people.
The family including Lilo’s mother who was elderly was placed on trial on the 27th November
1944, and the newspapers documented the trial.
Erich Gloeden remained firm and he claimed that the other’s did not know who Lindemann
was.
Because he was willing to fall on his sword and take the ultimate penalty of death to
save his family, he was incredibly brave and he was sentenced to death initially, and his
wife and mother in law then were given long prison sentences.
But his wife then blew this, and she claimed that she had truly known Lindemann’s identity
and who he was.
Her mother then also claimed that she knew who Lindemann was, and that she was part of
hiding him.
For this, the women’s prison sentence was then changed into a death sentence and the
three were all to be killed.
They spent three days inside of Plotzensee Prison where they were kept apart, until they
were all then on the 30th November 1944 sent to the execution chamber at the prison.
Here there was a hanging beam where many of the plotters of the July 20th plot were hanged
with piano wire, and these executions were filmed so Hitler could watch them back.
But Erich Gloeden, Lilo Gloeden and Elizabeth Gloeden were all executed using the guillotine
there.
They would have been brought into the execution chamber, before they quickly were passed over
to the executioner.
He and his assistant would have secured them to a board, where they were then slid under
the Fallbeil blade, before the executioner quickly released the blade.
Often executions using the German guillotine happened in a matter of seconds, from which
someone was handed over to the executioner to when their head was taken off.
This happened to the Gloeden family, which was incredibly tragic, and then their fate
was used as a warning to other people across Germany.
Today the family are commemorated with three bronze plaques installed outside of their
apartment.
They were people who did not agree with Hitler and his politics, and because of this they
faced the ultimate penalty when they were sheltering a man who was being hunted.
The Gloeden’s knew the fate that faced them should they have been captured, but they had
a long history of helping people escape the Nazis and Hitler.
But today they were remembered for being a family who were decimated by Hitler’s guillotine.
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