During the Second World War as the Allies and the Red Army pushed the Germans back towards
their homeland, they came across a number of different concentration camps.
Here the true horrors of the Holocaust had been played out at huge complex’s such as
Auschwitz or Bergen Belsen.
The camps saw the horrific executions and murders of thousands of innocent civilians
who the Nazis wanted to rid Europe of, and it was the SS who were the main perpetrators
of the crimes.
Many of the people responsible prior to the Second World War lived relatively normal lives,
but under the guise of the conflict they seemed to relish in the mass murder and horrendous
suffering of other people.
One man who thrived within the concentration camp system was Wilhelm Dorr, a young man
who at just the age of 24 would meet the hangman’s noose for his horrific crimes.
So join us today as we look at The JUSTIFIED execution of Wilhelm Dorr.
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Wilhelm Dorr was born on the 9th February 1921 in Hesse a small town and was raised
on a farm where he worked as a labourer.
As the Nazis rose to power, they imposed a number of youth groups onto Germany for the
young people inside the country to join.
For boys they joined the Hitler Youth, an organisation which sought to train boys up
to become soldiers one day, and it was this what Dorr joined like millions across the
country.
Inside the Hitler Youth he thrived, but on the 15th December 1940 shortly after the Second
World War broke out he applied to volunteer for the Army however instead was directed
to become part of the Waffen SS.
The Wehrmacht rejected his service, and at this time in the conflict they were riding
high on huge territorial gains of countries such as France, Poland and they turned their
attention later East to the Soviet Union and the Balkans.
Dorr then began training to become a combat engineer, someone tasked with fixing broken
down military vehicles, however in October 1941 he became rather ill suffering with Rheumatism.
Because of this Dorr was then forced into hospital where he spent a few months, but
when he recovered he was reassigned to a brutal group.
He became part of the SS Totenkopfverbande, or the SS-TV.
This was part of the SS known for the control and administration of the concentration camps
and they oversaw and perpetrated much of the Holocaust.
Inside of Germany they oversaw camps such as Bergen Belsen, and outside in Nazi occupied
territory they oversaw Auschwitz and many others.
They were the group who were truly responsible in facilitating the Holocaust, organising
huge deportations of Jews from countries straight to the death camps.
The SS-TV were also responsible for extermination camps and setting these up, these were camps
with no other purpose but to murder innocent people within and these were set up at sites
such as Treblinka.
When Dorr joined this, he was then involved in the administration of the camps, and went
on to travel to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp serving as a guard until December 1943.
In January 1944, Wilhelm Dorr was transferred across to Mittelbauw-Dora where he worked
as a Block leader inside the main camp.
He claimed this was the first time he had anything to do with any prisoners, and he
claimed actually that when he was there at Dora, the prisoners were not overworked and
underfed.
He then was appointed to become the deputy to Franz Stofel the commander who was in charge
of the smaller Kleinbodungen camp in September 1944.
It was clear that Dorr sought promotion inside of the concentration camp system, and he was
rewarded for his service.
Whilst here he was allegedly involved in an incident involving prisoners who were hiding
in the potato cellars.
Dorr ordered three other prisoners to beat the two until they were dead, and despite
denying this it was proven that this occurred.
He helped to manage around 620 prisoners who were involved in creating V-2 ballistic missiles,
and they forced people to work very hard.
However Dorr was later convicted for his crimes and sentenced to death for what occurred after
he left Kleinbodungen.
As the Allies advanced towards the camp, Dorr and Stofel were ordered to evacuate the prisoners
and to head further back towards the German lines.
With this they force marched 620 on a death march in horrific conditions.
The 620 prisoners were given very little food and rest, and were forced to walk 30km’s
a day many of them in bare feet as they had no shoes, and many others had to wear the
wooden clogs given to them to prevent escape in the camp.
The march was originally intended to reach a different area, however when it arrived
one night at Gross Hehlen, shooting took place.
It was at the time a defensive position for the Waffen SS, and Stofel was told that his
prisoners could not stay here despite the fact they had marched 36km’s that day.
Dorr and Stofel went away, then the Waffen SS started firing shots in the air which caused
a panic, and when they returned there were about 8 bodies of the prisoners lying at the
side of the road.
The condition of Dorr and Stofel’s death march was treacherous, and eventually they
headed towards Bergen-Belsen and it was claimed that they had no-idea really where they were
going.
Prisoners who attempted to escape were shot in the back of the head when captured, as
were those who were slowing down the march.
When they arrived at Bergen Belsen, around 30 of the prisoners had been killed either
by the SS guards or from sheer exhaustion.
Dorr and Stofel’s group arrived at Bergen Belsen on the 11th April 1945, and when they
arrived they were met with a camp on its knees.
Bergen Belsen had for a number of months been greatly suffering with over-crowding as prisoners
were sent there from the frontlines back towards Germany, and there was a horrific shortage
of food inside of the camp.
This along with huge outbreaks of disease such as typhoid fever, typhus and TB cause
a horrendous scene with thousands of dead bodies lining the camps walls, with around
60,000 prisoners just starving and suffering.
The British forces liberated the camp 4 days after the death march arrived, after an agreement
was made with Heinrich Himmler to give over the camp without any bloodshed.
Following this, the British then put the SS personnel to work to bury the dead, and Wilhelm
Dorr was forced to complete this work.
He was then arrested for his crimes by the British military, and was brought to face
justice along with 45 other war criminals including the commandant of Belsen Josef Kramer,
and infamous guard Irma Grese at the Belsen Trial.
Wilhelm Dorr was accused of crimes against humanity at Bergen Belsen and he pleaded not
guilty.
During his testimony and questioning he was asked about the executions and murders that
took place on the death march along with the other camps he worked at.
He maintained his innocent throughout stating how he ensured prisoners were fed and looked
after well, however this was clearly a lie and it was seen through by the judges.
Other witnesses testified that during the death march there were prisoners who were
executed in cold blood, and ultimately along with Franz Stofel, Wilhelm Dorr was responsible
for this as he was almost acting as the deputy leader of the march.
He said prisoners received 500 grams of bread in the morning, cheese or sausages and margarine,
and then sometimes tings of meat before getting a hot meal in the evening which wasn’t the
case.
It was also alleged that Dorr had shot himself 13 or 14 prisoners because they had bad feet
or had diseases that meant that they could not carry on.
It was claimed also that they covered 51kms on the first day and on the first day he shot
one man, before later shooting another couple in some woods.
He could not clearly account for around the 30 prisoners that they lost.
Following his testimony, Wilhelm Dorr despite only being 24 was sentenced to death for his
crimes.
It was clear that he treated the prisoners on the death march horrifically and the judges
deemed it to be true that he murdered a number of prisoners in cold blood.
After being condemned to death he was held in Hamelin Prison to await his execution which
came on the 13th December 1945.
Along with the other condemned to death following the Belsen Trials, he was held in a row of
cells and at the end of the row was an execution chamber that was being set up by the British
Military.
Inside the chamber a gallows had been created with a simultaneous drop for British executioner
Albert Pierrepoint to conduct his work with.
Pierrepoint and his assistant met with all the condemned including Dorr to work out their
height and weight and then the drop needed to snap their necks and kill them immediately.
On the 13th December 1945, the women who were condemned were executed first by Pierrepoint
using the simultaneous drop before the men then took their place on the gallows.
Wilhelm Dorr was taken from his cell into the execution chamber by two guards who then
escorted him up the stairs as his arms and legs were tied.
Pierrepoint then placed a black hood over his head along with the noose before he shuffled
Dorr over a chalk X he had drawn on the floor above the trapdoor.
Almost instantly as he was placed on the X, Pierrepoint pulled the lever and Dorr was
executed.
He was just 24 when he faced the executioner.
Wilhelm Dorr was not the only young person who seemed to thrive inside the barbaric concentration
camp system.
Many of the SS guards were younger and had been brain washed by the politics and ideology
of the Nazis from a young age, and Dorr was one of these.
He was a brutal man who seemed to relish the power he possessed over those and during the
death march he demonstrated the worst evils of humanity murdering in cold blood.
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