During the Second World War, there were many German general who were responsible for war
crimes committed which resulted in the executions and deaths of thousands.
A number of them after the Second World War were condemned to death after they fell into
the hands of their enemies.
Often German Generals and officers were subjected to torture if they fell into the hands of
the enemies.
But one German General who was condemned at the end of the war was Adolf Hamann, who saw
action on many different fronts and campaigns.
He was an experienced military man, but after falling into the hands of the Soviets, he
was paraded throughout the streets of Moscow with 50,000 captured German soldiers in an
act of humiliation.
But Hamann was then sentenced to death, and he was executed at the hands of the Soviets
for war crimes.
Join us today as we look at the execution of the German General Adolf Hamann, and remember
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Adolf Hamann was born on the 3rd September 1885, and when he was 16 he joined the German
Army.
He enlisted in the Schwerin 89th Grenadier Regiment, and he remained part of the army
for decades.
He saw service during the First World War, and in 1914 he was considered a very distinguished
soldier and was awarded the Iron Cross twice in just the early days of the conflict.
He continued to serve after the German surrender inside of the Reichswehr, the permitted army
that Germany were allowed to have, and following the changes made to the military Hamann then
joined the Wehrmacht.
It was clear that Hitler had plans to invade different countries and to try and conquer
wherever he could to build up his empire.
He relied on strong military leaders such as Hamann to command German forces, many of
whom were not the most experienced.
But following the invasion of Poland, the whole Second World War broke out.
Adolf Hamann was then given command of a frontier defence zone on the Polish border, and he
was to repel any enemy soldiers that would approach.
At the time this wasn’t the most significant role in the conflict, as the Wehrmacht rampaged
into Poland and they pushed the polish army back heavily.
Hermann’s group were there to just watch the border, but he was a trusted commander
at this time.
Then from August 1941 to January 1942, he was transferred to serve as the commander
of the 239th Infantry Division.
This division served on the border between Poland and Slovakia, but they did not do any
fighting.
They then became part of the reserves of Army Group South, but and they stood during the
Battle of France.
But the 239th Infantry Division was dissolved in December 1941, whilst part of the 6th Army
on the Eastern Front as they suffered incredibly heavy losses and casualties.
Following the dissolution of his division, Adolf Hamann then was transferred to the Fuhrerreserve,
which had been established during the war as a collection of high ranking military officers
who were awaiting redeployment and new tasks and regiments to command.
As the war went on, there were the Fuhrerreserve became filled with a number of officers who
were difficult, dissident to Hitler and the military’s hierarchy and those who had been
classed as incompetent.
But then he was assigned at the commander of a regiment in the 270th division who were
based in France and stationed in Reims.
But then on the 1st June 1942, Hamann was promoted to become a major general, and he
was then sent to the Eastern Front.
He became the military commander of Oryol which was a German occupied area inside of
the Soviet Union.
He fought on inside of the Soviet Union, but then during the Battle of Kursk, which is
touted as the largest tank battle in history, Adolf Hamann was still commanding Oriole,
and he was then appointed the chief of Gruppe Hamann, and which was a support group made
up of different forces.
This was only a short lived detachment, but then Hamann became the commandant of Bryansk.
During the Battle of Bryansk, the Soviet Red Army lost over 80,000 soldiers who died in
and around the city, and over 4000 were injured or put in hospital.
But the Germans then also took 50,000 prisoners before moving on.
Hamann then became the commandant of Bryansk, and during the encirclement the Germans destroyed
all of the Red Army forces defending the southern approach to Moscow.
They were brutal in their actions and they executed many people inside the city, and
killed a number of civilians and under Hamann’s command there were a number of war crimes
committed.
But then when Bryansk was retaken by the Soviet Red Army, he was transferred to become the
military commander of a city in Belorussia which had been occupied.
But then he became the commander of the 383rd Infantry Division, and the division had been
involved in the battle of Kursk.
However when the Soviet’s launched Operation Bagration on the 23rd June 1944 and pushed
the Germans back heavily, then the division was surrounded and was completely destroyed
and massacred, and it was then dissolved.
The forces had been completely overwhelmed, and inside of Bobruisk, where Hamann was commander,
his city had been encircled and he along with the garrison were taken prisoner.
His capture was seen as a coup by the Soviets, and because of their successes in the military,
they then rounded up all of their prisoners of war that had been captured during Operation
Bagration.
Then the Red Army and Soviet officials force marched Adolf Hamann and 50,000 other captured
German soldiers through the streets of Moscow in front of the Soviet civilians who were
jeering and celebrating the capture of these soldiers.
But then Adolf Hamann was brought to trial and on the 30th December 1945, a Soviet military
tribunal presented charges to him in which he was accused of war crimes against the civilian
populations of Bryansk.
As the commander he was considered responsible for the executions of civilians inside the
city, and for this he was quickly sentenced to death.
But inside of Bryansk, the place where Adolf Hamann was responsible for during the conflict,
Hamann was then following his death sentence taken to the gallows.
He was led up the steps of the gallows, and then the soviet executioner quickly placed
a noose around his neck, before the stool was removed and he was left hanging.
He was executed on the same day as his death sentence had been given, and the soviet executions
did not wait around to execute him.
Adolf Hamann was a high ranking German general who was given a number of significant jobs
during the Second World War.
He was the commander of a number of cities and was responsible for keeping the civilian
population down inside of these cities.
But then under his control a number of war crimes took place, but for the Soviets he
was seen as a significant capture as he was a general after all, and he was a man who
had a significant involvement in the German military for many different decades.
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