During the Second World War, a huge number of war crimes were committed by the various
different armies who fought during the conflict.
Inside of Concentration Camps, many of the atrocities were committed by the Nazis, with
huge scale massacre and murder taking place.
The SS were the ones who were involved in running the killing operations, but inside
of one concentration camp, the shooting of one man was a pivotal moment that highlighted
the true evils of the Nazi Regime.
The execution of August Dickmann took place on the 15th September 1939, at Sachsenhausen
Concentration Camp, and it saw the first conscientious objector of the Second World War to be executed.
It was the future commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Hoess, who would be in charge of the
executioner that day, and he would be the one who would give Dickmann a coup de grace.
But what is the story behind this?
Join us today as we look at, ‘The BRUTAL Execution Of August Dickmann,’ Remember
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Born in 1910, August Dickmann was a Jehovas Witness.
He became the first executed conscientious objector of the Second World War, and little
is known about his life.
As Hitler seized power, there were certain religious groups that he and his Nazi party
looked down upon.
In 1938, with Germany heading towards conflict and the Second World War, to suppress criticism
of the party and of the leadership, the Wehrkraftzersetzung was enacted.
Thus was a decree issued by the government that attempted to suppress any expression
of resistance against the Nazi party’s leadership and also the Wehrmacht.
A second decree was issued in 1939, which extended the crimes to civilians.
Under this decree, conscientious objected in particular were often convicted of Wehrkraftsetzung
alongside other charges.
This was done in order to ensure that their influence and negative ideas about the war
would not spread to others.
Because of this, many Jehohva’s witnesses also found themselves in front of judges and
were eventually sent to concentration camps for their resistance to join the army and
fight.
When Hitler ordered men to join the Wehrmacht in preparation for war, conscientious objectors
would of course refuse, and he saw this as an attack against his government and for this
ordered punishments.
It was considered a form of subversion to the war effort and the Nazis, and this in
Hitler’s eyes was not tolerated.
To be a conscientious objector was seen in comparison with crimes such as desertion from
the Wehrmacht’s ranks, and the way Hitler treated these people who abstained from the
conflict due to their religious convictions was very shocking.
For Jehovas’ Witnesses it is seen as a Christian duty to be in subjection to the superior government
authorities,’ but when they try to transgress God’s laws and rules, they follow the example
of Jesus’s disciples who said, ‘We must obey God as ruler rather than men.’
So they followed God rather than Hitler and people like Dickmann pursued peace, rather
than the Nazis choosing to aggressively invade other contries.
August Dickmann was arrested in October 1936 and was transported to Sachsenhausen in October
1937.
He had been incarcerated alongside his brother Heinrich.
They were held initially in the camp as political prisoners, but as the Second World War broke
out, those men who were refusing to fight were treated terribly.
The Jehovah’s Witneses were forced to assemble at the entrance of the camp, August Dickmann
yet again refused to conduct military service.
With this the commandant of the camp asked Heinrich Himmler to confirm the death sentences
of Dickmann and those men who continued to refuse to fight.
On the 15th September 1939, August’s death sentence had been confirmed, and his brother
and the other prisoners were told to finish work early, and a camp elder told Heinrich
that his brother was to be shot that day.
It was said that all of the prisoners were ordered to stand at attention near the firing
range, and there were about 350 to 400 witnesses to the shootings.
It was said, ‘As we were brought out int the main camp, opposite the main entrance,
we saw a mound of earth to catch the bullets, and a few piles of sand in front of it.
Next to it stood a black box.
The helmeted SS were carrying machine guns, then my brother August Dickmann was brought
with his hands manacles and placed in front of the mount of earth.
Now the camp commander spoke over the loudspeaker.
He said, ‘The prisoner August Dickmann from Dinslaken, born January 7th 1910 refuses military
service because he is a citizen of the Kingdom of God.
He says, He who sheds mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed.
Thus he has set himself apart from the community and is to be shot as ordered by the Reichsfuhrer
SS Himmler.’
‘Turning to my brother, the commandant said, ‘ Turn around you pig.
Then he gave the command to fire.
My brother with his face to the mound of earth was shot by three SS officers.
After he collapsed, the camp official a higher SS officer went to him and put a bullet through
his head.
Now the handcuffs were taken off and four of his christian brothers laid him in the
black box.’
It was Rudolf Hoess, the man who would go on to be the commadant of Auschwitz who fired
his pistol into Dickmann’s head after the initial gunshots were fired.
Hoess would go on to be responsible for the huge killing operation in Auschwitz which
resulted in the deaths of over 1 million people inside of the largest killing centre of the
Holocaust.
August Dickmann’s brother ended up surviving the Second World War, but after his killing
the Jehovah’s Witnesses inside of the camp were transported to Wewelsburg concentration
camp, and later sent to other camps such as Buchenwald.
August Dickmann’s execution marked the first conscious objector to be killed for their
beliefs inside of a concentration camp, and it showed the brutality of the Nazi party.
It was a sadistic act in killing someone who genuinely believed for their religious beliefs
that fighting in the conflict of the Second World War for the Nazis was wrong and against
God.
August Dickmann is remembered today for being the first conscientious objector executed
during World War 2.
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