STUTTHOF CONCENTRATION CAMP PART 8/10

THE POST-WAR PROCESSES PART 8/10
After the end of World War II the authorities in Poland began to gather evidence for the crimes committed in the concentration camp Stutthof. The material served as the basis for the first processes that had been initiated against thoseSS men and prisoner functionariesdetained by the Red Army.
The first trial took place on April 25 until June 1, 1946 and was held before the Special Criminal Court in Danzig In the lawsuit bank sat six female guards, five of which received the death penalty (Wanda Klaff, Gerda Steinhoff, Elisabeth Becker, Ewa Paradies and Jenny Barkmann) and- Erna Beihardt-was sentenced to a prison term of five years. An SS man, Sergeant John Paulus, and five functionary prisonersalso received the death penalty. Another functionary prisoner was sentenced to five years in prison. The death sentences were carried out publicly in Danzig on July 4, 1946. From the 8th to the 31st October 1947, a lawsuit against a further 24 SS men and a functionary prisoner was brought before the District Court in Danzig. The court imposed ten death sentences (includingthe prisoner functionary). Among the convicted SS men were the deputy commandant of Stutthof and Head of the Division III, SS-Hauptsturmführer Theodor Traugott Meyer, the head of the Jewish camp, SS Sergeant Ewald Foth, as well as the head of the crematorium, SS Technical Sergeant Hans Rach. The head of the Political Department, SS Sergeant Erich Thun, was sentenced to life in prison. The rest of the SS men received prison sentences ranging from three to twelve years.
1949 in Thorn SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Jacobi, the camp leader had been in numerous sub-camps of the 'Weichsel-construction commando ', was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of three years. The first commander of the concentration camp Stutthof, Max Pauly, was sentenced to death in Hamburg in 1946. The trial had a function in the Neuengamme concentration camp as the subject, where he had also been commandant of the camp after his transfer from Stutthof. The sentence was carried out on October 6, 1946.
The successor of Pauly, SS-Sturmbannführer Werner Hoppe, was sentenced in 1955 in Bochum to a term of imprisonment of five years and three months, two years later, the sentence was increased in a revision procedure to nine years. 18 months before the expiration of the detention period Hoppe was discharged early.
The senior doctor in the concentration camp Stutthof, Dr Otto Heidl committed, 1955 in a Bochum prison cell suicide after an investigation against him had been initiated.
1964 other members of the guards of the Stutthof KZ were brought before a court in Tübingen. It was the head of the camp Reviers (Hospital), Hauptscharführer Otto Haupt, who was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of twelve years, the paramedic SS Sergeant Karl Otto Knott was acquitted and SS Obersccharführer Bernhard Luedtke was convictedto eight years in prison.
                                   
                                                                     


                                                 CONTINUED UNDER PART 9/10