The Stutthof trials were a series of war crime tribunals held in postwar Poland for the prosecution of Stutthof concentration camp staff and officials, responsible for the murder of up to 85,000 prisoners during the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany in World War II.[1] None of the Stutthof commandants were ever tried in Poland. SS-SturmbannführerMax Pauly was put on trial by a British military court in Germany but not for the crimes committed at Stutthof; only as the commandant of the Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg. Nevertheless, Pauly was executed in 1946.[2]
The first Polish war crimes tribunal was convened at Gdańsk, Poland, from 25 April to 31 May 1946. The next three trials took place at the same court in 8–31 October, 5–10 November, and 19–29 November 1947. The fifth trial was held before the court in Toruń in 1949. The sixth and the last Stutthof trial in Poland took place in 1953, also in Gdańsk. In total, of the approximately 2,000 SS men and women who ran the entire camp complex, 72 SS officers and six female overseers were punished.[2]
First Stutthof trial
During the first trial held at Gdańsk from 25 April to 31 May 1946, the joint Soviet/Polish Special Criminal Court tried and convicted of crimes against humanity a group of thirteen ex-officials and overseers of the Stutthof concentration camp in Sztutowo and its Bromberg-Ost subcamp for women located in the city of Bydgoszcz.[2] The accused were arraigned before the court and all found guilty. Twelve were sentenced to death, including the commander of the guards Johann Pauls, while the remainder were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. The death sentences were carried out on 4 July 1946 at the Biskupia Górka in Gdańsk, by short-drop hanging.
The commandant of the Stutthof and Neuengamme concentration campsSS-SturmbannführerMax Pauly was sentenced to death in Germany at about the same time.[2] Pauly was tried by the British for war crimes with thirteen others in the Curio Haus in Hamburg which was located in the British occupied sector of Germany. The trial lasted from 18 March to 13 May 1946. He was found guilty and sentenced to death with 11 other defendants. He was executed by long-drop hanging by Albert Pierrepoint in Hamelin Prison on 8 October 1946. The second commandant SS-SturmbannführerPaul-Werner Hoppe (August 1942 – January 1945) was apprehended in 1953 in West Germany and later sentenced to nine years imprisonment.
The execution of guards of the Stutthof concentration camp on Biskupia Górka Hill near Gdańsk on 4 July 1946. In the foreground were the female guards sentenced to hang: Barkmann, Paradies, Becker, Klaff, Steinhoff (left to right)The execution of Steinhoff, Pauls and three kapos 4 July 1946
Tadeusz Kopczyński, (Kapo): Death, executed 4 July 1946
Wacław Kozłowski, Kapo: Death, executed 4 July 1946
Józef Reiter, Kapo: Death, executed 4 July 1946
Fanciszek Szopiński, Kapo: Death, executed 4 July 1946
Kazimierz Kowalski, Kapo: 3 years imprisonment
Jan Brajt, Kapo: Death, executed 4 July 1946
Aleksy Duzdal, Kapo: Not guilty
Jan Preiss, Kapo: Not guilty
Marian Zielkowski, Kapo: Died of a heart attack in prison 25 August 1945
Second Stutthof trial
The second trial was held from 8 October to 31 October 1947, before a Polish Special Criminal Court. Arraigned 24 ex-officials and guards of the Stutthof concentration camp were judged and found guilty. Ten were sentenced to death.[2]
Martin Stage, SS Scharführer: 8 years imprisonment
Adalbert Wolter, SS Unterscharführer: 8 years imprisonment
Josef Wennhardt, SS Scharführer: 8 years imprisonment
Hugo Ziehm, SS Scharführer: 3 years imprisonment
Walter Englert, SS Scharführer: 3 years imprisonment
Alfred Nikolaysen, Kapo: Death, executed 28 October 1948
Third Stutthof trial
The third trial was held from 5 November to 10 November 1947 before a Polish Special Criminal Court. Arraigned 20 ex-officials and guards were judged; nineteen were found guilty, and one was acquitted.[2][4]
Verdicts in the third trial
Karl Meinck, SS Obersturmführer: 12 years imprisonment
Gustav Eberle, SS Hauptscharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Erich Jassen, SS Hauptscharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Adolf Klaffke, SS Oberscharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Otto Schneider, SS Unterscharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Otto Welke, SS Sturmscharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Willy Witt, SS Unterscharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Alfred Tissler, SS Rottenführer: 5 years imprisonment
Johann Lichtner, SS Hauptscharführer: 5 years imprisonment
Ernst Thulke, SS Rottenführer: 5 years imprisonment
Heinz Löwen, SS Scharführer: 5 years imprisonment
Erich Stampniok, SS Unterscharführer: 5 years imprisonment
Hans Möhrke, SS Sturmscharführer: 4 years imprisonment
Harry Müller, SS Unterscharführer: 4 years imprisonment
Richard Timm, SS Hauptscharführer: 4 years imprisonment
Nikolaus Dirnberger, SS Scharführer: 4 years imprisonment
Friedrich Tessmer, SS Scharführer: 4 years imprisonment
Johann Sporer, SS Unterscharführer: 4 years imprisonment
Nikolai Klawan, SS Scharführer: 3 years imprisonment
Hans Tolksdorf, SS Oberscharführer: Not guilty
Fourth Stutthof trial
The fourth trial was also held before a Polish Special Criminal Court, from 19 November to 29 November 1947. Arraigned 27 ex-officials and guards were judged; 26 were found guilty, and one was acquitted.[2][4]
Verdicts in the fourth trial
Willi Buth, SS Hauptscharführer: Death, executed 10 January 1949
Albert Weckmüller, SS Hauptsturmführer: 15 years imprisonment
Rudolf Berg, SS Scharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Fritz Glawe, SS Unterscharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Horst Köpke, SS Unterscharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Emil Lascheit, SS Sturmscharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Kurt Reduhn, SS Unterscharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Josef Stahl, SS Unterscharführer: 10 years imprisonment
Waldemar Henke, SS Obersturmführer: 5 years imprisonment
Gustav Kautz, SS Unterscharführer: 5 years imprisonment
Hermann Link, SS Scharführer: 5 years imprisonment
Erich Mertens, SS Oberscharführer: 5 years imprisonment
Martin Pentz, SS Scharführer: 5 years imprisonment
Johann Pfister, SS Rottenführer: 5 years imprisonment
Johannes Wall, SS Sturmscharführer: 5 years imprisonment
Richard Akolt, SS Rottenführer: 3 years imprisonment
Anton Kniffke, SS Scharführer: 3 years imprisonment
Christof Schwarz, SS Hauptsturmführer: 3 years imprisonment
Gustav Brodowski, SS Rottenführer: 7 months' imprisonment
Walter Ringewald, SS Oberscharfuhrer: 7 months' imprisonment
Richard Wohlfeil, SS Hauptscharführer: 7 months' imprisonment
Johann Wrobel, SS Oberscharführer: 7 months' imprisonment
Ernst Knappert, SS Rottenführer: 7 months' imprisonment
Bernard Eckermann, SS Oberscharführer: 7 months' imprisonment
Leopold Baumgartner, SS Oberscharführer: 7 months' imprisonment
Emil Paul, SS Unterscharführer: 7 months' imprisonment
Franz Spillmann, Kapo: Not guilty
Fifth and sixth trials
The last two trials in Poland concerning two Stutthof concentration camp officials took place four years apart. In 1949, SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Jacobi, the commandant of Stutthof subcamps forming Baukommando Weichsel or OT Thorn (Organisation Todt Thorn) for women digging anti-tank ditches,[5] was tried before the criminal court in Toruń and sentenced to three years in prison.[2]
In 1953 the court in Gdańsk tried SS-man Bielawa (SS Rottenführer Paul Bielawa, a prisoner guard from the 3rd company in Stutthof between 1941–45)[1] and sentenced him to twelve years.[2] SS-Rottenführer Emil Strehlau was sentenced by the court in Torun (Wloclawek) on 23 April 1948 to death for war crimes. He was executed 8 November in Wloclawek.[6][7]
In 2017, the prosecution of two former Stutthof camp guards from Borken and Wuppertal commenced.[8] The Wuppertal accused denied the allegations and declared that he was not present during the killings, and did not notice anything about it.[9]
In November 2018, Johann Rehbogen from Borken was tried in court for serving at Stutthof camp from June 1942 to September 1944.[10] In December 2018, the trial was suspended, since the convict had to be hospitalized for serious heart and kidney problems.[11] On 25 February 2019, it was announced that the trial is unlikely to be restarted due to the poor health conditions of the defendant.[12]
In October 2019, Bruno Dey from Hamburg was accused of contributing to the killings of 5,230 prisoners at Stutthof camp between 1944 and 1945. However, he was tried in a juvenile court due to being about 17 at that time.[13] In July 2020, he was convicted of 5,232 counts of accessory to murder by the Hamburg state court, and was also convicted of one count of accessory to attempted murder.[14]
In 2021, Irmgard Furchner, a German former concentration camp secretary and stenographer at Stutthof who worked for camp commandant Paul-Werner Hoppe,[15] was charged with 11,412 counts of accessory to murder and 18 additional counts of accessory to attempted murder,[16][17][18] On 20 December 2022, she was found guilty and sentenced to a suspended jail term of two years.[19][20] On 20 August 2024, the German Federal Court of Justice would reject Furchner's appeal and uphold her conviction.[21][22]
Several authors, Monografia KL Stutthof (KL Stutthof monograph) (Internet Archive). Organization, Prisoners, Subcamps, Extermination, Responsibility. Contributing writers: Bogdan Chrzanowski, Konrad Ciechanowski, Danuta Drywa, Ewa Ferenc, Andrzej Gąsiorowski, Mirosław Gliński, Janina Grabowska, Elżbieta Grot, Marek Orski, and Krzysztof Steyer. (in Polish)
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