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Bloody Assizes

2025-09-05T12:34:18Z

2A00:23C8:1382:8101:FD06:975D:817D:22A5: /* Further reading */

{{Short description|English trials after the Monmouth Rebellion, 1685}}
{{For|the trials in Upper Canada during the War of 1812|Bloody Assize of 1814}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}
[[Image:George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem by William Wolfgang Claret.jpg|thumb|[[George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys|Judge Jeffreys]]]]
The '''Bloody Assizes''' were a series of [[trial (law)|trials]] started at [[Winchester]] on 25 August 1685 in the aftermath of the [[Battle of Sedgemoor]], which ended the [[Monmouth Rebellion]] in England.

==History==
There were five judges: [[William Montagu (judge)|Sir William Montague]] ([[Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer]]),<ref name="whiles">{{cite book|last=Whiles|first=John|title=Sedgemoor 1685|publisher=Picton Publishing|location=Chippenham|year=1985|edition=2nd|isbn=978-0-948251-00-9}}</ref> [[Robert Wright (judge)|Sir Robert Wright]],<ref name="whiles"/> [[Sir Francis Wythens]] ([[Court of King's Bench (England)|Justice of the King's Bench]]),<ref name="whiles"/> [[Creswell Levinz|Sir Creswell Levinz]] ([[Court of Common Pleas (England)|Justice of the Common Pleas]])<ref name="whiles"/> and [[Sir Henry Pollexfen]], led by [[Lord Chief Justice of England|Lord Chief Justice]] [[George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys|George Jeffreys]].
[[File:Bloody assizes.jpg|thumb|right|A 19th-century artist's impression of Judge Jeffreys presiding over the "Bloody Assizes".]]
Over 1,000 rebels were in prison awaiting the trials, which started in the Great Hall of [[Winchester Castle]] in [[Winchester]] on 26 August.<ref name="whiles"/> The first notable trial was that of an elderly [[gentlewoman]] named Dame [[Alice Lisle]].<ref name="som"/> The jury reluctantly found her guilty and, the law recognising no distinction between principals and accessories in [[treason]], she was sentenced to be [[Death by burning|burned]]. This was commuted to [[decapitation|beheading]], with the sentence being carried out in Winchester market-place on 2 September 1685.<ref name="whiles"/>

From Winchester the court proceeded through the [[West Country]], and conducted a brief hearing in [[Salisbury]], where there were no rebels to be tried for high treason, on 1 September 1685.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://test.warwalks.com/2018/09/01/salisbury-september-1-1685/|title=An account of the Salisbury Assize Court of Lord Chief Justice Jeffrey|date=1 September 1685|publisher=Life and Times of the Duke of Monmouth|access-date=6 December 2020}}</ref> The court went on to the main centres of rebellion holding assizes at the Antelope Hotel in [[Dorchester, Dorset|Dorchester]] on 5 September 1685, [[Exeter Guildhall]] on 14 September 1685 and the Great Hall of [[Taunton Castle]] on 17 September 1685, before finishing up at [[Wells Town Hall|Wells Market and Assize Hall]] on 23 September 1685.<ref name="The Bloody Assize">{{cite web|url=http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ASH/Bloodyassize.htm|title=The Bloody Assize|publisher=Somerset County Council|access-date=21 October 2012|archive-date=7 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807090558/http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ASH/Bloodyassize.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> More than 1,400 prisoners were dealt with and although most were sentenced to death, fewer than 300 were hanged or [[hanged, drawn and quartered]].<ref name="britex">{{cite web |url=http://www.britainexpress.com/History/battles/sedgemoor.htm |title=The battle of Sedgemoor |access-date=21 November 2007 |work=Britain Express }}</ref><ref name="The Bloody Assize"/> Of more than 500 prisoners brought before the court at Taunton between 17 and 19 September, 144 were hanged and their remains displayed around the county to ensure people understood the fate of those who rebelled against the king.<ref name="exmoor">{{cite web |url=http://www.everythingexmoor.org.uk/_T/Taunton_Castle.php |title=Taunton Castle |access-date=21 November 2007 |work=Everything Exmoor |archive-date=5 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080505033305/http://www.everythingexmoor.org.uk/_T/Taunton_Castle.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Some 800–850 men were [[penal transportation|transported]] to the [[West Indies]]<ref name="som">{{cite web |url=http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ASH/Bloodyassize.htm |title=The Bloody Assize |access-date=17 December 2015 |work=Somerset County Council |archive-date=7 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807090558/http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ASH/Bloodyassize.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> where they were worth more alive than dead as a source of cheap labour<ref name="emn">{{cite web |url=http://www.earlymodernweb.org.uk/emn/index.php/archives/2004/11/from-the-dnb-the-bloody-judge/ |title=George Jeffreys (1645–1689) |access-date=20 February 2008 |work=Early Modern Notes }}</ref> (the novel ''[[Captain Blood (novel)|Captain Blood]]'', and the later movies based on it, graphically portray this punishment). Others were imprisoned to await further trial, although many did not live long enough, succumbing to 'Gaol Fever' ([[typhus]]), which was rife in the unsanitary conditions common to most English [[Jail|gaols]] at that time. A woman named [[Elizabeth Gaunt]] had the distinction of being the last woman burnt alive in England for political crimes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.strum.co.uk/twilight/shepton5.htm |title=The Bloody Assizes |access-date=20 February 2008 |work=From Watford Gap to Camelot }}</ref>

Jeffreys returned to London after the Assizes to report to [[James II of England|King James]], who rewarded him by making him [[Lord Chancellor]] (at the age of only 40), 'For the many eminent and faithful services to the Crown'. Jeffreys became known as "the [[hanging judge]]".<ref name="emn"/>

After the [[Glorious Revolution]], Jeffreys was incarcerated "for his own safety" in the [[Tower of London]],<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Epk_EQAAQBAJ&pg=PT357 |title=London's Riverside Pubs, A Guide to the Best of London's Riverside Watering Holes|first= Tim|last= Hampson|year= 2019|publisher=IMM Lifestyle Books|isbn=978-1607654506}}</ref> where he died in 1689. His death was probably due to his chronic medical history of kidney and [[bladder stone]]s leading to an acute infection, [[kidney failure]] and possibly [[Bacteremia|toxaemia]].<ref name="emn"/>

Writing as recently as 1929, Sir John C. Fox<ref>Fox was Vice-Chairman of Oxfordshire Quarter Sessions and had been Senior Chancery Master of the Supreme Court.</ref> said:<blockquote>
Even to the present day, the mothers of West Somerset control their unruly offspring by threatening to send for 'Judge Jeffreys'.<ref>Sir John Fox, ''The Lady Ivie's Trial'', (Oxford University Press, 1929), xlix.</ref></blockquote>

==See also==
*[[Captain Blood (1935 film)|''Captain Blood'' (1935 film)]]

==References==
{{Reflist |colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
* Muddiman, J. G. (ed.), ''The Bloody Assizes''. Edinburgh: William Hodge & Co., 1929. [[Notable British Trials]] series.
*[http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ASH/Bloodyassize.htm The Bloody Assize] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807090558/http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ASH/Bloodyassize.htm |date=7 August 2011 }}, web site of [http://www.somerset.gov.uk Somerset County Council]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:English law]]
[[Category:History of Somerset]]
[[Category:Stuart England]]
[[Category:History of Dorchester, Dorset]]
[[Category:Monmouth Rebellion]]
[[Category:1685 in England]]
[[Category:1685 in law]]

Alfred Rouse

2025-09-05T12:12:16Z

2A00:23C8:1382:8101:FD06:975D:817D:22A5: /* Cited works and further reading */

{{short description|British murderer (1894–1931)}}
{{For|the English footballer|Vic Rouse (footballer born 1897)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name = Alfred Rouse
| image_name = File:Alfred Rouse.jpg
| image_size =
| image_alt =
| image_caption = Alfred Arthur Rouse c. 1930
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1894|04|06}}
| birth_place = [[London, England]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1931|03|10|1894|04|06}}
| death_place = [[HMP Bedford]], [[Bedfordshire]], [[England]]
| cause = [[Execution by hanging]]
| alias = The Blazing Car Murderer
| motive =
| conviction = [[Murder]]
| conviction_penalty = [[Capital punishment in the United Kingdom|Death]]
| conviction_status = [[Executed]]
| occupation = Commercial traveller
| spouse = Lily May Rouse née Watkins
| parents =
| children =
}}
'''Alfred Arthur Rouse''' (6 April 1894 – 10 March 1931) was a British murderer, known as the '''Blazing Car Murderer''',{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=73}} who was convicted and subsequently [[hanging|hanged]] at [[Bedford (HM Prison)|Bedford Gaol]] for the November 1930 murder of an unknown man in [[Hardingstone]], [[Northamptonshire]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-35165038|title=Alfred Rouse 'Blazing Car Murder': New DNA Tests Used|access-date=13 March 2017|date=27 December 2015}}</ref> Rouse's crime became known as the "Blazing Car Murder" due to the fact Rouse, seeking to fabricate his own death, burned to death an unknown hitchhiker whom he had rendered unconscious inside his car.{{sfn|Butchers|1991|pp=73-74}}

The murder was notable because the identity of the victim has never been established, resulting in Rouse being tried, convicted and executed for the murder of an unknown man.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-35165038|title=Alfred Rouse 'Blazing Car Murder': New DNA Tests Dsed|access-date=13 March 2017|date=27 December 2015}}</ref> Despite recent [[Genetic testing|DNA testing]], the identity of the victim still remains unknown.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-33426167 | title=Alfred Rouse 'Blazing Car Murder': DNA Tests Fail to Identify Victim | publisher=bbc.co.uk | work=BBC News | date=18 July 2015 | access-date=13 March 2017}}</ref>

==Early life==
Alfred Arthur Rouse was born in Milkwood Road, [[Herne Hill]], London on 6 April 1894,{{refn|group=n|At his trial, Rouse declared to the judge: "I have always understood that I was thirty-six, but I have no proof of that."{{sfn|Trials|1995|p=138}}}} one of three children born to an English father and an Irish mother. His father, Walter, was a [[hosiery|hosier]], whereas his mother was reportedly an actress<ref name=gbles>{{cite book|title=The Trial of Alfred Arthur Rouse: The Blazing Car Murder|year=1931|publisher=Geoffrey Bles|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ENI1AAAAIAAJ|editor=Sidney Tremayne}}</ref> who deserted her husband and children in 1900.<ref name="gbles" /> Following his wife's leaving the household, Rouse's father had little time for his children; consequently, Rouse and his two siblings were largely raised by an aunt on his father's side. Rouse was known as a well-behaved child; he and his siblings attended a local council school where he was regarded as a bright and athletic student. A member of the [[Church of England]], Rouse would later become a [[sacristan]] at St Saviour's Church in [[Stoke Newington]].

Upon leaving school at age 14, Rouse worked briefly as an office boy for an estate agent, then found more secure employment at a textile manufacturing firm. He worked at this firm for five years before training as a carpenter, all the while furthering his education by attending numerous evening classes. In addition, Rouse had a substantial musical gift, sang well, and learned how to play various musical instruments, becoming a proficient pianist, violinist, and mandolinist. Rouse's exceptional baritone voice ensured that he regularly sang at his evening classes. In 1909, Rouse obtained employment at a [[West End of London|West End]] furniture manufacturer. Shortly afterwards, he became acquainted with a young clerk named Lily May Watkins, whom he first met at a local dance and with whom he began a relationship.<ref name="gbles"/>

==Wartime service==
Just four days after the outbreak of [[World War I]],{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=6}} Rouse enlisted in the [[British Army]] and was assigned to the 24th Queen's Regiment as a [[Private (rank)|Private]]. While training in England before his departure for France, Rouse married his fiancée. This ceremony was conducted at St Saviour's Church, [[St Albans]], on 29 November.

Rouse arrived in France on 15 March 1915, and was stationed in Paris for some weeks before his unit was sent into battle. He would serve with distinction, although he is known to have fathered an illegitimate child during this time. Rouse's unit was then committed to the [[Battle of Festubert]] in [[Artois]], which began on 15 May. In a [[bayonet]] attack, Rouse came face to face with a German soldier and lunged at him but missed; the memory of waiting just for an instant for the enemy riposte would remain with him for the rest of his life, and his sleep would be plagued by nightmares.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=3}}

On the last day of the Battle of Festubert (and just ten weeks after his arrival in France), Rouse sustained wounds to his head, knee and thigh from a [[Shell (projectile)|high-explosive shell]] which exploded close to his head, sending numerous fragments of [[Shrapnel shell|shrapnel]] into his head and leg and rendering him [[Unconsciousness|unconscious]]. Rouse did not regain consciousness until his [[hospital train]] passed through the town of [[Bedford]] en route to a UK [[Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit]].<ref name="telegraph.co.uk">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/724019/Northamptonshire-Every-tombstone-tells-a-story.html|title=Northamptonshire: Every Tombstone Tells a Story|access-date=28 March 2017|date=20 April 2002}}</ref> As a result of his injuries, Rouse remained hospitalised for almost a year; undergoing several operations upon both his left [[Temporal lobe|temporal region]]—some of which were performed to remove embedded shrapnel—and his leg. Rouse's leg injuries left him unable to bend his knee and caused him to develop [[Edema|œdema]], severely affecting his ability to walk.{{refn|group=n|An Invaliding Medical Board hearing on 9 December 1915 found that Rouse's capacity to walk had been reduced by 75 percent. For the remainder of his life, Rouse would be forced to ascend and descend staircases by walking backwards.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61589264 |title=The Rouse Trial: Sentence of Death|access-date=23 March 2017|newspaper=Townsville Daily Bulletin|date=31 January 1931}}</ref>}} Rouse was sent to recuperate at military hospitals in [[Leeds]] and, later, [[Clacton-on-Sea]].{{sfn|Cavendish|1990|p=1847}} He was formally discharged from the Army on 11 February 1916, and awarded a military pension of twenty [[shilling]]s per week.{{sfn|Cavendish|1990|p=1847}}

===Recuperation===
Following his recuperation, Rouse returned to live with his wife in Stoke Newington.{{sfn|Cavendish|1990|p=1847}} Contemporary medical records reveal that, at this stage in his life, he was still severely disabled. In July 1916, Rouse's doctor noted that his memory was defective and that he was unable to wear a hat of any kind because the scar around his temporal lobe was irritable. Furthermore, although Rouse's speech and writing abilities were unaffected from this injury, one note in Rouse's medical records reads: "He sleeps well unless excited in any way". Consequently, Rouse's military pension was raised to twenty-five shillings per week in August 1916.

In late January 1917, Rouse's doctor discovered he had made a degree of progress in his recuperation from his leg injury and believed this injury could, by Rouse's own endeavour, be overcome. A year later, Rouse informed his doctor he was suffering from bouts of dizziness, although the doctor noted how talkative he was; even "[laughing] immoderately at times". In September 1918, Rouse again complained that he was suffering from a defective memory. Moreover, he complained on this occasion to be suffering from [[insomnia]].

==Return to work==
On 30 July 1919, a doctor examining Rouse observed that, while he would not allow his knee to be flexed by more than 30 percent, he now suffered no long-term disability from the head wound he had suffered in battle. This doctor could find no physical reason for Rouse's limitation of his knee movement. As such, this was ascribed to [[neurosis]] and his pension, which since September 1918 had been twenty-seven shillings and sixpence per week, was decreased to twelve shillings per week with effect from 17 September 1919. In August 1920, a final examination revealed his head injury had completely healed and the limitations of his knee movement had decreased dramatically. Rouse's pension was terminated the following month, with his receiving a final lump payment of [[£sd|£41.{{nbsp}}5s.{{nbsp}}0d.]] in settlement of all his injury claims.

In an effort to regain his health and mobility, Rouse became an active member of a local tennis club. Beginning in 1920, he also undertook a number of jobs which required a degree of physical exertion. Many of these jobs involved the use of vehicles, resulting in Rouse's becoming a moderately skilled mechanic.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=3}} The same year, he also began to conduct illicit affairs in which he—invariably posing as a single man—seduced any woman or girl he found attractive. The first known woman he seduced was a 14-year-old [[Edinburgh]] girl whom he impregnated at age 15, then abandoned, leaving the girl to give birth to their child in a home for unwed mothers.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=7}} Four years later, in 1925, Rouse began an affair with a [[Hendon]]-based domestic servant named Nellie Tucker. In 1928, Tucker gave birth to a baby girl; shortly thereafter, Tucker obtained a [[Child support by country#United_Kingdom|child support]] order (the first of many by various women) against Rouse.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=7}}

In June 1929, Rouse found employment as a commercial traveller for a [[Leicester]]-based firm which primarily sold braces and garters, typically at locations around the [[South Coast of England|South Coast]] and [[the Midlands]].<ref name="ReferenceA">''Infamous Murderers: Maniacs filled with hatred and rage'' ch. 9; sect. 12</ref> This employment earned Rouse £4 a week, with expenses paid each Friday, and a [[commission (remuneration)|sales commission]] paid every month.<ref name="Blazing Car Mystery">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19301128&id=2fg9AAAAIBAJ&pg=3164,4111078&hl=en|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|title=Blazing Car Mystery|date=28 November 1930|access-date=15 March 2017}}</ref> Through this employment, Rouse managed to earn sufficient money for him and his wife to obtain a mortgage on a house on Buxted Road in the London borough of [[Friern Barnet]]. Furthermore, in the summer of 1930, he also purchased a [[Morris Minor (1928)|1928 Morris Minor]].

===Promiscuity===
Because of both Rouse's high sex drive and his general promiscuity, plus the fact his job required him to travel extensively across the entire country, throughout 1929 and 1930 he is known to have conducted a number of affairs with women—both married and single—whom he typically encountered through his employment. As with the Edinburgh 14-year-old and Tucker, many of these women came from poor backgrounds and would be deceived by Rouse's charismatic personality,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/724019/Northamptonshire-Every-tombstone-tells-a-story.html|title=Northamptonshire: Every Tombstone Tells a Story|access-date=17 April 2017|date=20 April 2002}}</ref> his fabrications of being a wealthy London entrepreneur, and his promises of marriage.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/75730952|title=Murderer Chose his Corpse at Random|access-date=14 April 2017|date=31 January 1953}}</ref> Furthermore, despite already being married and the father of a child, he is also known to have [[bigamy|bigamously]] married at least three of these women. As a result of these affairs, Rouse fathered a number of illegitimate children.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

By the summer of 1930, Rouse had already had one child support order imposed on him by Tucker, with whom he had been conducting an affair for several years; Tucker was now heavily pregnant with their second child and fully expecting him to marry her. A young Welsh woman named Phyllis Jenkins had also been impregnated and was also fully expecting marriage in the near future. In addition, Rouse faced several other impending child support order cases from women across the country and one woman in Paris.<ref>{{cite news|title= DNA Found in Northamptonshire 'Blazing Car' Murder Case |author= Laura Devlin |newspaper= BBC News |date= 1 November 2002 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25722259 |access-date= 17 March 2017}}</ref>{{refn|group=n|Following Rouse's arrest, he would offer a statement to Northamptonshire Police in which he stated: "I am very friendly with several women, but it is an expensive game." Rouse then referred to the numerous women he had seduced across the country through his work as a commercial traveller as "my harem which takes me to several places". This comment was widely reported in the newspapers and caused great indignation with the British public.{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=74}}}}

==Financial strain==
At just what point Rouse decided on his scheme is not settled, nor how he arrived at it, as following his arrest, he gave several contradictory accounts as to just how and when he devised his plan. However, Rouse did mention that initially, he had begun to think about committing a murder in which he could fake his own death after he had read reports of the murder of a young Scottish barmaid named Agnes Kesson, who had been found murdered in a rural lane<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.truecrimelibrary.com/crimearticle/agnes-kesson/ | title=Agnes Kesson: True Crime Library| publisher=truecrimelibrary.com| date=23 July 2013 | access-date=30 March 2017}}</ref> in the market town of [[Epsom]] in June 1930, and whose murder would ultimately remain unsolved. Furthermore, Rouse would claim the decision for him to ultimately decide to fake his own death had been Tucker's announcement to him in the summer of 1930 that she was expecting her second child by him (an illegitimate daughter would be born on 29 October).{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=74}}

According to Rouse, he had simply "wanted to start afresh", yet to ensure the financial stability of his legal wife and his six-year-old son, he had drawn a life insurance policy for £1,000 in his name months before he executed his plan, to be paid in the event of the accidental death of the owner-driver of his vehicle.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=6}} This life insurance policy named his legal wife as the beneficiary,{{sfn|Cornell|2003|p=14}} and on either 2 or 3 November, he had sought out a man of roughly the same build as himself with whom he had become casually acquainted at a pub named the Swan and Pyramid whom Rouse claimed had previously told him "the usual hard-luck story", and had informed him: "Guv'nor, I've got nobody in the world that cares whether I live or die."<ref name="The Corpus Christi Caller">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/23081502/|title=The Corpus Christi Caller|access-date=2 April 2017|date=20 June 1956}}</ref> In response, Rouse informed the man that, through his employment as a commercial traveller, he would be able to secure a job for him in the Midlands, and that he would be travelling to this location on 5 November.{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=75}}

In his later confession, Rouse specifically stated he had opted to time the fire in his car to be on [[Guy Fawkes Night]], as "a fire would not be noticed so much" on this date due to the typical celebration rituals,{{sfn|Jacobs|1956|p=75}} and that his victim had readily agreed to accompany him to Leicester on 5 November, upon the promise of his possibly finding work in this city. To minimise any resistance from his victim, Rouse also bought the man a bottle of whisky to consume as he drove north.{{sfn|Cavendish|1990|p=1841}}

==Murder==
At approximately 1:50 in the morning of 6 November 1930, two young men returning from a Guy Fawkes Night dance in the town of [[Northampton]] to their homes in the nearby village of [[Hardingstone]] saw a fire in the distance. As [[Guy Fawkes Night]] had just passed, the men assumed the pyre they could see in the distance was a bonfire. As they walked down Hardingstone Lane<ref>{{cite news|title= Could 84-year-old Murder Mystery Finally Be Solved? |newspaper= ITV News |date= 2 April 2014 |url=http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2014-04-02/could-84-year-old-murder-mystery-finally-be-solved/ |access-date= 30 March 2017}}</ref> toward the fire in the direction of their homes, a neatly dressed man carrying an attaché case passed in the opposite direction. When one of the young men remarked as to the blaze he could see in the distance, Rouse nodded and exclaimed: "It looks like somebody's having a bonfire up there." He then walked past the two men before turning in the direction of the main Northampton-London road.{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=73}}{{sfn|Cavendish|1990|p=1841}}

The two men approached the fire, only to discover the source of the flames was actually a Morris Minor ablaze in a verge<ref name="ReferenceA"/> at the side of the country lane, with the flames reaching up to twelve feet in height. Upon summoning the Hardingstone village [[Constable#United Kingdom|constable]], Harry Bertie Copping,{{sfn|Tremayne|1931|p=71}} and the parish constable to the scene, the four men extinguished the fire with water from a nearby pond,{{sfn|Real-Life Crimes|1994|p=1236}} only to discover a charred corpse lying across the front seats, with the head on the driver's seat,<ref>''Infamous Murderers: Maniacs Filled with Hatred and Rage'' ch. 9 sect. 12</ref> and the right arm burnt off at the elbow.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=5}} Constable Copping would later recollect he had initially believed the skull of the victim was actually a scorched rugby ball.<ref name="northamptonchron.co.uk">{{cite news|title= Murder Mystery Man is Honoured at Pub |newspaper= Northampton Chronicle & Echo |date= 1 November 2002 |url= http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/murder-mystery-man-is-honoured-at-pub-1-949531 |access-date= 13 March 2017}}</ref> Crucially, a wooden [[mallet]] was found near the car, with three human hairs attached to the head. Although the fire had all but destroyed the vehicle, the number plate at the rear of the car was largely undamaged in the fire; thus, police were quickly able to determine it belonged to one Alfred Arthur Rouse of Friern Barnet.{{sfn|Cavendish|1990|p=1843}}
[[File:Alfred Rouse November 1930 Blazing Car Murder.jpg|thumb|right|Rouse's [[Morris Minor (1928)|Morris Minor]], photographed on the morning of 6 November.]]
When the two young men informed investigators of their encounter with the man at the end of Hardingstone Lane, police issued an appeal in both the local and national press, urging the man to come forward and assist them with their inquiries. The case was covered in detail in many national newspapers on 7 November.{{sfn|Real-Life Crimes|1994|p=1237}}

==Forensic examination and enquiries==
A forensic examination of the vehicle revealed a joint on the feeding pipe between the petrol tank and the [[carburettor]] of the vehicle had been loosened before the fire had ignited, thus allowing petrol to freely stream both into and beneath the car, indicating the blaze had been deliberate. Moreover, [[spectroscopic]] tests{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=10}} conducted upon the victim's blood, and a microscopic examination of his air passages, revealed the victim had been alive, albeit unconscious, when the fire had started.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/blazing-car-murder-mystery-continues-after-bbc1-show-reveals-no-dna-match-1-5820514|title='Blazing Car' Murder Mystery Continues after BBC1 Show Reveals No DNA Match|access-date=15 March 2017|newspaper=Northampton Chronicle & Echo|date=20 January 2014}}</ref> Furthermore, he was estimated to have died within 30 seconds of the onset of the fire. The victim himself was estimated to have been between 33 and 37 years old, and due to the condition of his lungs, had likely worked in an extremely dusty atmosphere throughout his life.

Police visited Rouse's Friern Barnet home to interview his wife. Mrs Rouse was able to confirm her husband had left home at approximately 8:30 p.m. on 5 November to attend a business meeting in Leicester, and that he had arrived home at a time she (incorrectly) believed to be approximately 2 a.m.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=12}} the following morning, saying nothing. She was then asked to accompany police to Northampton to assist in the identification of the victim. Due to the actual condition of the remains, she was not allowed to see the body, but instead asked to confirm whether she could identify scraps of clothing and a wallet containing 30 shillings which had been found upon the victim. Mrs Rouse stated the items of clothing looked like those her husband had worn, but she could not be certain; the wallet had definitely belonged to her husband.<ref name="The Corpus Christi Caller"/>

==Arrest==
Rouse himself had hitched a ride to London, arriving at his Friern Barnet home at approximately 6:20 a.m.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=12}} He remained at his home for just 30 minutes before travelling by train to [[Glamorganshire]] to meet with Phyllis Jenkins (whom he had earlier promised to marry). When Jenkins asked Rouse where his car was, he replied that it had been stolen in Northamptonshire the previous day, and that this was why it had taken him 18 hours to reach her. He assured Jenkins that he had reported the theft to both the police and his insurance company. Early the following morning, Rouse's mistress showed him a newspaper displaying an image of his burned-out car which speculated as to whether the deceased occupant had been the owner of the vehicle and questioning whether he had been murdered. In response, Rouse denied that the car was his,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19301128&id=2fg9AAAAIBAJ&pg=3164,4111078&hl=en|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|title=Blazing Car Mystery|date=28 November 1930|access-date=22 March 2017}}</ref> before announcing his intentions to travel by coach to [[Hammersmith Broadway]]. At 10 a.m. he boarded a coach at [[Cardiff]] destined for Hammersmith Broadway. When Rouse's coach had departed, Jenkins informed local police that Rouse had been at her house and of his intended destination; they in turn informed the [[Metropolitan Police Service]] of his whereabouts. Consequently, that evening, Rouse was arrested at Hammersmith coach terminal by a [[Sergeant#UK Police Sergeant|Detective-Sergeant]] Skelly of the Metropolitan Police, who had been waiting for him at the coach terminal.{{sfn|Real-Life Crimes|1994|p=1237}}

At the Hammersmith police station, Rouse was informed that officers from [[Northamptonshire Police]] were already travelling to Hammersmith to interview him. In response, Rouse offered a rambling statement in which he claimed his victim was a hitchhiker he had encountered near St Albans,{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=14}} and who had accidentally set his vehicle alight while he (Rouse) had left his vehicle to relieve himself. Rouse further claimed he was travelling to [[Scotland Yard]] to confess to his crime at the time of his arrest, adding: "I am glad it's all over. I was going to Scotland Yard about it. I was responsible. I am very glad it's over. I have had no sleep."<ref name="Blazing Car Mystery">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19301128&id=2fg9AAAAIBAJ&pg=3164,4111078&hl=en|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|title=Blazing Car Mystery|date=28 November 1930|access-date=15 March 2017}}</ref>{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=14}} Upon the arrival of Northamptonshire police officers, Rouse was [[Right to silence in England and Wales|cautioned]] and driven to Northampton police station.

===Initial confession===
At Northampton police station, Rouse contradicted his earlier statement by claiming that he had encountered the victim hitchhiking along the [[Great North Road (Great Britain)|Great North Road]] towards the Midlands and had offered the man a lift. He had driven to Hardingstone Lane accidentally, because he had lost his direction. At this location, he had stopped the vehicle to answer a call of nature and had asked his travelling companion, whom he had given a cigar,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/eight-people-executed-in-bedfordshire-who-were-they-and-why-were-they-killed/story-29688468-detail/story.html | title=Eight People Executed in Bedfordshire: Who Wre They and Why Were they Killed? | publisher=bedfordshire-news.co.uk | work=Bedfordshire on Sunday | date=6 September 2016 | access-date=8 April 2017}}</ref> to fill the car's petrol tank from a can in the [[Trunk (car)|boot]]. According to Rouse, when he looked back, the vehicle was ablaze, with the man trapped inside.{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=73}} He had, he claimed, attempted to open the door of the vehicle, but had been beaten back by the flames. In a state of panic as to his predicament, he had fled from the scene.

Upon being confronted with the forensic evidence that the feeding pipe between the petrol tank and the carburettor of the vehicle had been loosened, Rouse remained adamant the fire had been accidental, offering conjecture it may have been started by the inebriated victim lighting the cigar he had been given after he had filled the petrol tank of his vehicle and accidentally spilled some of the contents of the petrol tank inside his vehicle.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/> Furthermore, when questioned as to why he had been seen by the two young men walking from the scene of the fire with a briefcase in his hand, Rouse claimed he had taken the briefcase out of the car because he had earlier noticed the man had placed his hand upon it.{{refn|group=n|This would prove to be the first of several differing instances in which Rouse discussed both whom his victim was and how he had encountered him. Although he would later claim that his victim was a "down on his luck" individual he had met in a London pub, he would initially claim to police that the man was a "respectable" individual he had encountered on the [[Great North Road (Great Britain)|Great North Road]], hitchhiking to the Midlands.<ref name="Blazing Car Mystery">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19301128&id=2fg9AAAAIBAJ&pg=3164,4111078&hl=en|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|title=Blazing Car Mystery|date=28 November 1930|access-date=15 March 2017}}</ref>}}

On 27 November, Rouse appeared at Northampton assizes to be formally charged with the murder of an unknown man. He was remanded into custody until 3 December. On this date, a formal trial date of 26 January was set.<ref name="Blazing Car Mystery">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19301128&id=2fg9AAAAIBAJ&pg=3164,4111078&hl=en|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|title=Blazing Car Mystery|date=28 November 1930|access-date=15 March 2017}}</ref>

==Trial==
The trial of Alfred Rouse began at the Northampton winter assizes on 26 January 1931.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/1799294|title=The Trial of Alfred Arthur Rouse; the Blazing Car Murder|publisher=stanford.edu|access-date=13 March 2017}}</ref> He was tried before [[George Talbot (judge)|Mr. Justice Talbot]].<ref name="The Rouse Trial: Sentence of Death">{{cite news |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61589264 |title=The Rouse Trial: Sentence of Death|access-date=13 March 2017|newspaper=Townsville Daily Bulletin|date=31 January 1931}}</ref> The chief prosecuting counsel for [[the Crown]] was [[William Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett|William Norman Birkett]] [[King's Counsel|KC]]; he was assisted by [[Richard Elwes]]. The chief defence counsel was [[Donald Finnemore]], who was assisted by A. P. Marshall.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=16}} On this date, Rouse formally pleaded [[plea|not guilty]] to the charge of the murder of an unknown man.{{refn|group=n|The defence fees at Rouse's trial were paid for by his wife, who also found employment in Northampton to be close to him throughout his trial.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=18}}}}

===Witness testimony===
Throughout his trial, Rouse stuck to his claim the death of the unknown man had been accidental. To support this contention, Donald Finnemore introduced an engineer who testified that in many instances, excessive heat in a burning car would invariably result in the loosening of the joint on the feeding pipe, and as such, Rouse's contention the victim had inadvertently set the vehicle ablaze could be true. This claim was refuted by both [[Sir Bernard Spilsbury]] and Dr. Eric Shaw, who had together performed an autopsy upon the unidentified victim and who were each called to testify on behalf of the prosecution. Both men testified that the victim had been alive and unconscious when the fire had been started, and that the mallet found near the Morris Minor had likely been the weapon used to club the victim about the head prior to the inception of the fire.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.nucfs.ac.uk/event/blazing-car-murder/ | title=Forensic Science: Blazing Car Murder | publisher=nucfs.ac.uk | work=Northumbria University for Forensic Science | date=27 January 2014 | access-date=16 March 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170317164807/http://www.nucfs.ac.uk/event/blazing-car-murder/ | archive-date=17 March 2017 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref> Spilsbury further testified that one of the few fragments of clothing found upon the victim not to have been destroyed in the fire was a section of the fork of the victim's trousers, which was found to be soaked in petrol, thus [[corroborating evidence|corroborating]] the prosecution's contention that Rouse had extensively doused both his victim and his vehicle in petrol before setting his vehicle ablaze. This forensic claim would be challenged by the defence, who alleged the petrol stain supported Rouse's claims the victim may have spilled the petrol over himself while lunging in a drunken stupor.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=18}}

Another witness to refute the accidental death theory was a vehicular expert who had studied the remains of the Morris Minor, and who testified that a joint on the feeding pipe between the petrol tank and the carburettor of the vehicle had been forcibly loosened to allow petrol to flow into and beneath the motor, thus discrediting earlier defence claims that excessive heat in a burning car would invariably result in the loosening of this particular joint. (At one stage as Rouse stood in the witness box to reiterate his claims the fire had been accidental, prosecuting attorney William Norman Birkett placed the actual carburettor of Rouse's vehicle in his hands, causing Rouse to become visibly nervous as he attempted to explain earlier witness testimony as to the forcible loosening of the feeding pipe between the petrol tank and carburettor of his vehicle.{{sfn|1930s|1992|pp=17-18}})

The prosecution contention at Rouse's trial was that the actual motive behind Rouse's committing this murder had been to fabricate his own death in order that he could escape the financial constraints brought about by his numerous affairs, and to simply start his life afresh. To emphasise this, William Birkett called three of his mistresses to testify, explaining to the jury the testimony of these women would illustrate that "Rouse's domestic life was not what it should have been".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Also to testify was a Government fire and insurance inspector named [[Colonel (United Kingdom)|Colonel]] Cuthbert Buckle, who demonstrated to the jury how, in his view, the fire had been deliberately started by what he termed "human agency", with a deliberate loosening of the locknut of the petrol feeding pipe.

Rouse himself testified in his own defence at his trial. Despite the brief episode of nervousness he had displayed when handling the carburettor as he answered the prosecution's questions as to the loosening of his vehicle's feeding pipe, he often displayed an air of confidence as he reiterated his claims the death of the unknown victim had been accidental.{{sfn|1930s|1992|p=17}} He would often perform poorly in the witness box; repeatedly being forced to either admit to the contradictions in the earlier statements he had provided to police and his current claims, or that he had lied about his actions or movements. He could not, for instance, explain why he had falsely claimed to his mistress in Glamorganshire that his car had been stolen in Northamptonshire and that he had reported the theft to police, or why this mistress had earlier testified that when he had arrived at her house on 6 November he had smelled of petrol, and his eyebrows had appeared slightly scorched.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19301128&id=2fg9AAAAIBAJ&pg=3164,4111078&hl=en|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|title=Blazing Car Mystery|date=28 November 1930|access-date=25 March 2017}}</ref>

==Conviction==
The trial lasted just six days. In a final address to the jury Mr. Justice Talbot stated thus: "Of course, there can be no doubt about it that these facts create grave suspicion against this man who was the owner of the car, and who drove it to the place where it was burned. If he is an innocent man he has created a grave suspicion against himself by his own folly."

The jury debated for just 25 minutes before reaching their verdict: Rouse was unanimously found guilty of murder and sentenced to death on 31 January. Having calmly heard the verdict, just prior to the sentence of death being imposed, Rouse firmly declared to Mr. Justice Talbot, "I am innocent, sir."<ref name="The Rouse Trial: Sentence of Death"/> Rouse did lodge an appeal against his conviction, primarily contending immoral [[Character evidence#Criminal trial|character evidence]] had been submitted at his trial, and that this had influenced the jury. His appeal was heard on 23 February 1931, although it would prove unsuccessful.{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=73}}

===Execution===
On Tuesday, 10 March 1931, Rouse was hanged in [[Bedford (HM Prison)|Bedford Gaol]]. In the days prior to his execution, his legal wife and two of his mistresses alternately visited him to bid him a final farewell.

Rouse never formally admitted his guilt to the murder of his victim to the police, although shortly before his execution, he did write a letter to the ''[[Daily Sketch]]'' in which he confessed his guilt. In this written confession, Rouse stated that initially, he had resisted the thoughts he had initially developed that summer to commit a murder in which he could fabricate his own death,{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=74}} although a chance encounter with the unknown victim outside a London pub in the autumn of 1930 had led him to rethink his plans.
{| class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em; font-size: 85%; background:#t5dbf1; color:black; width:34em; max-width: 34%;" cellspacing="5"
| style="text-align: left;" | "Nellie Tucker was expecting another child [and] I was expecting to hear from [Phyllis] Jenkins similar news. There were other difficulties and I was fed up. I wanted to start life afresh. In the autumn of last year something happened which made me think again. A man spoke to me near the Swan and Pyramid public house. He was a down-and-out, and he told the usual hard-luck story. I took him into the public house and he had some beer. I had lemonade. Of course, I paid for the drinks. He told me he usually hung about there. He did not tell me his name, but he did say that he had no relations, and was looking for work ... and that he was in the habit of getting lifts on lorries. He was the sort of man nobody would miss, and I thought he would suit the plan I had in mind ... I suddenly realised I should do it on 5 November, when a fire would not be noticed so much. I think it was 2 or 3 November when I searched out the man. He was having a drink of beer and we talked. When I said that I intended to go to Leicester on the Wednesday, he said he would be glad of a lift up there ... I made an appointment with him for the Wednesday night for eight o'clock. I met him outside the Swan and Pyramid. We talked a lot [on the journey to Leicester], but he did not tell me who he actually was. I did not care ... The man was half-dozing – the effect of the whisky. I gripped him by the throat with my right hand. I pressed his head against the back of the seat. He slid down, his hat falling off. I saw he had a bald patch on the crown of his head. He just gurgled. I pressed his throat hard ... he did not resist."{{sfn|Butchers|1991|pp=74-75}}
|-
|style="text-align: left;"| Section of Alfred Rouse's written confession to the ''[[Daily Sketch]]'', penned shortly before his execution
|}
In this written confession, Rouse stated that as he had driven his intended victim to the Midlands, he had encouraged him to drink from the bottle of whisky he had purchased in order to inebriate him before turning onto Hardingstone Lane. At this location, he had strangled the victim to the point of unconsciousness before loosening the feeding pipe between the petrol tank and the carburettor of his vehicle; he had then taken the petrol can from the boot and poured petrol on both the victim and about his car before placing the petrol tank in the rear of his car and, standing from a distance, setting the vehicle ablaze with a match.{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=76}}

Initially, Rouse had intended to walk to Northampton and travel to Scotland via train to begin life afresh; however, when he had seen the two young men returning from a Guy Fawkes Night dance at the end of Hardingstone Lane, he realised people would know he was not the victim in the car; therefore, after briefly returning to his London home with a hastily concocted story of his car having been stolen, he had opted to travel to Glamorganshire to meet with one of his mistresses. When he read extensive accounts of the murder in the Welsh press in which he was named as the prime suspect, he had travelled to Hammersmith Broadway, where he was arrested.{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=77}}

In this confession, published after his execution, Rouse again stated he had never asked his victim's name, claiming "there was no reason why I should do so".{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=77}}

==Aftermath==
The body of Rouse's victim was interred in a grave marked with a simple cross bearing the inscription "In Memory of an Unknown Man. Died Nov. 6, 1930" in the grounds of St. Edmund's Church in Hardingstone, Northamptonshire.<ref name="northamptonchron.co.uk" /> A metal box containing several newspaper accounts of Rouse's trial was buried with the victim. Village constable Harry Bertie Copping was among the pallbearers at the service.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk" /> A new cross was erected above the grave in August 2022.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-62392081|title=New Cross Marks Grave of Unidentified Alfred Rouse Victim|publisher= BBC|work= BBC News|date=3 August 2022|access-date=18 September 2022}}</ref>

Prior to his execution, Rouse refused to assist police in establishing the identity of his victim, simply stating his belief he should not assist officers in this task "as they have not helped me".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-33426167 | title=Alfred Rouse 'Blazing Car Murder': DNA Tests Fail to Identify Victim | publisher=bbc.co.uk | work=BBC News | date=18 July 2015 | access-date=29 March 2017}}</ref> He did, however, offer a general description of his victim's identity. Rouse claimed the man he killed had been: "Forty years of age, between {{nowrap|5 ft 6 in}} [and] {{nowrap|5 ft 8 in}}. tall, respectably dressed in a light-coloured overcoat, with the [general] appearance of a clerk." The man also had "a slight [[Brogue (accent)|brogue]]", and had a boxing or sporting tattoo on his right forearm. Furthermore, he had been wearing police boots which Rouse claimed the man had informed him had been given to him by London police. The man also carried a sports diary.{{sfn|Butchers|1991|p=78}}

In May 2012, the family of a 23-year-old man named William Briggs—missing since 1930—contacted Northamptonshire Police in the hope advances in [[DNA profiling]] may provide a positive identification; the family were redirected to a team of forensic scientists from the [[University of Leicester]] and [[Northumbria University]] who obtained archived tissue samples of the murdered man for comparison;<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-17899027 | title=Northamptonshire Police May Look at 1930 'Blazing Car Murder' | publisher=bbc.co.uk | work=BBC News | date=3 May 2012 | access-date=1 August 2012}}</ref> the [[mitochondrial DNA]] samples did not prove to be a match.

To date, DNA testing has revealed nine families whose relatives disappeared around 1930 are not related to the victim of the "Blazing Car Murder."<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25722259|title= DNA Found in Northamptonshire 'Blazing Car' Murder Case|first= Laura|last= Devlin|publisher= BBC|work= BBC News|date= 14 January 2014|access-date= 14 January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www2.le.ac.uk/news/blog/2014-archive-1/january/blazing-car-murder-victim-still-a-mystery |title = Blazing Car Murder Victim Still a Mystery |publisher = University of Leicester |date = 20 January 2014 |access-date= 2 April 2014}}</ref> Nonetheless, inquiries to establish the victim's identity are ongoing.<ref name="bbc.co.uk" />

==Media==


===Television===
* [[Thames Television]] commissioned and broadcast an episode focusing upon the "Blazing Car Murder" as part of a series focusing upon infamous British murder cases. Written by [[Clive Exton]] and directed by Jonathan Alwyn, the episode, titled ''Killers: The Blazing Car Murder'', was broadcast on 18 August 1976.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1336404/ | title=The Blazing Car Murder | publisher=imdb.com | work=IMDB | date=30 May 2009 | access-date=13 March 2017}}</ref>

===Books (factual)===
*{{cite book|last=Cannell|first=John|title=New Light on the Rouse Case|year=1931|publisher=J. Long Publishing Ltd.|asin = B00089FML0 }}
*{{cite book|last=Hodge|first=James|title=Famous Trials: Captain William Kidd, Dr.Thomas Smethurst, Alfred Arthur Rouse, Patrick Carraher, John Thomas Straffen|year=1995|publisher=Penguin Books Ltd|isbn=978-0-140-02041-0 }}
*{{cite book|last=Lane|first=Brian|title=The Butchers|year=1991|publisher=Virgin Publishing Ltd.|isbn=978-1-852-27297-5 }}
*{{cite book|last=Lane|first=Brian|title=The Murder Club Guide to the Midlands|year=1988|publisher=Harrap|isbn=978-0-245-54681-5 }}
*{{cite book|last=Normanton|first=Helena|title=Trial of Alfred Arthur Rouse|year=1995|orig-year=1931|publisher=William Hodge & Co Ltd.|isbn=978-1-561-69177-7 }}
*{{cite book|last=Rose|first=Andrew|title=Lethal Witness: Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the Honorary Pathologist|year=2009|publisher=Kent State University Press |isbn=978-0-750-94423-6 }}
*{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Colin|title=Murder in the 1930s|year=1992|publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc |isbn=978-0-881-84855-7 }}

===Books (fictional)===
* The fictional novel ''[[Voice of the Fire]]'', written by [[Alan Moore]] and published in 1996, contains a section devoted to the "Blazing Car Murder". The section in question is devoted to Rouse's trial, in which he unsuccessfully attempts to persuade the jury of his innocence of murder in the dock.
* [[Dorothy Sayers]] used the Rouse case to construct her short story "In the Teeth of the Evidence", published in her collection of that name in 1939. The case is mentioned by name.

===Radio===
* The case of the "Blazing Car Murder" was dramatised in an episode of [[Orson Welles]]' radio drama series ''[[The Black Museum (radio series)|The Black Museum]]''. The episode was entitled "The Mallet", and was first broadcast in February 1952.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.all-otr.com/B013_BlackMuseum.htm |title=The Black Museum |publisher=otr.com |date=10 December 2007 |access-date=28 March 2017}}</ref>


==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=28em}}
* [[Capital punishment in the United Kingdom]]
* [[List of executioners]]
{{div col end}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Law|England|United Kingdom}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=n}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Cited works and further reading==
*{{cite book|last=Browne|first=Douglas G.|title=Bernard Spilsbury: His Life and Cases|year=1980|orig-year=1952|publisher=Companion Book Club|isbn=978-0-245-53586-4 }}
*{{cite book|last=Castleden|first=Rodney|title=Infamous Murderers: Maniacs Filled With Hatred and Rage|year=2013|publisher=Canary Press|isbn=978-1-907-79586-2 }}
*{{cite book|last1=Gaute|first1=J. H. H.|last2=Odell|first2=Robin|title=The New Murderers' Who's Who|year=1991|publisher=Intl Polygonics Ltd|isbn=978-1-558820-93-7 }}
*{{cite book|last=Hall|first=Angus|title=Crimes of Horror: Sensational Accounts of 25 Monstrous Cases|orig-date=1976|year=1991|publisher=Treasure Press|isbn=978-1-850-51170-0 }}
*{{cite book|last=Harrison|first=Paul|title=Real-Life Crimes|issue=56|year=1994|isbn=978-1-856-29998-5|publisher=Eaglemoss Publications Ltd|location=London, England|ref={{harvid|Real-Life Crimes|1994}}}}
*{{cite book|last=Hodge|first=James|title=Famous Trials: Captain William Kidd, Dr.Thomas Smethurst, Alfred Arthur Rouse, Patrick Carraher, John Thomas Straffen|year=1995|publisher=Penguin Books Ltd|isbn=978-0-140-02041-0|ref={{harvid|Trials|1995}}}}
*{{cite book|last=Jacobs|first=Thomas Curtis Hicks|title=Aspects of Murder|year=1956|publisher=St. Paul|asin=B000PCTPAY|ref={{harvid|Jacobs|1956}}}}
*{{cite book|last=Lane|first=Brian|title=The Butchers|year=1991|publisher=Virgin Publishing|isbn=978-1-852-27297-5|ref={{harvid|Butchers|1991}}}}
*{{cite book|last=Moss|first=Alan|title=Scotland Yard's History of Crime in 100 Objects|year=2015|publisher=The History Press.|isbn=978-0-750-96655-9 }}
*{{cite book|last=Normanton|first=Helena|title=Trial of Alfred Arthur Rouse|year=1995|orig-year=1931|publisher=William Hodge & Co Ltd.|series=[[Notable British Trials]]|isbn=978-1-561-69177-7 }}
*{{cite book|last=Rose|first=Andrew|title=Lethal Witness: Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the Honorary Pathologist|year=2009|publisher=Kent State University Press |isbn=978-0-750-94423-6 }}
*{{cite book|last=Shapiro|first=Gavriel|title=Nabokov at Cornell|year=2003|publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-801-43909-4|ref={{harvid|Cornell|2003}}}}
*{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Colin|title=Murder in the 1930s|year=1992|publisher=Carroll & Graf|isbn=978-0-881-84855-7|ref={{harvid|1930s|1992}}}}
*{{cite book|last=Waddell|first=Bill|title=Murder Casebook, Investigations into the Ultimate Crime|issue=52|year=1990|isbn=978-0-7485-3874-4|publisher=[[Marshall Cavendish]]|location=London, England|ref={{harvid|Cavendish|1990}}}}
*{{cite book|last=Tremayne|first=Sydney|title=The Trial of Alfred Arthur Rouse: The Blazing Car Murder|year=1995|orig-year=1931|publisher=Geoffrey Bles Limited|isbn=978-1-561-69177-7|ref={{harvid|Tremayne|1931}}}}

==External links==
{{commons category|}}
* 2014 [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140114091840.htm Science Daily article] pertaining to Alfred Rouse
* British Executions [http://www.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=519&termRef=Alfred%20Arthur%20Rouse case file pertaining to Alred Rouse]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-33426167 Contemporary BBC news article] pertaining to ongoing efforts to establish the identity of Rouse's victim
* [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19310203&id=Ue09AAAAIBAJ&sjid=vEgMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3153,4426236&hl=en Contemporary news article] detailing Rouse's appeal against his conviction
* ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' article [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/724019/Northamptonshire-Every-tombstone-tells-a-story.html covering the "Blazing Car Murder" case]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rouse, Alfred}}
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1931 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century British murderers]]
[[Category:20th-century English criminals]]
[[Category:20th-century executions by England and Wales]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British people executed for murder]]
[[Category:English people convicted of murder]]
[[Category:Executed people from London]]
[[Category:London Regiment soldiers]]
[[Category:Military personnel from the London Borough of Southwark]]
[[Category:People convicted of murder by England and Wales]]
[[Category:People executed by the United Kingdom by hanging]]
[[Category:People from Herne Hill]]
[[Category:People who faked their own death]]
[[Category:Unidentified murder victims in the United Kingdom]]

Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp

2025-09-05T10:58:33Z

2A00:23C8:1382:8101:FD06:975D:817D:22A5: /* Further reading */

{{Short description|Second World War Nazi internment camp}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|Struthof|Stuthof|Stutthof}}
{{Infobox concentration camp
| type = [[Nazi concentration camp]]
| name = Natzweiler-Struthof
| image = File:View of Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp after liberation 2.jpg
| image size =
| caption = Natzweiler-Struthof after liberation
| alt =
| location map =
| map alt =
| map caption =
| coordinates = {{coord|48|27|17|N|7|15|16|E|region:FR_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
| other names =
| known for = [[Nacht und Nebel]] resistance fighters, [[Jewish skull collection]]
| location = [[Nazi Germany]] 1941–44 (de facto) (modern-day [[Bas-Rhin]], [[France]])
| built by =
| operated by = the Nazi ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' (SS)
| commandant = {{unbulleted list|[[Hans Hüttig]] | [[Egon Zill]] | [[Josef Kramer]] | [[Fritz Hartjenstein]] |[[Heinrich Schwarz]]}}
| original use =
| construction =
| in operation = May 1941 – September 1944
| gas chambers = one from April 1943
| prisoner type = mainly resistance fighters from occupied European nations
| inmates = 52,000 estimated<ref name=Struthof>{{cite web |url=http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-kl-natzweiler/the-deportees-of-kl-na/ |title=The deportees of KL-Na |publisher=Centre européen du résistant déporté |work=Struthof – the Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp |access-date=September 15, 2015 |archive-date=December 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203014802/http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-kl-natzweiler/the-deportees-of-kl-na/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| killed = 22,000 estimated<ref name="struthof1"/>
| liberated by = [[First Army (France)|French 1st Army]], [[Sixth United States Army Group|U.S. 6th Army Group]], 23 November 1944
| notable inmates = [[Boris Pahor]], [[Trygve Bratteli]], [[Charles Delestraint]], [[Per Jacobsen]], [[Asbjørn Halvorsen]], [[Diana Rowden]], [[Vera Leigh]], [[Andrée Borrel]], [[Sonya Olschanezky]]
| notable books = ''[[Necropolis (Pahor novel)|Necropolis]]'', ''The Names of the Numbers'', ''The Nazi Hunters'' by [[Damien Lewis (filmmaker)|Damien Lewis]]
| website = {{URL|https://www.struthof.fr/en/}}
}}

'''Natzweiler-Struthof''' was a [[Nazi concentration camp]] located in the [[Vosges Mountains]] close to the villages of [[Natzwiller|Natzweiler]] and Struthof in the [[Gau Baden-Alsace]] of [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], on territory [[Annexation|annexed]] from France on a {{Lang|la|[[de facto]]}} basis in 1940. It operated from 21 May 1941 to September 1944, and was the only concentration camp established by the Germans in the territory of pre-war France. The camp was located in a heavily forested and isolated area at an elevation of {{convert|800|m|ft}}.

About 52,000 prisoners were estimated to be held there during its time of operation.<ref name=Struthof /><ref name=Alsace /> The prisoners were mainly from the [[Resistance during World War II|resistance movements in German-occupied territories]]. It was a labor camp, a transit camp and, as the war went on, a place of execution. Some died of exhaustion and starvation – there were an estimated 22,000 deaths at the camp and its network of subcamps.<ref name=Data>{{cite web |url=http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-kl-natzweiler/some-data/ |title=Struthof: Some data |access-date=October 14, 2015 |publisher=Centre européen du résistant déporté |archive-date=November 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116111807/http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-kl-natzweiler/some-data/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Many prisoners were moved to other camps; in particular, in 1944 the former head of [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp was brought in to evacuate the prisoners of Natzweiler-Struthof to [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]] as the [[Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine|Allied armies]] approached. Only a small staff of Nazi SS personnel remained when the camp was liberated by the [[First Army (France)|French First Army]] under the command of the [[Sixth United States Army Group|U.S. Sixth Army Group]] on 23 November 1944.<ref name=HEART>{{cite web |url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/natzweiler.html |title=Natzweiler-Struthoff Concentration Camp |publisher=Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team |access-date=September 20, 2015}}</ref>

The anatomist [[August Hirt]] made a [[Jewish skull collection]], whose purpose was to portray Jews as racially inferior, at the camp. A documentary movie was made about the 86 named men and women who were killed there for that project.{{clarify|project? Hirt's|date=February 2024}} Some of the people responsible for atrocities in this camp were brought to trial after the war ended.

The camp is preserved as a museum in memory of those held or killed there. The European Centre of Deported Resistance Members is located at this museum, focusing on those held. A monument to the departed stands at the site. The present museum was restored in 1980 after damage by neo-Nazis in 1976. Among notable prisoners, the writer [[Boris Pahor]] was interned in Natzweiler-Struthof and wrote his novel ''[[Necropolis (Pahor novel)|Necropolis]]'' based on his experience.

==Background==
In 1940, [[German invasion of France (1940)|Germany invaded and occupied France]], including [[Alsace]]. That region, adjacent to the German border, was chosen for full [[Germanization]] and was annexed to [[Gau Baden-Alsace]]. On 2 July 1940, two weeks after the fall of the nearby city of [[Strasbourg]], an [[Schirmeck concentration camp|internment camp was set up near Schirmeck]] which existed throughout the war but was never part of the concentration camp system. The Natzweiler-Struthof main camp on 1 May 1941 was established nearby at [[Natzweiler]] in the [[Bruche valley]], due to its proximity to a quarry.<ref>''[[Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos]]'' volume one, Natzweiler-Struthof main camp, p. 1004</ref>

==Operations==
[[File:View of Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp after liberation 3.jpg|thumb|View of Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp after liberation]]
The construction of Natzweiler-Struthof was overseen by [[Hans Hüttig]] in the spring of 1941, in a heavily forested and isolated area at an elevation of {{convert|800|m|ft}}. The camp operated between 21 May 1941 and the beginning of September 1944, when the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] evacuated the surviving prisoners on a "[[death march]]" to [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]], with only a small SS unit keeping the camp's operations.<ref name="struthof1">{{cite web |url=http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-kl-natzweiler/introduction-to-the-history-of-the-camp/ |title=Introduction to the history of the camp | STRUTHOF |publisher=Struthof.fr |access-date=January 10, 2013 |archive-date=June 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603053624/http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-kl-natzweiler/introduction-to-the-history-of-the-camp/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On 23 November 1944, this camp with its small staff was discovered and liberated by the [[First Army (France)|French First Army]] as part of the [[Sixth United States Army Group|U.S. Sixth Army Group]],<ref name="struthof1"/> on the same day that the city of [[Liberation of Strasbourg|Strasbourg was liberated]] by the Allies. Through 1945, Natzweiler-Struthof had a complex of about 70 subcamps or annex camps.<ref name=Annex>{{cite web |title=KL-Natzweiler annex camps 1942–1945 |url=http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-kl-natzweiler/the-camp-annexes/kl-natzweiler-annex-camps-1942-1945/ |publisher=Centre européen du résistant déporté |work=Struthof – the Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp |access-date=September 20, 2015 |archive-date=June 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603053929/http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-kl-natzweiler/the-camp-annexes/kl-natzweiler-annex-camps-1942-1945/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> (For the system of subcamps see [[List of subcamps of Natzweiler-Struthof]].)

===Initial focus and later actions===

The total number of prisoners reached 52,000 over the three years, of 32 nationalities.<ref name=Alsace /> Inmates originated from various countries, including Poland, the Soviet Union, the Netherlands, France, [[Nazi Germany]], [[Slovene Lands in World War II|Slovene-speaking parts of Yugoslavia]] and Norway. The camp was specially set up for ''[[Nacht und Nebel]]'' prisoners, in most cases, people of the resistance movements. It was a labor camp and a transit camp, as many prisoners were sent to other Nazi concentration camps before the final evacuation. As the war continued, it became a death camp as well. Some people died of exhaustion from the work they had to do while starving. Deaths have been estimated at 22,000 at the main camp and the subcamps.<ref name=Data />

Interned prisoners provided forced labor for the [[Wehrmacht]] war industry, through contracts with private industry. The work
was done mainly at the numerous annex camps, some of them located in mines or tunnels to protect them from Allied air raids. Work, hunger, darkness and lack of health care caused many epidemics; mortality rates could reach 80%.<ref name=Annex/> Some worked in quarries, but many worked in the arms industry at various subcamps. [[Daimler-Benz]] moved its aircraft engine factory from Berlin to a gypsum mine near the [[Neckarelz]] annex camp. The disused autobahn [[Engelberg Tunnel]] in [[Leonberg]], near Stuttgart, was used by the [[Messerschmitt]] Aircraft Company which eventually employed 3,000 prisoners in forced labor. Another annex camp at [[Schörzingen]] was established in February 1944 to extract crude oil from oil shale. The total number of prisoners at all of the Natzweiler subcamps was an estimated 19,000 of whom between 7,000 and 8,000 were in the main camp at Natzweiler.<ref name=HEART/>
[[File:Gate of Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp after liberation.jpg|thumb|Gate of Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp after liberation]]
[[File:Border fence at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.jpg|thumb|Border fence at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp]]
[[File:French resistance inspects Natzweiler crematorium.jpg|thumb|French resistance members inspect the crematorium after liberation]]

The camp held a [[crematorium]] and a [[jury rig]]ged [[gas chamber]] outside the main camp, which was not used for mass extermination but for selective extermination, as part of the human experimentation programs, in particular on the problems of fighting a war, like typhus among the troops.

Doctors [[Otto Bickenbach]] and Helmut Rühl were accused of crimes committed at this camp. [[Hans Eisele (physician)|Hans Eisele]] was also stationed in this camp for a time. August Hirt committed suicide in June 1945; his suicide was unknown for many years, and he was tried in absentia in 1953 at Metz for his war crimes, including the Jewish skull collection, begun at Auschwitz, continued at Natzweiler-Struthof, and at the [[Reichsuniversität Straßburg]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/world/europe/french-university-nazi-medical-crimes.html|title=A French University Confronts Medical Crimes and Its Nazi Past|first=Aurelien|last=Breeden|newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724155711/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/world/europe/french-university-nazi-medical-crimes.html |archive-date=July 24, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Some prisoners were executed directly, by hanging, by gunshot or by gas. The female prisoner-population in the camp was small, and only seven SS women served in Natzweiler-Struthof camp (compared to more than 600 SS men) and 15 in the Natzweiler complex of subcamps. The main duty of the female supervisors in Natzweiler was to guard the few women who came to the camp for medical experiments or to be executed. The camp also trained several female guards who went to the [[Geisenheim]] and [[Geislingen an der Steige|Geislingen]] subcamps in western Germany.

[[Leo Alexander]], the medical advisor at the [[Nuremberg trials]], stated that some children were murdered at Natzweiler-Struthof for the sole purpose of testing poisons for inconspicuous executions of Nazi officials and prisoners.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3586&context=jclc |title=War Crimes and Their Motivation: The SocioPsychological Structure of the SS and the Criminalization of a Society. |author=Alexander, Leo |journal=Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology |date=1948 |volume=39 |issue=3 |page=326 |quote=As a means of further camouflage so that the SS at large would not suspect the purpose of these experiments, the preliminary tests for the efficacy of this method were performed exclusively on children imprisoned in the Natzweiler concentration camp.}}</ref> Such executions of{{who|date=January 2018}} took place at [[Bullenhuser Damm]].{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

The camp became a war zone in late summer 1944, and was evacuated in early September 1944. Prior to the evacuation of the camp, 141 prisoners were shot dead on 31 August – 1 September 1944. The 70th anniversary of this execution of those who resisted Nazi occupation was commemorated at the museum in 2014.<ref name=Alsace>{{cite web |url=http://www.lalsace.fr/bas-rhin/2014/09/01/commemoration-des-executions-de-141-resistants |title=Struthof: Commémoration des exécutions de 141 résistants |trans-title=Commemoration of the executions of 141 resistance fighters at Struthof |date=September 1, 2014 |author=Buonasorte, Alvezio |publisher=l'Alsace |location=Natzwiler, France |language=fr |access-date=June 18, 2015}}</ref>

===Notable prisoners===

Four female British [[Special Operations Executive|SOE]] agents were executed together on 6 July 1944: [[Diana Rowden]], [[Vera Leigh]], [[Andrée Borrel]] and [[Sonya Olschanezky]].<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bLOcELL2nDgC&q=Hartjenstein+war+crimes&pg=PA39 | title=2 SAS Regiments, War Crimes Investigations, and British Intelligence: Intelligence Officers and the Natzweiler Trial. | author=Charlesworth, Lorie | journal=The Journal of Intelligence History |date=Winter 2006 | volume=6 | issue=2 | pages=13–60| doi=10.1080/16161262.2006.10555131 | s2cid=156655154 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Brian Stonehouse]] of the British SOE and [[Albert Guérisse]], a Belgian [[Escape and evasion lines (World War II)|escape line]] leader, witnessed the arrival of the four women and the events leading up to their execution and cremation; both men testified to the executions of the four women in post-war trials.<ref name=Wuppertal>{{cite book|last1=Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals|first1=Vol. V|title=Case No. 31. Trial Of Werner Rohde And Eight Others, British Military Court, Wuppertal, Germany, 29th May-1st June, 1946|date=1948|publisher=The United Nations War Crimes Commission|location=London, UK|page=54|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/Law-Reports_Vol-5.pdf}}</ref> The two men were sent to Dachau, where they were liberated. Roger Boulanger writes of the four British SOE women executed under the supervision of Dr. Plaza and Dr. Rhode, in his section on Capital Punishment (Les exécutions capitales), as to the intent of the RSHA of Berlin, Reichssicherheitshauptamt, to have them disappear with no trace, as their names were not recorded as being at this camp. Stonehouse later sketched the four women which aided in their identification.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://crdp.ac-reims.fr/memoire/enseigner/natzweiler_struthof/historique.htm |author=Boulanger, Roger |title=L'historique du camp de Natzweiler-Struthof |trans-title=The history of the Natzweiler-Struthof camp |access-date=September 19, 2015 |year=2000 |publisher=CRDP Champagne-Ardenne |quote=C'était une fonction spécifique du camp. Les victimes devaient disparaître sans laisser de traces.[It was a specific function of the camp. The victims were to disappear without a trace.] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071123071645/http://crdp.ac-reims.fr/memoire/enseigner/natzweiler_struthof/historique.htm |archive-date=November 23, 2007 }}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite book |last1=Helm |first1=Sarah |title=A Life in Secrets |date=2005 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=9780385508452 |pages=216–219}}</ref>

[[Charles Delestraint]], leader of the [[Armée Secrète]], was detained at Natzweiler-Struthof, then was executed by the Gestapo in Dachau days before that camp was liberated and the war ended.<ref name=Delestraint>{{cite web |url=http://www.ordredelaliberation.fr/fr_compagnon/266.html |title=Charles Delestraint |publisher=Le Musée de l'Ordre de la Libération |date=December 14, 2001 |access-date=September 20, 2015 |language=fr |quote=il est envoyé au camp de Natzwiller-Struthof, en Alsace, et devient un déporté "Nacht und Nebel", de la catégorie de ceux que l'on doit faire disparaître dans "la nuit et le brouillard". . . . Les alliés approchant, il est transféré au début du mois de septembre 1944 à Dachau, près de Munich. Mais un ordre, probablement signé Kaltenbrünner, le condamne à disparaître avant l'arrivée des alliés. Le 19 avril 1945, dix jours seulement avant l'arrivée des Américains, il est lâchement abattu d'une balle dans la nuque avant d'être incinéré au crématoire du camp.[English: "he was sent to Natzwiller-Struthof camp in Alsace, and became a "Nacht und Nebel" prisoner, the category of those who must disappear into "the night and fog". . . The Allies approached, he was transferred at beginning of September 1944 to Dachau, near Munich. But an order, probably signed Kaltenbrunner, condemned him to disappear before the arrival of the Allies. On April 19, 1945, just ten days before the arrival of the Americans, he was cowardly shot in the neck before being cremated in the camp crematorium."] |archive-date=May 22, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090522022244/http://www.ordredelaliberation.fr/fr_compagnon/266.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[:fr:Henri Gayot|Henri Gayot]], a member of the French Resistance who was interned at Struthof between April and September 1944, documented his ordeal in drawings which are now in the Struthof Concentration Camp Museum.<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn597153 |access-date=2024-11-25 |website=collections.ushmm.org}}</ref>

Bishop [[Gabriel Piguet]], the Roman Catholic [[Bishop of Clermont-Ferrand]], was interned at Natzweiler before being transferred to the [[Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp]]. He is honored as a [[Righteous Among the Nations]] by [[Yad Vashem]], Israel's Holocaust Memorial, for hiding Jewish children in Catholic boarding schools.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Righteous Among The Nations|url=http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/righteousName.html?language=en&itemId=4016907|website=YadVashem.org|access-date=September 20, 2015}}</ref>

[[File:Overview Struthof Conc Camp DSC 0367.jpg|thumb|Present-day appearance: the crematorium was in the building on the right, while the flat, bare spaces are where the barracks were located.]]
[[File:Natzweiler-Struthof Crematorium.jpg|thumb|The crematorium at Natzweiler-Struthof as it looks today]]
Two British Royal Air Force airmen ([[Flying Officer]] Dennis H. Cochran, and [[Flight Lieutenant]] [[Tony Hayter|Anthony "Tony" R. H. Hayter]]) who were involved in [[Stalag Luft III escape|"The Great Escape"]] and murdered by the Gestapo after re-capture,<ref name="War Crimes">{{cite book|last1=The United Nations War Crimes Commission|title=Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, vol. XI|date=1949|publisher=His Majesty's Stationery Office|location=London, UK|pages=41–42|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/Law-Reports_Vol-11.pdf |access-date=September 18, 2015}}</ref> were cremated at Natzweiler-Struthof.

British bomber Sergeant Frederic ("Freddie") Habgood was hanged at this camp, after his Lancaster bomber crashed in Alsace on 27 July 1944 and he was betrayed to the Nazis by a local woman.<ref name=Nicholls2018>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/25/family-world-war-two-lancaster-bomber-reunited-bracelet-74-years/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_em |title=Family of World War Two Lancaster bomber reunited with his bracelet 74 years after it rose to surface of concentration camp ash pit |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=December 25, 2018 |access-date=January 6, 2019 |last=Nicholls |first=Dominic}}</ref> Two died as a result of the crash, three survived as prisoners of war in a camp in Poland, one returned to England with the help of the resistance, and Mr Habgood was hanged on 31 July 1944. His death was acknowledged as a war crime in 1947 and his family was informed, but the most personal evidence of his presence there, a silver bracelet with his name on it, emerged from the soil in July 2018, as an area with flowers was being watered by a volunteer.<ref name=Nicholls2018 />

In his memoirs titled ''Moi, Pierre Seel, déporté homosexuel'', [[Pierre Seel]], who served a sentence at the neighboring [[Schirmeck concentration camp|camp of Schirmeck]], tells that he took part in the construction of the Struthof concentration camp, in the context of his forced labor tasks.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seel|first1=Pierre|title=Moi, Pierre Seel, déporté homosexuel (English translation: ''I, Pierre Seel, deported homosexual'')|date=April 1, 1994|publisher=Calmann-Lévy|isbn=978-2702122778|ref=Seel|language=fr}}</ref>

Notable Norwegian prisoners at Natzweiler include newspaper editor and [[Labour Party (Norway)|Labour Party]] politician [[Trygve Bratteli]] who later went on to become [[Prime Minister of Norway]], and former footballer [[Asbjørn Halvorsen]] who had previously played in Germany for [[Hamburger SV]]. Both were imprisoned at Natzweiler for distribution of illegal newspapers in [[German occupation of Norway|German-occupied Norway]]. In total, 504 Norwegians were imprisoned at Natzweiler. Only 266 of them returned home alive.<ref>[https://www.vg.no/nyheter/meninger/i/mkxzO/kronikk-den-glemte-generalen Kronikk: Den glemte generalen] {{in lang|no}}</ref>

The Slovene novelist [[Boris Pahor]] was imprisoned at the camp in 1944. Pahor was later transported to [[Dachau]] camp and other camps until finally liberated in [[Bergen-Belsen]]. After the war he wrote the novel ''[[Necropolis (Pahor novel)|Necropolis]]'' about his experiences in the camp. The novel was later translated into numerous other European languages.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://forward.com/culture/504417/boris-pahor-slovenian-necropolis-writer-obituary-jewish-nazi-camp/ |title=How a once-neglected Slovenian writer survived the Nazis camps to live to 108 – The Forward |date= 2 June 2022 |author= Benjamin Ivry |access-date= 27 September 2022}}</ref>

==List of personnel==
The camp had five commandants and numerous doctors in its history.<ref>{{cite book|last1=MacLean|first1=French L.|title=The camp men: the SS officers who ran the Nazi concentration camp system|date=1999|publisher=Schiffer Publishing, Ltd|location=Atglen, PA|isbn=0764306367}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=KZ-Katzweiler Men|url=http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=126921&p=1888172&hilit=Natzweiler+men#p1888172|website=Axis History Forum|access-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref>

===Commanders (Commandants)===
*''SS-[[Hauptsturmführer]]'' [[Hans Huttig]]
*''SS-[[Sturmbannführer]]'' [[Egon Zill]]
*''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' [[Josef Kramer]]
*''SS-Sturmbannführer'' [[Fritz Hartjenstein]]
*''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' [[Heinrich Schwarz]]

===SS Doctors===
*''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' Kurt aus dem Bruch
*''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' [[Karl Babor]]
*''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' Heinz Baumköther
*''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' Max Blancke
*''SS-[[Obersturmführer]]'' [[Franz von Bodmann]]
*''SS-Obersturmführer'' [[Hans Eisele (physician)|Hans Eisele]]
*''SS-Obersturmführer'' Herbert Graefe
*''SS-Sturmbannführer'' Richard Krieger
*''SS-Obersturmführer'' Georg Meyer
*''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' Heinrich Plaza
*''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' Elimar Precht
*''SS-Untersturmführer'' Andreas Rett
*''SS-[[Untersturmführer]]'' Werner Rohde
*''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' Gerhard Schiedlausky
*''SS-Obersturmführer'' Siegfried Schwela

==Private firms using inmate labor==
The following private firms used Natzweiler-Struthof camp's inmates for labor in their factories:<ref>{{cite web|title=In Re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (Swiss Banks) Special Master's Proposal|url=http://www.dpcamps.org/slavecamplist.pdf|access-date=October 14, 2015|date=September 11, 2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Elenco delle aziende e dei campi di concentramento ricorrendo al lavoro forzato |trans-title=List of companies and concentration camps using forced labor |language=it |url=http://www.schiavidihitler.it/pagine_ricerca/fabbriche_risposta.asp |website=Centro studi Schiavi di Hitler|access-date=October 14, 2015}}</ref>

* Allgemeine Elektrizitäts Gesellschaft ([[AEG (German company)|AEG]])
* [[Adler (cars and motorcycle)|Adlerwerke]] AG (formerly [[Adlerwerke vorm. Heinrich Kleyer]])
* Bayerische Motorenwerke AG ([[BMW]])
* Berger
* {{ill|Bergwerks Industrie AG|de|Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG}}
* [[Daimler-Benz]] AG
* [[Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft|Friedrich Krupp Ironworks]]
* Gruen & Bulfinger
* [[Henkel]] & Cie
* [[Heinkel]] Flugzeugwerke, aircraft factory, Zuffenhausen
* Kessler Factory
* Koch & Mayer
* [[Messerschmitt]] AG
* [[Röchling Group]]<ref>{{cite book |last= Militärregierung der Französischen Besatzungszone in Deutschland |first=Oberstes Gericht |date=1949 |title= Unterlagen zu den Röchling-Prozessen: Urteile des General-Gerichts und des Obersten Gerichts |language=de |location=Mannheim |pages=44}}</ref>

==Jewish skull collection==
[[File:Menachem Taffel's body, part of the Jewish Skeleton Collection at Natzweiler-Struthof.jpg|thumb|Menachem Taffel's body, part of the [[Jewish skull collection]]]]
The [[Jewish skull collection]] was an attempt by the Nazis to create an anthropological display to showcase the alleged racial inferiority of the "Jewish race" and to emphasize the status of Jews as [[Untermenschen]] ("sub-humans"), in contrast to the Germanic [[Übermenschen]] ("super-humans") Aryan race which the Nazis considered to be the "[[Herrenvolk]]" (master race). The people who were to serve as best examples of the "Jewish race" were selected from people at the [[Auschwitz]] camp, then brought to Natzweiler-Struthof both to eat well and then to be murdered by gas, and their corpses brought to the Anatomy Institute of at the Reich [[University of Strasbourg]] ([[Reichsuniversität Straßburg]]) in the annexed region of Alsace, a project of great scope. Some initial study of the corpses was performed, but the progress of the war stalled completion of the collection.

The collection was sanctioned by Reichsführer of the SS [[Heinrich Himmler]], and under the direction of [[August Hirt]] with [[Rudolf Brandt]] and [[Wolfram Sievers]] who was responsible for procuring and preparing the corpses as part of his management of the [[Ahnenerbe]] (the [[Nazi Germany|National Socialist]] scientific institute that researched the archaeological and cultural history of the hypothesized [[Aryan race]]). In a 2013 documentary by Sonia Rolley and others, two historians remark that "Hirt is one of the most absolutely criminal of National Socialist ideology," adds the historian [[Yves Ternon]]. "The project itself, continues Professor [[Johann Chapoutot]], is an example of this investment of politics by science, or science by politics that is Nazism."<ref name=Bernas />

In 1943, the inmates selected at Auschwitz were transported to Natzweiler-Struthof. They spent two weeks eating well in barracks there in Block 13, so they would be good specimens of normal size. The deaths of 86 inmates were, in the words of Hirt, "induced" at a jury rigged [[Gas chamber|gassing facility]] at Natzweiler-Struthof on several days in August and their corpses, 57 men and 29 women, were sent to Strasbourg for study. Natzweiler-Struthof was considered the better place for gassing the selected victims (better than at Auschwitz), as they would die one by one, with no damage to the corpses, and Natzweiler-Struthof was at Hirt's disposal.<ref name=Bernas>{{cite news |url=http://www.rfi.fr/hebdo/20141024-au-nom-de-la-race-et-de-la-science-documentaire-crime-nazi-meconnu-prime-waterloo/ |title=Un documentaire sur un crime nazi méconnu primé à Waterloo |trans-title=A documentary about a misunderstood Nazi crime winning at Waterloo |date=October 24, 2014 |access-date=March 8, 2016 |author=Bernas, Anne |language=fr |publisher=RFI les voix du monde}}</ref> [[Josef Kramer]], acting commandant of Natzweiler-Struthof (who was a Lagerführer at Auschwitz and the last commandant of [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Bergen Belsen]]) personally carried out the gassing of 80 of the 86 victims at Natzweiler-Struthof.<ref name="Belsen Trial">{{cite book |title=The Belsen Trial: Trial of Josef Kramer and 44 Others from 'Law Reports of Trials of·War Criminals' |volume=II |date=1947 |publisher=The United Nations War Crimes Commission |location=London |pages=39–40 |url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/Law-Reports_Vol-2.pdf |access-date=October 15, 2015 |quote=Under cross-examination he admitted having gassed 80 prisoners previously at Natzweiller camp.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Kramer Persists in Denying Guilt |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/10/10/issue.html |access-date=September 19, 2015 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 10, 1945 |page=8 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

[[File:BU 003749.jpeg|thumb|left|[[Josef Kramer]], former commandant of Natzweiler-Struthof, in [[leg irons]] at Belsen before being removed to the POW cage at Celle, 17 April 1945]]
The next part of the process for this "collection" was to bring the corpses to the Reichs University, where Hirt's plan was to make anatomical casts of the bodies. Photos of the corpses as found by the Allies who saw them in the Reichs University make the totality of the strange project quite real.<ref name=Bernas /><ref name=Rolley>{{cite AV media |people=Rolley, Sonia; Ramonet, Axel and Tancrède (directors) |date=May 2, 2013 |title=Au nom de la race et de la science 1941–1944 (3/4) |trans-title=In the name of Race and Science 1941–1944 (3/4) |language=fr |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcTWfuco5bM |access-date=March 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202024853/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcTWfuco5bM|archive-date=February 2, 2017 |type=documentary |location=Alsace, France |minutes=10 |publisher=Temps Noir |url-status=dead }}</ref> The next step after making the casts was to have been reducing them to skeletons. Neither of those steps, making the casts nor reducing the corpses to skeletons, was carried out. In 1944, with the approach of the Allies, there was concern over the possibility that the corpses could be discovered. In September 1944, Sievers telegrammed Brandt: "The collection can be defleshed and rendered unrecognizable. This, however, would mean that the whole work had been done for nothing – at least in part – and that this singular collection would be lost to science, since it would be impossible to make plaster casts afterwards." And so it was left, as the camp was evacuated in September 1944, and the human remains were left at a room in the Reichs University of Strasbourg.<ref name=LangEng />

Two anthropologists, who were both members of the SS, [[Hans Fleischhacker]] and [[Bruno Beger]], along with [[Wolf-Dietrich Wolff]], were accused of making selections at Auschwitz of Jewish prisoners for Hirt's collection of 'racial types', the man who devised the project of the [[Jewish skull collection]]. Beger was found guilty, although he was credited for pre-trial imprisonment and served no time.<ref name=LangZeit /> Also named as associated with this project are doctor {{ill|Karl Wimmer (doctor)|de|Karl Wimmer (Mediziner)|lt=Karl Wimmer}} and the anatomist {{ill|Anton Kiesselbach|de}}.<ref>Mitscherlich, Fred Mielke: Medicine without humanity: documents of the Nuremberg Doctors Trial, Frankfurt am Main 1995, p. 216</ref> August Hirt, who conceived the project, was sentenced to death in absentia at the Military War Crimes Trial at Metz on 23 December 1953.<ref name=LangZeit /> It was unknown at the time that Hirt had shot himself in the head on 2 June 1945 while in hiding in the [[Black Forest]].<ref name=LangZeit>{{cite web|last1=Lang|first1=Hans-Joachim |title=Skelette für Straßburg Eines der grausigsten Wissenschaftsverbrechen des "Dritten Reiches" ist endlich aufgeklärt |trans-title=Skeletons for Strasbourg: One of the most gruesome crimes of science in the "Third Reich" is finally cleared |url=http://www.zeit.de/2004/35/A-Strassburg|website=Die Zeit|access-date=April 3, 2016|language=de |date=August 19, 2004}}</ref>

For many years only a single victim, [[Menachem Taffel]] (prisoner no. 107969), a [[History of the Jews in Poland|Polish-born Jew]] who had been living in [[Berlin]], was positively identified through the efforts of [[Serge and Beate Klarsfeld]]. In 2003, [[Hans-Joachim Lang]], a German professor at the [[University of Tübingen]] succeeded in identifying all the victims, by comparing a list of inmate numbers of the 86 corpses at the Reichs University in Strasbourg, surreptitiously recorded by Hirt's French assistant Henri Henrypierre, with a list of numbers of inmates vaccinated at Auschwitz. The names and biographical information of the victims were published in the book ''Die Namen der Nummern'' (''The Names of the Numbers'').<ref>{{cite book |title=Die Namen der Nummern: Wie es gelang, die 86 Opfer eines NS-Verbrechens zu identifizieren |trans-title=The names of the numbers: How it was possible to identify the 86 victims of a Nazi crime |edition=hardback |first=Hans-Joachim |last=Lang |publisher=Hoffmann + Campe Vlg GmbH |date=August 31, 2004 |isbn=3-455-09464-3 |language=de}}</ref> Rachel Gordon and Joachim Zepelin translated the introduction to the book to English, at the web site where the whole book, including the biographies of the 86 people, is posted in German.<ref name=LangEng>{{cite web |url=http://www.die-namen-der-nummern.de/html/the_names.html |title=Die Namen Der Nummern |trans-title=The names of the numbers |year=2007 |translator1=Rachel Gordon |translator2=Joachim Zepelin |location=Berlin |access-date=February 8, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150208080253/http://die-namen-der-nummern.de/html/the_names.html |archive-date=February 8, 2015}}</ref> Lang recounts in detail the story of how he determined the identities of the 86 victims gassed for Hirt's project of the Jewish skull collection. Forty-six of these individuals were originally from [[Thessaloniki]], Greece. The 86 were from eight countries in German-occupied Europe: Austria, Netherlands, France, Germany, Greece, Norway, Belgium and Poland.<ref name=LangZeit /><ref>{{cite web|last1=Lang|first1=Hans-Joachim|title=[Victims of medical research at Natzweiler, from "Die Namen der Nummern: Eine Initiative zur Erinnerung an 86 jüdische Opfer eines Verbrechens von NS-Wissenschaftlern"] (ID: 20733) |url=https://www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/source_view.php?SourceId=20733|website=US Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=April 3, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.die-namen-der-nummern.de/index.php/en/ |title=The Names of the Numbers: In Memoriam of 86 Jewish People who Fell Victim to the Nazi Scientists |author=Lang, Hans-Joachim |location=Tübingen, Germany |access-date=April 4, 2016}}</ref> The biographies of all 86 people are described in English on a web site set up by Lang.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.die-namen-der-nummern.de/index.php/en/the-courses-of-86-lives |title=The Names of the Numbers: The Courses of 86 Lives |author=Lang, Hans-Joachim |access-date=April 4, 2016 |location=Tübingen, Germany |archive-date=June 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603210859/https://www.die-namen-der-nummern.de/index.php/en/the-courses-of-86-lives |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1951, the remains of the 86 victims were reinterred in one location in the Cronenbourg-Strasbourg Jewish Cemetery. On 11 December 2005, memorial stones engraved with the names of the 86 victims were placed at the cemetery. One is at the site of the mass grave, the other along the wall of the cemetery. Another plaque honoring the victims was placed outside the Anatomy Institute at Strasbourg's University Hospital.

In 2022, the gas chamber was reopened to the public, but the European Center for Deported Resistance Fighters (CERD), led by [[Guillaume d'Andlau]], indicated that it did not want to: "celebrate the inauguration of this morbid place",<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.leparisien.fr/bas-rhin-67/bas-rhin-la-chambre-a-gaz-du-camp-de-concentration-du-struthof-temoin-de-lhorreur-nazie-25-11-2022-PDFBND4SHJATNJDNR24LJMOFBM.php | title=Bas-Rhin : La chambre à gaz du camp de concentration du Struthof, témoin de l'horreur nazie |trans-title=Bas-Rhin: The gas chamber of the Struthof concentration camp, witness to the Nazi horror |work=www.leparisien.fr | date=25 November 2022 }}</ref> having " nothing to do with those intended for mass murder", specifying that "it is a symbolic place for the camp and its activities in connection with the Reichsuniversität Straßburg"<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/alsace-le-camp-de-concentration-du-struthof-jusqu-au-bout-de-son-histoire-20221128 | title=Alsace: Le camp de concentration du Struthof jusqu'au bout de son histoire |trans-title=Alsace: The Struthof concentration camp until the end of its history |work=www.lefigaro.fr | date=28 November 2022 }}</ref> which is perceived as a lack of sensitivity towards mourners.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.badische-zeitung.de/im-kz-natzweiler-struthof-wurden-auch-morde-des-rassenwahns-begangen--226807782.html | title=Im KZ Natzweiler-Struthof wurden auch Morde des Rassenwahns begangen |trans-title=Racial murders were also committed in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp |work=www.badische-zeitung.de | date=25 November 2022 }}</ref>

==Post-war criminal trials==
[[File:Natzweiler-Struthof urns 02016.jpg|thumb|An [[United States Army|American soldier]] in Natzweiler-Struthof examines an urn used to hold the ashes of cremated prisoners.]]
[[File:Natzweiler-Struthof Memorial.JPG|thumb|The Monument to the Departed at Natzweiler-Struthof]]

The first camp commandant, Hans Hüttig, was sentenced to life in prison on 2 July 1954 by a French military court in [[Metz]]. In 1956, he was released from detention after being imprisoned for eleven years.<ref name=Dict>{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/~orion47/FRANCE/French_Trials.html |title=Huettig, Hans |work=A Biographical Dictionary of War Crimes Proceedings, Collaboration Trials and Similar Proceedings Involving France in World War II |author=Thompson, David |publisher=Grace Dangberg Foundation, Inc. |year=2002 |access-date=June 19, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091029025754/http://geocities.com/%7Eorion47/FRANCE/French_Trials.html |archive-date=October 29, 2009 }}</ref>

Josef Kramer, the former commandant of the camp during the time of the Jewish skull collection project, was arrested at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on 17 April 1945 and tried at [[Lüneburg]] in the British-occupied sector for other crimes committed in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. He was sentenced on 16–17 November 1945 and was hanged at [[Hamelin prison]] on 13 December 1945.<ref name=StruthofTrials>{{cite web |title=The trials |url=http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-kl-natzweiler/introduction-to-the-history-of-the-camp/the-evacuation-of-the-camp-the-trials-of-those-responsible/the-trials/ |publisher=Centre européen du résistant déporté |work=Struthof – the Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp |access-date=September 20, 2015 |archive-date=November 17, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117063458/http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-kl-natzweiler/introduction-to-the-history-of-the-camp/the-evacuation-of-the-camp-the-trials-of-those-responsible/the-trials/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The commandant of Natzweiler at the time that four female resistance agents were executed, Fritz Hartjenstein and five others were tried by a British war crimes court at [[Wuppertal]], from 9 April to 5 May 1946. All of the accused were found guilty; of these, three were sentenced to death and two hanged. Hartjenstein's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on 1 June 1946. However, he was tried a second time by the British for hanging a POW who was a member of the Royal Air Force. He died of a heart attack while awaiting execution on 20 October 1954.<ref name=JewishLibraryFH>{{cite web|title=Friedrich "Fritz" Hartjenstein|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Hartjenstein.html|website=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=September 18, 2015 |quote=Hartjenstein's postwar fate consisted of many trials. First, he was arrested by the British and sentenced to life imprisonment on June 1, 1946, at Wuppertal for executing four resistance members. Then he was again tried by the British for hanging a POW who was a member of the Royal Air Force and sentenced to death by firing squad on June 5 of that year. He was then extradited to France, where he was tried for his crimes at Natzweiler and sentenced to death. He died of a heart attack while awaiting execution on October 20, 1954.}}</ref><ref name=Andrews>{{cite book |author=Andrews, Allen |title=Exemplary Justice |publisher=Corgi Books |year=1976 |isbn=0-552-10800-6}}</ref>

Those tried at Wuppertal were:<ref>{{cite web|title=Nazi War Crimes Trials: Natzweiler Trial|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/WarCrime46.html |website=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=September 18, 2015}}</ref>
#Franz Berg: death sentence (executed by hanging 11 October 1946)
#Kurt Geigling: 10 years imprisonment
#Josef Muth: 15 years imprisonment
#Peter Straub: death sentence (executed by hanging 11 October 1946)
#Magnus Wochner: 10 years imprisonment
# Fritz Hartjenstein (commandant): death sentence, commuted to life (Wuppertal), death sentence by British (Rastatt), death sentence by French Court (Metz), died before sentence was carried out

Magnus Wochner was also implicated in the [[Stalag Luft III murders]] and was listed among the accused.<ref name=Andrews/>
[[Heinrich Ganninger]], adjutant and deputy of commander Fritz Hartjenstein, committed suicide in Wuppertal prison in April 1946 before his trial. He was accused of having murdered four British female spies.<ref name=Andrews/><ref name=Wuppertal/>

[[Heinrich Schwarz]] was tried separately at [[Rastatt]] in connection with atrocities committed during his tenure as commandant of Natzweiler-Struthof. He was [[Capital punishment|sentenced to death]] and subsequently shot by a [[firing squad]] near [[Baden-Baden]] on 20 March 1947.<ref name=Boyne>{{cite book |last=White |first=Joseph Robert |editor-last=Boyne |editor-first=Walter J. |editor-link=Walter J. Boyne |title=Today's Best Military Writing: The Finest Articles on the Past, Present, and Future of the U.S. Military |chapter=Even in Auschwitz . . . Humanity Could Prevail:British POWs and Jewish Concentration-Camp Inmates at IG Auschwitz 1943–1945 |publisher=Forge Books |edition=First |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yjKot-DP6oAC&q=Today%27s+Best+Military+Writing%3A+The+Finest+Articles+on+the+Past%2C+Present%2C+and+Future+of+the+U.S.+Military&pg=PA4 |date=August 26, 2004 |page=179 |isbn=0-7653-0887-8 }}</ref><ref name=StruthofTrials />

==Post-war history, museum and monument==
[[File:Camp de concentration de Natzwiller-Struthof le 14 avril 2013 - 083.jpg|thumb|In memory; Honneur et Patrie (Honor and country) / Ossa Humiliata from Psalm 50-51 (bones which have been humbled)]]
[[File:Natzweiler Struthof Monument in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.jpg|thumb|Memorial to the Struthof Concentration Camp and its experiments, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris]]
During the night of 12–13 May 1976, [[neo-Nazi]]s burned the camp museum, with the loss of important artifacts. Structures were rebuilt, placing the artifacts that survived the fire as they were found originally. The reconstructed camp museum was officially opened on 29 June 1980. The European Centre of Deported Resistance Members, a new structure at the site, opened in November 2005, and at the same time, "the museum was entirely redesigned to focus solely on the history of Natzweiler concentration camp and its subcamps."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-museum/the-kl-natzweiler-museum/ |title=The KL-Natzweiler museum |publisher=Centre européen du résistant déporté |work=Struthof – the Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp |access-date=February 8, 2015 |archive-date=February 9, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209075613/http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-museum/the-kl-natzweiler-museum/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A dramatic monument (including a bronze figure supine and emaciated) stands in [[Pere Lachaise Cemetery]] in [[Paris]].

==Documentary films==
A documentary film was shown in 2014 about the 86 people who were murdered in the camp and whose remains were later identified by name, as described above in The Jewish skull collection section.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lenomdes86.fr |title=Le Nom des 86 |trans-title=The Names of the 86 |access-date=January 30, 2015 |date=2014 |publisher=Dora Films |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220115240/http://www.lenomdes86.fr/ |archive-date=February 20, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The film "The names of the 86" ({{langx|fr|Le nom des 86}}) was directed by Emmanuel Heyd and Raphael Toledano (Dora Films).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lenomdes86.fr/dvd.html |title=Le Nom des 86, DVD |trans-title=The Names of the 86, DVD |publisher=Dora Films |year=2014 |access-date=January 30, 2015}}</ref>

Another documentary was made about the skull project in 2013, titled ''Au nom de la race et de la science, Strasbourg 1941–1944'' (English: ''In the name of Race and Science, Strasbourg 1941–1945''). Its goal was to explain what happened at Reich University of Strasbourg, at Natzweiler-Struthof, in the strange use of science in this Nazi project to eliminate the Jews, but keeping some remains for history and science, the project never fully completed.<ref name=Bernas />

In the 2019 [[BBC One]] documentary ''The Man Who Saw Too Much'' [[Alan Yentob]] traces the story of 106-year-old Boris Pahor, believed to be the oldest known survivor of the Nazi concentration camps at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bqt9 |title=BBC One – The Man Who Saw Too Much |website=BBC |date=27 Jan 2022 |access-date=15 October 2023}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of subcamps of Natzweiler-Struthof]]
*[[List of Nazi concentration camps]]
*[[Hans-Joachim Lang]]
{{Portal bar|Germany}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|last1=Steegmann|first1=Robert|title=Struthof : le KL-Natzweiler et ses kommandos : une nébuleuse concentrationnaire des deux côtés du Rhin; 1941–1945|date=2005|publisher=Nuée Bleue |language=fr |location=Strasbourg|isbn=2-7165-0632-9}}
* Webb, Anthony (ed.), ''Trial of Wolfgang Zeuss, Magnus Wochner, Emil Meier, Peter Straub, Fritz Hartjenstein, Franz Berg, Werner Rohde, Emil Bruttel, Kurt Aus Dem Bruch and Harberg (The Nazweiler Trial)''. William Hodge & Co., 1949. [[Notable British Trials|War Crimes Trials]] series.
;Inmate accounts include:
*{{cite book |author=Bakels, Floris |title=Nacht und Nebel; mijn verhaal uit Duitse gevangenissen en concentratiekampen |trans-title=Nacht und Nebel; my story in German prisons and concentration camps |publisher=Elsevier |year=1977 |isbn=90-435-0366-5}}
*{{cite book |last= Bratteli |first= Trygve |author-link= Trygve Bratteli |title= Fange i natt og tåke |trans-title=Prisoner in the night and fog |orig-year= 1988 |edition= 2nd |year= 1995 |publisher= Tiden|location= Oslo |language= no |isbn= 82-10-03172-4}}, memoirs of the former prime minister of Norway
*{{cite book |author=Harthoorn, Willem Lodewijk |title=Verboden te sterven |trans-title=Forbidden to die |publisher=Van Gruting |year=2007 |isbn=978-90-75879-37-7}}
*{{cite book |last= Ottosen |first= Kristian |author-link= Kristian Ottosen |title=Natt og tåke - Historien om Natzweiler-fangene |trans-title=Night and fog - History of Natzweiler prisoners |orig-year=1989 |edition=2nd |year=1995 |publisher= Aschehoug |location= Oslo |language= no |isbn= 82-03-26076-4 }}, written as an historical account by a former inmate, based on interviews and research
*{{cite book |last=Pahor |first=Boris |author-link=Boris Pahor |title=[[Necropolis (Pahor novel)|Necropolis]] |orig-year=1967 |year=2010 |publisher=Dalkey Archive Press |location=Champaign, Illinois |isbn= 978-1564786111}}
*{{cite book |last=Piersma |first=Hinke |title=Doodstraf op termijn |trans-title=Death penalty in time |year=2006 |publisher=Walburg Pers |isbn=90-5730-442-2 }}

;Recent research identified the 86 people murdered for the Jewish skull collection:
*Lang, Hans-Joachim, The names of the numbers. How I succeeded in identifying the 86 victims of a NAZI crime. Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 2004, {{ISBN|978-3-455-09464-0}}.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp}}
* [https://www.struthof.fr/ Struthof official site]
*[https://www.die-namen-der-nummern.de/ ''The Names of the Numbers'' – A Project of Hans-Joachim Lang. List of all 86 victims of the Jewish Skeleton Collection (in German – also in English, French, Greek, Hebrew, Dutch, Norwegian and Polish)]
* [http://dianamarahenry.com/natzweiler-struthof/ Independent researcher Diana Mara Henry's site]
* [http://www.dianamarahenry.com/CALLMEANDRE.htm Memoir by KLNA Survivor Joseph Scheinmann aka Andre Peulevey] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726181337/http://www.dianamarahenry.com/CALLMEANDRE.htm |date=2021-07-26 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071123071645/http://crdp.ac-reims.fr/memoire/enseigner/natzweiler_struthof/historique.htm History of the Natzweiler-Struthof Camp by Roger Boulanger, camp survivor (in French)]
* {{YouTube | id= zSpfXgUxqeI | title= Au nom de la race et de la science 1941–1944 (1/4) }}
* {{YouTube | id= 3IOvSziw3ZA | title= Au Nom De La Race Et De La Science Documentaire Entier Français }}
{{Nazi concentration camps}}
{{Holocaust France}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Natzweiler-Struthof}}
[[Category:Vichy France]]
[[Category:Alsatian Jews]]
[[Category:Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp| ]]
[[Category:Nazi concentration camps in France]]

Belsen trials

2025-09-05T10:46:43Z

2A00:23C8:1382:8101:FD06:975D:817D:22A5: /* References */

{{Short description|Allied trial of Nazis after World War II}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2015}}
[[File:Town Gymnasium at Luneburg.jpeg|thumb|Place of the Belsen trial: old MTV gymnasium, Lindenstraße 30, Lüneburg]]

The '''Belsen trials''' were a series of several trials that the [[Allied-occupied Germany|Allied occupation forces]] conducted against former officials and functionaries of [[Nazi Germany]] after the end of [[World War II]]. British Army and civilian personnel ran the trials and staffed the prosecution and judges.

The Belsen trials took place in [[Lüneburg]], [[Lower Saxony]], [[Germany]], in 1945 and the defendants were men and women of the ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' as well as prisoner functionaries who had worked at various concentration camps, notably Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.

The first trial generated considerable interest around the world, as the public heard for the first time from some of those responsible for the mass murder in the eastern extermination camps. Some later trials are also referred to as Belsen trials.

==First trial==
{{Main|Belsen concentration camp}}
[[File:BU 003749.jpeg|thumb|[[Josef Kramer]], photographed in [[leg irons]] at Belsen before being removed to the POW cage at Celle, 17 April 1945.]]
[[File:Hoessler Franz.jpg|thumb|[[Franz Hössler]] at [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Bergen-Belsen]]]]

Officially called the "Trial of [[Josef Kramer]] and 44 others",<ref name="BergenBelsenTrialTranscripts01" >{{cite web|title=Transcript of the Official Shorthand Notes of 'The Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty Four Others|url=http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/TrialTranscript/Trial_Contents.html|accessdate=24 May 2016}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=May 2016}} the trial began in a [[Lüneburg]] gymnasium on 17 September 1945, within the British occupation zone.<ref name="Memorial Guide37">{{cite book|editor-last=Knoch|editor-first=Habbo |title=Bergen-Belsen: Historical Site and Memorial|publisher=Stiftung niedersächsische Gedenkstätten|year=2010|isbn=978-3-9811617-9-3|page=37}}</ref>

The defendants were 45 former [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] men, women and ''[[kapo (concentration camp)|kapo]]s'' ([[prisoner functionary|prisoner functionaries]]) from the [[Belsen concentration camp|Bergen-Belsen]] and [[Auschwitz concentration camp]]s. [[Josef Kramer]] had been camp commandant at Bergen-Belsen and before that at Auschwitz. Of the other defendants, 12 were kapos, 16 female SS members and 16 male SS members. Although the SS was an all-male organisation, women were able to enlist as members of the ''[[SS-Gefolge (Women's SS Division)|SS-Gefolge]]'', a form of civilian employee. One prisoner functionary, Ladisław Gura, who was also an SS member under arrest, was found to be too ill to stand trial after the trial had started. Three others had been excluded from the list of indicted for the same reason before the trial began.<ref name="BergenBelsenTrialsDay2">{{cite web|title=Transcript of the Official Shorthand Notes of 'The Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty Four Others', day 2|url=http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/TrialTranscript/Trial_Day_002.html|accessdate=24 May 2016}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=May 2016}} Three SS members had been shot trying to escape after the British took over the camp and one had committed suicide. Out of a total of 77 SS men and women arrested by the British in April, another 17 had died of typhus by 1 June 1945.<ref name="Taake112">{{cite book|last=Taake|first=Claudia|title=SS-Frauen vor Gericht|publisher=Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Univ. Oldenburg|year=1998|isbn=3-8142-0640-1|pages=112–}}</ref>

Next to Kramer, the most high-profile defendants were [[Fritz Klein]], who had been [[Sanitätswesen (Nazi camp)|camp doctor]] at Belsen, and [[Franz Hössler]], deputy camp commandant. [[Elisabeth Volkenrath]] had been ''Oberaufseherin'' (head warden or supervising wardress) at Auschwitz before she came to Belsen. Many of the defendants had arrived in Bergen-Belsen only after February 1945, some as late as two days before liberation.<ref name="Wenck40"/> However, most had been active in similar functions in other concentration camps before that.
The trial took place before a [[United Kingdom|British]] military tribunal. The judges were Major-General [[Horatio Berney-Ficklin|H.M.P. Berney-Ficklin]] (presiding), Brigadier A. de L. Casonove, Colonel G.J. Richards, Lt.-Colonel R.B. Moriush and Lt.-Colonel R. McLay. C.L. Stirling was Judge Advocate. Colonel T.M. Backhouse, Major H.G. Murton-Neale, Capt. S.M. Stewart and Lt.-Col. [[Leo Genn|L.J. Genn]] were Counsel for the Prosecution. Counsel for the Defence were also members of the British Army — in the case of the five Polish defendants a Polish officer, Lt. Jedrezejowicz.<ref name="BergenBelsenTrialTranscriptDay1">{{cite web|title=Transcript of the Official Shorthand Notes of 'The Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty Four Others, Day 1'|url=http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/TrialTranscript/Trial_Day_001.html|accessdate=24 May 2016}}</ref>

As this was a military court, it was legally based on the ''Regulations for the Trial of War Criminals made under Royal Warrant'' of 14 June 1945.<ref name="BergenBelsenTrialTranscriptDay1" />
All the charges related to international law, which applied at the time the crimes were committed, so this was not a case of retroactive justice.<ref name="Wenck40">{{cite book|last=Wenck|first=Alexandra-Eileen|title=Verbrechen als 'Pflichterfüllung'? Die Strafverfolgung nationalsozialistischer Gewaltverbrechen am Beispiel des Konzentrationslagers Bergen-Belsen, in: Die frühen Nachkriegsprozesse|publisher=KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme (ed.), Bremen|year=1997|isbn=3-86108-322-1|page=40}}</ref> Due to the nature of the court, the only charges that could be brought were war crimes and crimes against citizens of the Allied countries. "Crimes against humanity" and "crimes against peace", which featured in the later [[Nuremberg Trials|trials at Nuremberg]], were not among the charges at Lüneburg.<ref name="Memorial Guide37"/>

===Charges===
The official charges were grouped into crimes committed at Auschwitz and Belsen and were as follows:<blockquote>At Bergen-Belsen, Germany, between 1st October, 1942, and 30th April, 1945, when members of the staff of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp responsible for the well-being of the persons interned there, in violation of the law and usages of war, were together concerned as parties to the ill-treatment of certain of such persons, causing the deaths of Keith Meyer (a British national), Anna Kis, Sara Kohn (both Hungarian nationals), Heimech Glinovjechy and Maria Konatkevicz (both Polish nationals) and Marcel Freson de Montigny (a French national), Maurice Van Eijnsbergen (a Dutch national), Maurice Van Mevlenaar (a Belgian national), Jan Markowski and Georgej Ferenz (both Polish nationals), Salvatore Verdura (an Italian national), and Therese Klee (a British national of Honduras), Allied nationals, and other Allied nationals whose names are unknown, and physical suffering to other persons interned there, Allied nationals and particularly to Harold Osmund le Druillenec (a British national), Benec Zuchermann, a female internee surnamed Korperova, a female internee named Hoffmann, Luba Rormann, Isa Frydmann (all Polish nationals) and Alexandra Siwidowa, a Russian national and other Allied nationals whose names are unknown.<ref name="BelsenTrialCharges">{{cite web|title=Excerpts from The Belsen Trial|url=http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/bergen-belsen/belsen-trial-01.html|website=The Nizkor Project|accessdate=24 May 2016|archive-date=24 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424221956/http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/bergen-belsen/belsen-trial-01.html|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>

and

<blockquote>...at Auschwitz, Poland, between 1st October, 1942, and 30th April, 1945, when members of the staff of Auschwitz Concentration Camp responsible for the well-being of the persons interned there, in violation of the law and usages of war, were together concerned as parties to ill-treatment of certain of such persons, causing the deaths of Rachella Silberstein (a Polish national), Allied nationals, and other Allied nationals whose names are unknown, and physical suffering to other persons interned there, Allied nationals, and particularly to Ewa Gryka and Hanka Rosenwayg (both Polish nationals) and other Allied nationals whose names are unknown.<ref name="BelsenTrialCharges"/></blockquote>

All of the defendants pleaded not guilty.<ref name="Taake54">{{cite book|last=Taake|first=Claudia|title=SS-Frauen vor Gericht|publisher=Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Univ. Oldenburg|year=1998|isbn=3-8142-0640-1|pages=54}}</ref>

===Overview of the trial===
[[File:BU 010366.jpeg|thumb|Interior shot of the court room ten days before the start of the trial]]
The trial lasted 54 days in court. It began on 17 September with the indictment and the opening speech for the prosecution. Brigadier [[Hugh Llewellyn Glyn Hughes|Glyn Hughes]] was the first witness for the prosecution on 18–19 September.<ref>{{cite book|last=Celinscak|first=Mark|title=Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Concentration Camp|year=2015|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|isbn=9781442615700}}</ref>

On 20 September, the British Army screened a film they had made of the conditions at Belsen immediately after liberation. On 21 September, the court visited Bergen-Belsen. Evidence for the defence began on 8 October with the opening speech for the defendant, Kramer, who also testified. Closing speeches were made from 7–12 November, followed by the closing arguments by the prosecution on 13 November. Sentencing took place four days later, on 17 November 1945.<ref name="BergenBelsenSentences">{{cite web|title=Transcript of the Official Shorthand Notes of 'The Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty Four Others'|url=http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/TrialTranscript/Trial_Day_054.html#Sentences|accessdate=24 May 2016}}</ref>

Since the trial was conducted in English, translations into German and Polish were necessary. This was one of the factors which prolonged the trial, which had initially been expected to last for two to four weeks. In retrospect, the prosecution has been criticised as hasty and ill-prepared. None of the SS guards who had fled the camp after the ceasefire on 13 April had been searched for. Instead of eyewitness testimony, in some cases only affidavits were available at the trial. Some witnesses contradicted themselves on cross-examination, while others failed to identify the defendants as the perpetrators of the crimes in question. One former inmate, Oskar Schmitz, was erroneously charged as an SS man, and had no chance to clarify this before the trial began.<ref name="Kolb58">{{cite book|last=Kolb|first=Eberhard|title=Bergen-Belsen. Vom 'Aufenthaltslager' zum Konzentrationslager 1943 – 1945|publisher=Göttingen|year=1996|pages=58–}}</ref><ref name="Wenck42">{{cite book|last=Wenck|first=Alexandra-Eileen|title=Verbrechen als 'Pflichterfüllung'? Die Strafverfolgung nationalsozialistischer Gewaltverbrechen am Beispiel des Konzentrationslagers Bergen-Belsen, in: Die frühen Nachkriegsprozesse|publisher=KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme (ed.), Bremen|year=1997|isbn=3-86108-322-1|pages=42–}}</ref>

The defence claimed that the arrest of the defendants had been illegal, as it contravened the promise of free withdrawal contained in the ceasefire agreement. However, the wording on this point was only clear for members of the Wehrmacht at Belsen. Moreover, according to the prosecution, the burning of the camp files by the SS and the firing of shots on 15 April had voided the agreement.<ref name="Kolb54">{{cite book|last=Kolb|first=Eberhard|title=Bergen-Belsen. Vom 'Aufenthaltslager' zum Konzentrationslager 1943 – 1945|publisher=Göttingen|year=1996|pages=54–}}</ref> In fact, the relevant section of the ceasefire agreement read:
<blockquote>SS guard personnel [...] will be treated as PW. SS Adj personnel will [...] remain at their posts and carry on with their duties (cooking, supplies, etc) and will hand over records. When their services can be dispensed with, their disposal is left by the Wehrmacht to the British authorities.<ref name="New Exhibition Guide257">{{cite book|editor-last=Knoch|editor-first=Habbo |title=Bergen-Belsen: Wehrmacht POW Camp 1940-1945, Concentration Camp 1943-1945, Displaced Persons Camp 1945-1950. Catalogue of the permanent exhibition|publisher=Wallstein|year=2010|isbn=978-3-8353-0794-0|page=257}}</ref></blockquote>

On 17 November, the court sentenced 11 of the defendants to death by hanging.<ref name="Memorial Guide37"/> Another 18 were found guilty and sentenced to prison sentences of one to 15 years.<ref name="Memorial Guide37"/> One defendant, [[Erich Zoddel]], was sentenced to life in prison,<ref name="BergenBelsenSentences"/> but was then executed 13 days later. Zoddel had been sentenced to death in a separate military trial in August 1945 for murdering a female prisoner after the liberation.<ref name="Zoddel">{{cite web|url=http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Staff/Staff.asp?CampStaffID=30|title=Erich Zoddel|accessdate=29 December 2012}}</ref> None of the sentenced were only found guilty of the "conspiracy" of working within the concentration camp system, but rather all of them were sentenced for individually committed crimes.<ref name="Wenck41">{{cite book|last=Wenck|first=Alexandra-Eileen|title=Verbrechen als 'Pflichterfüllung'? Die Strafverfolgung nationalsozialistischer Gewaltverbrechen am Beispiel des Konzentrationslagers Bergen-Belsen, in: Die frühen Nachkriegsprozesse|publisher=KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme (ed.), Bremen|year=1997|isbn=3-86108-322-1|page=41}}</ref> 14 defendants were acquitted<ref name="Memorial Guide37"/> (the final defendant was too sick to stand trial). Due to clemency pleas and appeals, many prison sentences were eventually shortened considerably. By mid-1955, all those sentenced to prison had been released.<ref name="Memorial Guide37"/>

===Individual defendants and sentences===
'''List of SS-defendants'''
[[File:Fritz Klein Belsen.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Fritz Klein]] surrounded by bodies. The British Army liberating Bergen-Belsen forced German camp personnel to bury the corpses of prisoners.]]

(A=guilty of crimes at Auschwitz, B = guilty of crimes at Bergen-Belsen)<ref name="DefendantTable">{{cite web|url=http://realholocausthistory.org/OtherTrials/BelsenTrial/T644.htm|title=Trial Transcript - Sentencing|accessdate=29 December 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223064349/http://realholocausthistory.org/OtherTrials/BelsenTrial/T644.htm|archivedate=23 December 2014|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/WarCrime6.html |title=List of Sentences|accessdate=29 December 2012}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
!align="left"|Name
!align="left"|Sentence
|-
|[[Josef Kramer]] (A, B)
|Death, executed on 13 December 1945
|-
|[[Fritz Klein]] (A, B)
|Death, executed on 13 December 1945
|-
|[[:de:Peter Weingärtner|Peter Weingärtner]] (A, B)
|Death, executed on 13 December 1945
|-
|[[Franz Hössler]] (A)
|Death, executed on 13 December 1945
|-
|[[:de:Karl Francioh|Karl Franzioh]] (B)
|Death, executed on 13 December 1945
|-
|[[:de:Ansgar Pichen|Ansgar Pichen]] (B)
|Death, executed on 13 December 1945
|-
|[[Franz Stofel]] (or Stärfl) (B)
|Death, executed on 13 December 1945
|-
|[[Wilhelm Dörr (Nazi)|Wilhelm Dörr]] (B)
|Death, executed on 13 December 1945
|-
|[[Irma Grese]] (A, B)
|Death, executed on 13 December 1945
|-
|[[Elisabeth Volkenrath]] (A, B)
|Death, executed on 13 December 1945
|-
|[[Juana Bormann|Johanna Bormann]] (B)
|Death, executed on 13 December 1945
|-
|Otto Kulessa (B)
|15 years, released on 7 May 1955
|-
|Heinrich Schreirer (A)
|15 years, released on 3 September 1950
|-
|[[Herta Ehlert]] (B)
|15 years, reduced to 12 years, released on 7 May 1953
|-
|Ilse Förster (B)
|10 years, released on 21 December 1951
|-
|[[Herta Bothe]] (B)
|10 years, released on 21 December 1951
|-
|[[Irene Haschke]] (B)
|10 years, released on 21 December 1951
|-
|Gertrud Sauer (B)
|10 years, released on 21 December 1951
|-
||Anna Hempel (B)
|10 years, released on 21 April 1951
|-
|Gertrud Feist (B)
|5 years, released on 11 August 1949
|-
|Frieda Walter (B)
|3 years, released on 16 November 1948
|-
|Hilde Lisiewicz (B)
|1 year, released on 16 November 1946
|-
|Georg Krafft
|Acquitted
|-
|Josef Klippel
|Acquitted
|-
|Fritz Mathes
|Acquitted
|-
|Karl Egersdörfer
|Acquitted
|-
|Walter Otto
|Acquitted
|-
|Erich Barsch
|Acquitted
|-
|Ida Förster
|Acquitted
|-
|Klara Opitz
|Acquitted
|-
|Charlotte Klein
|Acquitted
|-
|Hildegard Hähnel
|Acquitted
|-
|}
Not able to stand trial due to illness: Nikolaus Jänner, Paul Steinmetz, Walter Melcher, Ladisław Gura (who was both an SS member and a prison functionary).

'''List of Kapos'''
[[File:Erich Zoddel.jpeg|thumbnail|[[Erich Zoddel]] in Allied custody after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen]]

(A=guilty of crimes at Auschwitz, B = guilty of crimes at Bergen-Belsen)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://realholocausthistory.org/OtherTrials/BelsenTrial/T644.htm|title=Trial Transcript - Sentencing|accessdate=2012-12-29|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223064349/http://realholocausthistory.org/OtherTrials/BelsenTrial/T644.htm|archivedate=23 December 2014|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="BelsenTrialList">{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/WarCrime6.html |title=List of Sentences|accessdate=2012-12-29}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
!align="left"|Name
!align="left"|Sentence
|-
|[[Erich Zoddel]] (B)
|Life imprisonment, but executed for an unrelated charge on 30 November 1945<ref name="CampStaff">{{cite web|url=http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Staff/Staff.asp?CampStaffID=30|title= First Belsen Trial Kapo Erich Zoddel|work=Stalag XIC (311) and KZ Bergen-Belsen, A History From 1935|accessdate=17 December 2011}}</ref>
|-
|Wladisław Ostrowski (B)
|15 years, released on 24 June 1955
|-
|Helena Kopper (B)
|15 years, reduced to 10 years, released on 26 February 1952
|-
|[[Hilde Lobauer|Hilde Lohbauer]] (A, B)
|10 years, released on 15 July 1950
|-
|Antoni Aurdzig (B)
|10 years, released on 20 March 1952
|-
|Johanne Roth (B)
|10 years, released on 15 July 1950
|-
|Stanisława Starostka (A)
|10 years, committed suicide in prison on 10 May 1946
|-
|Medislaw Burgraf (B)
|5 years, released on 11 August 1949
|-
|Ilse Lothe
|Acquitted (charged with B)
|-
|Oskar Schmitz
|Acquitted (charged with B)
|-
|Ignatz Schlomowicz
|Acquitted (charged with B)
|-
|Anton Polanski
|Acquitted (charged with B)
|-
|Ladisław Gura
|Unable to stand trial (accused of B)
|}

===Public reaction===
The Belsen Trial attracted substantial national and international media interest. Significantly, more than 100 representatives of the news media reported at length on the trial's progress.<ref name="Memorial Guide37"/>

Through them, the world learned not just about the thousands of deaths by hunger and disease at Belsen, communicated especially forcefully by the film and photo evidence produced by the British Army. Possibly even more importantly, the Belsen trial also was the first time that the organised mass murder at Auschwitz Birkenau received a public airing, with some of those responsible describing the selection process, the use of the gas chambers and the crematoria. In Great Britain, the trial was mostly viewed positively, as a triumph of the rule of law, given the fairness and meticulousness with which it had been conducted. However, in some other countries, notably the Soviet Union and France, the verdicts were criticised as too mild. Many survivors also felt this way.<ref name="Memorial Guide37"/>

===Executions===
All the executions were carried out on 13 December 1945 by hanging at [[Hamelin Prison]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=The British Hangman Who Executed Belsen's Most Sadistic Nazis |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/holocaust-remembrance-day/2021-04-07/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-hangman-executed-13-nazis-in-a-day-including-belsens-most-sadistic-women/0000017f-f50e-ddde-abff-fd6f48360000 |access-date=2024-01-14 |work=Haaretz |language=en}}</ref> The executioner was [[Albert Pierrepoint]], aided by an assistant.

==Second trial==
A second Belsen trial was conducted at Lüneburg from 13 to 18 June 1946 by a British military tribunal.
{| class="wikitable"
! align="left" |Name
! align="left" |Sentence
|-
|[[Walter Quakernack]]
|Death, executed on 11 October 1946
|-
|Heinz-Züder Heidemann
|Death, executed on 11 October 1946
|-
|Karl Redehase
|Death, executed on 11 October 1946
|-
|Kasimir Cegielski
|Death, executed on 11 October 1946
|-
|Theodor Wagner
|20 years, released on 24 December 1954
|-
|Karl Schmidt
|15 years, reduced to 10 years, released on 21 December 1951
|-
|[[Gertrud Heise]]
|15 years, reduced to 7 years
|-
|Martha Linke
|12 years, reduced to 7 years
|-
|[[Anneliese Kohlmann]]
|2 years, released on 16 June 1946
|}

== Third trial ==
The British held a third Belsen trial in April 1948. There was only one defendant, Ernst Julius Curt Meyer. Meyer had been arrested in May 1945, but was erroneously released in September 1947. He was re-arrested in February 1948. Meyer was found guilty of war crimes for non-fatal abuse and sentenced to life in prison. His sentence was reduced to 21 years in 1950, and he was released from prison on 24 December 1954.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hauptsturmführer Ernst Julius Kurt/Curt Max Meyer |url=http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Staff/Staff.asp?CampStaffID=91 |access-date=2022-07-22 |website=www.bergenbelsen.co.uk}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Allied Control Council]]
*[[Subsequent Nuremberg Trials]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
* [[Raymond Phillips (judge)|Phillips, Raymond]] (ed.), ''Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty-Four Others (The Belsen Trial)''. William Hodge & Co., 1949. [[Notable British Trials|War Crimes Trials]] series.

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1945 in Germany]]
[[Category:1940s trials]]
[[Category:Belsen trial| ]]
[[Category:Holocaust trials]]