Many Americans felt this was a Crime and so do I.

[PA. Dutchman]

Many Americans felt this was a Crime and so do I. Had American POWS found one of the group was spying for the enemy they would have executed the person just as this group did. Every year these men are remembered by the German American community and flowers are put on the graves. It was a crime that this took place and many do not know about it. I have posted the book site if you want to know more.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Martia ... 451Martial Justice:

The Last Mass Execution in the United States (BlueJacket Books Series) by Richard Whittingham

Product Details
Pub. Date: October 1997
Publisher:Naval Institute Press
Format: Paperback, 281pp
Series: Bluejacket Bks.
ISBN-13: 9781557509451
ISBN: 155750945X
Synopsis

On August 25,1945, seven young German POW submariners were hanged at Fort Leavenworth. It was the largest single execution in the United States in the twentieth century and the country's last mass execution. Their crime was the murder of a fellow German prisoner, a man they called a traitor because he helped interrogate other German prisoners. But why was their execution carried out four months after the end of the war for conduct many Americans would have expected of their own POWs in an enemy camp? And why was this "traitor" sent to the very camp where the men he had interrogated were imprisoned? Why did President Harry S. Truman, who signed the orders of execution, decline to be interviewed by the author, and why did all documents relating to the case vanish from the Truman Library after the author requested a research permit? Richard Whittingham probes the events that led to the murder, its perpetration, the brutal interrogation, the court-martial, and the execution, and he reveals how the seven were used as pawns by the U.S. government for the return of American prisoners in German hands before the war's end - then executed once Germany surrendered. The author also raises questions about military justice and the treatment of prisoners of war that are as controversial today as they were when this book was written more than two decades ago.

[lwd]

The story as you presented it indicates that the executed Germans committed the crime of murder and were executed for that crime. You also acuse the murdered individual of being a spy but nothing you posted indicates that that was the case.

[PA. Dutchman]

Our History Channel had the entire story on recently again. The man executed had been working with American Authorities by reporting on other POWs. Many in their defense pleaded that American Serviceman would have done the same thing or should have.

The American Authorities may have violated the Geneva Conference Agreement and they felt if the men died this story would die with them. It did not and to this day their graves are still attended to and flowers are put on each one faithfully.

An American Catholic Priest was their closest friend during the time of their appeals. He was able to help them all find a sense of peace and forgiveness for their executors.

No it was clear the man was spying on his own country men for the American Authorities.

[PA. Dutchman]

Greetings,

I apologize, my first posting was incomplete. This more closely follows the Documentary Broadcast on the History Channel. I believe the DVD can be rented or purchased of the Documentary from the History Channel. Being an American I could not approve of the Political Party of Germany during World War Two and its' practices and polices. Many Germans did not approve of them.

But two wrongs don't make a right. The American Authorities made some wrong choices as well during the war and afterwords. This was one of them, these men should have never been executed. Every Government and its' Military has some idiots in them some where along their pecking order. These idiots can make some very poor and wrong choices that result in wrong sentences. This was wrong.

Werner Drechsler

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Werner Drechsler (January 17, 1923, in Mühlberg, Germany – March 12, 1944 in Papago Park, Arizona) was a German U-boat crewman during World War II. He was stationed on U-118 which was sunk off the Azores in 1943. When he was taken prisoner he enthusiastically cooperated with his captors, which was likely due to the fact that his father had spent time in one of Hitler's Concentration Camps as a political prisoner.

Eventually, U.S. Navy intelligence officers recruited Drechsler as a spy and placed him in a POW camp near Fort Meade, Maryland with other U-Boat sailors. After arrival, Dreschsler worked undercover, befriending his fellow POWs in order to collect information regarding German submarine technology, operational procedures/tactics and any other intelligence which could be useful to the allies.

On March 12, 1944 Drechsler was transferred to a different POW camp in Arizona which was filled mainly with other submariners of the Kriegsmarine. This transfer took place despite the fact that Drechsler was supposed to be kept segregated from other naval prisoners, particularly his former crewmates on the U-118, who were aware of Drechsler's spying activities. The American authorities made a glaring error in transferring Drechsler to Arizona which quickly had fatal results: some members of the U-118 were confined at the camp and they immediately recognised their former crewmate. Word of Drechsler's undercover activities spread rapidly through the camp, and a Court Martial was convened while Drechsler was asleep. The other prisoners eventually decided that it was necessary to kill Drechsler to ensure he could no longer spy upon them, and also to act as a deterrent for any other POWs who might consider collaborating with the enemy. Next morning Drechsler was found hanging in the shower room. He had been murdered within hours of arrival at the camp.

Seven men (Helmut Fischer, Fritz Franke, Gunther Kuelsen, Heinrich Ludwig, Bernard Ryak, Otto Stenger and Rolf Wizuy) were executed for the beating and hanging of Werner Drechsler. In what was to ultimately become the last mass execution in the United States, the men were hanged on July 28th, 1945 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.[1]

[phylo_roadking]

Word of Drechsler's undercover activities spread rapidly through the camp, and a Court Martial was convened while Drechsler was asleep. The other prisoners eventually decided that it was necessary to kill Drechsler to ensure he could no longer spy upon them, and also to act as a deterrent for any other POWs who might consider collaborating with the enemy.

That doesn't constitute a "court martial" - even under GERMAN regulations. It's what's known as a "kangaroo court". Believe it or not - a PROPERLY-convened Court martial WAS legitimate even within a POW camp, under the Hague and Geneva Convention rules that both allowed POWs freedom to regulate their own affairs by their own military codes and/or under the military code of the armed forces of the nation imprisoning them.

But even a Court MARTIAL requires that the accused be presented with the charges, allowed representation by a brother officer if he so wishes etc., etc. - so as this was NOT a legal Court Martial under EITHER Wehrmacht OR U.S Army regulations - what they were doing wasn't convening a Court Martial and trying him for an offence - it was conspiring to Murder.

And it CERTAINLY looks as if they got a legitimate Court Martial for THAT!

Here's the thing you have to remember...

it may not feel "right" to you...

it may not "feel right" even to "a lot of Americans" as you say...

...but the only "right" pertaining to combatants either in the field or as POWS is the "right" under the various regulations they serve under. Which is a VERY different "court" to the court of public opinion....let alone 70 years later

That may seem a tough attituude - but it was WARTIME, and that's the rules that pertained in wartime then.

[phylo_roadking]

I would also hazard to say that...given the modern media - if they HADN'T been punished, there'd be a "media exposee" type programme doing the rounds NOW saying that it was a conspiracy that they WEREN'T punished, and look, there must have been a conspiracy BECAUSE all the files etc. on the matter are missing...

[PA. Dutchman]

As I said I still don't think it was right, correct or fair. I am entitled to my opinion just as you are to your own opinion.

That was one of things Americans fought for, a persons' right to their opinion, if we agree with them or not, and the right to express our opinions freely without fear of harm.

I respect your right to your opinion and greatly appreciate hearing your view. Thank you for both and I wish you a good day and a peaceful life.

[phylo_roadking]

As I said I still don't think it was right, correct or fair. I am entitled to my opinion just as you are to your own opinion.

That was one of things Americans fought for, a persons' right to their opinion, if we agree with them or not, and the right to express our opinions freely without fear of harm.

Do you see the difference between this and your first post?

Many Americans felt this was a Crime ...

And this is why there's strict Moderation in this section of the board. You are indeed perfectly entitled to your opinion on whether something is right, correct or fair - but to say it's a CRIME - obligates you to be able to demonstrate WHAT "crime" has been broken.

Much better to have an opinion. But it will always be regarded as just that - an opinion. Here in the War Crimes Section we attempt to deal in/with facts. It allows us to deal with sometinmes VERY emotive topics on a factual basis - without the discussions being prejudiced or coloured by opinions.