Albert Pierrepoint, British Executioner
Albert Pierrepoint, British hangman who took part in seven hangings of American soldiers
Army Hangman’s Noose
Army Hangman's Noose
Wegen Tapferkeit vor dem Feinde (For Bravery in the face of the enemy) for Werner Milch
Wegen Tapferkeit vor dem Feinde (For Bravery in the face of the enemy) for Werner Milch. Werner Milch, the brother of Luftwaffe Field Marshal Erhard Milch, was a hero in his own right. Born November 15, 1903 in Wilhelmshaven, he served with the German Army’s 603rd Artillery Regiment, winning the Iron Cross 2nd Class. He also fought on the northern sector of the Eastern Front before joining the Luftwaffe. That sent him to Africa, where he served under Colonel Ramcke, the famed airborne leader. Milch served on the Western Front in 1944 and distinguished himself at Flavigny, on the Moselle River, as the commander of the 2nd Paratroop Mortar Battalion. He received the Ritterkreuz (Knights Cross) on January 1, 1945 for bravery with this unit. Werner Milch died on November 17, 1984 at Hemer in North-Rhine Westphalia. He is buried in the Waldfriedhof at this town (Section D, Field 21, Grave 176-180.)
Wegen Tapferkeit vor dem Feinde
Vorschlag zur bevorzugten Beförderung (Proposal for Accelerated Promotion) for Friedrich-August von der Heydte
Vorschlag zur bevorzugten Beförderung (Proposal for Accelerated Promotion) for Friedrich-August von der Heydte. Nicknamed the Rosary Paratrooper, Friedrich-August von der Heydte was born on March 30, 1907 in Munich. In the 1920s he served in the 18th Cavalry Regiment before pursuing his studies at the Universities of Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Graz and Innsbruck. He rejoined the Army in the 1930s, but trasnferred to the Luftwaffe in 1940. At the airborne invasion of Crete, he commanded the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Paratroop Regiment, winning the Knights Cross for his actions at the village of Agia in Prison Valley. In 1942 he fought at El Alamein; he also fought in Russia. He commanded the 6th Paratroop Regiment at Carentan, Normandy in June 1944 against the US 101st Airborne Division. He was promoted to Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel) and received the Eichenlaub (Oak Leaves) for those actions in France. During the Battle of The Bulge, von der Heydte commanded a special airborne battle group that dropped behind American lines. Seriously wounded, he was captured by American troops. Later in life, he became a Fellow in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Friedrich-Wilhelm von der Heydte died on July 7, 1994 at Aham an der Vils, near Landshut in Bavaria. If you visit the Ardennes/Battle of the Bulge with Colonel MacLean, he can show you where von der Heydte landed and was captured in 1944. This document is signed by Kurt Student in his customary pencil. It is initialed by Bruno Loerzer.
Vorschlag zur bevorzugten Beförderung
Vorschlag zur bevorzugten Beförderung (Proposal for Accelerated Promotion) for Reino Hamer
Vorschlag zur bevorzugten Beförderung (Proposal for Accelerated Promotion) for Reino Hamer. This is the front side; the reverse is signed by three other officers, including Kurt Student. Reino Hamer was born on August 29, 1916 in Rastede, near Oldenburg. This is a proposal for an accelerated promotion to Hauptmann (Captain.) He received the Ritterkreuz (Knights Cross) in September 1944 for his actions in combat the previous May. American forces captured Major Hamer at Brest, France on September 19, 1944. Reino Hamer died on July 24, 1992 in Ubstadt near Bruchsal, in Baden. Documents in both volumes are signed by numerous Knights Cross winners and other prominent personalities in the Luftwaffe.
Vorschlag zur bevorzugten Beförderung
Vorschlag zur Beförderung (Proposal for Promotion) for Franz Grassmehl
Vorschlag zur Beförderung (Proposal for Promotion) for Franz Grassmehl. The report misspells his last name, but is quite complimentary of his abilities. The year after this report, he led his unit in the airborne invasion of Crete and later commanded the 4th Fallschirmjäger Regiment. In 1944 he won the Ritterkreuz (Knights Cross) for his epic defense of Cassino. He later fought in the Reichswald, winning the Eichenlaub (Oak Leaves.) Grassmehl was born on January 8, 1906 at Mochow, Brandenburg; he served in the German Army in the campaigns against Poland and France in 1939, 1940, respectively. Franz Grassmehl died on June 30, 1985 at Stade an der Elbe. He is buried at the Friedhof Geestberg (Section 11, Grave 97.) Documents in both volumes are photographed in their original German and then translated.
Vorschlag zur Beförderung
Charles Robinson — Hanged
Charles M. Robinson -- Hanged
Concentration Camp Traveler’s Guide
Concentration Camps Traveler’s Guide; a very handy, easy-to-use booklet
Wannsee Conference Site in Berlin
The site of the infamous Wannsee Conference (Wannsee-Konferenz) in a suburb of Berlin
Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint with his dog
Albert Pierrepoint was a British civilian executioner. Albert served as the assistant executioner for his uncle, Thomas Pierrepoint, in seven executions of American soldiers in Britain during World War II. The Pierrepoints were a Yorkshire family who provided three of Britain’s Chief Executioners (sometimes called “scaffolders”) in the first half of the 20th century. Henry Pierrepoint (March 1878 – December 14, 1922) took up the craft first, hanging 105 men from 1901 to 1910. According to reputable sources, Henry could execute a man in the time it took the prison clock to strike eight – leading him from his cell to the adjacent death chamber on the first stroke, and having him suspended, dead on the rope, by the eighth and final stroke. Henry persuaded his older brother Thomas W. to take up the calling.
Born in 1870, Thomas Pierrepoint served as a hangman from 1909 to 1946; he is credited with having carried out 294 hangings. Thomas W. Pierrepoint served as the chief executioner of 17 American soldiers – 16 in Great Britain and one in France. Thomas W. Pierrepoint died on February 10, 1954 in Bradford, England. Later, Albert Pierrepoint recalled that his uncle Thomas on one occasion counseled him on how to conduct an execution stating, “If you can’t do it without whisky, don’t do it at all.”
Albert Pierrepoint, born March 30, 1905 at Clayton, a district of Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Henry’s son and Thomas’s nephew, outdid his father and uncle combined, and executed 434 people (including 16 women) between 1932 and 1956. Young Albert was nine when he first conceived the ambition to become an executioner. “Hanging must run in the blood,” he once explained. “It requires a natural flair. The judgment and timing of a first-rate hangman cannot be acquired.” His record was 17 hangings in one day. Albert hanged common criminals, 15 German spies, American soldiers and Nazi war criminals. Pierrepoint hanged Irma Grese, a female concentration camp guard, Josef Kramer, a concentration camp commandant and Lord Haw-Haw, a British traitor who broadcast for Germany in World War II.
In 1954, Pierrepoint himself was “sentenced to death” by the Irish Republican Army for his execution of a terrorist in Dublin in 1944. Normally, Pierrepoint traveled to Ireland incognito to and from executions.
Albert Pierrepoint resigned over a disagreement about fees in 1956, when he was not paid the full fee of 15£ for an execution. He then was appointed a British Boxing Board of Control inspector. In 1974 he published his autobiography, Executioner: Pierrepoint.
Albert Pierrepoint's Pub -- "Help the Poor Struggler"
Albert Pierrepoint and his wife Annie retired to the seaside town of Southport. In his memoirs, on the final page, Albert Pierrepoint concluded, “The trouble with the death sentence has always been that nobody wanted it for everybody, but everybody differed about who should get off.” Pierrepoint was also the proprietor for two pubs, “Help the Poor Struggler” and the “Rose and Crown.” Albert Pierrepoint died on July 10, 1992 in a nursing home in Southport.