Execution of Hans Spatzenegger - Sadistic Nazi Director of Mauthausen Death Quarry during WW2
Execution of Hans Spatzenegger - Sadistic Nazi Director of Mauthausen Death Quarry during WW2
Hans Spatzenegger was born on the 1st of March 1900 in Laufen then part of the German Empire. Immediately after Hitler came to power in January 1933, Germany became a dictatorship, and the Nazi regime quickly began to restrict the civil and human rights of the Jews and established the first concentration camps, imprisoning its political opponents, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses, and others classified as “dangerous”. Unlike prisons with which they are often inaccurately compared today, concentration camps were independent of any judicial review. The first such camp - Dachau - was established in March 1933, less than 2 months after Hitler became the chancellor and Spatzenegger joined its staff shortly afterwards becoming one of its guards.
As the war progressed, in order to accommodate the prisoners where they worked, the SS established several subcamps. Commandants of these camps reported directly to German Nazi commandant Franz Ziereis. Newly-arrived prisoners were transferred to these camps from the main camp. During this phase, Mauthausen and Gusen were the concentration camps with the harshest imprisonment conditions and the highest mortality. Those who were ill or deemed ‘useless’ by the SS lived in constant fear for their lives. In 1941 the SS started to construct a gas chamber and other installations at Mauthausen for the systematic murder of large groups of people.
Living and working conditions in Mauthausen, as in Gusen, led to the death by murder, mistreatment, starvation, exposure, and disease of more than half of the prisoners.
At Mauthausen, Spatzenegger became a director of the camps’ quarries. The work in the quarries – often in unbearable heat or in temperatures as low as −30 °C– led to exceptionally high mortality rates. The rock quarry in Mauthausen was at the base of the so called “Stairs of Death”. Prisoners were forced to carry roughly-hewn blocks of stone – often weighing as much as 50 kilograms or 110 pounds up the 186 stairs, one prisoner behind the other. As a result, many exhausted prisoners collapsed in front of the others in the line, and then fell on top of the other prisoners, creating a domino effect; the first prisoner falling onto the next, and so on, all the way down the stairs. In the quarry, prisoners were forced to carry the boulders from morning until night, while being whipped by the Nazi guards.
Spatzenegger was among the most cruel and feared personnel stationed at the camp. If he thought that the prisoners were not working hard enough, he often staged “show beatings” which he performed with a stick.
Such brutality was not accidental. Former prisoner Edward Mosberg said: “If you stopped for a moment, the SS either shot you or pushed you off the cliff to your death.” The SS guards would often force prisoners – exhausted from hours of hard labour without sufficient food and water – to race up the stairs carrying blocks of stone. Those who survived the ordeal would often be placed in a line-up at the edge of a cliff known as “The Parachutists Wall”. At gun-point each prisoner would have the option of being shot or pushing the prisoner in front of him off the cliff.
Another Spatzenegger’s specialty was throwing the prisoners on the 380-volt electric barbed wire fence, or forcing them outside the boundaries of the camp and then shooting them on the pretense that they were attempting to escape. Others were literally torn to pieces by his dog.
On the 6th and 7th of September 1944, Spatzenegger took part in the murder of 40 Dutch and 7 British Special Operations Executive – SOE - agents. The objective of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially against Nazi Germany. The 47 agents were brought into Mauthausen and after being killed, their bodies were cremated. With risk for their own lives, Mauthausen prisoners, after seeing what those agents had to endure before being murdered by the SS, then secretly buried the container with the ashes.
Among Mauthausen inmates were also prisoners of war. During the night of the 2nd of February 1945 approximately 500 inmates, almost all of them Soviet officers, attempted to escape from the Mühlviertel subcamp of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp…
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Content
0.24 -> The 12th of March, 1938. German troops cross
the border with Austria and invade the country
7.32 -> without firing a single shot. They are not
met with armed resistance, but with cheers
12.48 -> and flowers. While thousands of Austrians turn
out to greet Adolf Hitler as he travels first
17.82 -> to Linz and then on to Vienna, terrified Jews,
leftists and other opponents of the Nazi Regime
24.12 -> race towards the country’s borders, hoping to
reach them before they are closed but most will
29.28 -> become trapped in a rapidly Nazifying Austria.
Several months later the Nazis begin to operate
35.58 -> the Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz which
is closely connected to forced labour performed by
40.92 -> the inmates in the camp’s granite quarries.
Their director becomes Hans Spatzenegger.
47.22 -> Hans Spatzenegger was born on the 1st of March
1900 in Laufen then part of the German Empire.
53.64 -> It was Germany’s economic collapse
during the Great Depression,
57.12 -> beginning in 1929 that most contributed to the
Nazi Party’s success. The crisis resulted in
63.84 -> widespread unemployment and poverty and also
led to an increase in crime. The resulting
69.18 -> anger and fear left the Germans vulnerable to
arguments from both the extreme right and left.
75.24 -> One such German was Hans Spatzenegger,
a locksmith by profession, who joined
79.8 -> the Nazi party in May 1931 and
in early 1932 he joined the SS.
85.08 -> Immediately after Hitler came to power in
January 1933, Germany became a dictatorship,
91.8 -> and the Nazi regime quickly began to restrict
the civil and human rights of the Jews and
96.96 -> established the first concentration camps,
imprisoning its political opponents, homosexuals,
101.88 -> Jehovah’s witnesses, and others classified as
“dangerous”. Unlike prisons with which they are
108 -> often inaccurately compared today, concentration
camps were independent of any judicial review.
113.1 -> The first such camp - Dachau - was established in
March 1933, less than 2 months after Hitler became
120.42 -> the chancellor and Spatzenegger joined its staff
shortly afterwards becoming one of its guards.
125.22 -> In October of the same year,
Dachau’s commandant, Theodor Eicke,
129.96 -> introduced a system of regulations which
inflicted brutal punishments on prisoners
134.52 -> for the slightest offenses. Eicke ensured
that the Dachau camp served as a model for
140.16 -> all later concentration camps. It also
became a training center or “a school of
144.66 -> violence “for SS guards who were deployed
throughout the concentration camp system.
148.32 -> During the first year, the camp had a capacity of
152.7 -> 5,000 prisoners. Initially the internees were
primarily German Communists, Social Democrats,
158.52 -> trade unionists, and other political opponents
of the Nazi regime. However, over time,
163.92 -> other groups were also interned at Dachau, such
as Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma and Sinti people,
169.32 -> homosexuals, repeat criminal offenders
as well as so called “asocials” whom
175.02 -> the regime incarcerated because they could
not, or would not, find gainful employment.
179.16 -> During the early years relatively few Jews were
interned in Dachau and then only usually because
185.4 -> they belonged to one of the above groups
or had completed prison sentences after
189.48 -> being convicted for violating the 1935 Nuremberg
Laws which put Nazi ideas about race into law.
196.32 -> In early 1937, the SS, using prisoner labor, began
construction of a large complex of buildings on
203.94 -> the grounds of the original camp. Prisoners
were forced to do this work, starting with
208.62 -> the destruction of the old munitions factory,
under terrible conditions. The construction
213.18 -> was officially completed in mid-August 1938.
The same month, Spatzenegger was transferred to
219.72 -> Mauthausen concentration camp which became
operational from the 8th of August 1938,
224.76 -> several months after the German annexation
of Austria, when the SS transferred the first
229.08 -> prisoners from the Dachau concentration
camp. The site was chosen because of the
233.4 -> nearby granite quarry, and its proximity
to Linz. During this phase, the prisoners,
238.44 -> all of them German and Austrian men, had to
build their own camp and work in the quarry.
243.18 -> When after the outbreak of war, people from
across Europe were deported to Mauthausen,
247.86 -> it gradually developed into a system
of several interconnected camps.
251.7 -> In December 1939 the SS ordered the construction
of a second concentration camp – Gusen - just a
258.78 -> few kilometres from Mauthausen. The Gusen
camp went into operation in May 1940.
264.3 -> As the war progressed, in order to accommodate the
267.54 -> prisoners where they worked, the
SS established several subcamps.
271.14 -> Commandants of these camps reported
directly to German Nazi commandant
275.52 -> Franz Ziereis. Newly-arrived prisoners were
transferred to these camps from the main camp.
281.52 -> During this phase, Mauthausen and Gusen were the
concentration camps with the harshest imprisonment
286.86 -> conditions and the highest mortality. Those who
were ill or deemed ‘useless’ by the SS lived
293.16 -> in constant fear for their lives. In 1941
the SS started to construct a gas chamber
299.16 -> and other installations at Mauthausen for the
systematic murder of large groups of people.
303.3 -> Living and working conditions in Mauthausen,
as in Gusen, led to the death by murder,
308.76 -> mistreatment, starvation, exposure, and
disease of more than half of the prisoners.
314.52 -> At Mauthausen, Spatzenegger became
a director of the camps’ quarries.
319.02 -> The work in the quarries – often in
unbearable heat or in temperatures as low as
324.12 -> −30 °C– led to exceptionally high mortality rates.
The rock quarry in Mauthausen was at the base of
331.5 -> the so called "Stairs of Death". Prisoners
were forced to carry roughly-hewn blocks of
335.7 -> stone – often weighing as much as 50 kilograms or
110 pounds up the 186 stairs, one prisoner behind
342.96 -> the other. As a result, many exhausted prisoners
collapsed in front of the others in the line,
348.24 -> and then fell on top of the other prisoners,
creating a domino effect; the first prisoner
352.92 -> falling onto the next, and so on, all the way
down the stairs. In the quarry, prisoners were
358.26 -> forced to carry the boulders from morning until
night, while being whipped by the Nazi guards.
362.88 -> Spatzenegger was among the most cruel and
feared personnel stationed at the camp. If
369.06 -> he thought that the prisoners
were not working hard enough,
371.22 -> he often staged "show beatings"
which he performed with a stick.
375.24 -> Such brutality was not accidental. Former prisoner
Edward Mosberg said: "If you stopped for a moment,
382.44 -> the SS either shot you or pushed you off the
cliff to your death." The SS guards would often
388.32 -> force prisoners – exhausted from hours of hard
labour without sufficient food and water – to
393.36 -> race up the stairs carrying blocks of stone. Those
who survived the ordeal would often be placed in
398.58 -> a line-up at the edge of a cliff known as "The
Parachutists Wall". At gun-point each prisoner
403.32 -> would have the option of being shot or pushing
the prisoner in front of him off the cliff.
408.24 -> Another Spatzenegger’s specialty was throwing the
prisoners on the 380-volt electric barbed wire
414.24 -> fence, or forcing them outside the boundaries
of the camp and then shooting them on the
418.62 -> pretense that they were attempting to escape.
Others were literally torn to pieces by his dog.
424.08 -> On the 6th and 7th of September 1944, Spatzenegger
took part in the murder of 40 Dutch and 7 British
432.12 -> Special Operations Executive – SOE - agents.
The objective of SOE was to conduct espionage,
438.72 -> sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied
Europe against the Axis powers,
442.62 -> especially against Nazi Germany.
The 47 agents were brought into
447.3 -> Mauthausen and after being killed, their bodies
were cremated. With risk for their own lives,
453 -> Mauthausen prisoners, after seeing what
those agents had to endure before being
456.96 -> murdered by the SS, then secretly
buried the container with the ashes.
460.68 -> Among Mauthausen inmates were also
prisoners of war. During the night
465.48 -> of the 2nd of February 1945 approximately 500
inmates, almost all of them Soviet officers,
471.96 -> attempted to escape from the Mühlviertel
subcamp of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.
477.36 -> They attacked the watch towers and managed
to occupy one of them. The electrified
481.74 -> barbed wire fence was short-circuited
with wet blankets so that the inmates
485.76 -> could climb over it. Many of the escapees
were too exhausted to get very far and soon
491.1 -> collapsed. Those who did not manage to reach
the woods were shot that night by the SS.
496.02 -> Immediately after the escape, the SS organised a
major search in which all the members of the SS
501.84 -> headquarters staff including Hans Spatzenegger,
the gendarmerie, army units, SA divisions and
507.66 -> Hitler Youth groups took part. The SS order
was "not to bring any inmates back alive".
513.84 -> The hunt for the escapees also called for the
assistance of the civilian population and the
518.64 -> people came and willingly obliged. According
to the documents and the testimonies given by
523.32 -> witnesses there was no immediate threat to
anyone nor was anyone forced to participate
528 -> which proves the squalid state of mind and
character of a lot of people at that time.
532.38 -> The manhunt was cynically called the "Mühlviertler
rabbit chase" by the SS and went on for three
538.32 -> weeks. Except for eleven officers all escapees
were captured and mostly killed on the spot.
544.32 -> An estimated 197,000 prisoners
passed through the Mauthausen
549.24 -> concentration camp and its subcamps
between August 1938 and May 1945.
554.16 -> At least 95,000 died there,
more than 14,000 of them Jewish.
560.22 -> At the beginning of May 1945,
shortly before the camp’s liberation,
564.84 -> Spatzenegger fled in the direction of
Salzburg together with the crematorium
568.92 -> manager Martin Roth and was able to go into
hiding. However, he did not escape justice.
574.56 -> On the 28th of February 1946 he was
arrested in Upper Austria and then
580.56 -> tried at the Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials
heard by an American military government
584.34 -> court at Dachau. The first trial of personnel from
Mauthausen-Gusen began on the 29th of March 1946.
591.54 -> Mauthausen survivor, a Pole Stefan Pręgowski,
testified: “I myself have often seen how Hans
598.74 -> Spatzenegger hit inmates with shovel
handles or sticks. I watched as Czechs
603.3 -> and members of penal companies were forced
off rocks in the quarry about 80 meters deep
607.68 -> to jump to their death. I also
saw how Spatzenegger mistreated
612.66 -> Jewish prisoners and almost beat
them to death while they worked.”
615.9 -> Numerous other witnesses testified about the
brutality of Spatzenegger as a director in the
621.36 -> Wiener Graben quarries and prosecution described
him as “the worst pig known to this world.”
627.18 -> On the 13th of May 1946 the Dachau
International Military Tribunal sentenced
633.96 -> Hans Spatzenegger to death by hanging.
Spatzenegger was 47 years old when he was
639.96 -> executed on the 27th of May 1947 in the
Landsberg prison. His last words were,
646.5 -> "I'm not a war criminal. Long
live Germany. Goodbye, Pastor.”
652.2 -> There were no tears shed for Hans Spatzenegger.
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