EXECUTION of Otto Förschner - Brutal NAZI Commandant of Kaufering & Mittelba-Dora - V1 & V2 Rockets
EXECUTION of Otto Förschner - Brutal NAZI Commandant of Kaufering & Mittelba-Dora - V1 & V2 Rockets
EXECUTION of Otto Förschner - Brutal NAZI Commandant of Kaufering \u0026 Mittelba-Dora - V1 \u0026 V2 Rockets. The second world war began on the 1st of September, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Nazi Germany possessed overwhelming military superiority over Poland. Germany launched the unprovoked attack at dawn on the 1st of September with an advance force consisting of more than 2,000 tanks supported by nearly 900 bombers and over 400 fighter planes. In all, Germany deployed 60 divisions and nearly 1.5 million men in the invasion. The Polish Campaign, in which Otto Förschner took part, was the first action by Hitler in his attempt to create Lebensraum meaning living space for Germans. Nazi propaganda was one of the factors behind the German brutality directed at civilians that had worked relentlessly to convince the Germans into believing that Jews and Slavs were subhumans.On Sunday, the 22nd of June 1941 started Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Förschner took part in the attack with the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. SS Division Wiking was an infantry and later an armoured division among the thirty-eight Waffen-SS divisions of Nazi Germany. It was recruited from foreign volunteers in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands and Belgium under the command of German officers. After Förschner was wounded in action and declared medically unfit for combat duty, he returned to Germany and in the spring of 1942, he was transferred to the Buchenwald which was one of the largest concentration camps established within German borders.In September 1943, Förschner was given command over the newly built concentration camp of Mittelbau-Dora which was originally a subcamp of Buchenwald. Prisoners from Buchenwald were sent to the area in 1943 to begin construction of a large industrial complex. There were no sanitary facilities except for barrels that served as latrines. Inmates, the majority of them from the Soviet Union, Poland or France, died from hunger, thirst, the cold and overwork. During the first months, most of the work done was heavy construction and transport. Only in January 1944, when production of the V-2 rockets began, were the first prisoners moved to the new above-ground camp on the south side of the mountain. Many had to sleep in the tunnels until May 1944.In October of the same year, the SS made Mittelbau-Dora an independent concentration camp with more than 30 subcamps of its own.The slave-laborers from Mittelbau-Dora were used not only for production of V-weapons such as the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rockets which were aimed primarily at London, but also to extend the nearby tunnels in Kohnstein which is a hill that served as a natural protection against the Allied bombing for the underground factory named Mittelwerk in which the V-weapons were produced. These so-called Weapons of Retaliation, as the Germans called them, were constructed and stored in the underground facilities and bomb-proof shafts.The inmates at Mittelbau-Dora were treated in a brutal and inhumane manner, working 14-hour days and being denied access to basic hygiene, beds, and adequate rations.Prisoners too weak or ill to work were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau or Mauthausen to be killed. The inmates were subject to extreme cruelty and as a result, they often suffered injuries, including permanent disability, disfigurement, and death. Severe beatings were routine, as was deliberate starvation, torture and summary executions. In many cases the prisoners were compelled to hang other prisoners under penalty of execution if they failed to cooperate. There was an order issued by Förschner that prisoners who refused to assist in the execution of other prisoners would themselves be executed.Around one in three of the roughly 60,000 prisoners who were sent to Mittelbau-Dora died.In the camp, one of Förschner’s duties was preventing acts of sabotage during V-weapons production. To ensure that the camp ran smoothly, and such activities did not occur, Förschner relied on German Communist prisoners as administrators in positions that were not required to be held by the SS officers. However, after the investigation in the autumn of 1944, the Gestapo…
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Content
0.36 -> The 6th of June 1944. Allied infantry and armored
divisions begin landing on the Normandy coast
7.86 -> in France. This largest seaborne invasion in
history marks a turning point in World War 2
13.5 -> and becomes the beginning of the end of the war in
Europe. One week later on the 13th of June 1944,
20.58 -> Nazi Germany responds with the first V-1
flying bomb attack carried out on London.
26.34 -> More than 2,500 V-1s will reach London
killing more than 6,000 innocent civilians.
32.94 -> The first V-2 rocket, the world’s first
long-range guided ballistic missile,
37.44 -> hits London on the 8th of September 1944.
These terrifying Revenge weapons with which
43.38 -> the Nazis would terrorize people in London
until March 1945 are produced thanks to slave
48.9 -> labor from Mittelbau-Dora concentration
camp. Its commandant is Otto Förschner.
53.58 -> Otto Förschner was born on the 4th of November
1902 in Dürrenzimmern then part of the German
61.68 -> Empire. Förschner spent his early years on his
parents' farm in Bavaria and in 1922 he enlisted
68.34 -> in the Reichswehr - the German armed forces. He
would remain a soldier for the next twelve years.
74.16 -> On the 30th of January 1933, Adolf Hitler
was appointed chancellor of Germany by
80.04 -> German President Paul von Hindenburg.
Immediately after Hitler came into power,
84.78 -> Germany became a dictatorship, and the Nazi
regime quickly began to restrict the civil
89.76 -> and human rights of the Jews and established
the first concentration camps, imprisoning
94.5 -> its political opponents, homosexuals, Jehovah’s
witnesses, and others classified as “dangerous”.
100.14 -> The first concentration camp - Dachau -
was established in March 1933, less than
106.26 -> 2 months after Hitler became the chancellor.
Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its
113.58 -> European allies would establish more than
44,000 camps and other incarceration sites,
118.68 -> including ghettos. The perpetrators would
use these locations for forced labor,
123.6 -> detention of people deemed to be "enemies of
the state," and the mass murder of millions.
128.52 -> In 1934, one year after the Nazis came into power
in Germany, Otto Förschner joined the SS. Between
136.32 -> April 1934 and December 1936, Förschner attended
the SS training camp at Bad Tölz which was one
143.64 -> of the SS-Junker Schools leadership training
facilities for officer candidates of the SS.
148.74 -> Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, intended for
these schools to mold cadets for future service
153.84 -> in the officer ranks of the SS. In these
training facilities cadets were taught to
158.82 -> be adaptable officers who could perform any task
assigned to them, whether in a police role, at a
163.68 -> Nazi concentration camp, as part of a fighting
unit, or within the greater SS organization.
169.44 -> Political and ideological indoctrination was part
of the syllabus for all SS cadets but there was
174.84 -> no merger of academic learning and military
instruction like that found at West Point in
179.1 -> the United States. Instead, personality training
was stressed, which meant future SS leaders were
185.1 -> shaped above all things by a National Socialist
worldview and attitude. Instruction was designed
191.52 -> to communicate a sense of racial superiority, a
connection to other dependable like-minded men,
196.44 -> ruthlessness, and a toughness that
accorded the value system of the SS.
200.76 -> Förschner attended the academy until December 1936
205.38 -> and on the following year
he joined the Nazi Party.
208.74 -> The second world war began on the 1st of
September, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.
215.28 -> Nazi Germany possessed overwhelming
military superiority over Poland.
219.96 -> Germany launched the unprovoked attack at dawn
on the 1st of September with an advance force
224.88 -> consisting of more than 2,000 tanks supported by
nearly 900 bombers and over 400 fighter planes.
231.54 -> In all, Germany deployed 60 divisions and
nearly 1.5 million men in the invasion
236.88 -> The assault on Poland demonstrated Germany’s
ability to combine air power and armor in a new
242.7 -> kind of mobile warfare. The world adopted a new
term to describe Germany’s successful war tactic:
248.7 -> Blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.” The last
operational Polish unit surrendered on the
254.52 -> 6th of October. The Polish Campaign, in which
Otto Förschner took part, was the first action
260.28 -> by Hitler in his attempt to create Lebensraum
meaning living space for Germans. Nazi propaganda
266.16 -> was one of the factors behind the German
brutality directed at civilians that had
270.48 -> worked relentlessly to convince the Germans into
believing that Jews and Slavs were subhumans.
275.4 -> On Sunday, the 22nd of June 1941
started Operation Barbarossa,
281.46 -> the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
Förschner took part in the attack with the
286.38 -> 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. SS Division
Wiking was an infantry and later an armoured
292.68 -> division among the thirty-eight
Waffen-SS divisions of Nazi Germany.
297.06 -> It was recruited from foreign volunteers
in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland,
302.4 -> Estonia, the Netherlands and Belgium
under the command of German officers.
307.62 -> After Förschner was wounded in action and
declared medically unfit for combat duty,
311.88 -> he returned to Germany and in the spring of
1942, he was transferred to the Buchenwald
317.16 -> which was one of the largest concentration
camps established within German borders.
321.6 -> Prisoners lived in the Buchenwald main
camp which was surrounded by an electrified
325.74 -> barbed-wire fence, watchtowers, and a chain of
sentries outfitted with automatic machine guns.
331.98 -> At the entrance to the main camp, there was a
notorious punishment block, known as the Bunker,
337.14 -> where prisoners who violated the camp regulations
were punished and often tortured to death.
342.6 -> In addition to the punishment block, the main
camp included 33 wooden barracks, disinfection
347.82 -> buildings, a brothel, and a crematorium.
Most of the early inmates at Buchenwald were
353.1 -> political prisoners, people who had been arrested
for some form of political opposition to the Nazi
357.9 -> regime. In addition to the political prisoners
and Jews, Buchenwald prisoners also included
363.3 -> repeat offenders, Jehovah's Witnesses, Sinti
and Roma people and German military deserters.
368.82 -> In September 1943, Förschner was
given command over the newly built
373.62 -> concentration camp of Mittelbau-Dora which was
originally a subcamp of Buchenwald. Prisoners
379.14 -> from Buchenwald were sent to the area in 1943 to
begin construction of a large industrial complex.
385.56 -> There were no sanitary facilities except for
barrels that served as latrines. Inmates,
390.96 -> the majority of them from the Soviet Union,
Poland or France, died from hunger, thirst,
396.42 -> the cold and overwork. During the first
months, most of the work done was heavy
402.18 -> construction and transport. Only in January
1944, when production of the V-2 rockets began,
407.7 -> were the first prisoners moved
to the new above-ground camp on
410.7 -> the south side of the mountain. Many had
to sleep in the tunnels until May 1944.
416.34 -> In October of the same year, the SS
made Mittelbau-Dora an independent
421.14 -> concentration camp with more
than 30 subcamps of its own.
424.8 -> The slave-laborers from Mittelbau-Dora were
used not only for production of V-weapons
429.3 -> such as the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rockets
which were aimed primarily at London, but
434.58 -> also to extend the nearby tunnels in Kohnstein
which is a hill that served as a natural
438.72 -> protection against the Allied bombing for the
underground factory named Mittelwerk in which
443.64 -> the V-weapons were produced. These so-called
Weapons of Retaliation, as the Germans called
448.56 -> them, were constructed and stored in the
underground facilities and bomb-proof shafts.
452.88 -> The inmates at Mittelbau-Dora were
treated in a brutal and inhumane manner,
457.56 -> working 14-hour days and being denied access
to basic hygiene, beds, and adequate rations.
463.62 -> Prisoners too weak or ill to work were sent to
Auschwitz-Birkenau or Mauthausen to be killed.
470.88 -> The inmates were subject to extreme
cruelty and as a result, they often
474.72 -> suffered injuries, including permanent
disability, disfigurement, and death.
479.4 -> Severe beatings were routine, as was deliberate
starvation, torture and summary executions. In
486.48 -> many cases the prisoners were compelled
to hang other prisoners under penalty
490.86 -> of execution if they failed to cooperate.
There was an order issued by Förschner that
495.9 -> prisoners who refused to assist in the execution
of other prisoners would themselves be executed.
500.52 -> Around one in three of the roughly 60,000
prisoners who were sent to Mittelbau-Dora died.
506.94 -> In the camp, one of Förschner’s duties
was preventing acts of sabotage during
511.44 -> V-weapons production. To ensure that the camp
ran smoothly, and such activities did not occur,
516.78 -> Förschner relied on German Communist prisoners
as administrators in positions that were not
521.46 -> required to be held by the SS officers. However,
after the investigation in the autumn of 1944,
527.82 -> the Gestapo, the official secret police of
Nazi Germany, revealed that his approach,
532.68 -> which they criticized as soft on both the camp's
prisoners and personnel, let to resistance
537.48 -> activities inside the camp such as sabotage during
V-weapons production and many of the Communist of
542.76 -> the prisoner functionaries who he had appointed,
were involved in these sabotage activities.
546.66 -> In addition, in early 1945 Heinrich
Himmler found out that Förschner,
552 -> technically the managing director of Mittelwerk
factory, had received a bonus payment of
557.1 -> 10,000 Reichsmarks. However, he had not reported
this one-off payment to the SS administration,
562.38 -> who nevertheless found out and demanded a
refund. However, Förschner did not pay it back.
567.96 -> Soon after, Himmler himself removed
Förschner from his position.
571.44 -> In February 1945 Otto Förschner became
a commandant of Kaufering which was the
577.08 -> common name of a system of eleven subcamps
of the Dachau concentration camp system.
581.4 -> The conditions in Kaufering were horrible.
The prisoners deported to each of the 11
586.2 -> subcamps had to construct the accommodation
themselves. The resulting huts, partially buried
591.72 -> for camouflage from aerial reconnaissance, were
completely inadequate for the weather conditions.
596.52 -> Rain and snow leaked through the earthen roofs,
and vermin infested the huts. Prisoners had
602.4 -> to sleep on straw that had been spread on the
floor. What little food the prisoners did have,
607.26 -> was taken by the SS guards and those who
were sick, were fed even less. There were
612.6 -> even incidents of cannibalism, and some prisoners
were so desperate to escape from their horrible
616.98 -> reality that they would try to commit suicide, by
throwing themselves into the electrical fencing.
622.68 -> Most of the prisoners were forced to work
building railway embankments and hauling bags
627.6 -> of cement for the bunker-building projects.
The bunkers were to be used for producing
632.34 -> different components of the Messerschmitt Me 262A
aircraft, the first operational jet aircraft,
637.98 -> which the Germans hoped would turn
the tide of war against the Allies.
641.94 -> However, not a single aircraft was produced
here before liberation. The murderous conditions
648.18 -> meant that most prisoners were incapacitated in a
short time and due to severe vermin infestation,
653.52 -> prisoners spent time attempting to rid themselves
of fleas when they were supposed to be working.
657.9 -> In December 1944, out of 17,600 prisoners, only
8,319 were capable of work, including those only
668.16 -> capable of light work. Because the companies that
hired the workers complained that they had to pay
673.2 -> for the labor of prisoners who were unable
to work, transports totaling 1,322 or 1,451
680.52 -> people were dispatched to Auschwitz in September
and October 1944, where the victims were gassed.
686.7 -> Förschner was accused of numerous crimes at
Kaufering such as mistreating the prisoners,
691.98 -> killing one prisoner with an iron pipe
and management of prisoner executions.
696.18 -> As US armed forces approached the
Kaufering complex in late April 1945,
701.76 -> the SS began evacuating the
camps, sending the prisoners
705.12 -> on death marches in the direction of
Dachau, either on foot or by train.
709.92 -> Those inmates who could not keep up, were
often shot or beaten to death by the guards.
715.02 -> Kaufering was the largest of the Dachau subcamps
and also the one with the worst conditions.
720.12 -> During its existence between
June 1944 and April 1945, fifteen
725.94 -> thousand out of 30,000 prisoners died from hunger,
disease, executions, or during death marches.
732 -> Otto Förschner remained the camp’s
commandant until the end of April,
736.14 -> 1945 when he was taken prisoner by the US Army.
739.92 -> In the end, justice finally
caught up with Förschner when
744.18 -> he was tried at the Dachau trials which held
him responsible for the brutal conditions at
748.02 -> Kaufering concentration camp as well as his
role in the management of prisoner executions.
753.18 -> On the 13th of December, 1945
the US military tribunal found
758.58 -> Otto Förschner, a married man and father of
3 children, guilty of war crimes committed
763.74 -> during his tenure at Kaufering and
sentenced him to death by hanging.
768.3 -> He was 43 years old when he was
executed on the 28th of May 1946.
774.78 -> There were no tears shed for Otto Förschner.
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