The shadow of the "Red Widow" !!!

http://katowice.naszemiasto.pl/wydarzenia/705930.html

The information from Polish daily newspaper:
According to the article , during nazi occupation of Poland the fallbeill called "red widow" was used ( in Katowice prison) from 9 th October 1941 but the last execution was 22th Jan 1945.(Earlier prisoners were guillotined in Breslau) There were executed 552 people
( including 53 women and also a few teenagers) mostly members of resistance.The executions were in the night ( 22pm-24pm and often multiples) in the special ,white-tiled execution room, today non existing The convicted prisoners after "toilette" were dressed in paper skirts. Each execution lasted for 3-4 minutes. Dead corpses were transferred to the crematory in KL Auschwitz(about 50 km from Katowice)
The fallbeill is 235 cm high, bascule is 136 cm long,blade-51 kg; there is also receptable for the head 41x51 cm .
The hangman August Koestner commited suicide....
In the last days of the occupation the guillotine was burried by Germans in Katowice's cementary(sic!) but was unearthed by locals soon.Later ,for many years,fallbelil was stored in Police headquarters in Katowice and practically forgotten by all; in the end transferred to the Museum KL Auschwitz-Birkenau where is now stored but not exposed(only for special groups. Probably(according to the words custodian of the museum) in the future it will be part of permanent exhibition open for all visitors. Now, there is a kind of the small rivalry between museum in Auschwitz anf Museum of History Katowice for such unusual exhibit.

Katowice prison-today
http://www.us.edu.pl/katowice/informator/ilustr/z0312.jpg

Definitely another Tegel type machine.

piotr a écrit:

http://katowice.naszemiasto.pl/wydarzenia/705930.html

The information from Polish daily newspaper:
According to the article , during nazi occupation of Poland the fallbeill called "red widow" was used ( in Katowice prison) from 9 th October 1941 but the last execution was 22th Jan 1945.(Earlier prisoners were guillotined in Breslau) There were executed 552 people
( including 53 women and also a few teenagers) mostly members of resistance.The executions were in the night ( 22pm-24pm and often multiples) in the special ,white-tiled execution room, today non existing The convicted prisoners after "toilette" were dressed in paper skirts. Each execution lasted for 3-4 minutes. Dead corpses were transferred to the crematory in KL Auschwitz(about 50 km from Katowice)
The fallbeill is 235 cm high, bascule is 136 cm long,blade-51 kg; there is also receptable for the head 41x51 cm .
The hangman August Koestner commited suicide....
In the last days of the occupation the guillotine was burried by Germans in Katowice's cementary(sic!) but was unearthed by locals soon.Later ,for many years,fallbelil was stored in Police headquarters in Katowice and practically forgotten by all; in the end transferred to the Museum KL Auschwitz-Birkenau where is now stored but not exposed(only for special groups. Probably(according to the words custodian of the museum) in the future it will be part of permanent exhibition open for all visitors. Now, there is a kind of the small rivalry between museum in Auschwitz anf Museum of History Katowice for such unusual exhibit.

Katowice prison-today
http://www.us.edu.pl/katowice/informator/ilustr/z0312.jpg

Thanks for the interesting information Piotr. The scharfrichter identified as August "Koestner" probably is "August Koster", an assistant to Frederich Hehr who was hired in 1943 as an lead executioner. Koster (or Koestner) beheaded 579 people according to the post-war records published by Fr. Harald Polchau, chaplin of Plotzensee. The paper "skirts" probably are paper "shirts" which were long, paper garments typically worn by condemned prisons in Breslau, Brandenburg and other locations.
Do you have a photo of the fallbeil as it now looks in KZ Aushwitz? From the news photo, it clearly is a Tegel-type design similar to the one exhibited in Pancraz Prison, Prague.

Probably below is the picture fallbeill from Katowice

http://www1.ipn.gov.pl/download.php?s=1&id=2499

http://www.eolkusz.pl/2010/08/gilotyna-w-muzeum-auschwitz-birkenau/

Brrrr!!

La lumière électrique rend la photo encore plus actuelle.

CARNIFEX a écrit:

Brrrr!!

La lumière électrique rend la photo encore plus actuelle.

Exact, sous cet éclairage, c'est lugubre.  

piotr a écrit:

The fallbeill is 235 cm high […] blade-51 kg

La photo montre qu'effectivement les montants de la machine sont courts. Est-ce que, malgré le poids du couperet (51 kg), cela posait problème pour la décapitation ?

Adelayde, je ne pense pas que cela posait un réel problème, car sauf erreur de ma part, si la lame faisait 51 kg, elle n'était pas fixée à un mouton en bois comme sur la guillotine Française, mais à un ensemble métallique (avec des bras) qui chutait avec elle, le tout pesant entre 61 et 68 kg......!

A vérifier cependant !

Cela ne posait aucun problème car la faible hauteur était compensée par un poids bien plus important.

Regardez sur le site de boisdejustice. On voit bien que la lame était fixée à une masse métallique pesante, qui se prolongeait sur les côtés.

La machine a réellement servie ?

pier a écrit:

La machine a réellement servie ?

I don't know, I don't think so but from June 2015 is on display in Silesian museum in Katowice