HANGED IN MEDICINE HAT: New book details Nazi murders at POW camp

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Christmas was only one week away however there was little room for sentimentality in these occasions.

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No, Canada had left tens of 1000’s of her sons planted in soil removed from house. The Second World Conflict nonetheless reverberated within the Canadian psyche.

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And on Dec. 18, 1946, 4 diehard Nazis (plus a intercourse killer) climbed the deadly 13 picket steps in a Lethbridge, Alta., jailhouse and had been hanged by the neck till they had been lifeless.

It will mark the final mass hanging in Canada.

Writer and historian Nathan Greenfield has written the chilling Hanged in Medicine Hat, concerning the dying cull that occurred seven many years in the past.

Greenfield instructed The Toronto Solar that whereas researching the ebook, he was usually shocked by profound occasions in Canadian historical past that had beforehand been unknown.

“The most important was that these prisoner of struggle camps (POW) had their very own camp Gestapo who would homicide fellow prisoners in the event that they didn’t have ample fealty to Hitler,” Greenfield mentioned. “I used to be additionally utterly shocked by the difficulty of homosexuality within the camps.”

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He added: “After all, it made sense that this went on, however it additionally grew to become a difficulty for the camp Gestapo, and they might maintain degradation ceremonies as punishment. This was a part of their reign of terror.”

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Canada entered the Second World Conflict in 1939. Our British allies had been involved concerning the 1000’s of prisoners they had been capturing, and it was determined they might be despatched to Canada and South Africa.

A sequence of POW camps had been established throughout the nation that had been famous for his or her humanity and the freedoms accorded the defeated Germans. Lots of the troopers, sailors and aircrew favored it a lot that they emigrated right here after the struggle.

However not everybody took Canada’s benevolence within the spirit during which it was meant, Greenfield writes.

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In plenty of the camps, there remained a daunting degree of Nazi true believers, largely members of Hitler’s vaunted Afrika Korps. One of the vital Nazified was Camp 123 in Drugs Hat, Alta.

Ultimately, homicide would go to the camp confines. Its management would even destroy Canadian newspapers that confirmed the Nazis dying by the tens of 1000’s within the Russian snow, slowly being overwhelmed again in Italy, and German cities being pulverized by round the clock air raids.

Former International Legionaire August Plaszek was the primary to die on July 22, 1943 following an argument over ideology.

Subsequent to go was Dr. Karl Lehmann (who Greenfield mentioned was a spy) who was murdered within the camp on Sept. 10, 1944. His crime was allegedly taking part in a job in attempting to overthrow the camp management.

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He additionally wasn’t shy about telling folks he thought that Germany would lose the struggle (he was proper).

In all, for the 2 murders, 5 males had been sentenced to hold.

“I don’t suppose it was a query of vengeance,” Greenfield mentioned. “No Canadians had been killed. Paperwork point out that the justice minister on the time, future prime minister Louis St. Laurent, didn’t need to go forward.”

However his successor did, regardless of some authorized entanglements. First, they had been British prisoners and topic to legal guidelines of the U.Ok., not Canada and secondly, there have been the accepted guidelines of struggle.

“They thought Lehmann was a spy and the Nazis within the camp grew to become extra inflexible after the 1944 Hitler bomb plot which they heard about on a secret radio,” Greenfield mentioned. “Contained in the wires, the camp was thought of to be Germany.”

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Canadian officers and guards acknowledged the camp’s hierarchy, though they thought of them loathsome, because the command construction.

“A command construction nonetheless existed (because it did in German POW camps) and in reality, they had been proper. However after Valkyrie (the plot to ice Hitler) the camp Gestapo grew to become extra strident,” Greenfield mentioned.

The killers had been finally sentenced to hold, however the preventing that had roiled the planet for six, lengthy years had ended.

“There have been plenty of letters calling for clemency, together with from the YMCA,” Greenfield mentioned, including that some camps, such because the one in Bowmanville, full of Battle of the Atlantic submariners and sailors was not considered one of them.

“One U-Boat commander who sank a ship in Halifax Harbour through the Battle of the St. Lawrence would finally return to Canada and for 25 years was the chief engineer for the TTC.”

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The commander of the Drugs Hat camp could “not have been the person for the job,” Greenfield mentioned, including he was “too palms off” and should have let Nazism fester.

“The camp Gestapo managed prisoners’ mail, watched for code phrases and customarily subjected POWs to the horrors of Nazi Germany.”

Werner Schwalb was the lone killer who died for the Plaszek homicide the earlier summer time.

On Dec. 18, 1946, Heinrich Busch, 29, Willy Mueller, 32, Walter Wolf, 28, and Bruno Perzcnowski, 34, had been hanged for the homicide of Karl Lehmann.

Little one intercourse killer Donald Staley, 29, joined the Germans in dying that evening.

You’ll be able to pre-order Hanged in Drugs Hat from Sutherland Home Books. It’s out Oct. 13.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun