Francais
Deutsch
Italiano
Refine Your Search
+"Rheinbach Germany" +1945 stock footage and images
- Showing 1 to 2 of 2 results
German war criminals are executed by Allied occupying forces in 1945, in World War 2
View from above, of the surrounding walls and courtyard of a prison in Rheinbach, Germany. Ground view inside the prison yard, where German civilian Matthias Gierens is being escorted to the gallows by U.S. military police, and accompanied by a German Catholic priest, on June 29, 1945. They ascend the gallows and final charges and sentence are read to Gierens. Next scene shows bodies stacked up at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp operated by Nazi Germany. Scene returns to the gallows, and a hood is placed over Gierens' head. View of Allied army officer witnesses, in formation, at parade rest. Noose is placed over Gierens' hood. View of a a bird flying overhead, trapdoor opens, Gierens drops, and noose tightens. Next is an unrelated scene of several German soldiers being executed. They are seen hanging from four gallows in a line in a public square while a large crowd, possibly Soviet citizens, looks on. (Notes: Regarding the execution of Gierens in the opening scene: German civilian Matthias Gierens was a 37 year old railroad worker. He was executed for the August 15, 1944, murder near Priest, Germany, of a downed American airman, who was later identified as U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lieutenant Lester E. Reuss. Gierens and three other German civilians, Peter Kohn, Peter Back, and Matthias Krein, were convicted on June 2, 1945 in Ahrweiler, Germany, of the murder. Their trial was the first Allied trial in Germany of civilians charged with a war crime.)
German civilian Matthias Gierens is hung until death for murdering a downed American flier in Germany in World War 2.
German civilian Matthias Gierens, a 37 year old railroad worker, is hanged in Rheinbach Germany for the August 15, 1944 murder of a downed American flyer, who was later identified as U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lieutenant Lester E. Reuss, from Forsythe, Montana. Reuss was the navigator on U.S. Army B-17 bomber #42-31183 which was downed by German aircraft after it attacked the Airdrome at Wiesbaden, Germany. Gierens and three other German civilian men, Peter Kohn, Peter Back, and Matthias Krein, were convicted on June 2, 1945 in Ahrweiler, Germany, for the murder of the American airman after his parachute landing near Priest, Germany. The trial was the first Allied trial in Germany of civilians charged with a war crime. Military police are seen escorting Gierens toward the gallows in a prison yard in Rheinbach. A German Catholic priest performs the rites. U.S military officer reads charges as Gierens is readied for execution (the officer is possibly Lt. Col J.V. Roddy, of San Francisco, who was in charge of the hanging). Trap door opens and Gierens is hung. The U.S. Army executioners were Master Sgt. John C. Woods, a former Texas State executioner, and Staff Sgt. Thomas Robinson, of Bronx, New York. Witnesses present included seven U.S. Lieutenant Colonels and one British officer, a number of Military Police, news correspondents, and photographers.