The post war fate of Nazi war criminal Oswald Schäfer
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- Опубліковано 22 гру 2023
- Lisette Schaeffer, a ninety year old woman was murdered in Sanremo in 2001, leaving around EUR10m in cash and assets in various countries. Her brother, Oswald Schäfer, who was two years older than she was, studied to become a lawyer and then got a job with the Reich Security Main Office. His career was propelled by Werner Best, who was second in command of the SD to Reinhard Heydrich. This led him to being the head of the Gestapo at Wesermunde - Bremerhaven and then Reichensberg in occupied Czechoslovakia before being sent to the east to mass murder Jews and others in the occupied Soviet Union as the CO of EK9. From there he returned to be the head of the Gestapo in Munich. At Munich he oversaw the interrogations of the White Rose resistance movement, including those of the Scholl siblings, organised the deportation of Jews from Munich, ordered the murder of two recaptured South African POWs who had taken part in the Great Escape and participated in the murder and beating of Eastern workers who had been arrested by the Gestapo. Just before the liberation of Munich on 30 April 1945, he fled.
On 29 April 1945, Oswald Schaeffer was reported to be cycling south towards Garmisch Parkenkirchen. He had committed crimes in the Soviet Union and in Germany and he would have known that he would have faced the death penalty if caught. His immediate problem was to avoid the British authorities who wanted him for questioning about the murder of the two SAAF pilots, Flight Lieutenant Rupert Stevens and Flight Lieutenant Johannes Gouws.
In May 1944, the British government learned of the murders after a routine visit to the Sagen POW camp by the Swiss authorities as the protecting power. On 19 May 1944, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden announced this to the House of Commons. Shortly after the announcement, the Senior British Officer of the camp, Group Captain Herbert Massey, was repatriated to the UK due to ill health. Upon his return, he revealed how the escape happened and how he had been informed of the murders of the recaptured escapees. On 23 June 1944, Eden announced that those responsible would be brought to exemplary justice.
After the liberation of Germany, a team was set up to find the criminals. There was a lead in the south of Germany and a southern investigation team was set up under Flight Lt. Courtney. The Americans had set up an internment camp here in Garmisch Partenkirchen. They were holding a former Munich criminal investigator Anton Gassner. Gassner had fled from Munich and gone to live with his sister at Bad Reichenall near Berchtesgaden. He was arrested there in June 1945. He was able to provide some details about the murder of the Allied airmen and reported on what he had heard of Schaeffer’s escape which must have happened before he left. He said that the general opinion was that Schaeffer was somewhere in the Tyrol and had probably committed suicide there.
The British were able to trace and capture three Munich Gestapo officers and confirm that one, Schermer, had committed suicide. The three, Weil, Geith and Schneider were arrested, put on trial and found guilty. The case of Weil is particularly draconian. He had been the duty officer on the night that Schaeffer had ordered the two South African pilots to be murdered. He was one quarter Jewish and trying to hide it as best he could. He had once been a police officer and had transferred to the Gestapo, whether voluntarily or not, I cannot say. However, where better for an underground Jew to hide than in the Gestapo? He knew that the pilots were to be killed but claimed that he thought that they had already been found guilty at a court. He had gone with the prisoners on their final journey. When the car got to the predetermined location for the murder, the pilots were offered a chance to get out and urinate. He took the opportunity to do the same. When they were shot, he was urinating and came back to find out that they had been killed. He freely gave evidence to the investigators. It did not help, as Albert Pierrepoint hanged him in Hamelin prison on 27 February 1948.
That year, the British government announced that it would not continue to seek the murderers of the Great Escape killers. As it happened, it was the German authorities who found Oswald Schäfer, and not in the Alps but in Limburg an Lahn to the east of Koblenz.
In his denazification trial, Schäfer was classified as a “main culprit”. This meant that most of his assets were seized and he lost his right to a pension. However, he had friends who remembered him from the old days.
Thanks again Alan! The Kiev Air-Raid sirens are haunting. The little bird in the tree at Babi Yar. Incredible! You can't replace the contributions of citizen journalists!
Apparently, Schäfer kept a safe enough distance from these atrocities to ultimately escape justice. I'm curious what he did for a living during, and following, all of his trials? Also, is it possible that his family was simply wealthy; whereby, neither he nor his sister needed to work? There are too many unanswered questions regarding their finances.
If they were "simply wealthy", they wouldn't need to "spread" their Money all over Europe.
There's little social acceptance in Germany for flaunting money, but nobody in Germany calls for the "eating of the rich".
Just like it is today, the top flunkies expedite the illegal acts down to the employees, so that once their actually caught, legally speaking they haven't done anything wrong, the employee did it. Then the Employee or Soldier will most likely say " I was following orders. Just doing my job.". I guess you can tell.that I'm as pissed off as you! Consider me a New Subscriber! Im.willing to give you a chance. Thanks for responding.
Having an interest in the Third Reich era I am totally addicted to this channel,as well as facts on the main players of the Third Reich Alan gives incredible information on lesser known Third Reich figures that you can't find anywhere on youtube and backs it up with film if actual locations related to each story,excellent channel,thanks Alan.
Thank you very much. I plan my journeys to try to include areas for which I might need some background film for these videos! In the case of the video from Sanremo and Munich, it was done a long time ago, so I attempted to make it look even worse filmed than it originally was!
I have been very interested in the subject of the White Rose & the Scholls et. al.... Thank you for your excellent presentation!!! 😊
Very interesting and detailed documentary of perhaps a less well known character . Adenauer had much to answer for his political appointments post WW2 .
My father who was at D DAY +2 ....STATED THAT WHEN HE WAS IN GERMANY he said '' I could never find a Nazi....everyone said they had no Nazi connections ''....as if.....Pipe and Coffee and an Alan video after Breakfast.
Alan, you are a treasure to us all. Please keep up your work in good health.
Thank you Alan. Very interesting and informative.
They thought that they were acting legally in the National Socialist State.
But at the same time, they were aware that this radical time in Europe would end so it would be prudent to plan a private retirement fund.
I read once that the Allies hung 30 thousand Germans who were rank and file perpetrators.
I can't validate these figures but it came from a good source. 🙏🇦🇺
It was hard to convict these war criminals of murder because all the witnesses were dead.
Fabulous effort.
Thank you! Cheers!
It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video shared by an excellent ( History on UA-cam) and respectful 🙏 Sir Alan. Video about German Union Republic deals and common peoples in western Germany and western homesphers towards Past Nazism criminals. Video focused on Oswald Schafer life after WW2 and during the First Cold War years (confronted communism by all means including Nazism and fascism forgiveness .thank you for sharing
Truly a great series of videos. Thank you, thank you. Also, not gonna lie, that air raid siren is creepy in the background. On another note, there could be so much focus on Werner Best. He's another one of those shadowy figures that was responsible for so much horror but yet did not face much in the end living a long life.
Glad you like them! I have notes on Werner Best and will do something on him. Around 20 years ago I had a pile of documentation on him from an archive in Denmark, written in Danish, a language I could not understand. However, I think I have enough material from those 12 years to ensure that I have enough to do for the rest of my life!
This guy is on a roll!
I won't be able to keep it up at this pace Mark, I will have to go back to the day job before long!
I haven't watched the previous 2 videos on this but when I looked up Schaffer on wikipedia the page was in german only. I was familiar with werner best. I never understood why he was dealt with so leniently after the war, living in freedom to a ripe old age. And don't get me started on the rat fink John Jay mccloy. That cat loved the nazi's, i have no doubts about that. Did you know that Albert Speers daughter lived with Mccloy and his wife while she was an exchange student to the US ?
With the exception of the very few war criminals that were put to death, just after 1945. The big problem was to get the German people to line up against the new enemy the USSR. The resulting weak sentencing and early release reflected this. 1945 Southern Austria , my father Royal Artillery. A large group of German soldiers surrendered to his unit, they were quite pleasant for a former enemy. A few spoke some English. One of his officers spoke German. It later came to light that they were in fact Ukrainian SS .So reps from Tito arrived, and asked for them to be return to Yugoslavia for war crimes. My dad and his mates had no concept of war crimes or what the SS were all about. Never encountered the SS in Africa or Italy. Well what to do. The UK Government refused Tito and sent them to a British Army cage well away from the Russians. USA, Canada, UK their new home. The great escape murders , at first all the stops were pulled out, but as the political climate changed so did the UK Government, in the pursuit of the Gestapo, SD,SS etc. They even used former SD, re SIS.
Is there a number 2 of this document?
There you go, part one : ua-cam.com/video/8yxuEOZBcN4/v-deo.html
and part two : ua-cam.com/video/ti8NccZxTE0/v-deo.html
Too fast !
When I hear German expellees whining about their ordeals, I get disgusted cause 99% of all the Germans who committed atrocities got away.
A hell of a lot more than 99percent got away
Well it doesnt matter where. But theres always one guy blessed that never gets convicted.
As well, there is always this. Knowing, and not giving a jury enough to convict are two tottally different things.
There were other things he may have been tried for. But we dont know if there was enough evidence to reach beyond reasonable doubt and get a conviction.
For what he was tried for clearly there just wasnt enough to convict.
And then there is the argument..well we should have just executed him anyway.
That is is the worst thing we as a society could do. If a case cant reach a standard of proff to convict we just have to accept that.
Because if we dont, or change the standards of proof required for this or that category of person..
Well we are on the road to become what we set out to commit.
After all in nuremberg laws were set out that treated jews and roma differently orders for slavs were issued to treat them differently...
As unpopular a comparison as it may be, a Palestinian in the green zone may vote, a Palestinian in the occupied zones may not vote and so on. Living examples of the dangers of different standards applicable to different people at work in real life current era.
And like WW2 it all ends with rubble..
Funny how the major millions made from conflict is the arms manufacturers. It occoured to be the humble bricklayer could possibly be seen as more deserving of those millions. After all we have all seen the rubble from the past, the rebuilt city after, the bricklayer is the most important man for society in many ways and worth a lot more. He provides courts offices, town halls, and shelter. The major needs of society.
While he and the others were monsters I do have a problem with the constant trials. It comes across as though they kept putting a lot of former Nazis on trial until they got the verdict they wanted. That undermines the credibility of the post war justice system.
Just remember 95% of the Third Reich Burocracy were transferred to the “New Federal Republic of Germany as well thousands of high ranking Waffen SS Offiziers were shipped to the USA (Operation Paper Clip) and thousands more to South and Central America to help to enforce “Pax Americana in Guatemala to Chile 🇨🇱 under Pinochet with the help of Klaus-Roschmann-Gleim ( Gestapo Chief in Warschaw) Network…The rest is untold history…🫵🏼
Bavaria was always a stronghold of the Nazis.