View allAll Photos Tagged Execution
The reason for the executions, in cases where the Germans had some alleged reason, was mostly due to illegal work or attempting to leave the country. This involved 136 Norwegians. Their sentences were carried out publicly. The other 37 Norwegian citizens executed in Trandumskogen were made without judgement. Two Gestapo soldiers were shot in Telavåg while trying to stop an attempted escape to England. This was followed by reprisals in the form of mass destruction and executions. Others were taken to Grini for so-called "Flower Picking" and shot because sabotage bombers blew up a military transport train in Mjøndalen.
Most of the Russians who were shot were prisoners of war who had escaped from a prison transport.
Five of the six Englishmen were commando soldiers from one of the glider aircraft that had to make an emergency landing during the preparations for the action against the Rjukan heavy water facility. The last one, R. P. Evans, was with Shetlands-Larsen on the unsuccessful mission against the Tirpitz in November 1942. He was badly injured when the guys were on their way to Sweden. His comrades didn't think he would surive the journey, and because he was in English uniform, he was left without shooting him as the rule was. The Germans they had fought with took him prisoner and sent him to a hospital where he was until he recovered. Then they drove him out into Trandum forest and shot him with the other captured commando soldiers. They violated all international conventions, as both Russians and Englishmen were shot in uniform.
In the forest, an execution platoon with Hauptstürmbannführer Oscar Hans as leader, were waiting. This platoon, apart from Oscar Hans, consisted of volunteer German soldiers who saw it as a great honor to shoot Norwegian patriots. The graves were already dug. Those who were to be shot were led to the grave edge and shot with coarse caliber projectiles. The excavations and autopsies later showed that those who were bound together did not always dead when the graves were filled again. During the autopsy, a body was found that had a lot of sand in the lungs. They had obviously been breathing when the graves were filled in.
After the execution, a layer of lime was thrown over the bodies. The lime should dissolve and burn the bodies so that it would be impossible to identify them. Most of the graves were filled right away, but some were open as the executions took place over several days. After the tombs were filled again, all traces were cleared away. Empty cartridge sleeves were collected etc. The purpose was obviously to hide everything. But one thing they did worked against them. They dug up bushes and small trees from nearby and planted them on the graves. They died of course and made it easier for the investigation commission to find them after the liberation.
In 1946 a memorial was raised. A cross of stripped birch was set up by the road East of the tank shooting range.
On October 10th, 1954, this memorial was unveiled by H. K. H. Crown Prince Olav. Professor Per Palle Storm, had performed the artistic part of the work. The memorial is crowned by light Iddefjord granite. Towards the South is an inscription written in Norwegian. The same text translated into Russian is on the East and in English to the West. The memorial is located south of the grave field.
You can read all this and more (in Norsk) here - www.elg-johansen.com/Krigsside/FKL - Trandumskogen.htm
taken with Nokia N73 during international festival of programmes for children and youth - Prix Danube 2007 - that took place in the art museum Danubiana
The nail that sticks out must be pounded down.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT A CRIME*
________________ ___________________ ______________
The word from the officials regarding the police harassment I've received:
"Although Cst. Hynes had the power to seize Dean's entire camera, it appears that he inconvenienced Dean less by simply deleting the images in question and then returning the camera to him."
(The Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner)
"Sgt. Sawyer located numerous concerning photographs in your internet collection, including dolls manipulated into sexual positions..."
(The Victoria Chief of Police)
"Your complaint and the outcome is a classic example of why we have no faith in the police complaints system in B.C."
(David Eby, Executive Director of the B. C. Civil Liberties Assoc.)
"...the investigation report aims to discredit Mr. Dean and to treat the complaint as not being a serious matter. That is, with respect, inappropriate."
(Robert Holmes, President of the B. C. Civil Liberties Assoc.)
________________ ___________________ ______________
*based on the photo by Eddie Adams - "The Execution of a Viet Cong Guerrilla" (1968)
South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes a Viet Cong prisoner with a single pistol shot in the head in Saigon Feb. 1, 1968. Nguyen died Wednesday, July 15, 1998 at his home in Burke, a suburb of Washington, D.C., after a battle with cancer, said his daughter, Nguyen Anh. He was 67. This photo of Nguyen aiming a pistol point-blank at the grimacing prisoner's head became a memorable image of the Vietnam War. The photograph, by Eddie Adams, won a Pulitzer prize for The Associated Press.
With North Vietnam’s Tet Offensive beginning, Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnam’s national police chief, was doing all he could to keep Viet Cong guerrillas from Saigon. As Loan executed a prisoner who was said to be a Viet Cong captain, AP photographer Eddie Adams opened the shutter. Adams felt that many misinterpreted the scene, and when told in 1998 that the immigrant Loan had died of cancer at his home in Burke, Va., he said, “The guy was a hero. America should be crying. I just hate to see him go this way, without people knowing anything about him.”
Business Books That Matter is a new Book Club program co-organized by White & Lee and the Software Development Forum (SDForum) and sponsored by Microsoft.
The conversation centered on Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.
Moderator:
Mark Cameron White
Partner, White & Lee LLP
Panelists:
J. Peter Herz
Former CEO of 3ware, Inc. and Board Chairman, IPextreme, Inc.
Bruce Lichorowic
CEO, Intalio, Inc.
General consensus was that the book was good for large company process execution with a Midwest mentality. But in the Silicon Valley, emphasis is on innovation and practice.
A "razakar", referring to the local militiamen accused of looting and committing murder and rape under Pakistani command during the past nine bloody months, pleads for mercy as Mukthi Bahini soldiers pummel him prior to bayoneting him to death at an execution of four men, Dec. 18, 1971, at a Dhaka, East Pakistan, race course (AP Photo/Michel Laurent/Horst Faas)
Alfred "Jake" Lingle was a reporter for the Chicago Tribune who liked to mingle with cops and gangsters alike. In June of 1930, Lingle had just walked down these subway steps when he was shot in the head from behind and killed. Despite the conviction of Leo Vincent Brothers for the murder it's probable that he was taking the rap for the real killer. Lingle had made enemies of Al Capone and had threatened Bugs Moran 2 weeks prior over his share of the Sheridan Wave nightclub. The hit could have been ordered by either side of the Beer War.
Located at the southwest corner of Michigan Ave. and Randolph St.
I knelt to take this shot of a cross that commemorates the execution (by firing squad) of one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Uprising in Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) in Dublin. As I did, a woman tripped over the base of that flagpole and fell.
Delhi, commemoration of the Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur
Guru Tegh Bahadur (1 April 1621 – 24 November 1675), revered as the ninth Nanak, was the ninth of ten Gurus (Prophets) of the Sikh religion. Guru Tegh Bahadur carried forward the light of sanctity and divinity of the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak; his spiritual revelations dealing with varied themes such as the nature of God, human attachments, body, mind, sorrow, dignity, service, death and deliverance, are registered in the form of 115 poetic hymns in the sacred text Guru Granth Sahib.
Although a Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Tegh Bahadur was approached by Hindu Pandits from Kashmir in 1675, to seek his intercession against the forced conversions of Hindus to Islam by the Mughal rulers of India. For resisting these forced conversions and for himself refusing to convert to Islam, Guru Teg Bahadur was publicly executed via beheading at the imperial capital Delhi on the orders of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Along with Guru Teg Bahadur, three other Sikhs, Bhai Mati Das, Bhai Sati Das and Bhai Dayala, were also executed. Owing to this sacrifice, Guru Tegh Bahadur is revered as Hind-di-Chaadar (shield of Hind(India)). Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib and Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in Delhi mark the places of execution and cremation of the Guru's body.
(source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Tegh_Bahadur)
This is one of the last photos I took and it's one of my favorites. Great execution in having the zebra on his t-shirt complement his face.
Sure Roschler! Be the funny guy Roschler! But now you will see the wrath of Roschler in the first ever live televised Execution On Flickr!
On 29 December 1880 Tuhiata, the convicted murderer of artist Mary Dobie, was executed in Wellington gaol.
Tuhiata, usually known as Tuhi, had later said the he never intended Mary harm. The pair had a fatal meeting out in the countryside where she was sketching, and by his account his attempt to ask her where she was from was misunderstood as she spoke no Māori and he little English. But when he dismounted from his horse and came towards her she became frightened and tried to give him the coins in her pocket to make him go away. She then uttered the fatal words that would lead to her death, telling him she would tell the soldiers about him. Fearful of being charged with theft he grabbed her and committed the far greater crime of murder, cutting her throat and dragging her body behind a flax bush.
Blood stained trousers believed to be Tuhi’s were recovered from the scene and his bloody knife was also found. The day of Mary’s murder was fine and she had visited the local store to buy a carpenter’s pencil for her sketching. A gifted artist she had supplied sketches of New Zealand scenery which were published in the London Graphic magazine. As she made her purchase Tuhi was also in the store where he unsuccessfully tried to buy a pair of moleskin trousers on credit. The same day he was seen dancing in the tap room of the local pub before riding his black horse in the direction Mary had taken. Before the murder he had been well thought of and was described by one witness as “usually a quiet man. He is not quarrelsome.” He was arrested and tried in Wellington where the jury took only 20 minutes to unanimously decide on his guilt. He was hanged soon after and the newspapers reported that he had walked “firmly” onto the scaffold and that death was instantaneous
Shown here is the coroner’s certification of Tuhiata’s death. It includes the official cause of death by hanging and the names of all witnesses present at the execution.
ACGS 16211 J1/283/u 1881/9
collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search#/?q=R24425793
More information can be found here:
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18801230.2.50?q...
nzhistory.govt.nz/hokianga-chief-patuone-arrives-in-sydne...
For updates on our On This Day series and news from Archives New Zealand, follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/ArchivesNZ
Material supplied by Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga
Foggy, panoramic view of the Long Island Sound and Execution Rocks Lighthouse (1850) from Sands Point, Long Island, NY.
It is rumored that the lighthouse's site got its name before the American Revolutionary War when British colonial authorities executed people by chaining them to the rocks at low tide, allowing the rising water to drown them. This folklore has never been verified by any historical record. The name for this island was actually chosen to reflect the historically dangerous shipping area created by the rocks' exposure during low tides. On March 3, 1847, the United States Congress appropriated $25,000 for creation of Execution Rocks Lighthouse. Designed by Alexander Parris, construction was completed in 1849, although it was not lit until 1850. Over the years, it has survived both a fire and a shipwreck. [Wikipedia]
The execution post inside the Town Hall yard at Poperinge.
At least five executions were carried out here.
Posted with permission of Anne & George Rennison.
About twentyfour United States Navy SEALs approached the === INTERRUPT === THIS CAKE HAS BEEN OCCUPIED.
legos will be spilt this night!
I used a single flash(580EXII) inside of a westcott apollo softbox at camera left and triggered with pocket wizards TT1. shot at 1/400th to take down the ambient light.
According to Kaleme website, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall and his family have been informed of his imminent execution during this week’s visit at Evin Prison.
Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, 42, was arrested in 2008 while visiting his family, and was later charged with espionage.
He was sentenced to death in 2009. An Iranian court has rejected an appeal.
“Canada is gravely concerned by indications that the execution of Mr. Ghassemi-Shall may be carried out imminently,” Baird said in a joint statement Sunday with Diane Ablonczy, the junior minister for foreign affairs.
Baird called on the Iranian government to grant clemency to Ghassemi-Shall on compassionate and humanitarian grounds and to respect its international human rights obligations.
The Iranian-born Ghassemi-Shall emigrated to Canada after Iran’s 1979 revolution, and most recently lived in Toronto.
He is awaiting execution in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where another Canadian — photojournalist Zahra Kazemi of Montreal — was beaten, raped and killed in 2003.
Another Canadian resident, web programmer Saeed Malekpour of Richmond Hill, Ont., is also on death row in Evin prison. Malekpour, who was born in Iran, is charged with setting up a website that was used to post pornography. He maintains his innocence and says he was tortured into confessing to crimes against Islam.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is also calling on Iran to spare the life of an Iranian-Canadian convicted of espionage and awaiting execution.
Harper warned there will be consequences if Hamid Ghassemi-Shall is executed.
Harper’s warning followed a similar statement by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird who said Sunday that Ottawa is “gravely concerned” by indications that Ghassemi-Shall’s execution may be imminent.
“We urge Iran to reverse its current course and to adhere to its international human rights obligations,” Baird said.
■■■■■ www.persianicons.org/human-right/iranian-canadian-facing-... ■■■■■
1st panel, top: The execution of Maximilian in 1867.
Maximilian of the House of Hapsburg was an Austrian archduke who was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico with the backing of France and Mexican monarchists. Republican forces led by Benito Juárez, refused to recognize his administration. When France withdrew its military support after pressure from America, Maximilian and his generals were captured and executed in 1867. His last words were, "I forgive everyone, and I ask everyone to forgive me. May my blood which is about to be shed, be for the good of the country. Viva Mexico, viva la independencia!".
In the mural, the imperial eagle of the Hapsburgs flies away from Mexico, towards Europe after Maximilian's death.
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1st panel, bottom: Indians constructing new buildings and the branding of Indian slaves by the Spanish conquistadors.
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Between 1st & 2nd panel, middle: Hernán Cortés and his Mexican mistress La Malinche, with their son Martin. Below this is the suppression of the Mayan culture with the burning of the Mayan codices & manuscripts by the Bishops Juan de Zumárraga and Diego de Landa.
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2nd panel, top: The Mexican Revolution (1910-20).
On the left side is the dictator Porfirio Diaz. His policies gave most of Mexico's resources away to foreign companies, as shown by the various industries in the background.
On the right are the leading Revolutionaries. Notable figures are Otilio Montaño who is the figure wearing his headband. He stands next to Emiliano Zapata, a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution. Pancho Villa is the figure sporting a macho mustache and wearing the sombrero.
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2nd panel, middle: An auto-da-fé during the Inquisition in Mexico. The figure in glasses to the left side of the heretics is the archbishop Juan de Mendoza and the religious figure to the right is Pedro Moya de Contreras who was the inquisitor general, and archbishop & Viceroy of Mexico.
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2nd panel, bottom: A Conquistador rapes an Indian woman and behind him, native Tlaxcaltecans who sided & fought alongside with the Spanish.
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3rd panel, top: Banner with the Zapatista slogan "Tierra y Libertad" (Land and Liberty). From left to right above the banner are Emiliano Zapata (the revolutionary leader), Felipe Carrillo Puerto (governor of Yucatán), and José Guadalupe Rodríquez..
On the top left are Álvaro Obregón Salido and Plutarco Elías Calles. Both were key players in the Mexican Revolution. Alvaro Obregón Salido was was a Mexican farmer and general who became President in 1920. Plutarco Elías Calles was a Mexican general and politician who suceeded Obregón as President.
Below Álvaro Obregón in the mural are Agustín de Iturbide (in red and white regal costume) and Vicente Guerrero (in red vest holding the banner).
At the end of the Mexican War of Independence, the Army of the Three Guarantees was created to fight Spanish royalist forces which refused to accept Mexican independence. The army was formed from the unification of the Spanish troops led by Agustín de Iturbide and the Mexican insurgent troops of Vicente Guerrero. The decree creating this army stated the three guarantees which it was meant to defend: religion, independence, and unity.
In the mural, Vicente Guerrero is holding the flag of the Three Guarantees. On 27 September 1821, Iturbide led the Army of the Three Guarantees triumphantly into Mexico City; the following day Mexico was declared independent.
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3rd panel, centre: Miguel Hidalgo's response to the Spanish prohibition against growing grapes to protect the sales of Spanish imports of the items.
Miguel Hidalgo, was a Mexican priest and a leader of the Mexican War of Independence. He tried to help the poor by showing them how to grow olives and grape. In 1810 he gave the famous speech, "The Cry of Dolores", calling upon the people to protect the interest of their King Fernando VII (held captive by Napoleon) by revolting against the Spaniards. He led an army of poor farmers & civilians across Mexico, but was eventually defeated and killed by the Spanish.
The figure holding the sword is Martín Cortée (son of Hernán Cortés and La Malinche). He was educated in Spain and returned to Mexico in 1563. However, he was accused of conspiracy against the Crown and subsequently imprisoned, tortured and sentenced to indefinite exile in Spain, never to return to Mexico.
Eagle clutching the Aztec symbol of war, the Atl-Tlachinolli ("burning water").
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3rd panel, bottom: The siege of Tenochtitlan 1521.
Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Aztec Empire. During the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Hernán Cortés allied with rivals of the Aztecs, including the Totonacs, and the Tlaxcaltecas. Cortés fought numerous battles against the Aztecs, but it was the siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521 that was the final and decisive battle that led to the downfall of the Aztec civilization.
Cuauhtémoc was the Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan at the time of the siege. His name means "One That Has Descended Like an Eagle". As Tenochtitlán fell to the Spanish, Cuauhtémoc was captured and tortured by Hernán Cortés. In 1525, he was hanged for treason while accompanying a Spanish expedition to Guatemala.
In the mural, Hernán Cortés is on horseback with vizer up leading the attack. Beneath him are indigenous peoples who fought alongside the Spanish against the Aztecs.
Cuauhtémoc is dressed in an eagle costume, leading the defense of Tenochtitlán. Next to him is a priest who offers up a Spanish victim's heart. Next to the Priest is Cuitláhuac, who ruled Tenochtitlan for just 80 days and was succeeded by Cuauhtémoc. Cuitláhuac died of smallpox that had been introduced to the New World by the Europeans.
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4th panel, top: The Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1857.
The Constitution of 1957 was ratified on February 5, 1857 establishing individual rights for Mexicans such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the right to bear arms. It also reaffirmed the abolition of slavery.
However, some of the reforms curtailed the power of the Catholic Church, restricting their privileges and forcing the sale of property belonging to the church.
In the mural, Benito Juárez who was the President of the Republic, is seen holding the constitution.
In the background are men with pick-axes destroying churches and the door of the central church is already destroyed.
Between the monk and the Pope is Antonio López de Santa Anna, president of Mexico on several occasions. He was corrupt and funneled government funds into his own pockets.In 1855 a group of liberals led by Benito Juárez and Ignacio Comonfort overthrew Santa Anna and fled to Cuba.
Opposite Antonio López de Santa Anna is Miguel Miramón - a staunch conservative who opposed the Constitution of 1857 and fought in the War of Reform. In 1867, he was shot for treason on the order of President Benito Juárez. The broken sword held by Miguel Miramón in the mural represents his betrayal of Mexico.
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4th panel, centre: The New Laws of 1542.
The New Laws of 1542 were created to prevent the exploitation of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas by the Encomenderos. This included its solemn prohibition of their enslavement and stated that the natives would be considered free persons and the encomenderos could no longer demand their labour.
The Spanish missionary Bartolomé de las Casas was instrumental for the creation of the New Laws, who was able to influence the King to sign the New Laws. His active role in the reform movement earned Bartolomé de las Casas the nickname, "Defender of the Indians".
In the mural, Bartolomé de las Casas is seen holding a cross shielding Indigenous people from the Spanish conquerors. A stone serpent sculpture is used as a Christian baptismal font to baptise Indigenous people.
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5th panel, top: The Mexican–American War (1846-48).
The Mexican–American War started after the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory.
The mural shows scenes of the Battle of Chapultepec in September 1847. Nicolás Bravo was the Mexican general who led the troops defending Chapultepec Castle.
In the mural, Nicolás Bravo is holding his sword in front of the Mexican troops. Chapultepec Castle is in the background and the flying eagle holds the Aztec symbol of war, the Atl-Tlachinolli.
The National Palace, Mexico City.
The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name. The image is a real photograph.
The card was posted in Johannesburg on Saturday the 31st. July 1937 to:
Master Nigel Hunt,
Riseholme,
Lincoln,
England.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Casa Mia,
Soper Road,
Berea,
Johannesburg.
July 29/37.
How would you like to
live in one of these
little huts?
They are made of mud,
with a grass roof and
doors. They have no
glass in the windows,
and are pitch dark, and
full of frogs and lizards.
They are where you
have to stay in the
wilds.
Thank you for your
letter.
Love to all,
Aunt Helen Marshall".
A Bomb in Belfast
So what else happened on the day that Aunt Helen posted the card to her nephew?
Well, on the 31st. July 1937, Belfast was shaken by a land mine explosion in the West End, 50 yards from a police barracks.
The Butovo Shooting Range
Also on that day, during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, the NKVD issued a Decree entitled:
"On the operation of repressing
former kulaks, criminals and other
anti-Soviet elements."
The political repression that followed resulted in large numbers of death sentences and execution quotas. Local cemeteries in Moscow were unable to accommodate the sheer volume of purge victims executed in area prisons.
To address the issue, the NKVD allocated two new special facilities - Butovo and Kommunarka shooting grounds - to serve as a combination of execution site and mass grave.
The Butovo Shooting Range was an execution site of the Soviet secret police located near Drozhzhino in Leninsky District, Moscow Oblast from 1937 to 1953.
Butovo was used for mass executions and mass graves during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, with 20,762 prisoners of various nationalities documented as being transported to the site and executed by the NKVD and its successor agencies.
The victims included more than 1,000 members of the Russian Orthodox clergy.
On the 8th. August 1937, the first 91 victims were transported to Butovo from Moscow prisons. Over the next 14 months, 20,761 were executed and subsequently buried at the site, with a further 14,000 being shot and buried at the nearby Kommunarka Firing Range located 5 miles (8.0 km) to the northwest.
On average, 50 persons were executed per day during the Great Purge; some days saw no executions, while on others hundreds were shot. Records indicate that the busiest day of all was the 28th. February 1938, when 562 people were executed.
The last 52 victims of Stalin's purges were executed at Butovo on the 19th. October 1938. After that date, Butovo was no longer used as a mass execution site, but continued to be used for the burial of those executed in Moscow prisons. Executions continued at other nearby locations such as Sukhanovka and Kommunarka until at least 1941, and most likely on into 1953.
A German prisoner of war camp was established near Butovo during World War II, and prisoners were used as forced labour to build the Warsaw Highway. Those who were too ill or exhausted to work were shot and thrown into the Butovo ditches. The commandant's office was located just 100 meters from the funerary ditches, and later became a retreat for senior NKVD officers.
The Execution Process
Victims were rounded up as soon as sentences were handed down by non-judicial bodies: committees of three persons, “troikas”, or of two persons “dvoika”, or of the military tribunal of the Supreme Court.
They were then transported to Butovo in trucks marked “Bread” or "Meat" in order to disguise operations from local residents. Some prisoners would be immediately killed upon arrival when their truck was flooded with carbon monoxide, and their bodies then disposed of in nearby ditches.
Most victims however were led to a long barrack, ostensibly for a medical exam, where there was a roll call and reconciliation of people with file dossiers including photos. These same photos from NKVD files would later serve as memorials to victims. Only after the paperwork was complete would they pronounce the death sentence.
After sunrise, NKVD officers, often drunk from the bucket of vodka provided to them, would escort prisoners away from the barracks and shoot them at close range in the back of the head, often with a Nagant M1895 revolver.
Those shot were then dumped into one of 13 ditches totalling 900 m (0.56 mi) in length. The width of each ditch was 4–5 m, and the depth approximately 4 m.
Executions and burials were made without notice to relatives and without church or civil funeral services. Relatives of those who were shot began only in 1989 to receive certificates indicating the exact date and cause of death.
The Victims
Victims at Butovo were deemed "Enemies of the People", and came from all parts of Soviet society and various nationalities, with many dying without understanding what crimes they had been accused of.
They included workers, peasants, kulaks, former White Guards, and other "Anti-Soviet Elements."
Russian aristocrats and the pre-revolutionary elite, Old Bolsheviks, military generals, sportsmen, aviators and artists, “dangerous social elements” such as tramps, beggars, thieves, petty criminals, and those guilty of “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" were rounded up and executed.
Victims were overwhelmingly male (95.86%) and most were between 25 and 50 years old when they died. Among those executed, 18 persons were older than 75, and 10 were children aged 15 years or younger. The youngest person executed was 13-year-old Misha Shamonin, an orphan and street child, for the theft of two loaves of bread.
More than 60 different nationalities are also represented among the victims including French, Americans, Italians, Chinese, and Japanese.
As well as the 1000 clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church, executions took place at Butovo of Lutheran, Protestant, and Catholic clergy, mostly from Poland or Austria.
In particular, the Kommunarka witnessed executions of high-profile political and public figures from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Comintern leaders from Germany, Romania, France, Turkey, Bulgaria, Finland, and Hungary. Most of Mongolia's top leadership, including former Prime Minister Anandyn Amar and 28 associates, were executed at Kommunarka on the 27th. July 1941.
Notable Deaths at Butovo
Butovo's status as a main execution site meant many notable people were killed and buried at the site including Soviet military commander Hayk Bzhishkyan; Tsarist statesman Vladimir Dzhunkovsky; the painter Aleksandr Drevin, film actress Marija Leiko, and photographer Gustav Klutsis who were all Latvian; Orthodox bishop Seraphim Chichagov, and Prince Dmitry Shakhovskoy; former President of the State Duma Fyodor Golovin; the first Russian aviator Nikolai Danilevsky; arctic explorer Otto Shmidt; composer Mikhail Khitrovo-Kramskoi; theoretical physicist Hans Hellmann; five tsarist generals and representatives of Russian noble families such as the Rostopchins, the Tuchkovs, the Gagarins, the Obolenskys, the Olsufiyevs, and the Bibikovs.
Many German Communist Party (KPD) members were also among the victims, for example Hermann Taubenberger and Walter Haenisch, with over two hundred shot with the explicit approval of KPD leaders Wilhelm Pieck and Walter Ulbricht, having been betrayed to the NKVD, it is said, by Herbert Wehner, then still a member of the KPD Politburo.
Butovo's Legacy
The Butovo Shooting Range was heavily guarded by the Soviet KGB and, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian FSK until 1995.
On the 7th. June 1993, a small group of activists, officials, and some relatives of those who died at Butovo, visited the site. In October 1993, a plaque was inaugurated that read:
“In this zone of the Butovo Shooting Range,
several thousand people were, in 1937-1938,
shot in secret and buried."
A year later, Russian Orthodox Church interest in the site was piqued when archivists discovered that Seraphim Chichagov, the Metropolitan of Leningrad and senior figure of the church, was killed there.
In 1995, Russian security agencies transferred both Butovo and Kommunarka to the Russian Orthodox Church for “use without time limit”. A small wooden church, the Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, was inaugurated on the 16th. June 1996. The Church of the Resurrection, a larger white stone structure, was completed in 2007.
On the 30th. October 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin commemorated the 70th. anniversary of the repressions by visiting the Butovo Firing Range, attributing the deaths of victims to the “excesses of the political conflict.
Putin's statement was criticised by some; they and pointed out that his statement signalled the failure of Putin, and perhaps Russian society as a whole, to come to grips with the fact that the victims of Butovo were killed not because they were political opponents of Stalin, but simply because of their backgrounds or nationalities, or that they simply were caught up in the purge mechanism that sought to repress or eliminate large swaths of potential dissenters to Stalin's rule.
In September 2017, a new memorial, a Garden of Memory, was opened. The monument consists of two granite slabs on which are engraved the names of 20,762 people who died at Butovo. The monument measures 984 ft. long, and 6.5 ft. tall.
"9956-- Execution by the Garrote in the Yard of the City Prison, Havana, Cuba" copyright 1899 B.L. Singley, Keystone View Company
More photo's of Auschwitz here
Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of Nazi Germany's concentration camps. Located in German-occupied southern Poland, it took its name from the nearby town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz in German), situated about 50 kilometers west of Kraków and 286 kilometers from Warsaw. Following the German occupation of Poland in September 1939, Oświęcim was incorporated into Germany and renamed Auschwitz. The word Birkenau means 'Birch tree' of which there are many surrounding the Birkenau area of the complex.
The complex consisted of three main camps: Auschwitz I, the administrative center; Auschwitz II (Birkenau), an extermination camp or Vernichtungslager; and Auschwitz III (Monowitz), a work camp.
The camp commandant, Rudolf Höss, testified at the Nuremberg Trials that up to 2.5 million people had died at Auschwitz. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum revised this figure in 1990, and new calculations now place the figure at 1.1–1.6 million, about 90 percent of them Jews from almost every country in Europe. Most of the dead were killed in gas chambers using Zyklon B; other deaths were caused by systematic starvation, forced labor, lack of disease control, individual executions, and so-called medical experiments.
www.auschwitz.org.pl/new/index.php?language=EN&tryb=s...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp
Stockholm's executioner once lived and worked on this street (says Fredo). It may look charming, but many people died here.