Summary Justice: the Price of Treason for Eight World War Ii German Prisoners of War
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SUMMARY JUSTICE: THE PRICE OF TREASON FOR EIGHT WORLD WAR II GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR A Thesis by Mark P. Schock Bachelor of Arts, Kansas Newman College, 1978 Submitted to the Department of History and the faculty of the Graduate School of Wichita State University in partial fulfillment of Master of Arts May 2011 © Copyright 2011 by Mark P. Schock All Rights Reserved SUMMARY JUSTICE: THE PRICE OF TREASON FOR EIGHT WORLD WAR II GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR The following faculty members have examined the final copy of this thesis for form and content, and recommended that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts with a major in History. ___________________________________ Robert Owens, Committee Chair ___________________________________ Robin Henry, Committee Member ___________________________________ William Woods, Committee Member iii DEDICATION To the memory of my father, Richard Schock, and my uncle Pat Bessette, both of whom encouraged in me a deep love of history and country iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my adviser, Dr. Robert Owens, for his incredible patience with an old dog who had such trouble with new tricks. Special thanks go to Dr. Anthony and Dana Gythiel whose generous grant allowed me to travel to the National Archives and thus gain access to many of the original documents pertinent to this story. I’d also like to thank Colonel Jack Bender, U.S.A.F (ret.), for his insight into the workings of military justice. Special thanks are likewise due to Lowell May, author of two books about German POWs incarcerated in Kansas during World War II. Lowell knows more about the German POW experience than any other person I know, and was always ready to share his special knowledge with me. Dr. Martin Moll, of Graz University in Graz, Austria, offered invaluable help by reviewing my work as it was being written and pointed me to German sources. Dr. Eric Rust of Baylor University offered his insight into the mindset of the men who served in the U-bootwaffe. Mike Dill, editor in chief of Calkins Media, in Miami, Florida followed along as I wrote and offered corrections and much-appreciated encouragement. My mother, Anne, was always ready to proof read as I wrote and offered innumerable suggestions to produce a better work. My wife, Cheryl, likewise proof read my often rambling script and offered many a better alternative. Thanks go out to my life-long friend and partner in adventure, Greg. Your confidence in me allowed me to capture for myself some small measure of the courage and spirit that you possess in such abundance. I needed heavy doses of both to finish this work. The hills are calling partner, and I for one, can’t wait to hit the trail. v ABSTRACT This work is the story of the murder of Werner Drechsler, a German Navy prisoner of war, at the POW camp in Papago Park, Arizona in March 1944. Drechsler had aided his American captors in trying to glean military information from other German Navy POWs at the Fort Hunt, Virginia interrogation center. He was recognized almost immediately upon his arrival at Papago Park, and was murdered the very night he arrived. His killers were also German Navy POWs, whose identity was unknown until a special U. S. Army investigatory board uncovered their identities. Questions remain as to the methods employed by investigators, working on the periphery of that board, to eventually acquire confessions from the seven men responsible for Drechsler’s death. Opinions vary as to the fairness of the court martial which condemned these men to death for their part in the murder. Opinions likewise vary as to the level of culpability of the U. S. Army for Drechsler’s death. The National Archives possesses thousands of pages of documents relating to Drechsler’s activities at Fort Hunt, the reaction of both the German POWS at Papago Park and the U.S. Army to the murder, and to the investigation into the killing. The U. S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals holds the trial transcript and related papers. These documents are often confusing and contradictory. An examination into these sources reveals allegations of coercion employed to gain the confessions, which constitute the only evidence presented against the accused seven men. The sources also reveal that U.S. Army personnel could, and probably should, have prevented the killing from ever taking place. Ultimately, they reveal yet another tragedy of war. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 2. CHILDREN OF THE REICH ............................................................................ 16 3. HEROES OF THE REICH, RATTLESNAKES OF THE ATLANTIC .............. 30 4. FOUR U-BOATS, EIGHT YOUNG MEN ........................................................ 62 5. KRIEGSGEFANGENE (PRISONERS OF WAR) ............................................. 80 6. A SAILORS DEATH IN THE DESERT ........................................................... 92 7. QUESTIONS TO REMAIN UNANSWERED ................................................. 103 8. LEST YE BE JUDGED ................................................................................... 125 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 135 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION We have no right to question his loyalty and devotion to his country any more than we have a right to question our own loyalty and devotion to ours. These men are strangers in a strange land. They have been separated from their armies, and for many purposes have been separated from the system of justice to which they are accustomed. Col. Thomas J. White, J.A.G.D. Ninth Services Command Judge Advocate1 Three of the accused in their testimony complained of improper treatment. I have caused an investigation to be made and I find these complaints are either unfounded or are greatly exaggerated. Whatever improper treatment there may have been had no effect on their later confessions which were voluntarily made and are referred to above. I have taken steps to see that no further instances of this kind will occur. Henry L. Stimson Secretary of War2 World War II produced many truthful stories of both heroism and villainy. The following story, however, is devoid of any obviously identifiable heroes or villains. This story centers around an event which occurred on 13 March 1944, when, in the wording of General Court-Martial Order Number No. 406, dated 21 August 1945, seven German Kriegsmarine (Navy) prisoners of war detained at Prisoner of War Camp, Papago Park, Phoenix, Arizona, did, “with malice aforethought, willfully, deliberately, feloniously, unlawfully, and with premeditation kill one Prisoner of War Werner Drechsler, a human being, by strangulation.”3 The seven German sailors were eventually tried before an American court-martial at Florence, Arizona. The German Navy enlisted men were prosecuted, defended, and 1 Review of Staff Judge Advocate on Record of Trial by General Court-Martial, 15 September 1944. Department of the Army, US Army court of Appeals, Arlington, VA. 2 Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson, Washington, D.C., to President Harry S. Truman, Washington, D.C., 14 February 1945. Papers of Harry S. Truman, White House Central Files, Confidential Files, Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO. 3 General Court-Martial Order No. 406, War Department, Washington 25, D. C., 21 August 1945. Department of the Army, US Army Court of Criminal Appeals, Arlington, Virginia. 1 judged by American Army officers, and in a two-day trial found guilty of “Violation of the 92nd Article of War,” and sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of Werner Drechsler. The sentence pronounced on the seven men was in accordance with the provisions of an occurrence in violation of the 92nd Article of War which reads, in part; “Any person subject to military law who commits murder or rape shall suffer death or imprisonment for life, as a court-martial may direct.”4 Werner Drechsler was no ordinary German Kriegsgefangene (prisoner of war). To his American captors he was an informer who “had given much information to the Armed Forces of the United States of apparent military value.” To his fellow POWs he was “accordingly appraised as a traitor.”5 No matter the politics or ideology espoused by the individual reader of this story, it is difficult to bestow the label of hero upon any individual who betrays his country and comrades. Villain is likewise a difficult label to attach to a man who betrayed a regime so abhorrent as that of Nazi Germany. The seven men at whose hands Werner Drechsler met his death professed that they were motivated to act by their sense of duty as loyal German Soldaten (soldiers).6 At their trial their American defense counsel argued “that it might well be the duty of every soldier to treat a traitor as such.” The honorable performance of duty may be a precursor to heroism, but a further look in to the manner of Werner Drechsler’s death sheds a 4 Richard Whittingham, Martial Justice: The Last Mass Execution in the United States (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1971; Annapolis: Bluejacket Books, 1997), 153; General Court-Martial Order No. 406; Colonel A. N. Tellofson, Washington, D. C., to Legation of Switzerland, Washington D. C., 15 July 1944. Department of the Army, US Army Court of Criminal Appeals, Arlington, Virginia. 5Review of Staff Judge Advocate on Record of Trial by General Court-Martial, German Prisoners of War Helmut Fischer, ISN 10G-1088-NA; Fritz Franke, ISN 10G-1083-NA; Guenther Kuelsen, ISN 10G-1073-NA; Heinrich Ludwig, ISN 7G-132-NA; Bernhard Reyak, ISN 10G-1069-NA; Otto Stengel, ISN 6-112-NA; Rolf Wizuy, ISN 10G-1072-NA. Army Service Forces, Headquarters Ninth Service Command, Office of the Service Command Judge Advocate, Fort Douglas, Utah, 15 September 1944.. 6 American readers may be somewhat confused by the use of the term Soldaten (soldiers) by German naval personnel. As explained to the author, “In the German language everyone wearing a uniform is a soldier, in that respect “soldier” is more ore less a synonym to combatant.” E-mail from Dr.