After the end of war a group of the Special Investigation Branch (SIB) RAF under command of lieutenant MacKenna (died in April 2002) launched an investigation of circumstances of death of POW airmen. Persistent search for the murderers succeeded and 13 participants of the executions were trailed and hanged in Hamburg in February 1948. Some participants of the events who had not taken part in shootings, were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment. At least five Gestapo murderers committed suicides before arrest or in investigation jails. One of the murderers – police commissar Hunter Abasalom died in a Soviet jail in May 1948. Some Gestapo men from Breslau including Lux, who had not less than 27 shot escapees on his conscience, including the Australians Williams and Hake, died in fighting against the Soviet troops during the last days of war. Three more were hanged by the Czechs.
Gestapo Chief Dr Wilhelm Scharpwinkel was masquerading as a Lt Hagamann in the No 6 Hospital at Breslau when Frau Gerda Zembrodt, corroborated by Klaus Lonsky, saw Russian officers remove him at gunpoint. During the enquiry into the murders, the Russians refused to co-operate with the Allied investigation, although after much prodding they allowed Scharpwinkel to make a statement, in Moscow, during August and September 1946. Soon afterwards, Scharpwinkel disappeared and although reported dead by the Russians on 17-Oct-1947, was believed to have found a high position in the Soviet administration. He is almost certain to have died by now.
Strangely enough, no known photograph of him exist...
He and his associate Lux murdered Cross, Casey, Wiley, Leigh, Pohe and Hake. The next day Lux executed Humphries, McGill, Swain, Hall, Langford, Evans, Valenta, Kolanowski, Stewart and Birkland. The day after that, he executed Kiewnarski, Pawluk, Wernham and Skanzikas. On April 6th, Lux murdered Grisman, J E Williams, Milford, Street and McGarr. Long followed soon after. Lux is also believed to have killed Tobolski and Krol, who vanished in the same area as the others. Lux, with at least twenty-seven murders on his soul, died in the fighting around Breslau at the end of the war. Gunn, killed at Breslau, is likely to have been another of their victims.
The Murderers and their Accessories
Stalag Luft 3, Zagan - Poland
I cannot find what was Scharpwinkel's special field in which he was a doctor...
One thing is sure, he was a professional murderer...
Look here:
http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation...zkommandos.htm
On the list of arch-murderers and Einsatzkommando chiefs, Dr. Sharpwinkel is also visible. Most of those murderers were doctors... Of what? Not medicine for sure. Philosophy???
Cheers,
Lancer44