He was the commonant of the deadliest concentration camp of World War II who was actually executed inside the walls of his former camp on a specially built gallows.

Rudolfph Hurst was the man who built Ashvitz from the ground up and he created a site in whichever 1 million people would be slaughtered inside the barbwire fences.

It was hers who introduced the gas chambers to the camp, and he also oversaw executions himself on the death wall, a harrowing firing range next to the torture block.

But Rudolph Hurst, at the end of the war, was captured, and he was brought to a courtroom to answer for the terrifying crimes he had been involved in.

He was, after all, the longest serving comedant of Ashvitz, and some of his victims petitioned to have him executed inside of the former camp.

But there were hundreds that day who saw Rudolph her slowly strangled to death on the gallows.

But this was an execution which for many of them was much more harrowing than they thought when they first entered the camp.

But why was this? Rudolph Hurst had very few if any redeeming qualities.

As a teenager he was the youngest NCO in the German army.

But after the conflict of the first world war, he was sent to prison as he was involved in the murder of a local school teacher.

This man had been slaughtered by Hurse and his cronies, and he had been ordered to do this by Martin Borman, the future private secretary of Adolf Hitler.

He then met a lady named Hedvik Hensel following his release and they married, but then he embarked on a career and life inside of the Nazi party.

Rudolph Hurst became noticed by head of the SS Hinrich Himmler and the pair then became close friends but within the SS he became a prominent figure within the death’s heads unit those people who staff the concentration camps to begin with he worked at Dhau and was promoted but then inside Saxonhausen Hurse oversaw the execution squads and was the one who gave the firing squad the order to fire personally finishing people off with his pistol and giving them a coup dera gunshot.

He was later dispatched to research and write a report on the establishment of a concentration camp within the conquered territory of western Poland.

And this report spoke of the favorable And this report spoke of the favorable location.

It was built around a former army barracks and Hurst was given the go-ahad to build the concentration camp and he was made the comedant of the site.

This camp of course would become Avitz.

He wanted to make a camp which focused on mass murder, having thousands executed every week.

And he wanted to make a site which slaughtered the most people in the quickest time.

Hurse introduced the gas chambers to Ashvitz and oversaw personally the first trials of gas at the camp within the basement of block 11, the torture block.

But punishment and terror was found around every corner at the camp.

and he deployed a fearsome guard staff who are encouraged to brutalize and beat inmates to keep them in submission and then carry out public executions within the camp’s roll call yards.

Also, Rudolph Hurst was involved in overseeing his guards during selections as prisoners who were brought to the camp were then gassed within the gas chambers within a matter of minutes.

He later claimed about this that and I quote, “Technically, it wasn’t so hard.

It wouldn’t it would not have been hard to have exterminated even greater numbers.

The killing itself took the least time.

You could dispose of 2,000 heads in half an hour.

But it was the burning that took all the time.

The killing was easy.

You didn’t even need guards to drive them into the chambers.

They just went in expecting to take showers and instead of water, we turned on poison gas.

The whole thing went very quickly.

Inside Ashvitz, he also allowed sadistic medical experiments conducted by doctors such as the angel of death, Ysef Mangala, but he was sacked as a comedant in November 1943 as it was claimed he had an affair with a prisoner of the camp who also then felt pregnant.

Whilst at Ashvitz, his family lived next door in a large villa, and it was known that he could separate his destructive work and family life rather well.

He did return to Ashvitz to oversee Operation Hurse, obviously named after him, in which 430,000 Hungarian Jews were killed at the camp in just 56 days, an act of mass slaughter that stretched Avitz to its limits.

Huren spent the last few months of the Second World War at Ravensbrook, an all female camp, before he went into hiding, posing as a gardener inside the town of Gautrupal under a false name.

His wife and children had been arrested by the British and were interrogated as to where he truly was and eventually they gave over the information required.

Rudolfph Hurst was captured in 1946 and his arrest was rough as he was beaten badly by the British as they wanted to inflict some vengeance.

He was then brought to the Nuremberg trials acting as a defense witness and he claimed that and I quote, “I commanded Ashvitz until the 1st of December 1943 and estimate that at least 2 and a2 million victims were executed and exterminated there by gassing and burning and at least another half million succumb to starvation and disease making a total of around 3 million dead.

This figure represents about 70 to 80% of all persons sent to Ashvitz as prisoners.

the remainder having been selected and used for slave labor in the concentration camp industries.

He later revised his death tolls to around 1 million.

But on the 25th of May 1946, he was handed over to the Polish authorities and specifically the Supreme National Tribunal to stand trial for his crimes.

Rudolfph Hurst’s trial took place in March 1947, and he was sentenced to death weeks after it began.

He claimed in prison awaiting his execution that, and I quote, “My conscience compels me to make the following declaration.

In the solitude of my prison cell, I have come to bitter recognition that I have sinned gravely against humanity.

As comedant of Avitz, I was responsible for carrying out part of the cruel plans of the Third Reich for human destruction.

In so doing, I have inflicted terrible wounds on humanity.

I caused unspeakable suffering for the Polish people in particular.

I am to pay for this with my life.

Whilst he was awaiting execution, former prisoners of Ashvitz petitioned for the execution to actually take place inside of Ashvitz, the former camp that Hers oversaw.

The judges allowed this special execution to occur as it would for some act as a form of closure to their treatment during World War II.

Specifically, he was to hang on the gallows, and this was built by German prisoners of war, and it was made from wood and was fitted with a trap door for him to fall through.

This has been confirmed by the existence of some photographs showing Hurse having gone through the scaffold structure.

Now, for many, the execution inside of Ashvitz was very triggering.

They had been invited to witness Hurse’s execution, and most of these were former prisoners of the camp.

They walked through the site to take position in the main square of Ashvitz one, a place which for them symbolized death and terror.

On the 16th of April 1946, Hurst was executed on the gallows.

He was brought to the camp at around 8:00 a.

m.

and was then sent to the camp’s jail within block 11 where he drank a cup of coffee.

Shortly before 10:00 a.

m.

, he was led towards his execution, and he paraded throughout the camp’s main street, and his hands had been secured behind his back.

He then stood back when he arrived at the gallows, and looked at the structure, which would take his life.

The method of execution was slow strangulation, and there was no big drop, which was aimed to snap his neck, bringing death instantly.

There was just a slow struggle as he fought for his life.

The executioner, who was hooded, to prevent his identity being confirmed, helped Rudolph Hurse onto the gallows, and then an official read the death sentence.

A priest heard Hurse’s final words, and the executioner of them helped him onto a stool underneath the cross beam, and then the noose was secured around his neck.

The hangman then had to readjust the noose as Hurse had moved his head.

But at 10:08 a.

m.

, the store was removed and the small trap door was then released.

Hurse was left strung up on the gallows by his neck and he kicked and struggled significantly as the life was choked out of him.

For the witnesses, around 200 of them stood by watching.

Seeing someone die in front of them, despite the man’s reputation, may have been harrowing, and Hurse was kicking for minutes.

He struggled, but then his body went limp.

He was not confirmed dead until 13 long minutes later.

Now the execution was not quick.

There was no instant snapping of the neck.

Just a slow strangling of a man who had caused so much suffering.

The reminder of death inside of the camp of Ashvitz for those who witness the execution may have been too terrifying also as they went back through the gates of a camp which caused them so much trauma and suffering.

Today, the gallows, which was only ever used that day, still remains inside the camp.

And Rudolph Hurse was the last person in history who was ever executed inside the walls of Ashvitz.

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