Stutthof Executions: Public Hanging of Nazi Camp Guards in Postwar Poland

The Stutthof executions of 1946 were among the rare public punishments of Nazi war criminals, when former SS guards from the Stutthof concentration camp were hanged before a large crowd in Gdańsk.On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, launching the Second World War and beginning one of the darkest chapters in European history. Within days of the invasion, the Germans established Stutthof, the first Nazi concentration camp built outside the borders of Germany, near Danzig—today’s Gdańsk. Initially created to imprison Polish elites, clergy, and political leaders, Stutthof quickly evolved into a major center of terror, forced labor, and mass murder. Over the course of the war, more than 100,000 prisoners passed through the Stutthof camp system and its 105 subcamps. At least 60,000 people perished, killed by starvation, disease, lethal injections, gas chambers, executions, and brutal evacuations known as death marches. Women and children were among the victims, especially after the camp became part of the so-called “Final Solution” in 1944. As Allied forces closed in, thousands of prisoners were forced on death marches or murdered outright along the Baltic coast. When the Red Army liberated Stutthof in May 1945, only a handful of inmates were found alive, hiding among the ruins of the camp. After the war, former SS personnel and guards—both men and women—were put on trial during the Stutthof Trials. Eleven perpetrators were sentenced to death and publicly executed in July 1946 before a crowd of 200,000 people in Gdańsk. Among them were female guards whose cruelty toward prisoners, including children, became infamous. Their execution marked one of the very few public punishments of Nazi war criminals in postwar Poland. This documentary examines Stutthof concentration camp, its victims, its perpetrators, and the rare moment when justice caught up with those responsible.This episode is part of the series WW2 Mass Public Executions.Watch the full documentary and explore hundreds of historical films at:WorldHistory.tv