Franz Xaver Strasser (10 September 1899 – 10 December 1945) was an Austrian Nazi Party Kreisleiter (district leader) and war criminal. Strasser was the first war criminal to be judged at the Dachau trials.[1][2]
Franz Strasser | |
|---|---|
 Strasser (left) listens to his court-appointed interpreter, U.S. Sergeant Sessler (right), during his trial | |
| Born | 10 September 1899 |
| Died | 10 December 1945 (aged 46) |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Occupation(s) | Former NSDAP Kreisleiter and convicted war criminal |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Spouse | Unknown wife |
| Children | 3 |
| Conviction(s) | War crimes |
| Trial | Dachau trials |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Details | |
| Victims | 5 (3/4 as an accomplice) |
| Date | 9 December 1944 |
| Country | Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia |
| Target(s) | American POWs |
Date apprehended | June 1945 |
Action
editOn 9 December 1944, in Kaplice in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (present-day Czech Republic), Franz Strasser killed two American airmen of the USAAF by shooting them with a Thompson submachine gun. They were members of a group of five airmen of the 20th Bomb Squadron who stayed with pilot Woodruff Warren when he landed their plane in a field.[3]: 299 They had voluntarily surrendered and were taken away in a truck, accompanied by Strasser and Captain Karl Lindemeyer, the chief of police of the city. During Strasser's trial, evidence showed that Lindemeyer had killed three or four of the airmen, and the verdict suggested the murders were originally Lindemeyer's idea.[3][4]
The five men killed:[5]
- Woodruff J. Warren of Maryland
- Donald L. Hart of Massachusetts
- Frank Pinto Jr. of Texas
- George D. Mayott of New York
- Joseph Cox of Alabama
Arrest, trial, and execution
editAfter Germany's surrender, U.S. Army officials sought four men for their involvement in the shootings: Strasser and Lindemeyer, and Hermann Nelböck and Walter Wolf, both of whom had accompanied Strasser on the drive to where the airmen were shot. Strasser was arrested in June 1945. Neither Nelböck nor Wolf were ever apprehended, albeit the court in Strasser's trial concluded they had no involvements in the actual murders. Lindemeyer could not be tried since he killed himself on 8 May 1945.[6]
On 24 August 1945, Strasser was tried by a U.S. military court in Dachau, which provided a translator for him during the trial.[7] He was found guilty of committing war crimes and was sentenced to death by hanging. On 10 December 1945, Strasser was hanged at Landsberg Prison.
References
edit- ^ "Taufen - Duplikate 1899 - 106/1899 | Gruenau | Oberösterreich: Rk. Diözese Linz | Österreich | Matricula Online". data.matricula-online.eu. Retrieved 2023-02-20.
- ^ Kappeler. "Zweiter Weltkrieg - Philipps-Universität Marburg - ICWC". www.uni-marburg.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2022-10-14. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
- ^ a b Myers, Jack R. (1 February 2005). Shot at and Missed: Recollections of a World War II Bombardier. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 299. ISBN 9780806136950 – via Google Books.
In the rear with the five captured Americans were Franz Strasser, a local Nazi official, and Capt. Karl Lindemeyer, the chief of police of Kaplice. The group was driving toward Kaplice and was ten miles down the road when Strasser ordered the truck stopped ...
- ^ United States v. Franz Strasser, an Austrian national, Case No. 8-27, 14 October 1945 at Jewish Virtual Library (pdf)
- ^ "American Airmen Killed in Czechoslovakia". Everything Czech | by Tres Bohemes. 2019-12-09. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
- ^ Youngs, Kelvin. "Aircrew Remembered Aviation Personal Histories and Databases". Aircrew Remembered site (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2022-09-13.
- ^ "MILITARY TRIBUNAL: STRASSER". Archived from the original on 2014-03-16.
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