On the 16th of April 1947, one of the most barbaric war criminals of the Second World War was paraded throughout the concentration camp that he once oversaw and he was taken to the gallows. Rudolph Hurst was the commonant of Ashvitz and he was responsible for the deaths of over 1 million people. His execution was meticulously planned to ensure that the crimes of Hurst were kept in mind at all times and the gallows that he was hanged on can still be seen inside the camp today.

There were a number of former prisoners of the camp who were brought in to witness that the execution had taken place as he made his way onto the gallows and Rudolph Hurst was approached by the intimidating figure of the hooded executioner who pushed him towards his fate. But the execution was masterminded by the Polish authorities who sentenced him to death.

And the judges allowed a petition from former prisoners that requested that Rudolph Hurst be executed in the very camp that he was in charge of. But why did this happen? For some time after World War II, Rudolph Hurst, the former comedant of Achvitz, did manage to hide out.

However, the key to his capture was his family. His wife eventually gave over his location and he was arrested by British forces who administered, let’s say, a rough beating to him. They battered him with axe handles and could have killed him. And he was then later taken to the Nuremberg trials, but not as a defendant, but in fact as a defense witness for the most senior SS officer on trial, Ernst Cenbrar.

Later, Hurst was extradited to Poland and he was sentenced to death by the Supreme National Tribunal. It was two weeks later that his execution would be carried out. And following his trial, prisoners from Ashvitz and eyewitnesses who gave evidence at the trial petitioned to the judges to allow Hurst to be executed within his former camp of Ashvitz and this was allowed.

The judges believed that this was suitable punishment and would go some way in gaining some form of vengeance for the survivors of the camp. Hurse before his execution did strangely acknowledge the enormous nature of his crimes. He said, and I quote, “My conscience compels me to make the following declaration. In the solitude of my prison cell, I have come to the bitter recognition that I have sinned gravely against humanity.

As comedant of Achvitz, I was responsible for carrying out part of the cruel plans of the Third Reich for human destruction. In doing so, I’ve inflicted terrible wounds on humanity. I caused unspeakable suffering for the Polish people in particular. I am to pay for this with my life.

May the Lord God forgive one day what I have done. On the morning of the 16th of April 1947, Rudolph Hurst was brought to Achvitz for his execution. This had actually been delayed by a few days as there were concerns that he would be captured by former inmates and would be lynched. Now the execution of Rudolph Hurst would be the last public execution in Poland and around 100 witnesses were gathered to see the former comedant meet his fate.

On a specially built gallows made from wood which sat close to the main camp, he was to be executed. When Hurse arrived at Ashvitz, he was sent to his former office and was given a cup of coffee, and he then spent a few hours locked up inside the former prison cells of the camp.

When the time had come for his execution, Rudolfph Hurst was led out through Achvitz, and his arms were tied behind his back. The executioner, who was hooded, led him to the wooden gallows platform, and he climbed up the steps, and then the sentence of death was read. Hurse was then helped onto a stool and the noose was secured around his neck.

There was a small trap door on the gallows and when this was released Hurse plunged a short distance and the noose snapped toward and he was then left struggling on the gallows in front of the very place that he oversaw with such brutality. Now the execution of Rudolph Hurst was planned in the way that it occurred for many different reasons.

The primary reason it occurred at Ashvitz was symbolic. Hurst was the man who commanded Ashvitz during its deadly years and he oversaw the extermination processes and even introduced the gas chambers. Under his oversight, hundreds of thousands of innocent people were killed and many were treated with terror and brutality by his guards.

Executing him at Avitz ensured that he was put to death and the very site where he organized mass murder and his punishment was inseparably linked to his crimes. There was no distance between the perpetrator and the place of his crimes. Polish authorities were explicit that this mattered. Avitz wasn’t just the setting of his crimes.

It was also the instrument of what he had done. Hurst was also not tried by the allies but by the Supreme National Tribunal in Poland. This was also important as Ashvitz was located obviously on Polish soil and the overwhelming majority of victims murdered there were killed on Polish soil.

Poland insisted on prosecuting major perpetrators whose crimes occurred within its borders. And once sentenced to death, the state had the full legal authority to determine the place of execution. The suggestion by H’s survivors fitted in very well. Hurst repeatedly also tried to portray himself as someone who was just following the orders of senior SS figures such as head of the SS Hinrich Himmla.

And he claimed that he was focused on logistics and efficiency rather than the human consequences of his actions. Executing him in Avitz was intended to destroy that and to portray him as the war criminal and beast he truly was. He had supervised and overseen gas chamber killings. He’d also ensured efficiency inside the crerematoria and had also witnessed selections of prisoners from his offices.

He sometimes removed himself physically from the killings, allowing his guards to get their hands dirty. But bringing him back to Ashvitz forced Hurst to confront the physical reality of the death camp that he had built and also come face to face with the very place of his crimes one last time.

And of course within Ashvitz there were thousands of human remains buried. It wasn’t a neutral prison yard where he was executed. It was the very scene of his crimes. As mentioned before his execution, Rudolph Hurst did give an extensive written confession in which he acknowledged his role in the mass murder of thousands and he also expressed a form of remorse.

The Polish authorities allowed this to happen, but they did not accept his repentance as grounds for mercy, and executing him at Ashvitz underscored a key postwar principle that confession does not erase responsibility. And it ensured that the last thing Hurst would see with his own eyes would be the very place of evil that he created and built from the ground up.

While the execution of Rudolph Hurst did not take place in front of dozens of thousands of people, unlike other postwar executions of war criminals, the location of the execution carried significant meaning for the survivors of Achvitz and also for history. Ashvitz had become a symbol of the Nazi crimes and killing its former commandant there sent a very strong message that the camp was not merely a ruin of the evils that belonged in the past.

It reinforced that Ashvitz was also a place of judgment. Hurse was the last person to lose his life inside the walls of the camp and this meant that his death brought the killing of Ashvitz to an end with the final execution being that of the very man who built the site. There were also a number of practical considerations for executing Rudolph Hurst at Ashvitz too.

Ashvitz was by this time already under the control of the Poles and the security and logistics of the execution were relatively straightforward too. Wouldn’t say they got her there. It was relatively straightforward. It would have been much harder to execute him in a very public square, say in the center of Warsaw or another prominent Polish city, which is something that many people wanted and thousands of people did want to see him hang.

So Rudolfph Hurst was executed at Ashvitz because it was the physical location of his crimes and it offered the survivors of Ashvitz some small morsel of justice. Poland also asserted its right to judge and punish crimes committed on its soil and the execution of Rudolfph Hurst was historic. He died in the very place where his victims were murdered and buried and cremated.

And this happened not as an act of revenge, but as a deliberate statement of responsibility. Thanks for watching. If you did find this video interesting, maybe click subscribe. Thanks again for giving up your time to watch one of these videos.