Inside of Berlin, the black heart of the Third Reich, there was a prison that struck fear into the hearts of anyone who heard its name. Plurton say prison. Inside of a brick-uilt execution chamber within the prison’s courtyard were two methods of execution, which brought the lives of almost 3,000 people to an end.

The prison was known for its ruthless and brutal efficiency, and executioners could take someone’s head off on the German guillotine, the foul bile, within 10 seconds of them entering the chamber. It was a cold and harrowing place, and bells rang out to tell the other prisoners that someone was going to be executed, and the bells would not stop until a person was confirmed dead.

But in September 1943, the bells rang constantly throughout the prison as hundreds were executed in a huge mass action of slaughter. In fact, on the night of the 7th of September 1943, 186 people were executed in just one evening. There were even six people who were accidentally executed, but this was covered up by the Ministry of Justice.

In this video, we look at the executions of the bloody knights of Plurans. To support our channel, please make sure to subscribe. Plenate prison had been a site of incarceration and punishment since the day it opened. And during the Third Wright’s time in power, it became infamous as one of the main sites of execution and capital punishment.

After Hitler came into power, the executions ramped up at the prison and he abolished execution by acts at Plencay and then ordered the Reich Ministry of Justice to use the prison as a site of execution for those who would resist the Nazis. Inside of the prison was a full-time executioner who was paid to carry out the rising death sentences.

Being in Berlin, the people’s court, which sat inside of the city, headed by infamous judge Roland Frysler, condemned thousands of people for their resistance, and they would then be quickly transferred to the prison to await their death. People who were executed were not just those who were prisoners of war or high-value people targeted for extermination by the Nazis.

Ordinary Berliners, people who lived nearby, who did not support the Nazis, found themselves sitting on death row there. With regards to the execution methods deployed, most were executed by hanging or by the guillotine. Inside of the courtyard of the prison was a brick shed, and this was converted to become the execution chamber.

In 1937, the German guillotine, an all metal device and more compact device fitted with a slanted blade known as the phalile or falling axe, was brought to pleance from Brushal prison, and it was installed in the workshed. This was known for its ruthlessness, and executioners developed better techniques to bring someone’s life to an end quicker.

This included not even strapping victims down to a board before they were slid under the slanted blade. The executioner’s assistant would just hold someone down in position while the executioner released a blade and their head would then be taken off. It was known that within 10 seconds of entering the chamber that a head could be taken off.

The execution would be fully funded by the families of the deceased. The Nazi justice system forced the families of the dead to pay a charge of 300 Reich marks for the privilege of having their loved one executed. And they also had to pay a fee of 1.5 marks a day for every day that the prisoner was locked up.

I think that really shows you how cruel things were inside of the Third Reich. Now, in 1942, to deal with the increasing numbers of people who were being sentenced to death for their descent to the Nazi regime and those who were being sentenced to death during the war, enhancements were made to the execution chamber at Plerton.

A hanging beam, a large metal beam that ran from one side of the chamber to the other was installed. And this was fitted with eight different hooks, meaning that up to eight people could be executed at the same time. This was created so that people could be hanged and guillotined also at the same time, and people often saw the bodies of those who had gone before them strung up from a beam before they were.

Some executioners even tortured those in their final moments, repeatedly cutting them down and repeating the process when they were close to death. After executions, the bodies of people were released to an anatomist at a local university where he then dissected them for research purposes. Now being inside of Berlin, the prison, also being a large building, became a target for the Allies during bombing raids.

As the Germans were pushed back and the Americans joined the war, the bombing raids on Berlin increased massively and during one on the 3rd of September 1943, the prison was hit badly. Bombs struck the prison which was blacked out and part of the large cell block known as house free was destroyed and the execution shed was also hit.

The raid had also damaged the guillotine inside the chamber and broken it, meaning this had to be recovered and then repaired. Hitler was filled with rage not at the fact his capital had been struck by bombs and that a site which symbolized the brutality of his regime had been damaged but Hitler was furious with the fact that Pleasant prisons officials had not carried out more executions of prisoners than they could have done and at the time there were around 300 people who were awaiting execution sitting on death row. Now things did change. The appeals for clemency that the condemned had put in were instantly rejected and the under secretary of state Kurt Rothenberger then ordered the executions himself and he ordered the prison by telephone call to execute a huge number of people. The executioner inside the prison, Erns Tindel, and his assistants gathered themselves in the aftermath of the bombing as they knew they would be very

busy. Their main equipment had been damaged, but the hanging beam was still intact, as were the hooks in which people could be strung up from. In the evening of the 7th of September 1943, the bloody nights of Pleton say prison began. A regional court director arrived to oversee the executions, as did the public prosecutor, and with this a huge number of prisoners were told they were to be executed.

One by one, the prisoners were led out from the prison block to the execution shed in the courtyard, and they were grabbed by the assistant executioners, and the main executioner placed a noose around their neck, had them stand on a step, and then this step was removed. From the hanging beam, eight people were executed at a time, and the next one would see the bodies of seven others strung up.

It was slow strangulation, and it could take as long as 20 minutes for death to be confirmed. The executioners on the 7th of September 1943 worked incredibly hard and by the morning they had executed 186 people in just a matter of hours on the hanging beam. During the evening they had even made a number of mistakes too.

There were six prisoners who were dragged to the chamber who had not been condemned to death and they were accidentally hanged and their death sentences had not been ordered. The mass executions continued and the bloody nights of pleency remained. The executioners had a break of 12 hours and on the following nights they went on to hang another 60 people.

One by one these people were hanged on the beam in exactly the same way up until the 12th of September. There were more than 250 people who had been executed at Pltonay during the bloody nights and this included all the Czech prisoners and a number of French and German inmates. One man who suffered this fate was Herbert Bulleski, a 22-year-old resistance fighter.

He was linked to a group that attacked a propaganda art exhibition, and he denied any involvement in the violence, saying he only hung out with those who were part of the group. He was one of those executed on the bloody night of the 7th of September and was actually executed alongside his former friends and members of the group.

The bloody nights of pleans prison were a ruthless and brutal series of executions that were carried out upon the orders of Adolf Hitler. He specified that the prison should increase the frequency of their executions and with this hundreds were killed inside the chamber of the prison on the hanging beam. Thanks for watching.

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