The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-12-25
COMMUNISTS DIED CHEERING
WORLDREVOLU ,DEFYING
WORKERS FOES TO THE END
H ard-B oiled Prison
Official Shocked by
Nazi Crimes

| u6VaDly parDarOuS ana brutal scene
is described i'll a report of the execu-
ton of the six workers in Cologne
with q hand axe on November 30tn,
to the illegal German Red Aid QLD.)
sent by an official who was an eye
witness. The report, describing the
sadistic orgy of the drunken execu-
TONERS follows;
Late in the afternoon of November
90, it became known in the Klingel-
putz prison that the order had arrived
from Berlin to carry out the death
sentence pronounced in July by the
Cologne Court of Assizes.
Late that night, the condemned
men were told in the presence of the
prison director that the execution was
fixed for the next morning. The con-
demned men, especially Hammacher
and Mortiz, protested vigorously
against the carrying out of the SEN
tence, and again declared their in
nocence. They again stated that they
were the victims of perjury on the
part Of the Nazi witnesses, and that
they had been the parties attacked,
not the attackers, on February "a,
1888, and that both in the preliminary
inquiry and at the final trial, the
actual situation had been reversed in
the testimony. Their protests were
disregarded and the men urged to &C
cept the services of a chaplain, but
all six, as convinced Communists, re-
fused to do so.
Nazis Decree Death by Hand Axe as
Most German
ION the spot in the courtyard where
a scaffold with gillotine was usually
erected for executions, stood only
scaffold with block and bench, as the
execution was to be carried out with
the short hand axe. Gin the country
bordering the Rhine, where the code
of Napoleon has hitherto been valid,
death sentences have been carried out
with the guillotine, even under Prus-
sion rule, up to the time of the ina
tional revolution" The Nazis have
discarded the guillotine because of its
foreign origin" and its use in the
great French revolution; the guillotine
is 'un-German," and executions all
over Germany are with the hand axe
or by hanging now.-Ed9
ION the same spot where these six
political prisoners were beheaded to-
day with the axe, the notorious MACS
murderer, Kurten, was beheaded with
the guillotine in 1881. In this same
courtyard, shortly after the war, was
forced to be present at an execution
with the guillotine-a double execuI
ton of man and woman. But even
this frightful event falls utterly into
the background in comparison with
the horrible scene which we were
obliged to witness this morning.
while the death bell tolled, the
condemned men were fettered and
conducted down to the courtyard
singly by prison officials, accompanied
by especially strong guards of police
constables and Storm Troopers. In
the courtyard were the presiding
judge and members of the Court of
Assizes, the jury, and the prescribed
IL members of the municipality. The
executioner and his assistants stood
behind the scafforld. Besides this, a
number of high officials were present,
including some from the secret police,
physicians, clergymen of both creeds,
and a special deputation of Storm
Troopers. Policemen and Storm
Troopers formed a line from the
building to the scaffold, and from the
scaffold to the table of the officials.
Behind a table covered with black
cloth, stood the public prosecutor and
the recorder.
THE prisoners heads had been
shaved and their clothing laid back
from their necks. They were led fet-
tered to the table of the public pros
ecutor. The public prosecutor in
loud voice then read the verdict to
them again, and then the order: His
Excellency, the Prussian Prime Min
lister Goering has decided not to make
use of his right to pardon.
Drunken Executioners Miss Blows
1.-THE condemned men, who had OBJ
viously suffered severely from their
chains, and the strain
of the trial, replied to the proclama.
ton of the public prosecutor by Civ.
ing cheer for the world revolution.
But at once the executioner's assist
ants seized the first of the victims
anu dragged him to the scaffold. He
was scarcely strapped fast when his
head was cut off by mighty stroke
Of the axe. The blood was hastily coy
cred with little sand. The second
and third victims were beheaded at
one blow in the same manner. But
when the fourth victim was strapped
in place, the executioner missed his
aim. Apparently the executioner and
his men had drank large quantities
of whiskey in order to fortify them.
selves for the butchery. The execu.
toner struck again, and missed =
second time. 1t was not until the third
blow that the head was severed from
the body Of the unhappy victim. All
Of the spectators were aroused to
frightful pitch of excitement by this
inhuman spectacle.
"As result of this excitement, the
executioner again failed to sever the
fifth victims neck at the first blow,
and only the second stroke completed
the beheading. The sixth man, the
window cleaner Joseph Engel, was be-
headed by the executioner with one
frightful stroke.
This mass execution Of these six
workmen is the most frightful expert
ence which I have undergone in al
my term of service. am sure that in
spite of the 40 million votes cast for
the new system, there are still very
many who do not know what Is really
at stake. If the millions of workers
could have seen with their own eyes
how six of their brothers were SO brlit.