page_title: Jürgen Stroop
section_title: Trial at Dachau
hierarchical_section_title: Jürgen Stroop / Trial at Dachau
caption_attribution_description: US Army Trials - Concentration Camp Dachau, View of the judges bench of the Dachau trial, Nov 15, 1945 - Dezember 13, 1945
context_page_description: Jürgen Stroop was a German SS commander during the Nazi era, who served as SS and Police Leader in occupied Poland. He led the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and wrote the Stroop Report, a book-length account of the operation. Following the defeat of Germany, Stroop was prosecuted during the Dachau Trials and convicted of murdering nine US prisoners of war. After his extradition to Poland, Stroop was tried, convicted, and executed for crimes against humanity.
context_section_description: In the case of U.S. vs. Jurgen Stroop, et al,  the former General and his subordinates were prosecuted by the U.S. Military Tribunal at Dachau for the "liquidation" of the nine U.S. POWs executed in his district. Lieutenant Colonel William Dwinnel, a U.S. Army lawyer from Brooklyn, New York appeared for the prosecution. Brigadier General Emil C. Kiel of the United States Army Air Forces was assigned as the trial's judge. Stroop later called General Kiel "a cunning devil," and expressed a belief the General was a Jew.
  In conversation with Moczarski, Stroop lamented, "Nearly all of those judges were Jews or Freemasons. I studied them very closely. Most of them had dark hair." He further lamented one of his U.S. Army defense lawyers was wearing a Masonic ring in court. According to Gustav Schielke, his cellmate, 
  Stroop behaved like a swine in the dock. He acted innocent as a lamb, pretending the killings were news to him. Because of his incriminations, several fellow defendants were sentenced to death, as many as thirteen of the twenty-two. As senior commander of the SS and police, he gave all the orders, Herr Moczarski, yet he stated in court his underlings killed the American airmen. How could a top German officer act like that?
  After an eight-week trial, Brigadier General Kiel sentenced Stroop to death by hanging on 21 March 1947. In November 1947, a death warrant was signed by General Lucius D. Clay. By then, however, Stroop was imprisoned in Warsaw for five months.
  In late May 1947, Stroop was flown to Berlin-Tempelhof Airport, and extradited to the People's Republic of Poland. He recalled, "My heart sank when I saw those Polish officers at Tempelhof. So, the Americans were liars after all! They promised me time and again I'd never be given to the Communists and my death sentence for killing the U.S. airmen would be commuted to life imprisonment."
caption: Judicial Bench, Dachau Trials.
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