Albert Leo Schlageter was a German military officer who joined a right-wing Freikorps group after World War I and became famous for acts of post-war sabotage against French occupational forces. Schlageter was arrested for sabotaging a section of railroad track and executed by the French military. The manner of his death fostered an aura of martyrdom around him, which was cultivated by German nationalist groups, in particular the Nazi Party. In Nazi Germany, he was commemorated as a national hero.
Albert Leo Schlageter, 1918
Schlageter facing the firing squad
Schlageter memorial in Billerbeck. The inscription was removed after the war.
Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss was a German SS officer and the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. After the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II, he was convicted in Poland and executed for war crimes committed on the prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp and for his role in the Holocaust.
Höss at Solahütte, 1944
Appointment order of Rudolf Höss as Commander of Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Commander of Auschwitz I Richard Baer, Auschwitz chief medical officer Josef Mengele and Höss, 1944
The ramp at Birkenau, 1944. Chimneys of Crematoria II and III are visible on the horizon.