A Serial Killer in Nazi Berlin (33 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY

1
Alex Small, “3 Nazi Traitors and 2 Slayers Die on Guillotine: Spy and Mass Murderer Among Five Executed,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, July 26, 1941.

2
Ibid.

3
Ibid.

4
Ibid.

5
Geoffrey Abbott, 
What a Way to Go: The Guillotine, the Pendulum, the Thousand Cuts, the Spanish Donkey, and 66 Other Ways of Putting Someone to Death
(New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2007), 139.

6
Kee D. Kim, M.D., associate professor, chief, spinal neurosurgery, Department of Neurological Surgery, UC Davis School of Medicine, e-mail to author, September 14, 2012.

7
Ibid.

8
Anne Nelson,
Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler
(New York: Random House Digital, Inc., 2009), 177.

EPILOGUE

1
Chief of Police in Berlin, press release, “Karlshorst S-Bahn Murderer Executed,” newspaper/print, Berlin Local Announcements, July 26, 1941, number 178.

2
Todd Herzog,
Crime Stories: Criminalistic Fantasy and the Culture of Crisis in Weimar Germany
(New York: Berghahn Books, 2009), 145. In making this assessment, Professor Herzog refers to Joachim Linder and “his excellent study of Nazi crime fiction and the figure of the serial killer.”

3
The information in this chapter on Wilhelm Lüdtke’s life after the S-Bahn Murderer case comes primarily from the CIA files on him and his denazification file. His CIA file includes copies of his denazification paperwork, such as his
Fragebogen
. National Archives, Washington, D.C., RC Box #082, Location (RC) 230/86/23/05, “Ludtke Wilhelm.” Note that the file name is missing the umlaut.

4
Ibid.
Fragebogen
Number N. 5042.

5
Ibid. Letter to Chief of Foreign Division “M,” dated March 2, 1951.

6
Ibid.

7
Ibid. Letter to Chief of Foreign Division “M” from Chief of Station Karlsruhe, dated July 17, 1951.

8
Ibid.

9
CIA, “Research Aid: Cryptonyms and Terms in Declassified CIA Files—Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Disclosure Acts,” June 2007, 12.

10
Ibid.

11
Wilhelm Lüdtke’s CIA file.

12
Ibid.

13
Katharsis, Gemeinschaft für Philosophie und Geschichte e.V., Autorengruppe,
Geheimnisse deutscher und allgemeiner Geschichte
, Volume 1 (Frankfurt, Germany: Verlag West-Ost Renaissance, 2000), 27.

14
For details on Georg Heuser’s crimes and trial, see Jürgen Matthäus, “No Ordinary Criminal: Georg Heuser, Other Mass Murderers, and West German Justice,” in Patricia Heberer and Jürgen Matthäus, eds.,
Atrocities on Trial: Historical Perspectives on the Politics of Prosecuting War Crimes
(Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2008), 187–209.

15
Dietrich Strothmann, “
Die gehorsamen Mörder
,”
Die Zeit
(Hamburg, Germany), June 7, 1963.

16
Götz Aly, Peter Chroust, and Christian Pross, 
Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial Hygiene
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), 222.

17
Entlang der Gleise
, “
Berliner Stellwerke
2,” http://www.entlang-der-gleise.de/stellwerke-berlin2.html, accessed on March 3, 2013.

INDEX

The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. To find the corresponding locations in the text of this digital version, please use the “search” function on your e-reader. Note that not all terms may be searchable. Page numbers in
italic
indicate maps.

accidents due to blackouts, 62

accidents handled by Orpo, 71, 97

addiction to violence, 59

aerial bombardment of cities, 36–39, 63

affairs by Ogorzow, 29, 195–196, 213, 232

“after the fact” (ex post facto) laws, 244

air raid warning system, 36, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 63–65

air-to-ground radar, 37

“Alex, the” (Alexanderplatz) building, 119, 175, 187

alibis, Ogorzow, 158, 160, 190, 208, 209, 213

allotment gardens, garden area, 1, 6, 7

Alt, Axel, 251

Alt Fanger, Germany, 15

American Journal of Psychiatry,
30

amnesty for imprisoned Nazis, 210, 236–237

Amt
I, III, IV, V, VI, VII (RHSA), 115–118

Anglo-Soviet Agreement, 209

Anhalter Bahnhof, S-Bahn station, 63

animal torture, serial killers, 30

antibiotics, 233

appearance of Ogorzow, 1–2, 3, 29, 149, 210, 219–220, 241

Aryan ideal, 115, 143

asphyxiation signs, 73

assaults to rapes to murders, 140–141

astronavigation used by British, 37

Atlas of Forensic Medicine
(Weimann), 262

attack method developing by Ogorzow, 17, 49, 89, 90, 102–103, 129, 165, 169

“Attacks on the S-Bahn” article, 174–175

attention of authorities (avoiding), Nazi Germany, 79

Austria, 33

authoritarian state, 126

autopsies.
See
Weimann, Waldemar (forensic pathologist and psychiatrist)

“auxiliary signalman,” Ogorzow, 52–53, 78, 158, 160

Axis Powers, xx

Axmann, Artur (Hitler Youth leader), 252–253, 260

background events (August 1939–July 1941), xix–xx

back-to-back criminal offenses as unusual, 142

Barth, Gertrude, 70, 80.
See also
Ditter, Gertrude “Gerda” (murder victim)

Battle of the Atlantic, xix

Bautze, Amalia (Lüdtke’s wife), 120

BECRIPPLE-2 (cryptonym for Lüdtke), 255–256

bed-wetting (enuresis), serial killers, 30

Belarus, 260, 261

Belgium, xx, 48, 49

Bendorf, Elizabeth (attempted murder victim),
xiii
, xxi, 90–100, 101, 102, 103, 107, 109, 110, 135, 161, 170, 182

Berlin, Germany.
See also
Blackout Regulation; garden area murders; Nazi Germany; S-Bahn; S-Bahn Murderer

air raid process, 64–65

bombed by Great Britain, xx, 35–36, 37–38, 39, 46, 63, 65–66

East Berlin, 223

maps,
xiii
,
xiv–xv

women with husbands away in military, 7, 23, 29, 67–68, 91, 145, 196, 213, 228

Berliner Morgenpost
, 227

Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), 52

Berlin-Friedrichsfelde, 67, 73, 81, 84

Berlin Special Court
(Sondergericht)
, 229, 236–238, 239, 241–244, 250

Berlin Wall, 262

BESMIRCH-2 (cryptonym for Lüdtke), 255

Betriebsbahnhof Rummelsburg S-Bahn station,
xiii
,
xv
, xvii, 141, 151

bicycle with dynamo light, Ogorzow, 217

bill for execution sent to Ogorzow’s wife, 248

“blackout killer,” 122–123

Blackout Regulation, 35–47

accidents due to blackouts, 62

conditions during blackouts, 2, 11, 18, 35–47, 50, 93, 106, 162, 164, 165, 177, 178, 209

crimes committed during blackouts, 45–46, 61, 188, 193, 205, 223, 229–231, 237

“Decree Against Public Enemies”
(Volksschädlingsverordnung)
, 45–46

Eighth Regulation Implementing the Air Protection Act, 40–42

propaganda posters, 43–44

blackouts used by Ogorzow, 7–8, 9, 13, 20, 22, 34, 69, 70, 81, 122–123, 126, 141, 149, 150, 154, 163, 166, 174, 187, 229, 235

Blitz, xx, 36

blood found on Ogorzow’s uniform, 213–215

blows to the head of victims, Ogorzow, 4, 11–12, 24, 25–27

blunt object (iron rod, rebar) used by Ogorzow, 102, 103–104, 107, 110, 111, 130, 166, 170, 171, 179, 180, 197

blunt object (lead cable) used by Ogorzow, 26, 89, 90, 94, 95, 96, 98–99, 108, 110, 138, 225–226

bodies of victims (never concealing), Ogorzow, 197

Bohemia, 258

Bohm, Auguste (Herlitz’s girlfriend), 78, 87

Bormann, Martin, 259

Braun, Konrad, 70–71, 74

break-in committed by Ogorzow, 210

British.
See
Great Britain

Brownshirts (SA), 31–33, 34, 102, 103, 154, 165, 178, 208, 209, 220, 222, 224, 228, 234, 244

Budzinski, Lina (attempted murder victim),
xiii
, xxi, 11–13, 17–18, 34, 49, 95, 156–157

Bulgaria, xx

Büngener, Elisabeth (murder victim),
xiii
, xxi, 165–167, 168–169

Busch, Gerda, 122

BVG (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe), 52

carotid artery, 57, 69, 73

CAUTERY-4 (cryptonym for Lüdtke), 255

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 254–256

Chicago Daily Tribune
, 246

childhood of Ogorzow, 2, 29–31

child welfare, Nazi Germany, 69–70, 71

Christmas celebration, Nazi Germany, 165

chronology of background events (August 1939–July 1941), xix–xx

Churchill, Winston (Prime Minister of United Kingdom), 36

CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), 254–256

Ciano, Galeazzo, 76

“city fast train”
(Stadtschnell-bahn)
, 50–51.
See also
S-Bahn

“city train”
(Stadtbahn)
, 51

“clap, the” (gonorrhea), 232–233

cleaning skulls of victims by Weimann, 221

climbing a fence to ditch work, Ogorzow, 207–208, 209, 211, 213

Cold War, 254