Midnight, Zero Hundred Hours, July 10th, 1945. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

This night, 5 men await execution in their cells on death row at the United State central military prison. One by one, each is marched to the gallows -- recently constructed over an elevator shaft at the prison salvage warehouse. All in attendance are called to attention by the prison commander, Colonel William Eley, who reads the sentence “to be hanged by the neck until dead.” Each condemned man is permitted to make a final statement. Colonel Eley pronounces “May God have mercy on your soul.” Then the prisoner is led to the gallows platform where his hands and feet are bound, while a black hood is placed over his head. A noose is guided around his neck. Silence fills the death chamber. At the commander’s signal, a lever is pushed forward, and the trapdoor of the gallows falls open. The process repeats 4 more times that night.

Zero hundred hours, July 14th, 1945. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Two prisoners are hanged at the warehouse.

Zero hundred hours, August 25th, 1945. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. 7 men meet their Maker in the dark elevator shaft.

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Werner Drechsler, recovering from a bullet wound to his right knee, disembarks USS Osmond Ingram assisted by Hermann Polowzyk

Sources

https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Corporal-Kunze-Trummel-Parnell/dp/0818403136

http://www.basehorinfo.com/news/2008/may/28/wwii_german_pows_buried_fort_leavenworth/

http://genealogytrails.com/oka/powcamps.html

http://blogoklahoma.us/place.aspx?id=839

http://www.militarian.com/threads/murder-at-aiken-pow-camp.608/

http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-118A/U-118POWs.htm

https://starsandstripes.newspaperarchive.com

https://www.augustachronicle.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcs9bcMGxNc

https://newspaperarchive.com/

https://www.ancestry.com/

https://www.genealogybank.com/

https://www.newspapers.com/

https://www.findagrave.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Papago-Park-POW-Camp/dp/1467135763