Human Game: The True Story of the 'Great Escape' Murders and the Hunt for the Gestapo Gunmen
Authors: Simon Read
GAME
The True Story of the “Great Escape” Murders
and the Hunt for the Gestapo Gunmen
SIMON READ
BERKLEY CALIBER, NEW YORK
BERKLEY BOOKS
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This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Copyright © 2012 by Simon Read
Jacket design by Daniel Rembert
Photos of the murdered POWs on
pages viii
and
ix
are
courtesy of the Imperial War Museum: HU1591 and HU1592
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First edition: October 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Read, Simon, date.
Human game : the true story of the ‘great escape’ murders and the hunt for the Gestapo gunmen / Simon Read.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 978-1-101-61158-6
1. World War, 1939–1945—Prisoners and prisons, German. 2. Great Britain. Royal Air Force—Officers—Crimes against. 3. Stalag Luft III. 4. Criminal investigation—Germany. 5. War criminals—Germany—History—20th century. 6. War crime trials—Germany. 7. Great Britain. Royal Air Force Police. Special Investigations Branch. 8. McKenna, Francis P., 1906–1994. I. Title.
D804.G4R356 2012
940.54’7243812—dc23 2012005330
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
To my son, Spencer,
with love.
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods?”
THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY,
LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME
“Who is in the right? The murderers who expect humane treatment after their cowardly attacks or the victims of those foul and cowardly attacks who in their rage seek their revenge?…We owe it to our people, which is defending itself with so much honesty and courage, that it not be allowed to become human game to be hunted down by the enemy.”
NAZI PROPAGANDA
MINISTER JOSEF GOEBBELS URGING GERMANS
ON MAY 27, 1944, TO ATTACK DOWNED ALLIED AIRMEN
CONTENTSLIST OF CHARACTERS
ROYAL AIR FORCE INVESTIGATION TEAM
Squadron Leader Francis P. McKenna
Wing Commander Wilfred “Freddie” Bowes
Flight Lieutenant Stephen Courtney
Flight Sergeant H. J. Williams
Sergeant Wilhelm Smit
Flight Lieutenant Harold Harrison
Flight Lieutenant A. R. Lyon
Flight Sergeant R. M. Daniel
Squadron Leader W. P. Thomas
Sergeant J. Van Giessen
Flying Officer D. J. Walker
UPPER NAZI HIERARCHY
Adolf Hitler
Reichsmarschall
Hermann Göring
Feldmarschall
Wilhelm Keitel
Reichsführer
-SS Heinrich Himmler
AT THE CENTRAL SECURITY OFFICE (RSHA) UNDER HIMMLER
SS
Obergruppenführer
and General of Police Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Gestapo SS
Gruppenführer
Heinrich Müller
Kriminalpolizei (Kripo)
SS
Gruppenführer
Arthur Nebe
REGIONAL
KRIPO
AND GESTAPO PERSONNEL
BRESLAU
Dr. Wilhelm Scharpwinkel: Head of the local Gestapo
Max Wielen: Head of the local
Kripo
Dr. Gunther Absalon: SS captain charged with prisoner-of-war security in Sagan region
Dr. Ernst Kah: Head of local SD, intelligence agency of the SS
Heinrich Seetzen: Inspector of local Security Police
Hans Schumacher: Senior officer with local
Kripo
Max Richard Hansel:
Kriminal
Inspektor
with the Görlitz Gestapo
Lux: Breslau Gestapo agent and chief executioner
Knappe: Breslau Gestapo agent and member of Scharpwinkel’s murder squad
Kiske: Breslau Gestapo agent and member of Scharpwinkel’s murder squad
Robert Schröder: Scharpwinkel’s driver
Erwin Wieczorek: SS officer present at the shooting of four captured airmen
Laeufer: Breslau Gestapo agent and member of Scharpwinkel’s murder squad
BRNO/ZLÍN
Hans Ziegler: Head of the Zlín Frontier Police, which served as an auxiliary to the Brno Gestapo
Wilhelm Nöelle: Head of the Brno Gestapo
Franz Schauschütz: Inspector with the Brno Gestapo
Hugo Roemer: Section chief in the Brno Gestapo
Adolf Knuppelberg: Senior Brno Gestapo official, who shot Thomas Kirby-Green
Friedrich Kiowsky: Driver for the Zlín Frontier Police (Gestapo)
Fritz Schwarzer: Hugo Roemer’s personal driver
Erich Zacharias: Officer with the Zlín Frontier Police (Gestapo), who shot Gordon Kidder
Otto Kozlowsky: Brno Gestapo lawyer
DANZIG
Dr. Günther Venediger: Head of the local Gestapo
Erich Graes: Deputy director of the local
Kripo
Kurt Achterberg: A deputy in the local Gestapo
Reinhold Bruchardt: Venediger’s right-hand man
KARLSRUHE
Josef Gmeiner: Head of the local Gestapo
Walter Herberg: Local Gestapo agent assigned to the murder squad
Otto Preiss: Local Gestapo agent assigned to the murder squad
Heinrich Boschert: Local Gestapo agent assigned to the murder squad
Otto Ganninger: Deputy commandant of Natzweiler concentration camp
Magnus Wochner: Camp registrar at Natzweiler
KIEL
Friedrich (Fritz) Schmidt: Head of the local Gestapo
Johannes Post: Deputy in local Gestapo and chief executioner
Oskar Schmidt: Agent with the local Gestapo assigned to the murder squad
Hans Kaehler: Inspector with the local Gestapo
Franz Schmidt: Agent with the local Gestapo assigned to the murder squad
Walter Jacobs: Agent with the local Gestapo assigned to the murder squad
Artur Denkmann: Driver with the local Gestapo
Wilhelm Struve: Driver with the local Gestapo
LIBEREC
Bernhard Baatz: Head of the local Gestapo
Robert Weyland: Local Gestapo agent and suspected gunman
Robert Weissmann: Local Gestapo agent and suspected gunman
MUNICH
Dr. Oswald Schäfer: Head of the local Gestapo
Anton Gassner: Agent with the local
Kripo
in charge of Munich search operations
Greiner: Head of the local Kripo
Johann Schneider: Local Gestapo agent assigned to the murder squad
Emil Weil: Local Gestapo agent assigned to the murder squad
Martin Schermer: Local Gestapo agent assigned to the murder squad
Eduard Geith: Local Gestapo agent assigned to the murder squad
STRASBOURG
Alfred Schimmel: Head of the local Gestapo