Oberfeldwebel (M/Sgt.) Schröder was responsible for the Anglo/American compound at Stalag IVb during World War II
See: Space:Stalag_IVb,_Muehlberg,_Saxony,_Germany
He was murdered by former Soviet POWs when the Camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army's 58th Guard
Robert Harding- The Copper Wire
Survival at Stalag IVb By: Tony Vercoe McFarland Publishers Jefferson, NC, 2005
As reported by Former British P.O.W. Tom Baker
Tom Baker: “I noticed it had suddenly gone quite. Outside… I saw everyone was watching something happening over in the Russian compound. I joined the crowd to see what was so interesting and I wish I had not. It was gristly and haunting. The Russian P.O.W.s now freed… had been busy raiding the small allotment garden to get anything edible and that’s where they found “Blondie: (Oberfeldwebel Schroder) the German guard hiding in one of the sheds… asleep in a drunken stupor and now struggling to keep his feet while a group of very determined Russian P.O.W.s steered him to a lamppost in the Camp. A large group had gathered and two or three Russians had hold of Blondie by the arms. “Blondie was struggling and shouting and screaming but to no avail. The woman on the horse (see above reference in Survival at Stalag IVb or Chapter 42 of Parallel Journey) just sat there and watched as a skinny Russian P.O.W. threw a rope over the lamppost… and fastened it to Blondie’s ankles. Now a couple of Russians pulled Blondie off his feet while three or four more hauled on the rope. Blondie was left grabbing at tufts of grass in a vain attempt to avoid being hoisted upside down. The Russians kept pulling until his head was two feet clear of the ground and for a short while Blondie was swaying back and forth trying to reach his Ankles. Tom Baker: “I shed no tears for Blondie but to see a bloke die like this was like being in a nightmare.” Going on to describe, in graphic detail the horrific execution of Blondie… Tom acknowledged that, for the Russian P.O.W.s (Of the 3000 Soviet and Slavic Prisoners held at Stalag IVb few had survived) it was justice. For him though, ti has always exemplified the ultimate savagery of war. Suffice here to record that a knife was used to cut off first the hands and then the head which was spat upon and defiled in other ways.
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S > Schröder > Rudolf Schröder
Categories: World War II POW German Camps, Stalag IV-B | Heer, World War II