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Landsberg Prison is a penal facility located in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about 30 miles (65 km) west of Munich and 35 kilometers south of Augsburg.
The prison was used by Allied power during the Occupation of Germany for holding Nazi War Criminals. In 1946 General Joseph T. McNarney, commander in chief, U.S. Forces of Occupation in Germany renamed Landsberg: War Criminal Prison Nr. 1. The Americans closed the war crimes facility in 1958. Control of the prison was then handed over to the Federal Republic of Germany government.
Landsberg is now maintained by the Prison Service of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice.
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History
Landsberg prison, which is in the town's western outskirts, was completed in 1910. Its four brick-built cell blocks are orientated in a cross-shape. This allowed guards to watch all wings from a central location.
Landsberg, which was used for holding convicted criminals and those awaiting sentencing, was also designated a Festungshaft (meaning fortress confinement) prison. Festungshaft facilities excluded forced labor and featured reasonably comfortable cells. Prisoners were also allowed to receive visitors.
In 1924 Adolf Hitler spent eight months incarcerated in Landsberg after being convicted of treason following the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich the previous year. During his imprisonment, Hitler dictated and then wrote his book Mein Kampf with assistance from his deputy, Rudolf Hess.
Post-War
During the occupation of Germany by the Allies after World War II, the US Army designated the prison as War Criminal Prison No. 1[1] to hold convicted Nazi war criminals.
The first prisoners were sent to the Landsberg prison in December 1945. They were war criminals sentenced to death at the Dachau Trials for crimes against humanity. In total the prison housed 110 prisoners convicted during the Nuremberg trials, 1416 war criminals from the Dachau trials and 18 from the Shanghai trials [2].
In five and half years, Landsberg prison was used to execute 275 war criminals [3]. The last hangings took place on June 8, 1951. These were the last executions conducted within the Federal Republic of Germany. Bodies that were not claimed were buried in the cemetery next to the Spöttingen chapel.
The war criminal prison was closed in May of 1958 when the last four prisoners were released. They were former SS officers who had been convicted during the Einsatzgruppen Trials.
See also
References
- ^ The Landsberg Prison for War Criminals.
- ^ the so-called Shanghai trial (German: Schanghai-Prozess)
- ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814963,00.html Case closed
External links
Coordinates: 48°03′15″N 10°52′00″E / 48.05417°N 10.866667°E
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