Werner Drechsler (17 January 1917 – 12 March 1944) was a German U-boat crewman during World War II. He served on U-118, which was sunk off the Azores in 1943. When he was taken prisoner, Drechsler, a conscript, enthusiastically cooperated with his captors. His father, a Social Democrat, had been sent to a Nazi concentration camp as a political prisoner.
Eventually, United States Navy intelligence officers recruited Drechsler as a spy and placed him in a prisoner of war (POW) camp near Fort Meade, Maryland with other U-boat sailors. After arrival, Drechsler worked undercover, befriending his fellow POWs in order to collect information regarding German submarine technology, operational procedures and tactics and any other intelligence which could be useful to the Allies.
On 12 March 1944 Drechsler was transferred to a different POW camp in Arizona which was filled mainly with other submariners of the Kriegsmarine. This transfer took place even though Drechsler was supposed to be kept segregated from other naval prisoners, particularly his former crewmates on the U-118, who were aware of Drechsler's spying activities. Drechsler's transfer to Arizona quickly had fatal results: some members of the U-118 were confined at the camp and they immediately recognised their former crewmate. Word of Drechsler's undercover activities spread rapidly through the camp, and a kangaroo court was convened while Drechsler was asleep. The other prisoners eventually decided it was necessary to kill Drechsler to ensure he could no longer spy upon them, and also to act as a deterrent for any other POWs who might consider collaborating with the enemy. The next morning, Drechsler was found hanging in the shower room.
Seven men (Helmut Fischer, Fritz Franke, Günter Külsen, Heinrich Ludwig, Bernhard Reyak, Otto Stengel and Rolf Wizny) were tried by a general court-martial and executed for the beating and hanging of Drechsler. In the last mass execution in the United States, the men were all hanged on 25 August 1945 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
A review board had recommended that two other German POWs, Siegfried Elser and Friedrich Murza, face charges as accessories before the fact to Drechsler's murder. However, they never stood trial.
See also
- Prisoner of war
- Prisoner-of-war camp
- List of people executed by the United States military
- Horst Günther
- Johannes Kunze
References
- Richard Whittingham, Martial Justice: The Last Mass Execution in the United States, Naval Institute Press, 1997 ISBN 1-55750-945-X
External links
- A community college historical website which explains the Werner Drechsler story in detail
- website which follows history channel program about the mass execution
- A number of photographs taken around the time of Drechsler's capture
