Executed for falling in love in Freren. In search of Bolesław Wernicki (1914–1942)

In the village of Andervenne, with a population of around 1,000, people are reluctant to talk about what happened here in 1942. They’d rather keep their memories to themselves. Even in January 2022, when I had the idea of writing a short book on the subject (see below), the mayor told me that it would be better not to revisit the past, since there were still some people alive who were related to the individuals involved.

I had known the story about the hanging in Andervenne since around 1975. It was mentioned at shop counters and in the local pub, at coffee mornings and at skittles evenings: “During the war, someone was hanged in Andervenne on Galgenberg hill.” The people who were familiar with the area simply corrected the name of the hill, saying that it wasn’t called the “Galgenberg” (“gallows hill”), but “Gallenberg”.[1] Then came surreptitious whispers about “a Pole who had a relationship with a German woman...”. But that was all that people would say. Nobody knew any more than that, and the subject would quickly be changed.

When I retired and began my research into local history, I turned to the online archive of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen (today: the Arolsen Archives – International Center on Nazi Persecution). There, I very soon came across the name of the person who was hanged, Bolesław Wernicki, as well as many other names of eastern European forced labourers in the Freren area and the southern Emsland region. Now that I knew the name, I was also able to access more information via the Arcinsys archive information system in the Lower Saxony Federal State Archive (Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv). 

“What does the name Bolesław Wernicki mean to you?” I would ask anyone I knew who had a connection with Andervenne. Nobody I asked was able to remember the name.

Execution as an administrative police act without a legal judgement
 

Bolesław Wernicki was born in Lendo (now in the Lublin Voivodeship in Poland) on 14 May 1914. He was executed “by the rope” on 10 July 1942 on Gallenberg hill in Freren/Andervenne. 

What crime had Bolesław Wernicki committed? The Gestapo created a file on him on 14 January 1942. The first entry states that:

“W. had sexual relations with the farm assistant Surmann in March 1941 and impregnated her. A report has been written for the inspectorate of the Si-Po [security police – translator’s note] and S.D. [security services – translator’s note]. A medical examination of W. attested that he meets the requirements for Germanisation.”[2]

It is true that the woman did become pregnant. However, this was not the result of possible sexual intercourse in March 1941: she did not give birth until 4 March 1942, about a year after the reported crime. This at least is the official statement recorded in the registers of births and deaths.

On 11 May 1942, a further report was added to the Gestapo file: 

“An application for Schutzhaft [a National Socialist term for “protective custody” – translator’s note] against W. was submitted, and said order was issued on 1/5/42.”[3]

There is a further entry dated 28 August 1942:

“At the order of the Reichsführer SS, W. was hanged in a section of forest near Andervenne on 10/7/42.”[4]

A quarter of a century later, in 1967/68, state prosecutor Wächter, whose first name is not included in the records, pursued the matter before the Osnabrück district court in accordance with the principles of the federal German constitutional state. Initially, he came to the following conclusion with regard to the case: 

“[...] A claim was brought against Wernicki by the now deceased father of the impregnated Surmann, which he submitted to the police in Freren, with the evidently false allegation that his daughter had been raped by the Pole.”[5]

His investigations related not only to Wernicki. There were other cases of what was referred to as “special treatment”; in other words, executions without a court judgement. They fell exclusively within the administration authority of the police. Wächter began an investigation into the activities of ten members of the “Stapostelle Osnabrück”, the local branch of the Gestapo. Which of them were involved? In his final decision, dated 3 December 1968, the state prosecutor wrote a summary of the legal regulations that applied in the National Socialist state, which covered nine A4 pages. This summary included a detailed list of instructions, which also contained an order issued to forced labourers before they began working at their place of employment:

“Anyone who has sexual relations with a German woman or a German man, or who approaches them in an indecent manner, is subject to punishment by death.”[6]

Here, particular attention was paid to Poles and people from other eastern European countries:

“The Reichsführer-SS has agreed with Reich justice minister Thierack that in the case of Poles and members of the Ostvölker [people of eastern European origin – translator’s note], no regular judicial proceedings shall apply. These fremdvölkische [National Socialist term for “of foreign origin” – translator’s note] individuals shall in future be handed over to the police. [...]
Poles and members of the Ostvölker are foreign and racially inferior individuals who live in the territory of the German Reich. They constitute a significant risk to the German Volksordnung [people’s order – translator’s note], which of necessity results in the application of different criminal laws in relation to these foreign individuals than for Germans. [...] the crime of a foreign individual should be considered not from the perspective of atonement according to the law, but from the perspective of a prevention of risk by the police. 
As a result, the administration of criminal justice against foreign individuals must be transferred from the judiciary to the police.”[7]

This meant that the death penalty was no longer issued after the weighing up of evidence by a judge, but was a matter solely to be decided by the police, rendering it a purely administrative act.