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Nazi War Crimes Trials: Second Bergen-Belsen Trial

(May - June 1946)

Five ex-officials of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were tried by a British military court at Wuppertal from the 16th May 1946 to the 30th May 1946, all of the defendants were found guilty, and four were sentenced to death, and one to imprisonment. Those sentenced to death were executed on the 11th October 1946.

A second Bergen-Belsen Trial was conducted at Luneberg from June 13-18, 1946 by a British Military Court to try Kazimierz Cegielski, a Polish National who was a "KAPO" ("Camp Police") at Bergen-Belsen, arriving there in March 1944, according to his testimony. Kapos were prisoner-trustees assigned by the SS as overseers over their fellow prisoners. They tended to be "political" or criminal prisoners. There were five Kapos in Bergen-Belsen, two of them under the name "Kazimierz" differentiated as "Big Kazimierz" (the defendent) and "Little Kazimierz".

Cegielski was charged with cruelty and murder and was noted for beating and at times killing the sick and weakend prisoners with large wooden sticks or poles. While in Bergen-Belsen he was having an affair with a prisoner, a young Jewish woman from Amsterdam, Hennny DeHaas. He was caught in 1946 when he came to Amsterdam ostensibly to find and marry DeHaas. He was convicted on June 18th, 1946 and sentenced to death by hanging. The day before he was to be hanged he made a statement saying his real name was Kasimir-Alexander Rydzewski. He was executed at Hameln Prison at 9:20 A.M. on October 11, 1946. (First-hand witness account as transcribed by Charles Hess)

Walter Quakernack: The Death Sentence (Executed on the 11th October 1946)
Heinz - Züder Heidemann: The Death Sentence (Executed on the 11th October 1946)
Heinrich Redehase: The Death Sentence (Executed on the 11th October 1946)
Karl Schmitt: 15 Years Imprisonment
Kapo Kasimir Cegielski: The Death Sentence (Executed on the 11th October 1946)


Source: Skalman.