Murderer " Hugo Gruener "

In the late afternoon of October 7, 1944 in late evening Saturday, the district leader of the 

NSDAP of Müllheim and Lörrach, Hugo Grüner, shot in Rheinweiler 3 Km South

of Bad Bellingen four crew members of a British Lancaster bomber. 

This aircraft was attacking the Kembs Barrage (Stauwehr Märkt)  and was

hit by the German AA units which forced him to make an emergency landing

near village of Rheinweiler . From a total of seven crew members

four of them remained on the life raft while the other three elected to swim 

to Alsace (France ) riverbank .

Legally legitimized the killing of downed or  forced landed Allies crews towards the
end of the second World War, so-called aviation murder, is in 225 cases proven,
the total number of fatalities is estimated to have been 350. This was state legitimized,
highest state organs had encouraged. It was "not the job of the policeto interfere in the
lynch of Allied aircrew members by German nationals  Heinrich Himmler on 10 August
1943 directive to the order authorities and the security police (GESTAPO) as well
subordinate departments and the Gauleitern.The NSDAP members should be informed
orally about the directive. By the end of May1944 however the head of the NSDAP
party chancellery Martin Bormann, in a secret circular to the Reichsleiter, Gauleiter
and Kreisleiter encouraged non-interference in lynching Allied airmen. Bormann's
circular was given verbally to local leaders. Such documents were presented at

the Hugo Gruenner trail at the War Crime Tribunal in Nuerenberg and Strasbourg 

which dealt with his case .

Who was this Hugo Grüner who became a quadruple Allied airmen murderer  ?

Regarding Hugo Grüner's childhood home, his childhood and his school and 

later apprenticeship there are only a few hints. His parents, Hermann Grüner

and Konstantina Grüner, were born and are from Rötenbach from the adjacent 

Unterbränd. It is certain that Hugo Grüner, who on June 7, 1895 in Rötenbach 

as the second of five children was born and attended elementary school there. 

This will be in the years 1901 to to have been in 1909. In a handwritten CV 

probably from the first one Grüner writes in the mid-1930s: "After finishing school,

I learned to be a Mechanic. Grüner was not yet 20 when he was recuited to military 

in 1915  then in 1918 I was desmissed from the Army service . "A vivid proof of his

participation in the war is a photo that was good at the time twenty-year-old in the

uniform of a sailor of "S.M.S. Heligoland "shows: Caption" Hugo Grüner, 15/18 ".

 It is the oldest photo which was available for his records.

Gruenner Imperial Navy Sailor

Presumably because of his technical training and skills as mechanic he was sent

October 1, 1915 to the High Seas Fleet, where he remained until November 1, 1917

Immediately afterwards, he was transferred to the 2nd Submarine Flotilla where he

remained until the  December 21, 1918 .Presumably, the rebellions of the sailors 

against the war and the Kaiser in November 1918 for Gruener an abomination. 

Although no statements are known about him in this sense,but his further life 

quickly brings him closer to nationalism and radical movements .

 Again in the personal file of the Supreme Court of the NSDAP Party is remarked

 Grüner just a month after the end of the war, in January 1919, joined in Rötenbach

 the military club Kyffhäuserbund. In this not only the supporters of the overthrown 

monarchy were gathered, especially the opponents of Versailles' "shameful agreement" 

found a home in the Kyffhäuserbund. Grüner did not only act in the military club 

Kyffhäuserbund. Under of the rubric "Activity at Freikorps, N.S.D.A.P. before 1923 

or other patriotic Associations since 1918 and which: "lists the already mentioned 

supreme NSDAP party court in Grüners personnel file except the Kyffhäuserbund 

also the "Sturmabteilung Hitler Oberbaden from 1.10.22 until dissolution
"as well as the" org. Hauptmann Damm von 1925 to dissolution 1928 "on.

 Gruenner SS & NSDAP member aprox 1933

Further more, Grüner founded in 1924 together with his brother-in-law Karl Braun, 

the husband of Hugo Grüner's sister Hedwig, a rifle division within the Sport Club

Rötenbach 1919 .

Membership in NSDAP and SS

According to the personal file of the Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP, Grüner he 

joined on  October 1931 the NSDAP party which belonged to the local group
Löffingen in Gau Baden. Gruenner who Rötenbach affiliate leader received the
 membership number 729772, his member book , however, was issued only on
10 January 1934. On November 1, 1931 he was integrated into the SS, where he
was appointed on 1 July 1932 as squad leader. Grüner's personal file with the
Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP also contains information"Persecutions suffered,
distress and other victims as well as judicial punishments" from the time before the
seizure of power by the National Socialists. His deeds listed there are not assigned
 in time. But one reads that Hugo Grüner was fined  "for showing a party flag

10 Marks ", for elimination of election M 42.50  Marks "and because of" brawl with

Komunisten 60.00 Marks .Overall, Grüner's did not only risked his head for his party and 

political ambitions but also his own money .

The vote shares of the National Socialists in Rötenbach where he lived increased

 from election to elections since 27 October 1929, when the Baden State Parliament was

 elected and the  NSADAP had received 5 percent, and was in the Reichstag elections on

 March 5, 1933, a good month after Hitler's seizure of power (January 30, 1933), at 

47 percent, while the center with 44 Percent significantly lost votes.

 In the course of this year began in Rötenbach the Nazi terror. Opponents of the NSDAP 

were systematically intimidated. The acting mayor Wölfle was mocked and threatened 

by the SA people then resigned on April 9, 1934 from office. As a successor Grüner

immediately began with the Nazification,Hitler Jugend ,the BDM and Ortsbauernschaft

were founded". Anyone working in public service had to become a member of NSDAP

Anyone who confessed to the church, such as the main teacher Oskar beer, was ejected of

the school service. Unemployed people only got support when they got involved

"In the Nazi organizations". Grüner's reasoning: "I maintain this position.
I strengthen no reactionaries and Hetzer economically, tow hich my fight is
valid untilExtreme, if need be, to economic destruction. "

There is little evidence of Hugo Grüner's activities during the first War years. 

Robert Wagner, the Gauleiter for Baden and Alsace, awarded the Kreisleiter on 

November 4, 1940 with the War Merit Cross Class II. The award cerificate says:

The Kreisleiter Pg. Hugo Grüner leads a pronounced border group, which was 

under attack during the fighting on the Upper Rhine. The circle leader has shown

personal engagement during the actual fighting ensuring the population of places 

under enemy fire carried out. As a result of the German invasion of the Benelux

and France in May and June 1940 several municipalities on the border area came

under the Rhine French artillery fire. One of the affected villages was Rheinweiler,

where damage to St. Nicholas Chapel, developed at the village school, at homes 

and at the retirement home. 

                                                                         Gruenner aprox. 1939 NSDAP photo

 Border coordination meeting German,Swiss,French 1943 Rosenau (right Gestapo agent E.Meissner)

How did the events transpired ? Murder on the stone square in Bellingen?

In the process against Robert Wagner, the Gauleiter of Baden and Alsace, 

and against another six Defendants before the Military tribunal in Strasbourg 

in 1946 was also the case Hugo Green rolled up. The Tribunal met from April 23 to 

the square in front of the former town hall of Rheinweiler with the village well.

 Gruenner (left front ) City of Loerrach 1940 SA meeting

Gruenner (far right 2nd raw) in Loerrach 1940

 SA Troops city of Loerrach 1939

Loerrach 1940

The RAF crews had been brought there the Steinplatz near Bellingen by German

Pioneers Troops . On May 3, 1946, explaining out what happened on that river 

on October 7, 1944 at Rheinweiler and Bellingen. Then there were four British 

airmen POW's names hnknown who made a forced landing nearby. In the

the transcript of this procedure he states: The aviators were captured by German
pioneers and brought to the town hall. The police station in Schlingen was informed
of the incident and a police patrol, led by Police master Reiner, rode to Rheinweiler
to take the prisoners in custody. When they arrived in Rheinweiler, they found the
captured men outside the town hall, surrounded by a crowd of people who seemed
to be rather curious than hostile. "

 German Pioneer Troops capturing the four RAF crew members at Rhineweiler

 Town Hall Bad Bellingen where the four RAF crews were brought

 Reconstruction : the murder

The police "were confronted with the fact that Grüner, Kreisleiter of Thann and

Lörrach was informed and had the situation under control. Reiner wanted the
prisoners to be brought to police stationuntil German Army will take them in custody.

Grüner, however, prevented him from doing so. In the further course, the Tribunal
referred to statements that Hugo Grüner made in the preliminary investigation regarding
the crime. The transcript reads: "Grüner said the gendarmes that he was under the command
of Wagner, every Allied airman who was captured, must be shoot. Then he ordered the

Prisoners should leave with him and walk in row, each prisoner accompanied by one

gendarme with a distance of 50 meters from each other. He was then followed the
POW's in his car, had each prisoner taken separately on the banks of the Rhine

and shot each one on his back or neck with his submachine gun which he always had
with him in presence of Gestapo agent Meissner and 4 gendarmes . The four were rubbed of their
personal belongings ( expensive RAF aircrew watches,flight jackets and boots and flight gear )
then one by one dragged from their feet and thrown into the Rhine river.

The day after the crime, Grüner tried to persuade the police chief and the district
administrator to give a false account of the murder on the riverbank, according to which
the four escorted prisoners were attacked by roadside gang and murdered. Grüner actually

returned to the scene the day after the murder. "He met the then Bellingen Rhein warden
Josef Escher - also called Fischer Seppi. He ordered him removing the traces of blood.
The fisherman-Seppiproved civil courage by refusing and saying those who
caused the blood should remove it themselves .

 Mr H.Giblin a Bad Bellingen historian believes to have found the murder place in 2006

Standing at the same location on Sept 25,2018 still unable to confirm the exact crash nor murder sites

Hubert Gilgin, a Bad Bellingen,who researched in September 2006 the history of the

murder states as following: On Saturday, October 7,1944 13 Lancaster bombers, 

accompanied by fighters  attacked Kembs Barrage. A bomber was shot down at 

Märkt composed of the eight-man crew who all perished. "On another bomber hit 

badly from the flak, crashed near Rheinweiler in the Rhine. The crew of seven 

succeeded to inflate a dinghy in water and to climb the boat. Two men immediately

jumped back into the Rhine and reached the Alsatian shore.

The dinghy of the five airmen paddled down the Rhine too avoid being captured by 

German soldiers. When they noticed that a boat was launched from Rheinweiler 

towards them, one of them jumped in Rhine and he too reached the Alsatian shore. 

The remaining four airmen were ordered by German soldiers to come to come to German

riverbank . They were then arrested and taken to the Rheinweiler Town Hall. "Gilgin

refers to his account of the report of an Alsatian newspaper from the year 1989 and
the representation of the former British Group Captain Tom Bennet . 

Hugo Gruenner was arrested by French troops on May 6,1945 in Loerrach and charged

with murder of RAF airmen and jailed in Muhouse, Alsace waiting for trial. Conflicting

reports indicating that Gruenner tried to commit suicide on August 1945.Unlike Robert

Wagner who was executed in 1946 by a French firing squad , Gruenner appeal was 

accepted by the French tribunal in Strasbourg. The GESTAPO murderer Erich Meissner
was killed by French troops in 1944 while firing at French troops either in Alsace or
Lorrach .
The French court ruled that the case is not in their jurisdiction competence and as such

he should be freed unless and other Allied authority would hold him accountable for 

the murder though and in the meantime since the victimes were British nationals , he

should be handed over to British Authorities in Recklinghausen-Hillerheide.

        German POW's in Mulhouse captured by Rhine -Danube French Commado

German POW's Rosenau /Kembs 1945

German POW's Mulhouse Jail 1945

 German POW's Mulhouse 1945

 Gestapo,Kreisleitern,Nazis & agitators arrested in Alsace seen in Strasbourg May 1945

  French Troops parade Baden Wuertenberg 1946

The end of Gestapo agents near Colmar,Alsace,France 1947

Totally not understandable on such high profile case and an evident British sloppiness,
on eve of the process on February 16,1947 Hugo Gruenner with insiders help managed
to escape the British high security prison in Recklinghausen . On July 6,1971  along
with the sale of his house and property he was declared by his family as decesed.

On August 15,1951 in a letter to her uncle in Argentina Gruenner's daughter Hedwig,
wrote that finally she was able to locate her uncle postal address which for many years
was not knownto her,leading to presumtion that Gruenner was in close tough with the family
becauseonly he knew about the uncle's whereabouts .

Throughout the years lastly on end of the 60's Gruenner was reportedly seen numerous

times by Roetenbach residents visiting a health resort ,firmly indicating that thanks the 

famous ODESSA Nazi underground organization he managed to escape to Argentina a
place where numerous Nazi warm criminals such as Eichmann located later on by Israeli
Mosad escaped where he was offered money and change of identity .

 Nine thousand Nazi war criminals fled to South America after the Second World War, it has 

been revealed for the first time.  After receiving tip-offs, German prosecutors were recently

granted access to secret files in Brazil and Chile that confirmed the true number of Third

Reich immigrants.

According to the documents, an estimated 9,000 war criminals escaped to South America, 

including Croatians, Ukrainians, Russians and other western Europeans who aided the

Nazi murder machine.Most, perhaps as many as 5,000, went to Argentina; between 

1,500 and 2,000 are thought to have made it to Brazil; around 500 to 1,000 to Chile; and the

rest to Paraguay and Uruguay.These numbers do not include several hundred more who fled

to the safety of right-wing regimes in the Middle East.Previous estimates as to how many 

Nazis fled to South America have varied wildly from 5,000 to 300,000. Kurt Schrimm, 62, 

head of the central war criminal authority in Germany, is among the legal team sifting

through archives.

He said: 'These documents provide the hottest leads we have had for years.'

Mr Schrimm said a female historian provided the clues about the Nazis who got away,

who included Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele

and Treblinka death camp commander Franz Stangl. Of particular interest to the hunters

are details of the so-called 'rat lines' - the escape routes out of a shattered Europe after 

WW2 that allowed an estimated 800 murderers to escape on passports provided by the Vatican.

Since arriving in South America three weeks ago, Mr Schrimm and Mr Steintz have

pored over the Arquivo Historico records in Rio de Janiero.The Archivo Nacional is the

repository for all immigration documents.They show that 20,000 Germans settled in 

Brazil alone between 1945 and 1959.

Mr Schrimm said: 'Many are under a false name with a dark past.'Many South

American countries postwar were ruled by fascist-style military dictatorships that

welcomed the brutal servants of Nazism with few questions asked.Mr Steintz 

said: 'Already we see something of a pattern in the way these criminals operated. 

They almost always entered the country alone and sent for their families afterwards.

'And most entered on a passport of the International Red Cross. Eight hundred 

higher functionaries of the SS and Nazi state entered Argentina alone on such

passports.'The files show that the contact point for many was German Bishop 

Alois Hudal, priest-confessor to the German Catholic community in Rome.

Investigators hope that the files will yield up cross references to the secret 

services of Chile and Brazil detailing names of intelligence agents who

helped the Nazi war criminals.

Sources : Baden Wuertenberg Archives
                Mr E.Bassler
                Mr H.Giblin
                Colmar France Military Archives  
                Freiburg i.B Archives  
                Australian Military Archives