Gardelegen (war Crime) - Investigation

Investigation

An investigation was undertaken by Lt. Col. Edward E. Cruise, Investigating Officer, Ninth Army War Crimes Branch.

Text of Lt. Cruise's report and text of other exhibits are stored in US Army file 000-12-242.

The man who gave the order to burn the prisoners, Gerhard Thiele, escaped by disguising himself in the uniform of a German soldier and traveling with false papers. He lived in the Western zone of occupation and later in West Germany under a false name. He was never brought to justice and died June 30, 1994.

SS-Untersturmführer Erhard Brauny, the transport leader for the prisoners evacuated from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp who subsequently wound up in Gardelegen, was put on trial in 1947 before a US military tribunal and was sentenced to life in prison. He died in 1950.