The Hangman - Ted Roper
Fritz Knoechlein was hanged on January 21st, 1949 in Hamelin, Germany.
The hangman Ted Roper has an interesting history.
Roper was born on April 15th, 1906, and died in his early eighties. He was born in Flitwick, Bedfordshire and moved to the Rhondda Valley in Wales when only six months old. He lived there until the age of 16. He enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry by advancing his age by two years and served in India, Ireland and the Sudan before being discharged in 1929.
He applied for the post of prison officer with the Shanghai Municipal Police in China in the spring of 1930. The prison in which he worked had 8,000 prisoners who were mostly Chinese. There was a number of British staff at the prison. After five years Roper became a senior officer and also became assistant executioner with the regular hangman coming from Hong Kong Prison.
In August 1937, the China/Japan war began in earnest and Shanghai was under siege. The prison remained in a no man's land situation until the Japanese gained control. On December 8th, 1941, at 3.30 am, Japanese troops with fixed bayonets entered the prison and demanded keys to the armoury and all civilians became prisoners of war, initially in their own prison for three months and then in a disused factory.
Ted was a big man, weighing over 20 stone and standing well over six foot tall. As a prisoner of war he lost half his body weight and dropped to 10 stone. Following Japanese surrender he undertook a three month period of recuperation. The prison was handed back to Chinese control and Roper volunteered as Chief Executioner in Hong Kong hanging war criminals.
He resigned in January 1947 and sailed for the UK. His services were then required in Bielefeld, headquarters of the British Army of occupation in Germany. In September he moved with his wife Alice to Hamelin Prison where he first encountered Chief Executioner Albert Pierrepoint. They worked together for four years, executing German war criminals, including women guards from Ravensbruck Camp.
The following information is taken from a 13 page document about Ted Roper entitled "The Revelations of a Hangman". This was written by Roper himself and comes from the archives of Norfolk man Vic Brown. Ted Roper was 74 when Vic met him at Bridgewater in 1980.
"Xmas 1948 came and went and my first visit to Hamelin in 1949 was on 20th January and among the bunch this time was Fritz Knoechlein who had been a Brigadier in the German SS. He had been convicted of the most terrible massacre of over ninety troops of the Norfolk Regiment but two men who were beneath the pile of carcasses and left for dead, lived to tell their
nauseating tale of Boche bestiality.
The mass murder occurred when the German Army broke through to Dunkirk. They were among the handful of ragged survivors of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment surrounded at a little French village Paradis in the Pas de Calais. The situation was hopeless, so three soldiers were sent forward with white flags of surrender. They were killed instantly and before firing ceased, 12 more were dead. Then the remaining 99 were lined up on a roadway, spat upon, kicked and beaten with rifle butts before being marched to a nearby field where a hole in the ground had been roughly dug out and deepened. As the unarmed, defenceless prisoners marched alongside, German machine guns opened up and mowed them down.
After a while firing stopped and some SS came to the pit, fixed bayonets. those who moved or made a sound were shot or bayoneted. I relate this story in full as one small illustration of the ghoulish fiends we were executing and the diabolical inhuman crimes of which they were undeniably guilty.
At the very last moment ex-Brigadier Knoechlein was given a stay of execution as new evidence was supposed to be forthcoming from France where it had occurred. Nothing new did materialise, however, and justice was duly done. He was very pompous and unrepentant to the end and when asked his religion, snarled 'atheist'. Accordingly he was not given the usual attendance of a minister. As I led him to the scaffold after securing his arms, he stared hard at me and made a noise in his throat as if to spit. I was too quick however and bundled him unceremoniously on the trap door. He disappeared shouting "Got Straffe" but was too late to get out the last word which was presumably "England".
At the end of 1949, all British Trials for war crimes had finished and so my job was coming to an end. There were a few more Poles guilty of civilian crimes, some of whom attempted to prove German nationality. Germany had recently abolished the death penalty and if tried by a German Court, 'Life' would be the maximum sentence. On 6th December, 1949, I paid my last visit to Hamelin.
April 1951- I returned to England and settled in the West Country with wife Alice and family.
NOTE:- Roper's wife Alice was almost as small as he was tall. She stood at around five feet. It is thought that she was the dominant partner in the marriage, however.
The hangman Ted Roper has an interesting history.
Roper was born on April 15th, 1906, and died in his early eighties. He was born in Flitwick, Bedfordshire and moved to the Rhondda Valley in Wales when only six months old. He lived there until the age of 16. He enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry by advancing his age by two years and served in India, Ireland and the Sudan before being discharged in 1929.
He applied for the post of prison officer with the Shanghai Municipal Police in China in the spring of 1930. The prison in which he worked had 8,000 prisoners who were mostly Chinese. There was a number of British staff at the prison. After five years Roper became a senior officer and also became assistant executioner with the regular hangman coming from Hong Kong Prison.
In August 1937, the China/Japan war began in earnest and Shanghai was under siege. The prison remained in a no man's land situation until the Japanese gained control. On December 8th, 1941, at 3.30 am, Japanese troops with fixed bayonets entered the prison and demanded keys to the armoury and all civilians became prisoners of war, initially in their own prison for three months and then in a disused factory.
Ted was a big man, weighing over 20 stone and standing well over six foot tall. As a prisoner of war he lost half his body weight and dropped to 10 stone. Following Japanese surrender he undertook a three month period of recuperation. The prison was handed back to Chinese control and Roper volunteered as Chief Executioner in Hong Kong hanging war criminals.
He resigned in January 1947 and sailed for the UK. His services were then required in Bielefeld, headquarters of the British Army of occupation in Germany. In September he moved with his wife Alice to Hamelin Prison where he first encountered Chief Executioner Albert Pierrepoint. They worked together for four years, executing German war criminals, including women guards from Ravensbruck Camp.
The following information is taken from a 13 page document about Ted Roper entitled "The Revelations of a Hangman". This was written by Roper himself and comes from the archives of Norfolk man Vic Brown. Ted Roper was 74 when Vic met him at Bridgewater in 1980.
"Xmas 1948 came and went and my first visit to Hamelin in 1949 was on 20th January and among the bunch this time was Fritz Knoechlein who had been a Brigadier in the German SS. He had been convicted of the most terrible massacre of over ninety troops of the Norfolk Regiment but two men who were beneath the pile of carcasses and left for dead, lived to tell their
nauseating tale of Boche bestiality.
The mass murder occurred when the German Army broke through to Dunkirk. They were among the handful of ragged survivors of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment surrounded at a little French village Paradis in the Pas de Calais. The situation was hopeless, so three soldiers were sent forward with white flags of surrender. They were killed instantly and before firing ceased, 12 more were dead. Then the remaining 99 were lined up on a roadway, spat upon, kicked and beaten with rifle butts before being marched to a nearby field where a hole in the ground had been roughly dug out and deepened. As the unarmed, defenceless prisoners marched alongside, German machine guns opened up and mowed them down.
After a while firing stopped and some SS came to the pit, fixed bayonets. those who moved or made a sound were shot or bayoneted. I relate this story in full as one small illustration of the ghoulish fiends we were executing and the diabolical inhuman crimes of which they were undeniably guilty.
At the very last moment ex-Brigadier Knoechlein was given a stay of execution as new evidence was supposed to be forthcoming from France where it had occurred. Nothing new did materialise, however, and justice was duly done. He was very pompous and unrepentant to the end and when asked his religion, snarled 'atheist'. Accordingly he was not given the usual attendance of a minister. As I led him to the scaffold after securing his arms, he stared hard at me and made a noise in his throat as if to spit. I was too quick however and bundled him unceremoniously on the trap door. He disappeared shouting "Got Straffe" but was too late to get out the last word which was presumably "England".
At the end of 1949, all British Trials for war crimes had finished and so my job was coming to an end. There were a few more Poles guilty of civilian crimes, some of whom attempted to prove German nationality. Germany had recently abolished the death penalty and if tried by a German Court, 'Life' would be the maximum sentence. On 6th December, 1949, I paid my last visit to Hamelin.
April 1951- I returned to England and settled in the West Country with wife Alice and family.
NOTE:- Roper's wife Alice was almost as small as he was tall. She stood at around five feet. It is thought that she was the dominant partner in the marriage, however.