Nazi war criminal Peter Back standing on the gallows at Rheinbach, Germany, July 1945

Description: 

Photograph. Peter Back, German war criminal convicted of the murder of an unidentified U.S. airman, standing on the gallows of the military prison at Rheinbach. Official Caption: "Rome, 7/11/45--Nazi war criminal on gallows--Guarded by U.S. military policemen, Peter Back, German war criminal convicted of the murder of an unidentified U.S. airman, stands on the gallows of the military prison at Rheinbach, near Cologne, Germany. Back, a crippled tailor and local Nazi party leader, was one of three German civilians executed June 29, 1945, for shooting and clubbing to death the American flier who had parachuted to earth near Priest, Germany, on August 15, 1944. The trio were the first German civilians to be tried in the Reich as war criminals.--U.S. signal corps photo through Rome OWI--Approved by appropriate military authority (List B out) 7080." Near Cologne, Germany. 11 July 1945

Image Information

Donor: 
Dylan Utley
Accession Number: 
2012.019.289
Date: 
07/11/1945
Location: 
Hometown: 
Branch: 
Theater of Service: 
Unit: 
Campaign / Event: 
POW / KIA: 
Topical Subjects: 
Gallows--Germany
Military police--American--Germany
Nazis--Germany
Prisoners of war--German--Germany
Collection Level: 
Items from the service of Isaac "Ike" Bethel Utley, who was born in Smith Mills, Kentucky on 3 March 1920. Ike enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 19 January 1942. He was shipped overseas to the European Theatre and worked with a supply division based out of the city of Naples with an office set up in a residential villa. Utley worked with the Office of War Information and used their photographs in news articles to inform soldiers of the progress of the war. At war's end, Utley returned stateside. A trunk full of over 800 photographs from the O.W.I. arrived on his doorstep from his office in Italy, sender unknown. This collection consists of those photographs.
Geography: 
Köln
Latitude: 
50.933
Longitude: 
6.950
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials: 
Gallows--Germany
Military police--American--Germany
Nazis--Germany
Prisoners of war--German--Germany