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| 150 | Executioner Pierrepoint |
Walsh, whom I had known in pre-war days as Deputy Governor of Wandsworth. With him was Miss Wilson, Deputy Governor of Manchester, who had to attend because women were to be hanged. At a few minutes to the hour the Brigadier asked, 'Are you ready, Pierrepoint?' I answered 'Yes sir. 'Gentlemen, follow me,' he said, and the procession started.
We climbed the stairs to the cells where the condemned were waiting. A German officer at the door leading to the corridor flung open the door and we filed past the row of faces and into the execution chamber. The officers stood at attention. Brigadier Paton-Walsh stood with his wrist-watch raised. He gave me the signal, and a sigh of released breath was audible in the chamber, I walked into the corridor. 'Irma Grese,' I called.
The German guards quickly closed all grills on twelve of the inspection holes and opened one door. Irma Grese stepped out. The cell was far too small for me to go inside, and I had to pinion her in the corridor. 'Follow me,' I said in English, and O'Neil repeated the order in German. She walked into the execution chamber, gazed for a moment at the officials standing round it, then walked on to the centre of the trap, where I had made a chalk mark. She stood on this mark very firmly, and as I placed the white cap over her hand she said in her languid voice 'Schnell'. The drop crashed down, and the doctor followed me into the pit and pronounced her dead. After twenty minutes the body was taken down and placed in a coffin ready for burial.
Within another ten minutes I had prepared the rope for Elisabeth Volkenrath, and I went into the corridor and called her name. Half an hour later I had hanged Juana Bormann. We paused for a cup of tea, and I set about adjusting the scaffold for the double executions. I called 'Josef Kramer, Fritz Klein.' Kramer came out of his cell first. Although he had lost two stones in weight since he was captured, he was still a powerful man, and I was thankful when I had strapped his thick wrists safely behind him. I marched him to the trap and put the white cap over his face. I came back to the corridor to pinion Klein, then brought him into the execution chamber. On the trap, Klein hardly measured up to Kramer's shoulder. I adjusted the ropes and flew to the lever. This first double execution took only twenty-five seconds. But there were inevitable delays between the operations. The bodies of the two men
