THE FINAL TERROR OF THE BRAGGART EXECUTIONER: Execution of the Nazi “Hangman of Mauthausen” Who Boasted of His Murders and Documented Every Victim
⚠️ SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING ⚠️ This post discusses war crimes at Mauthausen concentration camp and post-war trials. Shared only for historical education and remembrance of victims.
Martin Roth – The “Hangman of Mauthausen” and the 1947 Dachau Trial
Historical clarification: The SS guard known as the “Hangman of Mauthausen” who was sentenced to death and executed was SS-Unterscharführer Martin Roth (1913–1948), not Josef Riegler as some inaccurate sources have claimed.
Martin Roth was one of the most notorious guards at Mauthausen and its Gusen subcamps in Austria. Survivors testified that he was directly involved in executions, severe prisoner mistreatment, and openly boasted about his actions.
After the war, Roth was arrested by U.S. forces. At the Mauthausen Trial – one of the largest sub-trials of the Dachau Trials held by a U.S. military court in Dachau, Germany (1946–1947) – he was among 61 defendants.
On 27 May 1947, Martin Roth was sentenced to death for war crimes. The sentence was carried out by hanging at Landsberg Prison on 28 May 1948.
The Mauthausen Trial helped expose the full extent of the atrocities committed in the Austrian camp system and established the principle of individual accountability.
We remember this history not to foster hatred, but to honour the more than 100,000 victims who perished at Mauthausen and its subcamps, and to ensure such horrors are never repeated.
Reliable sources:
Mauthausen Memorial (Austria)
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Dachau Trials records (U.S. National Archives)
“The Mauthausen Trial” by Tomaz Jardim (Harvard University Press)
