50,000 People Witnessed This Public Ex*cution

On September 6, 1945, just months after the Second World War drew to a close, a ruthless former official who had instigated a brutal reign of terror was brought out to face his execution. Josef Fritchner was destined to become the final man publicly executed in Czechoslovakia, meeting his end outside the walls of a prison notorious for its horrific wartime conditions.

Often described as a beast, Fritchner had been appointed the deputy mayor of Prague. In this role, he bore direct responsibility for the deaths of countless Czech citizens who had dared to defy and resist the German occupation. Innocent people had been hanged in the streets from lamp posts, and now, Fritchner was about to receive the exact same treatment. High atop a towering gallows platform, an executioner secured the noose around his neck. The stool was swiftly kicked out from beneath the condemned man, leaving Fritchner to struggle and violently kick for air.

Yet, one must wonder: what was it like for the 50,000 people gathered that day, witnessing the execution of a man they despised with every fiber of their being?

But who exactly was Josef Fritchner? Born in 1901 as the son of a shoemaker, his early life hardly hinted at notoriety. He resided in the Czech lands and eventually built a career as a history professor. Fluent in Czech, he joined the Sudeten German Party during the 1930s. At the time, Hitler set his sights on annexing the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia boasting a significant German-speaking population. Fritchner found himself increasingly drawn to Nazism. Initially a member of the Austrian Nazi Party, he transitioned into a fully fledged, official member of the mainstream Nazi Party the moment German forces occupied Czech territory.

Rubbing shoulders with high-ranking officials, he understood Hitler’s strategic vision: control over Czechoslovakia was essential, as the Führer viewed the nation as a massive, useful factory capable of churning out armaments and weapons for the expanding war effort. After seizing these industrial powerhouses, Hitler realized he needed the Czech workforce effectively subjugated—terrorized enough to work tirelessly for the regime.

While notorious Nazi figures like Reinhard Heydrich were brought in to enforce this widespread terror, Josef Fritchner was already deeply entrenched. He had been part of the delegation that warmly welcomed Hitler to Prague Castle in March 1939. Consequently, he was appointed as a government commissioner in the city’s administration, later rising to the position of Nazi deputy mayor of Prague.

In his newfound power, Fritchner ruthlessly censored publications and controlled the local press. He banned any written works that contradicted Nazi ideology and aggressively stacked government positions with fellow party loyalists. Driven by a desire to strip Prague of its rich Czech heritage and culture, he oversaw the destruction of numerous monuments vital to the Jewish community, including several historic synagogues.

Fritchner systematically arrested his personal enemies, sending several to their executions. However, his unchallenged reign hit a roadblock when Reinhard Heydrich was dispatched to Prague. Heydrich, acting practically as Heinrich Himmler’s right-hand man and the SS’s deputy, was sent to the Czech region with a singular mission: to drown the populace in absolute terror. Fritchner and Heydrich immediately clashed. Fritchner felt intensely threatened by the SS leader’s looming presence, while Heydrich simply viewed the deputy mayor as an irritating obstacle and wanted him removed.

Heydrich was undeniably evil, commanding the Einsatzgruppen—the notorious Nazi death squads responsible for slaughtering millions throughout the war. Upon arriving in Prague, he immediately declared martial law, executing hundreds within mere days and banishing countless others to concentration camps. When Heydrich was eventually assassinated, Fritchner arrogantly assumed the path was clear for him to become the ultimate authority.

Desperate to curry favor with the upper echelon, he publicly mourned the very man he had secretly despised. Instead of a promotion, though, he was politely offered retirement. The Nazi brass had little use for him anymore; they preferred to run the brutal show themselves. Though he managed to cling to his title as deputy mayor, he was widely disliked back in Germany. Fritchner stayed in the country until April 1945, finally sending his family to Austria as the collapse of the Third Reich became inevitable.

Shortly after, he was captured by American forces. On May 21, 1945, the former Nazi deputy mayor of Prague was formally handed over to the Czech police. He was locked away, awaiting trial and the severe consequences of his actions.

During rigorous interrogations, he desperately claimed he was actually German rather than Czech, attempting to distance himself from the horrific crimes committed by the SS and affiliated groups. Interrogators described him as ironic, irritatingly overconfident, and undeniably eloquent. While he had historically postured as an ardent Nazi, he now complained to his captors that he possessed numerous enemies within the party’s top brass. He alleged that he was so despised by certain factions that he often feared for his own life. To the Czech people, however, these excuses meant nothing. This man was a traitor and a mass murderer who absolutely deserved a death sentence for his heinous crimes.

Brought before the Extraordinary People’s Court in Prague, Josef Fritchner stood trial alongside several other prominent Nazis. This court would go on to convict other high-ranking officials like Karl Hermann Frank and Kurt Daluege in the subsequent months and years. Inside the courtroom, prosecutors meticulously laid out Fritchner’s atrocities. They detailed the vicious massacres he had personally ordered or facilitated, and presented damning evidence of his role in deporting innocent citizens from Prague to various concentration and extermination sites scattered across occupied Europe.

The verdict was unsurprising. He was found guilty of a multitude of crimes: disseminating Nazi propaganda, defrauding the city of Prague through corrupt deals with the occupying forces, widespread collaboration, and actively participating in Nazi rallies. Linked inextricably to high treason, he would not have to wait long for his execution day to arrive.

Condemned to death, Fritchner was transferred to Pankrác Prison, the designated execution site. Pankrác had been a notoriously brutal Nazi holding facility during the war. One former prisoner later recounted the harrowing conditions:

“The cell was perhaps 8 feet long and 5 or 6 feet wide, and the entrance was a toilet bowl that also provided the only available drinking water. Hanging directly off one of the walls were two narrow bunks stacked vertically. There was a tiny table and a single chair in the cell, and up high on the wall was a very small window. Because it was 12 feet off the ground, inmates could not see out of it. The cell was generally bitterly cold or stiflingly hot. Pankrác Prison was tremendously overcrowded and inmates were given very little food. Every morning after coffee, rain or shine, there were outdoor exercises. Often the guards beat inmates during these exercises and subsequently at roll call.”

Ironically, Pankrác was the very prison where Fritchner had banished so many of his own enemies—victims who ultimately lost their heads in the execution chamber beneath the blade of the Fallbeil, the German guillotine. Now, he was the inmate, though his stay would be incredibly brief as the execution preparations finalized.

By September 6, 1945, a massive structure had been erected right in front of the prison, accommodating multiple gallows. The framework featured heavy vertical wooden beams bridged by a horizontal crossbeam. These were specialized gallows, with several of these formidable posts protruding high above the main execution scaffold. The structure was intentionally built to an extreme height, ensuring the sprawling crowd could easily catch a glimpse of the lethal proceedings. Spectators were arranged in a vast square encircling the gallows, firmly held back by armed guards instructed to prevent the mob from storming the platform.

The gathering was immense, swelling to roughly 50,000 strong. To every single person present, Josef Fritchner was a savage brute who had infected the beautiful city of Prague with unfathomable suffering. Now, the survivors of his regime gathered to watch him meet his end. Thousands cast their gazes upward toward the wooden frame. An eyewitness to Fritchner’s execution painted a vivid picture of the scene:

“Three hours later the prisoner shuffled from the courthouse to a scarlet-draped gallows in a crowded public square. Three black-uniformed executioners, university students whom he had sent to a concentration camp, stood waiting. A murmur rippled through the tense crowd as the traitor reached the scaffold. The sentence was read again. The executioners lifted him by a leather strap under his armpits in the crowd’s full view. They slipped the noose around his neck.”

Suddenly, half-shouting and half-croaking in guttural German, Fritchner declared:

“I die for Germany.”

Refusing to grant him any dignity, an infuriated executioner sharply slapped the traitor’s face and sprang the trapdoor. The condemned man had desperately tried to put up a fight after the noose was secured, attempting to frame himself as a righteous martyr—but not a single soul in the crowd was interested. Growing completely tired of his antics, the executioner delivered that final slap and released the lever.

The noose snapped dangerously taut. Fritchner thrashed frantically, wriggling and kicking wildly at the empty air, slowly suffocating in full view of the masses. The crowd watched him fight a losing battle for his life, with eager spectators even crowding onto nearby rooftops just to guarantee a better view. It took several agonizing minutes before his body finally went limp as death firmly took hold. Sometime later, the corpse was unceremoniously cut down.

Josef Fritchner was a man so venomous that he was deeply hated even by prominent members of his own Nazi party. Driven entirely by an insatiable thirst for power, his ultimate legacy was the immense suffering he inflicted upon the people of Prague. But in the end, over 50,000 vindicated souls witnessed his execution, letting out a deafening cheer the moment the gallows’ trapdoor was opened.