Paul Ogorzow
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Paul Ogorzow (September 29, 1912 - July 26, 1941), born under the name Paul Saga, was a German railway worker, Sturmabteilung member, rapist and serial killer active during the early years of World War II. He was executed by guillotine in 1941.
Early life edit
Paul Saga was born in September 29, 1912 to farm worker Marie Saga. In 1924 when Saga was twelve he was adopted by a farmer named Johann Ogorzow. Paul later relocated to Nauen and took Ogorzow's surname as his own. He began work as a worker on Johann's farm and later in a foundry. At 18 he joined the Nazi Party and later the Sturmabteilung (SA), being promoted multiple times until he eventually became a Squad Leader. At 21 he became a platelayer for the German Imperial Railway and was once again promoted rapidly until he became an assistant signalman.
Marriage edit
In 1937 Ogorzow married a saleswoman named Gertrude Ziegelmann, with whom he had two children. His family moved into an apartment in Karlshorst and was often seen tending a cherry tree in his garden. His wife later accused him of domestic abuse at his trial, however this was never proven.
Crimes edit
Rapes edit
In late 1939 while Ogorzow and his family were living in Karlshorst, Ogorzow began a series of violent attacks against the women in the area. At the time most of the local women were housewives whose husbands were fighting in the war and so had nobody to protect them. Ogorzow would attack his target and choke or bludgeon them into submission before raping or assaulting them, always while wearing his black railway uniform. Sometimes he would randomly try to kill his victims, with one woman who he savagely raped and beat only surviving because he mistook her for dead. Another was strangled and thrown from a train, surviving through luck alone. In total, the German police recorded 31 offences later attributed to Ogorzow during this time.
Murders edit
Ogorzow's attacks resumed in October 1940, with more fatal consequences than his previous offences. He seduced a mother-of-two named Gerda Ditter whose husband was away in the war and met up with her in her house before murdering her with a knife. Two months later he killed two women on the same night: he beat Elfriede Frank to death on the S-Bahn and less than an hour later raped and killed 19-year-old Irmgarde Freese. Eighteen days later, the body of a fourth victim was found lying by the train tracks; medical examinations revealed she had died of a fractured skull.
On December 27 1940 Ogorzow attacked a woman named Gertrude Siewert on the S-Bahn, sexually assaulting her and throwing her off the train. She was rushed to hospital, but despite the emergency care she was given she died on December 29 from her injuries. The same thing happened to Hedwig Ebauer, who was five months pregnant when Ogorzow threw her off the S-Bahn and killed her.
In February 1941 Ogorzow claimed his seventh victim; mother-of-three Johanna Voigt, who was heavily pregnant when Ogorzow bludgeoned her over the head with a 2-inch-thick piece of lead-encased telephone cable and threw her off the train. Because the seven deaths were all clearly connected, police began searching for the man who they dubbed "the S-Bahn murderer".
Investigation edit
The investigation was severely hampered by the fact that the Ministry of Propaganda had banned reporting on any story that might damage morale. The S-Bahn Murderer case was no exception, with limits being placed on what the press could and couldn't report about the deaths. Two of Ogorzow's 1939 rape victims who he had tried to kill were interviewed and told the police their stories of being attacked by a man in a black uniform fitting Ogorzow's description. However, the police were unable to seek aid from the public because the press couldn't report on it.
To divert suspicion away from himself, Ogorzow (who could be expected to know about the crimes as both a railway worker and a Nazi Party member) actually volunteered to act as a bodyguard for women alone on the S-Bahn. Despite the opportunity this provided, attacking a woman he was protecting would have immediately draw attention to him and so there are no records of any attacks during this time.
Eventually Ogorzow became confident enough to kill again after the police's stakeouts only led to the arrests of petty criminals. On July 3 1941 he raped and murdered 35-year-old Frieda Koziol in the same area he had originally begun his crime spree. This final killing was his last mistake; co-workers reported that he was often absent from work, and one man claimed to have actually seen him climbing over the fence to leave unnoticed at the time of Koziol's murder. It came to light that he often made misogynistic comments and talked about his fascination with death. His records showed that he had been working for the railway depot long enough to have been the serial rapist who assaulted 31 women in 1939.
Trial and execution edit
Police now had enough evidence to charge Ogorzow, who was arrested on July 12, 1941 on charges of criminal violence. He willingly admitted his crimes when confronted by one of his surviving victims but claimed that a Jewish doctor had administered improper treatment for gonorrhoea and made him insane. The police and the court rejected that defence; he was formally expelled from the Nazi Party and charged with the eight killings. Ogorzow pleaded guilty to eight murders, six attempted murders and thirty-one cases of assault, for which he was sentenced to death. The Nazi Party declared him an enemy of the people and refused to intervene. Two days after his sentencing, Ogorzow was beheaded by a guillotine at Plötzensee Prison.