Paul Ogorzow

Paul Ogorzow (1913-1941)was a Berlin-based serial killer in Nazi Germany, responsible for several deaths and attempted murders during a ten month period between September 1940 and July 1941, when he was finally apprehended and executed at Plotzensee prison.

Life

Paul Ogorzow was born on September 29, 1912.

Murders: September 1940- July 1941

Ogorzow's depradations were mostly limited to the Berlin suburban area, and his modus operandi usually consisted of throwing women from Berlin's internal railway network, otherwise known as the "S-Bahn' (hence, his popular designation as the "S-Bahn Killer" in Berlin during this period.

Berlin's Kriminalpolizei (Serious Crimes Unit) came to suspect that the killer was familiar with Berlin's railroad routes, and interviewed 5000 Berlin rail workers. In doing so, they closed in on one Paul Ozgorkow, a twenty-eight year old signalman on the S-Bahn, and often given to voicing misogynist sentiments.

When apprehended in July 1941, Ogorzow eventually pled guilty to eight murders, six attempted murders and thirty one cases of assault.

Criticism of Kriminalpolizei Investigation

Historian Roger Moorhouse has suggested that the Kriminalpolizei were hampered in their investigations by several concurrent obstacles.

Firstly, Berlin had instituted rigorous wartime media censorship, in order not to spread panic and demoralise civilians on the homefront. These restrictions meant that there were only cursory details about each case, which impeded the progress of the investigation.

Secondly, due to Allied bombing raids on the German capital, blackout conditions were neccessary to shield strategically important targets from airbourne scrutiny and destruction. As a side effect, however, these conditions were also conducive to criminal activity. Ogorzow himself exploited the blackout, using it to stalk his victims and then disappear from possible surveillance using shadow cover.

Thirdly, Berlin rail appears to have had a poor health and safety record, which meant that the Kriminalpolizei had to deal with surplus cadavers and resultant forensic overload.

Finally, anti-Semitism and xenophobia initially deflected Kriminalpolizei scrutiny from the possibility that the perpetrator was a German citizen, rather than an Italian, Polish or French forced labourer in one of the adjacent factories to the rail network, or, primarily for ideological reasons, a local Jew. In the event, Ozgorkow turned to have been a member of the Nazi Party and SA, without any other criminal record.

Execution

After he was apprehended, Ogorzow was tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and executed (by guillotine ) at the Plotzensee prison in July 1941.

References

• Roger Moorhouse: "Nazi Serial Killer" BBC History: 10: 5: May 2009: 38-40.
• Roger Moorhouse: [1]