This Date in History: June 21

On June 21, 1944, Oskar Dirlewanger (shown above), the commander of Sonderkommando Dirlewanger sent a radio message to SS-Gruppenführer Curt von Gottberg congratulating him on receiving the Infantry Assault Badge.  Dirlewanger later commanded the 36th SS Division; after the war, he was beaten to death at Altshausen, Germany.  (The Cruel Hunters: SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger Hitler’s Most Notorious Anti-Partisan Unit)

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On Thursday, June 21, 1945, U.S. Army official executioner Master Sergeant John C. Woods hanged U.S. Army Private Victor Ortiz at the Loire Disciplinary Training Center in Le Mans, France for the crime of murder.  The Army temporarily interred Ortiz at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Marigny in Plot Z in Grave 2-31.  Exhumed in 1949, Victor Ortiz is buried at the American Military Cemetery at Oise-Aisne in Plot E.  His remains are in Grave 87 in Row 4.  (The Fifth Field: The Story of the 96 American Soldiers Sentenced to Death and Executed in Europe and North Africa in World War II)