Last updated: September 24, 2026
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Fort Hunt Park: Werner Drechsler
National Archives and Records Administration
Werner Drechsler
Werner Drechsler claimed he was never a part of the Hitler Youth.[i] According to Drechsler, his father was a member of the Social Democratic Party, a political party in Germany closely associated with the Weimar Republic, a constitutional government that existed in Germany between the First and Second World Wars.[ii] The Social Democratic Party opposed the Enabling Act of 1933, a piece of legislation that concentrated political power in the hands of Adolf Hitler, Germany’s newly elected chancellor. As a result, the Social Democratic Party was banned and its members persecuted.[iii] Drechsler reported that his father was arrested and sent to a German concentration camp for three years due to his party membership.[iv]Drechsler was conscripted into the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) in 1941[v]. He was stationed aboard U-118, a German submarine[vi]. U-118 laid mines which sunk three English merchant ships and a Canadian corvette near Gibraltar in 1943[vii]. Weeks into U-118’s next patrol, the boat was attacked and destroyed by American aircraft southwest of the Azores[viii].
While attempting the escape the vessel, Drechsler was badly wounded. His neck was injured by shrapnel from a depth charge, and he was shot in his right knee. Drechsler was among sixteen of the crew’s survivors taken aboard the USS Osmond Ingram as prisoners. Once onboard, a doctor treated Drechsler’s knee. Drechsler would remain in the ship’s sickbay for the duration of the eight day journey to Norfolk, Virginia, where he was processed and then transferred to Fort Hunt for interrogation[ix].
In their written reports, intelligence officers at Fort Hunt described Drechsler as “a young man of immense conceit and vanity” who was “inclined to be boastful about his personal history.” It was the opinion of one officer that it was likely Drechsler’s “feeling of personal superiority that kept him from mixing with the Nazi indoctrinated youth of his own age.” Reports noted that Drechsler was “undoubtedly intelligent,” however, and “very cooperative when flattered enough.”[x]
American military personnel at Fort Hunt recruited Drechsler to work as a stool pigeon. Stool pigeons were informants at Fort Hunt who posed as ordinary prisoners in order to obtain intelligence for the Allied war effort.[xi] Intelligence officers at Fort Hunt utilized Drechsler as a stool pigeon from June 1943 until January of 1944. During this time, Drechsler was in contact with several different prisoners at Fort Hunt[xii].
Documents from Fort Hunt sometimes refer to Drechsler using aliases such as “Limmer” and “Brabant.”[xiii] Though the reason for using different names for Drechsler is unclear, it may have been that intelligence officers at Fort Hunt knew that Drechsler’s identity as an informant had been discovered by the other German sailors[xiv]. When Drechsler was sent from Fort Hunt in January 1944 for assignment to a normal prisoner of war camp by the United States Army, the United States Navy—who had made use of intelligence gathered by Drechsler—requested that Drechsler be detained separately from other members of the Kriegsmarine, stating in one letter that there were “special reasons for making this request.”[xv]
Drechsler was first sent to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. German prisoners at Fort Leonard Wood were drawn only from the German Army, and detainees at the Fort Hunt had primarily served in the German Navy. For this reason, Drechsler likely would have been safe at Fort Leonard Wood. For reasons that are unknown, however, the United States Army transferred Drechsler from Fort Leonard Wood to Papago Park, Arizona on March 12, 1944. Unlike Fort Leonard Wood, Papago Park’s prisoner population was compromised mostly of German sailors.[xvi]
Within hours of his arrival at Papago Park, Drechsler was confronted by other prisoners about his work as a stool pigeon at Fort Hunt. The same night, seven prisoners—including Rolf Wizuy and Heinz Ludwig, two who had come into contact with Drechsler during stays at Fort Hunt—plotted to kill him. An American guard discovered Drechsler’s body hanging in the barracks’ shower room on the morning of March 13, 1944.[xvii]
The men accused of killing Drechsler were tried in a United States court-martial proceeding and sentenced to death in August 1944[xviii], then hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas the next year.[xix] Drechsler is buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso, Texas.[xx]
[i] Schock, Mark P. 2011. “Summary Justice: The Price of Treason for Eight World War II German Prisoners of War,” pg 26. Thesis (M.A.)., Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of History. https://soar.wichita.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/60d24f2a-73eb-4ed1-8dd0-658f795d3e26/content.
[ii] The Wiener Holocaust Library. n.d. “The Weimar Republic.” The Holocaust Explained. Accessed September 11, 2026. https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-rise-to-power/the-weimar-republic/.
[iii] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. n.d. “Political Prisoners.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. Accessed September 11, 2026. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/political-prisoners.
[iv] Schock, pgs 87-88.
[v] Schock, pg 87.
[vi] Schock, pg 73.
[vii] Helgason, Guðmundur. n.d. “Patrol Info for U-118.” Https://Uboat.Net/, Guðmundur Helgason. Accessed September 10, 2026. https://uboat.net/boats/patrols/patrol_3781.html.
[viii] Schock, pgs 72-74.
[ix] Schock, pgs 73-74.
[x] Schock, pg 87.
[xi] Sutton, Robert K. Nazis on the Potomac: The Top-Secret Intelligence Operation that Helped Win World War II, pg 84. Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishers, 2021.
[xii] Schock, pgs 88-90.
[xiii] Schock, pg 90.
[xiv] Schock, pgs 88-89.
[xv] Schock, pg 91.
[xvi] Schock, pgs 91-94.
[xvii] Schock, pgs 96-101.
[xviii] New York Times. 1945. “8 GERMANS FACE DEATH; War Prisoners Were Convicted by Courts-Martial in 2 Murders.” July 19. https://www.nytimes.com/1945/07/19/archives/8-germans-face-death-war-prisoners-were-convicted-by-courtsmartial.html.
[xix] Schock, pgs 7-8.
[xx] US Department of Veterans Affairs. n.d. “Advanced Search ‘Drechsler.’” Veterans Legacy Memorial. Accessed September 10, 2026. https://www.vlm.cem.va.gov/search?lname=Drechsler&fname=Werner.