Benita von Falkenhayn

Benita von Falkenhayn, maiden name von Zollikofer - Altenklingen (born ca. 1900, died February 18, 1935) was a Swiss-born German baroness.

She was related to chief of the German General Staff during the World War I, General Erich von Falkenhayn by marriage to his son, whom she later divorced.

In her early thirties, she met the Polish intelligence agent Major Jerzy Sosnowski and became his lover. In February 1935, she was arrested with her friend and Sosnowski's other lover, Renate von Natzmer. They were both found guilty of espionage and treason and sentenced to death.

Two days later, after appeals for clemency had been turned down, they became two of the last people in Germany to be beheaded by axe, at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin. In 1938, Adolf Hitler decreed that all future executions should be by hanging or the guillotine.

External links

* cite news
author=
title=Baroness Beheaded
date=1935-02-25
work=Time Magazine
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,754540,00.html
accessdate=2008-08-09
* [http://www.coldwarhistory.us/Exhibitions/History/Love__Espionage__and_the_Ax/body_love__espionage__and_the_ax.html "Love, Espionage, and the Ax"]
* [http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benita_von_Falkenhayn]