A chap just shared this on Twatter: Interesting to actually see the ghastly 'judges' like Friesler, servants of the meat-hook, at their hysterical work. (Pleasingly killed in an air raid while trying one of the July plotters. Oh dear. What a pity. Never mind.) 'Was he at Wansee?' sprung to mind. Yes, of course he was. Apropos of little. Just hadn't seen it for a long while & found it interesting.
Off the cuff,I recollect it was said that 80% of the Nazi era judges were still in post after the defeat of Germany and in the transformation to democracy.The problem was that there was a vacuum of judicial expertise after 12 years of the Third Reich. Roland Friesler practised law from 1923 and joined the Nazi Party in 1925.He escaped from Russia in 1920 after being a POW and being held in Siberia for 5 years where he became proficient in the Russian language....deceiving his Russian captors and passing himself off as fanatical Bolshevik he used the Russian techniques of eliminating dissident Bolsheviks when he presided over the Peoples Courts.As shown he was particularly vindictive towards the July 1944 plotters and was renown for his verbal abuse of prisoners. There was a real rumpus in Germany when it was revealed that his widow was receiving a war pension on account of his death in Third Reich state service. Wannsee Conference....Minutes and Attendees The minutes of the Wannsee Conference http://www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
Of course the British were implicated in the plot in sofar as Stauffenberg had covert access to SOE captured stock of explosives and this source was used in making his bomb.There must have been many arms dumps available to the Germans following the collapse of the SOE Prosper network. So in the end we nearly got our man, Hitler, eliminated without any effort from us.
The ramifications are still likely felt today according to one study, Most of post-war justice ministry were Nazis: report
Fascinating, though, isn't it. You can indeed break a country down most effectively with military means, but if you want that neighbouring geography to carry on as anything other than a potentially troublesome wasteland, you need to rebuild, and certain professional positions of a functioning state are not easily filled. 'The Judges Trial' alone is really interesting. Held under American auspices, potentially to keep things a little more 'controlled' than the main hearings, and a noticeable lack of death sentences considering some of the defendants. Not sure I've ever seen a book fully dedicated to the de-nazification process. Hard enough to find good stuff on ACCs etc. Always seems to be bits & pieces, with the occasional newspaper article or regimental magazine shining scarce light.
Regarding the immediate occupation of Germany by the Western Allied powers and the wide range of problems which had to be overcome......among the topics was denazification. A very informative source of the period is from an interview in 1970 of General Sir Brian Robertson who held very senior appointments in the Military Control Commission in the British zone of occupation. General Lord Robertson of Oakridge Oral History Interview | Harry S. Truman
Thanks Adam, never seen this film, before, understanding every word Freisler and Graf Schwerin were saying made me shiver.And all: Im Namen des Deutschen Volkes. My German godfather had to face a judge like Freisler - death penalty! RIP Rudolf Schaefer Stefan. was saying
True denazification was probably a pipe dream to start with and perhaps more of a necessary public relations exercise to placate the citizens of the western democracies. For those Nazi's who found a senior role in the new Germany, suppressing past records would have been an immediate and ongoing priority. That is an obvious and selfish personal motive. The more interesting question is to what degree did they influence the direction of post war Germany. From Dictatorship to Democracy: The Role Ex-Nazis Played in Early West Germany - SPIEGEL ONLINE - International
On this day, 81 years ago. Wannsee. 15 men affirm atrocity as a legitimate function of government. Wannsee Conference Attendees
It is a cynical irony of history that Martin Luther (sic!) was liberated from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp by the Red Army in 1945. He had been imprisoned there since 1943 because he was involved in a plot against Foreign Minister Ribbentrop (one of those typical Byzantine intrigue games among the top Nazis) His "sudden heart attack" in May '45 saved him from a trial for his involvement in the Wannsee Conference. He denied his complicity until his death.
Roland Freisler One of the worlds most despicable people. You almost feel that he got off easy by dying the way he did, but who knows how the cards would fall if he had lived, been arrested, and sentenced. Or he might have escaped to Spain, South America, etc etc etc Just a horrible person