It is likely that Fuchs's espionage led the U.S. to cancel a 1950 Anglo-American plan to give Britain American-made atomic bombs. He was prosecuted by Sir Hartley Shawcross and was convicted on 1 March 1950 of four counts of breaking the Official Secrets Act by "communicating information to a potential enemy." After a trial lasting less than 90 minutes that was based on his confession, Lord Goddard sentenced him to 14 years' imprisonment, the maximum for espionage, because the Soviet Union was classed as an ally at the time. In December 1950, he was stripped of his British citizenship. The head of the British H-bomb project, Sir William Penney, visited Fuchs in prison in 1952.
Trial and imprisonment
Klaus Fuchs
Klaus Fuchs | Trial and imprisonment
14 years imprisonment He was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment Lord Goddard sentenced him to 14 years' imprisonment. Lord Goddard sentenced him to 14 years' imprisonment.
who headed up the manhattan project in britain
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James Chadwick
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who is he?
user
He was a British physicist.
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what was he known for?
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His discovery of the neutron.
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can you describe this thing he discovered?
user
It is a subatomic particle, symbol or which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton.
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why was the above project started?
user
It helped initiate the effort to build the first atomic bombs in the United States during World War II, and helped carry it through to completion in August 1945 by supplying crucial expertise.
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any other scientist were involved in it?
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Sir Geoffrey Taylor, James Tuck, Niels Bohr, Peierls, Frisch, and Klaus Fuchs
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what field did the last scientist study?
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Mathematics and physics
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why was he sent to prison?
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He was convicted on 1 March 1950 of four counts of breaking the Official Secrets Act by "communicating information to a potential enemy.
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what was the sentence announced by the court?
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It is likely that Fuchs's espionage led the U.S. to cancel a 1950 Anglo-American plan to give Britain American-made atomic bombs. He was prosecuted by Sir Hartley Shawcross and was convicted on 1 March 1950 of four counts of breaking the Official Secrets Act by "communicating information to a potential enemy." After a trial lasting less than 90 minutes that was based on his confession, Lord Goddard sentenced him to 14 years' imprisonment, the maximum for espionage, because the Soviet Union was classed as an ally at the time. In December 1950, he was stripped of his British citizenship. The head of the British H-bomb project, Sir William Penney, visited Fuchs in prison in 1952.
Klaus Fuchs | Trial and imprisonment
The court found him guilty of self-injury and assistance to self-injury. The death sentence of the previous trial had not yet been confirmed; the new sentence was six years in prison. On March 8, 1945 Kurt Fuchs was executed by a firing squad, 25 days before the Red Army began to take Vienna.
Kurt Fuchs | Life
The trial ended on 23 November with the conviction of the two accused for "crimes against the § 1 paragraph 2 of the law on disclosure of military secrets from June 3, 1914". The sentence was 18 months of imprisonment. In its reasoning, the court argued that the defendants after the specifying of the expert had really disseminated secret informations.
Weltbühne-Prozess | Judgment
Through his unruly behavior during the trial, Fuchs had repeatedly forced his removal from court proceedings. On 26 February 2000, Fuchs was found hanged with the cable of his electric razor in his prison cell at Graz-Karlau Prison. The prison physician determined it to be a suicide.
Franz Fuchs | Arrest, trial and death
While imprisoned, he was friendly with the Irish Republican Army prisoner Seamus Murphy with whom he played chess and helped to escape. It was suggested by some that Fuchs had turned IRA leader Cathal Goulding into a Marxist but Seamus Murphy denied it by saying "Fuchs never tried to turn anyone – it was hard to get a word out of him!" Fuchs was released on 23 June 1959 after he had served nine years and four months of his sentence (as was then required in England where long-term prisoners were entitled by law to one third off for good behaviour in prison) at Wakefield Prison and promptly emigrated to the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Klaus Fuchs | Trial and imprisonment
Klause's sentence was commuted to life in prison based upon his cooperation. Bröde hanged himself in his cell. As a result, only Matern was left to be executed by beheading on 22 May 1935.
Erich Mielke | Trial
On 26 October 1993, a panel of three judges and two jurors sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. In pronouncing sentence, Judge Theodor Seidel, told Mielke that he "will go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century."
Erich Mielke | Bülowplatz trial
In May 1943 Fučík was brought to Germany. He was first detained in Bautzen for somewhat more than two months, and afterwards in Berlin. On 25 August 1943 in Berlin, he was accused of high treason in connection with his political activities by the "Volksgerichtshof", which was presided over by the notorious Roland Freisler. Fučík was found guilty and was sentenced to death along with Jaroslav Klecan, who had been arrested with Fučík. Fučík was hanged two weeks later on 8 September 1943 in Plötzensee Prison in Berlin (not beheaded as is often stated). After the war, his wife, Gusta Fučíková, who had also been in a Nazi concentration camp, researched and retrieved all of his prison writings.
Julius Fučík (journalist) | Trial and death
Passersby detected Fuchs, reported him to the police and he was arrested again on October 24, 1944. The trial took place at the court of "Division Oo. 177". The defendant stated that he wanted to avoid a return to the "Strafbattalion" at any cost. But he also claimed to have had the intention to join elsewhere as a "free soldier". The court interpreted this to mean that he intended to wait out the war in Vienna. On December 29, 1944 he was sentenced to death. ″According to the court's opinion, the defendant is not to be seen any longer as a useful member of the German "Volk" and therefore it would be completely inappropriate to drag him along in times when countless fighters of best German blood have to give up their lives.″ Two months later, on February 20, 1945 Fuchs was indicted again, this time because of Wehrkraftzersetzung (undermining military morale).
Kurt Fuchs | Life
This was supposedly forbidden, but the attending policemen did not understand what was going on. Delp wrote on the same day, “It was too much, what a fulfillment, I prayed for it so much, I gave my life away. My chains are now without any meaning, because God found me worthy of the 'Vincula amoris' (chains of love)”. He was tried, together with Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, Franz Sperr, and Eugen Gerstenmaier, before the People's Court ("Volksgerichtshof") on 9–11 January 1945, with Roland Freisler presiding. Delp, von Moltke, and Sperr were sentenced to death by hanging for high treason and treason.
Alfred Delp | Arrest and trial
He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1946. The sentence was later commuted to twenty years' imprisonment, after a successful appeal by Sven Hedin . Falkenhorst was released from Werl prison on 23 July 1953, due to bad health. In 1968, following a heart attack, he died at Holzminden, West Germany, where his family had settled after fleeing from Lower Silesia. He is buried in the Holzminden Cemetery.
Nikolaus von Falkenhorst | Trial and conviction
Flesch appealed to the Supreme Court of Norway on procedural grounds and that the sentence was too harsh; however on 12 February 1948 his appeal was rejected. The sentence was carried out at midnight at Kristiansten festning on 28 February 1948. Right before the order was given to fire, Flesch shouted loudly "Heil Hitler".
Gerhard Flesch | Trial and execution
Richter was charged with espionage under the Treachery Act 1940. He was tried in camera at the Old Bailey and found guilty on 24 October 1941. He was sentenced to death by hanging. Richter filed an appeal which was, after much discussion in the Security Service, rejected. Faced with his imminent execution, Richter wrote a letter to one of the MI5 officers: "You can rely upon it that I shall not be less brave than Jakobs; I too will know how to die, yet not as a Nazi spy on your gallows, but as a man." On 10 December 1941, Richter was hanged at Wandsworth Prison.
Karel Richard Richter | Trial and execution
In a show trial before the Volksgerichtshof on 8 August 1944, he was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out the same day at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.
Friedrich Klausing | Death
The trial was held in the Federal District Court of Munich, where he was found guilty and sentenced to eight and a half years' imprisonment on December 22, 1969. He was released after serving two years. He was also investigated for the murder of Yakov Dzhugashvili, son of Josef Stalin.
Kurt Eccarius | Criminal convictions in West Germany
Adolf Bleicher, a communist-turned-Zionist, noted in 1979 that Zissu had caved in and "[fallen] into the trap they had set for him." However, Zissu refused to acknowledge any preordained confession, and made sure to write down and sign all his statements. Initially prosecuted for espionage, he was eventually found guilty of high treason ("conspiracy against the social order") and sentenced to life imprisonment on March 31, 1954. During the proceedings, Zissu lashed out at his co-defendant Benvenisti, whose own interrogation had produced a full confession to all crimes attributed by his captors. As reported by Steinhardt, Zissu told Benvenisti: "This court I shall not recognize, it has no authority over us.
A. L. Zissu | Trial, imprisonment, death
The new General Prosecutor Fritz Bauer, who had come to Braunschweig in 1950, and who was later active in the 1960s, likewise as a prosecutor, in the Auschwitz Trials, contributed to a great extent to getting Klagges sentenced in a normal criminal trial on 4 April 1950 to a life term in labour prison for crimes committed by him as Braunschweig State Minister and Premier, including, among others, the Rieseberg murders. The "Bundesgerichtshof" (a federal court), however, overturned this sentence in 1952. In a second trial in which it could be proved that Klagges had taken part in murders, torture, false imprisonment, and so on, and that he had planned (by himself or with others) these deeds, his prison term was reduced to 15 years.
Dietrich Klagges | The Klagges Trials
Mayer, Mueller and Pagel each received 15 years, Schlosser for 12 years, and Schroetter for 10. Lucy Boehmler was sentenced to five years. Because their spying was undertaken before the U.S. entered World War II, Ludwig, Borchardt, and Froehlich escaped the death penalty and were sentenced to 20 years. Kurt Frederick Ludwig was sent to Alcatraz Island to serve out his sentence. He was released in 1953 and deported shortly afterwards.
Kurt Frederick Ludwig | Trial and conviction
His last words were recorded as ""Ich sterbe unschuldig, mein Urteil ist ungerecht. Gott beschütze Deutschland. Möge es leben und eines Tages wieder groß werden. Gott beschütze meine Familie."" ("I die an innocent man, my sentence is unjust. God protect Germany. May it live and one day become great again. God protect my family."). Albert Speer escaped the death sentence, but served 20 years at Spandau prison.
Fritz Sauckel | Trial and execution
On 6 April 1944 he was sentenced to death by judge Roland Freisler at the Volksgerichtshof for "undermining military morale" and "denigrating the Führer" ("Wehrkraftzersetzung" and "Verunglimpfung des Führers"). Joseph Goebbels himself selected Freisler to preside over the trial and pressed for swift and harsh retribution. Knauf was beheaded on 2 May 1944, with the Fallbeil at Brandenburg-Görden Prison in Brandenburg an der Havel. His widow, Erna Knauf, was given a bill of 585.74 German Reichsmarks for the cost of the proceedings against her husband, including his execution. Ohser, who was arrested with Knauf, committed suicide the night before their trial, and in an apparent attempt to mitigate the charges against Knauf, left behind a suicide note in which he assumed all responsibility for their actions.
Erich Knauf | Arrest and execution for making criminal jokes
That day, 9 August 1952, The Supreme Court handed down the death sentence to Wolfgang Kaiser, the "incorrigible enemy of the hard working people" (""unverbesserlichen Feind des werktätigen Volkes""). Müller received a life sentence while his wife was given ten years and Hoppe twelve years in prison. Much later Kaiser's co-defendant, Joachim Mueller went public with his own recollections. Mueller said that Kaiser had believed, on the basis of promises received from the Stasi, that the death sentence would be pronounced only for show. As the trial unfolded Kaiser had told Mueller that he had a "luxury cell", and that he had been promised immunity so long as he was ready to testify against the KgU.
Wolfgang Kaiser (KgU) | Conviction and sentencing
Some of the suspects had been nabbed by Nazi SA men and probably beaten before they were turned over to police. In the 1993 trial of Mielke, the court gave the defense the benefit of the doubt and threw out a number of suspect confessions." On 19 June 1934, the 15 conspirators were convicted of first degree murder. The three deemed most culpable, Michael Klause, Max Matern, and Friedrich Bröde were sentenced to death. Their co-defendants received sentences ranging from nine months to fifteen years incarceration at hard labor. Klause's sentence was commuted to life in prison based upon his cooperation.
Hans Kippenberger | The Bülowplatz Trial
The court sentenced him to fifteen years imprisonment: seven were to be spent in solitary confinement.
Georg Ulrich Handke | Nazi years
On 26 July, Zech-Nenntwich returned to Germany and hid at his villa in Remagen. He later turned himself in to the Ministry of Justice of Lower Saxony on 7 August 1964, as he was afraid of being captured by Israeli agents. He was put on trial again for bribing a guard during his escape and was given an additional ten months to his prison sentence.
Hans Walter Zech-Nenntwich | Prison escape
Military Governor of Germany, General Lucius D. Clay ordered that the sentences of the Buchenwald Trial be re-examined on the basis of extensive records and, on 8 June 1948, confirmed fifteen of the death sentences and commuted seven. Most of the imprisonment sentences were also commuted, including Waldeck-Pyrmont's (from life to twenty years). Waldeck-Pyrmont was taken to Landsberg am Lech, where he served only three years of his sentence before being released in December 1950 for health reasons. He was granted an amnesty by the Minister President of Hesse in July 1953, which resulted in a significant reduction of the fine imposed on him.
Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont | Arrest and later life
Sandberger was found guilty on all counts. In September 1947, Judge Michael Musmanno pronounced the tribunal's sentence: Despite political pressures, General Lucius D. Clay confirmed Sandberger's death sentence in 1949. In 1951, Sandberger's sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment by the "Peck Panel" clemency board acting under the authority of John J. McCloy, the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany. McCloy had received political pressure to grant the reprieve from William Langer, U.S. Senator from North Dakota. Many of Langer's constituents were of German descent, and Langer felt that trial of anyone other than the highest Nazis was contrary to American legal tradition and helped Communism.
Martin Sandberger | Death sentence and reprieve
On May 5, 1970 the case against Bischoff was postponed by the court due to reasons of his poor health. He was thus able to avoid being formally convicted of war crimes. The case against Bischoff was dropped on the grounds that:
Helmut Bischoff | Essen-Dora trial
He claimed the putsch had been his sole responsibility, inspiring the title "Führer" or 'leader'. The lay judges were fanatically pro-Nazi and had to be dissuaded by the presiding Judge, , from acquitting Hitler. Hitler and Hess were both sentenced to five years in "" ('fortress confinement') for treason. "Festungshaft" was the mildest of the three types of jail sentence available in German law at the time; it excluded forced labour, provided reasonably comfortable cells, and allowed the prisoner to receive visitors almost daily for many hours. This was the customary sentence for those whom the judge believed to have had honourable but misguided motives, and it did not carry the stigma of a sentence of "Gefängnis" or "Zuchthaus".
Beer Hall Putsch | Trial and prison
All were tied with their hands behind their backs, and their names were read out loud. In groups of five, they went into the caves. Priebke went inside together with the second or third group and shot a man with an Italian machine pistol. Toward the end, he shot another man with the same machine pistol. The executions ended when it got dark that night. After the shootings, explosives were used to shut the caves. Priebke was found not guilty for the reason of acting under orders. On 1 August 1996, orders were given for the immediate release of Priebke.
Erich Priebke | Priebke in court
He remained for a year and a half in investigatory detention, first in Koblenz and subsequently in Düsseldorf and Cologne. Dieter Popp's trial took place in Düsseldorf over several days during the second half of December 1991. He was convicted on 23 December 1991 of espionage on behalf of the German Democratic Republic, which at the time of his criminal activities had been a foreign country widely seen as hostile to the German Federal Republic (West Germany), of which he had at the time been a citizen. He was sentenced to six years imprisonment (part of which had already been served through his pre-trial detention), and deprived of the right to hold public office or to vote in an election for a term of four years.
Dieter Popp | Arrest, trial, conviction, sentencing and imprisonment
If they did not do that, it was their own fault if I had to shoot them."" (for the bank robberies) ""I was afraid that I would be captured, and yet had to shoot in self-defense"". (last murder in Nuremberg) The secret of the Midday crimes was also solved - Gossmann was not an early riser and needed the morning for his preparations.
Klaus Gossmann | Trial and imprisonment
On 13 April 1931, Peter Kürten stood trial in Düsseldorf. He was charged with nine counts of murder and seven of attempted murder, and was tried before Presiding Judge Dr. Rose. Kürten pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to each of the charges. Aside from when delivering testimony, Kürten would spend the duration of his trial surrounded by a heavily guarded shoulder-high iron cage specifically constructed to protect him from attack by the enraged relatives of his victims, and his feet were shackled whenever he was inside this cage. Proceedings began with the prosecution formally reciting each of the charges against Kürten, before they recited the formal confession he had provided to police following his arrest.
Peter Kürten | Trial
Stolz signed "Heil Hitler" on court motions, said the Holocaust was "the biggest lie in world history," and yelled that the judge deserved the death penalty for "offering succour to the enemy". In 2008, Stolz was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison and stripped of her licence to practice law for five years.
Ernst Zündel | Trial and imprisonment in Germany
On 23 January 1942, Sponeck was tried in front of the Court President Hermann Göring where he maintained that he had acted against orders, on his own initiative, in order to avoid the destruction of his division. He was found guilty of disobedience to a superior officer and given the death sentence. Adolf Hitler (on Manstein's proposal) commuted the sentence to seven years in prison. Sponeck was to serve as an example to those who disobeyed Hitler's new order not to retreat. Sponeck was imprisoned in the Germersheim Fortress. Following the 20 July failed attempt to assassinate Hitler, Josef Bürckel, "Gauleiter" of Gau Westmark where Germersheim was located, pressed Heinrich Himmler, who was the Reich's Security Official, to have Sponeck executed in retribution for the assassination plot, even though the latter had no contact with the German military resistance.
Hans Graf von Sponeck | Trial, imprisonment and execution
They all faced trial at the Supreme Court in Karlsruhe. Josef Ledwohn was sentenced on 17 July 1956 for "Preparing to commit High Treason" to three and a half years in prison. In setting conditions for his sentence his time in pre-trial detention was taken into account, and he was accordingly released on 4 December 1957. Ledwohn's prison term was combined with a four year deprivation of citizen's rights.
Josef Ledwohn | Arrest and conviction
He was indicted at the Nuremberg IG Farben trial, convicted and sentenced to 6 years including time already served. The reasons for the judgment contain the statement 'Die Ausbeutung der Arbeit von KZ-Insassen ist ein Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit.' (the exploitation of concentration camp inmates is a crime against humanity). He served his sentence in Landsberg Prison and was released in 1951.
Heinrich Bütefisch | Indictment and trial
On 3 July 1937 he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for the "preparation of high treason alongside the severe falsification of documents".
Erich Honecker | Opposition to the Nazis and imprisonment
However, it sentenced him to ten years imprisonment for the other charges. The court also reversed the acquittal of Ernst Röchling and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment. All the property of the convicted men was confiscated and they lost their civil rights.
Hermann Röchling | Post-World War II (1945–55)
Heinz Felfe, Hans Clemens and Erwin Tiebel were all arrested in West Germany on 6 November 1961. Two years later their trial took place at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe from 8 - 19 July 1963, before a panel of five judges chaired by . It was determined that the trio had transferred 300 rolls of micro-film containing pictures of 15,000 secret documents created by Felfe and Clemens in the course of their work for the Federal Intelligence Service as well as reels of recording tape and information conveyed by radio message. Tiebel's contribution, as far as the court concluded, was restricted to his courier work.
Erwin Tiebel | Arrest
According to the defence lawyer Büsing, on the second day of the trial, during a break in the proceedings that came just before the pleadings of Prosecutor Melsheimer, the presiding judge, Hilde Benjamin explained that Kaiser would have to be sentenced to death "on the instruction of [...her] friends" (""auf Anweisung [...ihrer] Freunde""). The friends in question were the Soviet advisers observing the trial. In support of the sentence the judge went through all the KgU plans and projects, which the prosecutor had set out before the court in such abundance. That none of the dastardly plans (""hinterhältigen Pläne"") had actually been carried out was, in the court's judgement, reason to be grateful for the vigilance of the security services.
Wolfgang Kaiser (KgU) | Conviction and sentencing
All convicts were found guilty on charges 2, 3, and 4, except Hohberg (who was not charged on count 4, but found guilty on counts 2 and 3). Three defendants were acquitted on all charges: Vogt, Scheide, and Klein. Hohberg's sentence of 10 years included time already served—he was imprisoned on October 22, 1945—because he was not a member of the SS. The defense counsel for Karl Sommer filed a petition to modify the sentence to General Lucius D. Clay, the Commander-in-Chief for the U.S. occupation zone. In response to this appeal, Clay ordered Sommer's death sentence to be commuted into a lifetime imprisonment on May 11, 1949.
Pohl trial | Defendants
Milch was intended by the Allies to be a witness for the prosecution at Nuremberg but after seeing the conditions in which the defendants were held changed his mind and refused to cooperate. He was then tried as a war criminal in 1947 by a United States Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. He was convicted on two counts: Milch was sentenced to life imprisonment at Landsberg prison. His sentence was commuted to 15 years imprisonment in 1951, but he was released in June 1954. He lived out the remainder of his life in Düsseldorf, where he died in 1972.
Erhard Milch | Trial and conviction at Nuremberg
War ended, formally, in May 1945. Drach was interned in 1948/9 and taken back to Luxembourg to face justice. In 1949 he was sentenced to 15 years of forced labour in respect of his activities as prosecutor with the wartime Special Court, and at a further trial before the same court in 1951 he was sentenced to 20 years of forced labour under the terms of war crimes legislation. However, it was determined that the two sentences should be served simultaneously, and should be set at a total duration of only 15 years.
Leonhard Drach | Conviction
These transmitters were placed on the clips of classified documents, which were then followed to Bossard's desk, and eventually to the hotel he was using. Bossard was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act and received a trial at the Old Bailey on 10 May 1965, where he confessed and was sentenced to 21 years in prison. Lord Chief Justice Hubert Parker informed Bossard: "It would be longer, and I emphasise this, but for the fact that you are now 52 years of age and that you have shown a degree of remorse by making a full confession extending far beyond the matters in respect of which you are charged".
Frank Bossard | Espionage
On 11 June 1945 Aumeier was arrested at Terningmoen camp as a result of information gleaned from Gestapo files obtained by the MI6. He was still in full SS uniform and admitted almost immediately his name and rank. He was handed over to United States intelligence officers at Akershus Prison for interrogation in August 1945. In 1946, he was extradited to Poland to face trial as a war criminal along with thirty-nine other members of the SS staff of Auschwitz-Birkenau, before the Supreme National Tribunal in Kraków. The trial lasted from 25 November to 16 December 1947, and Aumeier stated that if he was found guilty and sentenced to death, he would "die as a 'Sündenbock' (scapegoat) for Germany".
Hans Aumeier | Trial and conviction
A succession of interrogation sessions over the next fifteen months ensued at the "Investigation Jail" at Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. For most of that time Karl Wilhelm Fricke was held in solitary confinement and without access to any natural light. His interrogators were keen that he should name his illegal contacts in the German Democratic Republic, but they failed, according to Fricke, for the simple reason that there were none. After nineteen weeks his interrogators knew nothing of significance beyond what they had been told to know before their victim had even been kidnapped. "The guilty man [had] under the cover name "Student" undertaken extensive crimes against the German Democratic Republic." Having gone to the trouble of abducting and interrogating him, however, there was little logic in releasing Fricke, and in July 1956 he came before the Supreme Court in order to be condemned in a secret trial to fifteen years in prison for "Agitating for wars and boycotts".
Karl Wilhelm Fricke | Interrogation, verdict and sentence
After the war, William Keppler was sentenced to ten years in prison following the Ministries Trial at Nuremberg in 1949. He was released in February 1951. Friederich Flick was also sentenced to seven years after the Flick trial, and released early in 1950. Oswald Pohl and Otto Ohlendorf were hanged for war crimes in the Nuremberg trials.
Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft | Post-war sentencing of group members
In the spring of 1933, Baillie-Stewart was court-martialled at Chelsea Barracks under the Official Secrets Act for selling military secrets to a foreign power. Because Britain was not at war, Baillie-Stewart was not in danger of the death penalty, but the ten charges against him carried a maximum sentence of 140 years in jail. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. The court was told that Baillie-Stewart began to offend in 1931 when he met and fell in love with a German woman while he was holidaying in Germany. He decided to become a German citizen and wrote a letter to the German Consul in London to offer his services.
Norman Baillie-Stewart | 1933 court martial
In September 1950 he was arrested by people working for the Ministry for State Security ("Stasi"). Four years of "pre-trial detention" ensued, most of which he spent in an underground cell at the Stasi Hohenschönhausen detention centre. In 1953 he found himself arbitrarily linked by the Stasi with the "group of conspirators" connected with Georg Dertinger who was arrested at the start of that year, and in June 1954 the Supreme Court of East Germany sentenced Brandt, during a secret trial, to ten years of imprisonment for working against the state (""staatsfeindlicher Arbeit""). The ten-year sentence was later reduced, formally, to eight years, though as matters turned out he remained in prison, apart from a few days in 1958 till 1964.
Helmut Brandt (CDU politician in East Germany) | Arrest and imprisonment
The defendants were imprisoned in a submarine at the main Stasi prison, Hohenschönhausen, and here the Stasi prepared them for the trial process. It was here that Chief State Prosecutor Melsheimer, witnessed by a Soviet officer, threatened Müller that he would ask the court to apply the death sentence if Müller failed to testify in line with the indictment. At the same time the Supreme Court vice-president Hilde Benjamin, who would herself be presiding at the trial, gave notice in a pretrial meeting with the defense lawyers, whose participation in the actual trial proceedings would be minimal, that they should not expect any death sentences.
Wolfgang Kaiser (KgU) | Pretrial
He had in his possession $100,000 in cash that he intended to pay her; he did not disclose his real identity to Swiss authorities, and was sentenced to three years imprisonment for spying. P.W. Botha announced Gerhardt's arrest to the world in a special press conference on 26 January 1983. Following his deportation to South Africa, Gerhardt and his wife were tried "in camera" in the Cape Town Supreme Court, with the prospect of a death sentence being handed down for high treason. In his trial, Gerhardt stated that the repulsion he felt towards his father's right-wing political beliefs drove him to fight apartheid by serving the USSR.
Dieter Gerhardt | Arrest, trial and subsequent release
The former German Governor-General of Poland was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity on 1 October 1946, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. The death sentence was carried out at Nuremberg Prison on 16 October by US Army Master Sergeant John C. Woods. Journalist Joseph Kingsbury-Smith wrote of the execution:
Hans Frank | Capture and trial
Gickeleiter was sentenced to a 20-year prison term, which would be reduced to 10 years in 1951 before he was released early on 19 July 1952. The death sentence against Sperling was shortly thereafter shortened to life imprisonment and later reduced even further before he was finally released on 20 July 1957.
Weingut I | Trial
Nosske was arrested by the Allies and brought to trial at the Einsatzgruppen Trial in 1948 at Nuremberg. He was the only accused who did not seek clemency from General Lucius D. Clay in the American sector of occupation. On 10 April 1948, Nosske was sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes. He was released early, on 15 December 1951. His later life is unknown. On 26 March 1965, he testified as a witness at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, with Düsseldorf as declared place of residence and legal advisor as profession. He likely died in 1990.
Gustav Adolf Nosske | Trial and conviction
Dostler's plea of superior orders failed before the tribunal, which found that in ordering the mass execution he had acted on his own outside the Führer's orders. The Military Commission also rejected his plea for clemency, declaring that the mass execution of the commando party was in violation of Article 2 of the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, which prohibited acts of reprisals against prisoners of war. In its judgment the Commission stated that "no soldier, and still less a Commanding General, can be heard to say that he considered the summary shooting of prisoners of war legitimate, even as a reprisal." Under the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, it was legal to execute spies and saboteurs disguised in civilian clothes or enemy uniforms, but not those captured in uniforms of their own army.
Anton Dostler | Trial and execution
The material was classified as secret ("Geheime Reichssache"). Witzleben was put to death the same day at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin. By Hitler's direct orders, he was hanged with a thin hemp rope, which people who were not from the prison staff called a piano wire, wound around a meat hook, and the execution was filmed. The footage has since been lost.
Erwin von Witzleben | Trial and death
but because I am thankful and moved by this proof of God's presence." Moltke was sentenced to death on 11 January 1945 and hanged twelve days later at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin. In a letter written while in custody, he revealed his motivation for resistance to his two sons: "Since National Socialism came to power, I have striven to make its consequences milder for its victims and to prepare the way for a change. In that, my conscience drove me – and in the end, that is a man's duty."
Helmuth James von Moltke | Arrest, trial and execution
The other two were Heinz Felfe and Tiebel's old friend, Hans Clemens. They were all found guilty and sentenced on 22 July 1963. The court determined that Erwin Tiebel had worked as a courier and he received a three-year jail sentence. Felfe and Clemens were sentenced respectively to fourteen and eleven years, though none of the three men would serve out their full jail terms.
Erwin Tiebel | Introduction
In the end, Hitler served only a little over eight months of this sentence before his early release for good behaviour. Prison officials allegedly wanted to give Hitler deaf guards, to prevent him from persuading them to free him.
Beer Hall Putsch | Trial and prison
He was held in solitary confinement for nine weeks while awaiting trial. He was permitted to communicate with his family or relatives who still lived in Germany. A letter he wrote to his uncle, in Stuttgart, was held back by censors.
Helmut Hirsch | Arrest and imprisonment
Holzhey, without orders, had put up a red cross sign near the command post. The "Landgericht" (court) in Traunstein had initially sentenced Tolsdorff to three and a half years. The Federal Court of Justice of Germany overturned the decision in 1959 and ordered a retrial. On 24 June 1960, Tolsdorff was declared not guilty and cleared of all charges.
Theodor Tolsdorff | Criminal charges, trials, conviction, and acquittal
His sentence was reviewed by the "Peck Panel" and reduced to 12 years in 1951. He was released in February 1953 and lived with his wife in the Garmisch region. He died in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on 25 May 1968.
Georg von Küchler | Trial and conviction
Nevertheless, after four days of trial, the jury voted 9-3 for conviction, and Philippe Halsman was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in solitary confinement. The legitimacy of that judgement was immediately challenged by journalists and legal scholars all over Austria and Germany. The Supreme Court of Austria reversed the verdict and sent the case back to Innsbruck. At the second trial on October 19, 1929, Halsman was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to four years of imprisonment.
Halsman murder case | Trials
He was arrested for speaking out against the government, but was held for only one month. Elisabeth married a fellow communist, Gustav Kittowski, with whom she had a child they named Klaus. Elisabeth and Kittowski were arrested in 1933, and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, but were freed at Christmas. Gerhard and his wife Karin were arrested in 1934, and spent the next two years in prison. Gerhard, Karin, Elisabeth and Kittowski established a car rental agency in Berlin, which they used to smuggle Jews and opponents of the government out of Germany. After Emil was arrested in 1933, Kristel fled to Zurich, where she studied education and psychology at the University of Zurich.
Klaus Fuchs | Refugee in Britain
He got both decorations for fighting against the Germans. Two weeks later the death penalty was annulled and his sentence was commuted to 10 years of imprisonment. In September 1945 he escaped from the prison in Wronki by taking advantage of the fact that he was working outside of prison grounds.
Franciszek Jerzy Jaskulski | Imprisonment
Between 14 and 19 November 1901 Kneißl was placed on trial at Augsburg. He was charged with two murders, attempted murder, as well as armed robbery and extortion. At his trial, which was followed by the media with great attention, Kneißl reportedly said: "I can suffer no wrong. I cannot bend, I would rather kill myself." Kneißl confessed to most of the charges, but denied an intent to kill against the two policemen who were shot by him. However, the court found him guilty of murder, premeditated bodily harm with fatal consequences, extortion and for aggravated robbery. The Court then sentenced him to receive the death penalty for murder and 15 years imprisonment on the other charges.
Mathias Kneißl | Trial
Nearly all were sentenced to death by hanging, some of the sentences being carried out within two hours of the verdict.
Roland Freisler | 20 July Plot show-trials
From 1934 to 1945, the court sentenced 10,980 people to prison and imposed the death penalty on 5,179 more who were convicted of high treason. About 1,000 were acquitted. Its most prominent member was Roland Freisler who headed the court from August 1942 to February 1945. After the war ended, some surviving jurists were tried, convicted, and sentenced as war criminals.
Government of Nazi Germany | Judicial System
After the German capitulation, Roques was arrested and tried in the High Command Trial. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. Moved for reasons of bad health from the Landsberg prison to a hospital in Nürnberg, he died there on 24 December 1949.
Karl von Roques | Trial and conviction
One of the three judges, Leon W. Powers, dissented on both counts. Ritter was sentenced to four years in prison, including time served beginning in 1945; he was released a month after sentencing, on May 15, 1949. He was represented by the defense lawyer Horst Pelckmann, who was replaced by Erich Schmidt-Leichner.
Karl Ritter (diplomat) | Ministries Trial
Ludwig and the rest of the Joe K spy ring were subsequently indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for treasonable conspiracy and espionage. Lucy Boehmler agreed to testify for the government against her co-defendants. Her quest for thrills already well dissipated, she also wanted to get back at Ludwig, who despite his promise to pay her $25 a week for her services more often than not withheld payment, allegedly because of her shoddy work abilities. She emerged as the star of the trial. On March 6, 1942 they were all found guilty of all charges.
Kurt Frederick Ludwig | Trial and conviction
He was then tried by the People's Court on 30 August 1944 with von Stülpnagel who had blinded himself in a suicide attempt, Caesar von Hofacker and Ottfried von Linstow. He was sentenced to death by Roland Freisler and executed by hanging the same day at Plötzensee prison, Berlin.
Eberhard Finckh | Introduction
The court retired to deliberate and returned about thirty minutes later. President Marilhat announced the various sentences: Dumollard was sentenced to death and his wife was sentenced to twenty years of penal labor. She died in the Auberive prison, in Haute-Marne, where she was incarcerated, in 1875.
Martin Dumollard | Trial
In August 1948, Knöchlein was formally arraigned on charges of war crimes, to which he pleaded not guilty. His trial began on Monday 11 October 1948 in Rotherbaum, and both Albert Pooley and William O'Callaghan were called to testify against him. Knöchlein's defence attorney claimed that Knöchlein had not been present on the day of the battle, and that the British forces had used illegal dumdum bullets during the battle. Upon being found guilty, Knöchlein applied for clemency, arguing that he had a wife and four children that depended on him. He was sentenced to be hanged, a verdict that was carried out on 21 January 1949.
Fritz Knoechlein | Trial and execution
After a long interrogation, the CIC learned her husband's location and his false name of "Richard Binder". CIC agent Al Sandwina and investigator Helmut F.W. Frey then drove by jeep to the monastery, where with guns drawn they found a man in a small garden house answering to the name "Binder". The agents, of course, already knew this name in the false passport. When confronted, Drauz fell apart and was arrested without further incident. He was tried by the American General Military Government Court ("US vs. Richard Drauz", Case Number 12-1182-1) in the Dachau Trials. The court determined that on March 24, 1945 he shot and killed a downed American Airman who had surrendered in the village of Dürrenzimmern, in the Heilbronn district of Brackenheim, a war crime under the Third Geneva Convention.
Richard Drauz | Arrest and execution
In consequence, on 13 November 1939 he was transferred to the Investigative Prison Alt-Moabit in Berlin. He was tried at the Supreme Reichs War Court on 9 December 1939; the 3rd Senate of the Reichs War Court (Reichskriegsgericht), with Councilor Dr. Burckhardt as Prosecutor, sentenced him to death, plus lifetime loss of military honours and civil rights, for undermining military defence. According to the record, there was no Defender present. The decision was signed according to law by Schmauser, von Goeldel, Schrot, Büscher and Block. The President of the Reichs War Court confirmed the decision on 21 December 1939. Rudolf Redlinghofer was transferred to Berlin Plötzensee Prison, arriving there on 30 December 1939.
Rudolf Redlinghofer | Trial
Schwarzhuber was found guilty and subsequently sentenced to death. The execution was carried out on 3 May 1947.
Johann Schwarzhuber | Ravensbrück and trial
Along with many others, he was arrested after the plot failed, and on 11 January 1945, Gerstenmaier was sentenced by the "Volksgerichtshof" to seven years in labour prison ("Zuchthaus"). This by the standards of "hanging judge" Roland Freisler unusually lenient sentence (the prosecution had demanded death by hanging) may partially be explained by Gerstenmaier's playing the "unworldly theologian" role to the hilt, partially by intercession on his behalf with Freisler by acting national press chief Helmut Sündermann. Of course, he spent only a few months there, and was freed by US troops at the end of the war. Along with Hermann Ehlers, a German politician, he was active in the Evangelical Aid organization ("Evangelisches Hilfswerk"); from 1945 to 1951, he was its leader.
Eugen Gerstenmaier | Life, career, resistance
He was sentenced to serve 6 to 18 months in prison for the first count and 6 months in prison on the second count. He executed both sentences concurrently and was released from prison on January 5, 1975. Kalmbach lost his license to practice law, although he was reinstated in 1977.
Herbert W. Kalmbach | Convicted, jailed
Although there were no legal grounds, the court expelled Hans Litten both as counsel and ancillary counsel for the plaintiff because he had "unfurled unrestrained partisan propaganda in the trial" and "made the courtroom a hotbed of political passions". This decision was set aside by the court of appeals, whereupon the presiding judge and an official from the criminal division declared the trial to be biased and the trial was unable to proceed. Shortly after that, Litten was again removed from a high court, having been accused of influencing a witness. This time, the action was sustained by the "Kammergericht" (Supreme Court) and the court commented further during an investigation of the defense, that the main trial was generally inadmissible.
Hans Litten | 1932: Felseneck Trial
The trial was due to get underway in May 2012 but was twice delayed due to concerns over the jury. When the trial finally got under way Küssel was found guilty of breaching the 1947 Verbotsgesetz, which bans any attempt to revive Nazism. Presiding Judge Martina Krainz noted the importance of the internet in disseminating extremist information and due to this, as well as Küssel's status as "a leading figure in the extreme-right scene" with several earlier convictions, she sentenced him to nine years' imprisonment.
Gottfried Küssel | Subsequent activity
In January 1950, Fuchs arranged another interview with Skardon and voluntarily confessed that he was a spy. Three days later, he also directed a statement more technical in content to Michael Perrin, the deputy controller of atomic energy within the Ministry of Supply. Fuchs told interrogators that the NKGB had acquired an agent in Berkeley, California, who had informed the Soviet Union about electromagnetic separation research of uranium-235 in 1942 or earlier. Fuchs's statements to British and American intelligence agencies were used to implicate Harry Gold, a key witness in the trials of David Greenglass and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in the United States.
Klaus Fuchs | Confession
In March 1947, a British Military Court sentenced Knochen to death for the murder of a number of British parachute troops on or around 9 August 1944. However, on 16 September 1948, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and further commuted in February 1950 to 21 years imprisonment. He was extradited to France in 1954 and sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. After he obtained a presidential pardon in 1958, Knochen was released on November 28, 1962 by President Charles de Gaulle, simultaneously with his former chief Carl Oberg. Back in Germany he retired to Baden-Baden and died a free man in 2003.
Helmut Knochen | Post-war trials, sentences, and reprieve
The 2nd senate of the Reichskriegsgericht sentenced Toni Graudenz on 12 February 1943 "for listening to enemy broadcasters and refraining from an advising [the state]" to three years in prison. Both Karin and Silva were released after two weeks.
John Graudenz | Death
Seelenbinder's illegal activities as a courier and his participation in the Uhrig Group had caught their attention: he was arrested, along with 65 other members of the group, on 4 February 1942 and after being tortured for eight days, and enduring nine camps and prisons for two and half years, he was sentenced to death by the "Volksgerichtshof", he was executed for treason on 24 October 1944 at Brandenburg-Görden Prison – he was beheaded with an axe. The imprisonment left him weighing a mere 60 kilograms (132 pounds), from his previous weight of 90 kilos (198 pounds). In his farewell letter, he wrote to his father:The time has now come for me to say goodbye.
Werner Seelenbinder | 1936 Olympics and arrest
He was released after three months' imprisonment either on account of his age or due to having already been held in French captivity for five years before the verdict.
Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke | Post-war
At the Ministries Trial, one of the last of the twelve Nuremberg trials held between 6 January 1948 and 13 April 1949, he was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
Emil Puhl | Nuremberg Trials
I am a Catholic priest with only the weapons of the Holy Spirit and the Faith; but I know what I am fighting for." Reinisch prayed that night then wrote a farewell letter to his parents and siblings. His final words from the prison cell were, "Love and suffering into joy, F. Reinisch". On 21 August 1942 he made his final confession at midnight. At 01:00 he received Holy Communion. At 03:00 he gave all he had to his family, including a cloth in which the Eucharist was wrapped, his crucifix and rosary, some books and his farewell letter. At 03:30 his shoes and socks were taken off, his hands were tied behind his back, and he was led to the basement execution chamber where, at 05:03, he was beheaded by guillotine.
Franz Reinisch | Decision of Conscience
On 6 December 1956 Walter Janka was arrested on a charge of Counter-revolutionary conspiracy and held in the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Remand Prison. By March 1957 he had become one of six men arrested and held in respect of the alleged conspiracy. Janka remained in the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen prison for more than half a year before being charged in the Supreme Court, on 26 July 1957, with "being directly behind, and participating in, a counter-revolutionary group" (known as the Harich Group), He was sentenced to a further five years in prison, with "enhanced solitary confinement" (""verschärfter Einzelhaft""). The trial took place under conditions of tight security.
Walter Janka | Trial and imprisonment
After a few hours, he finally confessed to the murder of his cousin, whom was killed with three shots and then beheaded on February 9 in an abandoned construction site on the banks of the Danube near Reichsbrücke, in order to make it harder to identify. Lorenz then led the investigators to Daubinger's body, which he had buried under a snowdrift on Donauinsel. The extreme cold-blooded and unrepentant nature of the 18-year-old not only astonished the investigators, but later led to the imposition of the maximum penalty. Just before he wrote a confession, he asked with a smile if he could start studying and practising sport in jail, and learned about the choice of books in detention centers.
Günter Lorenz | Confessions and sentencing
He was originally indicted for crimes against peace for his role in building up the Hitler Youth, but was acquitted on that charge. He was found guilty on 1 October 1946 of crimes against humanity for his role in the deportation of the Viennese Jews to certain death in German concentration camps located in German-occupied Poland. He was sentenced and served 20 years as a prisoner in Spandau Prison, Berlin.
Baldur von Schirach | Trial and conviction
Following his release, Oberhauser served as a casual labourer, bartender and waiter in Munich. In 1963 the Bełżec trial began and Oberhauser was one of 8 defendants charged with war crimes committed at the extermination camp. On 30 January 1964, all of the defendants but Oberhauser were acquitted due to the collapse of the prosecution case but re-arrested shortly thereafter. Oberhauser appeared before the court again in January 1965. He was found guilty of a number of charges, namely: Oberhauser was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months imprisonment. He was released after serving half of his sentence. Oberhauser was sentenced to life imprisonment "in absentia" for his crimes committed in Italy, but the Italian extradition request failed.
Josef Oberhauser | Arrest and trial
No warning shot must ever be fired... The use of arms against prisoners of war is as a rule legal. Reinecke was sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was reviewed by the "Peck Panel". He was released in October 1954.
Hermann Reinecke | Trial and conviction
On 13 December 1945, Eisele was tried in the Dachau main trial for his participation in three executions for which he had issued the death certificates. He was sentenced to death. After commutation of the sentence to a life sentence on 11 April 1947, he was in the Buchenwald main trial, tried again and received together with twenty co-defendants the death penalty. However, the basic conviction against Eisele proved dubious and uncertain, so that four of the eight military judges submitted an application that the judgment be converted by the reviewing body to a ten-year sentence, which was granted. During his detention in prison for war criminals Landsberg, he wrote an extensive defense titled "Audiatur et altera pars" in which he denied the allegations and represented himself as a convinced Christian, who had always been a physician only for the sake of others.
Hans Eisele (physician) | Trials and punishment
After the war, Falkenhorst was tried by a joint British-Norwegian military tribunal for violating the rules of war. He had passed on the "Führerbefehl" known as the "Commando Order" which required captured commandos to be shot. The evidence at trial included Falkenhorst's order that commandos, if kept alive for interrogation, should not "survive for more than twenty-four hours". He distributed the order in 1942, then reminded his subordinates about it in 1943, insisting that the captured commandos be handed over to the SD, the intelligence service of the SS, for execution. The defense argued that Falkenhorst was acting under superior orders.
Nikolaus von Falkenhorst | Trial and conviction
Clemens and Felfe admitted to having passed 15,000 classified documents to the Soviets. Clemens received a 10-years sentence for treason.
Heinz Felfe | Arrest and trial
So now it's my turn, but your turn will come." He hoped his confrontational tactics would focus the judge's wrath on him and spare his companions. As stated in the proclamation, Hübener was found guilty of conspiracy to commit high treason and treasonous furthering of the enemy's cause. He was sentenced not only to death, but also to permanent loss of his civil rights, which meant the prison guards were allowed to torture and abuse him, and he was not allowed bedding or blankets in his cold cell.
Helmuth Hübener | Arrest and execution
Gen. Lucius D. Clay, then interim military governor of the American Zone in Germany, reduced the judgment to four years' imprisonment on 8 June 1948, after she had served two years of her sentence, on the grounds that "there was no convincing evidence that she had selected inmates for extermination in order to secure tattooed skins, or that she possessed any articles made of human skin". The reduction of the sentence resulted in an uproar, when it was made public on 16 September 1948, but Clay stood firm by his decision, maintaining that the leather lamp shades were really made out of goat skin.
Ilse Koch | Reduction of sentence
He was sentenced to 30 days of prison by the decision of Army Minister Milan Nedić because "he had intention to mislead the supreme military command to make wrong decisions".
Rudolf Perhinek | Before the Second World War
The Supreme Court again overturned this ruling and ordered a third trial. Novak was found guilty on 18 December 1969 and sentenced him to nine years of imprisonment, but the verdict was appealed, during which time Novak was allowed to live freely. On 13 April 1972, the Supreme Court sentenced him to seven years in prison under Article 87. However, Novak, who had been dismissed in 1966 after five years in custody, was told that the remainder of his sentence no longer had to be completed. He was granted a pardon by Austrian President Rudolf Kirchschläger. Simon Wiesenthal later calculated that Novak spent three minutes and twenty seconds in custody for each victim whom he sent to his or her death at Auschwitz.
Franz Novak | Post-war