The People's Court (German: Volksgerichtshof) was a court established by German dictator Adolf Hitler. The "People's Court" was set up outside the operations of the constitutional frame of law. The court had jurisdiction over a rather broad array of "political offenses", which included crimes like black marketeering, work slowdowns, and defeatism. These crimes were viewed by the court as Wehrkraftzersetzung ("disintegration of defensive capability") and were accordingly punished severely. The death penalty was meted out in numerous cases in this court.
A People's Court was established after the Reichstag fire to handle those accused of political criminal offences, such as treason against the Third Reich.
The Court handed down a number of death sentences while led by Judge-President Roland Freisler, including those which followed the 1944 July 20 Plot to kill Hitler. Many of those found guilty by the Court died in the Plötzensee prison.
Some of the people sentenced to death by the Volksgerichtshof
- 1934 - Marinus van der Lubbe. A Dutch council communist accused of the Reichstag fire in 1933. In 1981, a West German court found him Not guilty of setting the fire.
- 1942 - Helmuth Hübener. At the age of 17, he was the youngest opponent of the Third Reich to be executed as a result of a trial by the Volksgerichtshof.
- 1943 - Members of the White Rose resistance movement: Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, Alex Schmorell, Willi Graf, Christoph Probst, and Kurt Huber.
- 1943 - Julius Fučík. A Czechoslovakian journalist, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia leader, and a leader in the forefront of the anti-Nazi resistance. On August 25 1943, in Berlin, he was accused of high treason in connection with his political activities. He was found guilty and beheaded two weeks later on September 8 1943.
- 1943 - Karlrobert Kreiten. A German pianist. Nazi Ellen Ott-Monecke notified the Gestapo of Kreiten's negative remarks about Adolf Hitler and the war effort. Kreiten was indicted at the Volksgerichtshof, with Freisler presiding, and condemned to death. Friends and family frantically tried to save his life to no avail. The family was never notified officially about the judgment. They only accidentally learned that Kreiten had been executed with one hundred and eighty-five other inmates in Plötzensee Prison.
- 1944 - Max Josef Metzger. A German Catholic priest. Metzger was the founder in 1938 of the "Una Sancta Brotherhood," an ecumenical movement for bringing Catholics and Protestants to unity. During the trial Freisler said that people (meaning clergy) like Metzger should be "eradicated."
- 1944 - Erwin von Witzleben. A German Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall). Witzleben was a German Army (Wehrmacht) conspirator in the July 20 Bomb Plot to kill Hitler. Witzleben, who would have been Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht in the planned post-coup government, arrived at Army Headquarters (OKH-HQ) in Berlin on July 20 to assume command of the coup forces. He was arrested the next day and tried by the People's Court on August 8. Witzleben was sentenced to death and hanged [citation needed] the same day in Plötzensee Prison.
- 1944 - Johanna "Hanna" Kirchner. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD).
- 1944 - Lieutenant-Colonel Caesar von Hofacker. A member of a resistance group in Nazi Germany. Hofacker's goal was to overthrow Hitler.
- 1945- Artur Nebe. An SS-General (Gruppenführer). Nebe was a conspirator in the July 20 Bomb Plot to kill Hitler. He was the head of the Kriminalpolizei, or Kripo, and the commander of Einsatzgruppe B. Nebe oversaw massacres in Germany (das Reich), on the Russian Front, and at other locations as he was commanded to do by his superiors in the SS. After the failure to assassinate Hitler, Nebe hid on an island in the Wannsee until he was betrayed by one of his mistresses. On March 21 1945, Nebe was hanged with piano wire [citation needed].
Judge-Presidents of the People's Court
- Fritz Rehn - 13 July - 18 September 1934
- Otto Thierack - 1936 - 1942
- Roland Freisler - August 1942 - 3 February 1945
- Harry Haffner - 12 March - 24 April 1945
See also
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