People's Court (German)
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The People's Court (German: Volksgerichtshof) was a court established by Adolf Hitler after the Reichstag fire to handle those accused of political criminal offences, such as treason against the Third Reich.
The Court became infamous for the enormous number of death sentences that it handed down while led by judge-president Roland Freisler. Many of those found guilty by the Court died in the Plötzensee prison.
[edit] People Convicted and Executed in the Volksgerichtshof
- 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.
- 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 he was beheaded two weeks later, on September 8, 1943.
- Artur Nebe, an SS-Gruppenführer (General). He was a conspirator in the July 20 Bomb Plot conspiracy. The head of the Kriminalpolizei, or Kripo, and commander of Einsatzgruppe B, Nebe oversaw massacres in the Reich, the Russian front and other locations as commanded 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. He was hanged with piano wire[citation needed] on March 21, 1945.
- Erwin von Witzleben, a German Generalfeldmarschall. He was a Wehrmacht conspirator in the July 20 Bomb Plot conspiracy. Witzleben, who would have been Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht in the planned post-coup government, arrived at OKH-HQ (Oberkommando des Heeres Headquarters) 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. He was sentenced to death and hanged[citation needed] the same day in Plötzensee.
- Karlrobert Kreiten, a German pianist. Nazi Ellen Ott-Monecke notified the Gestapo of Kreiten's negative remarks about Adolf Hitler and the war effort; he was indicted at the Volksgerichtshof, with Freisler presiding, and condemned to death. Friends and family frantically tried to save his life, but to no avail. The family was never notified officially about the judgement, and only accidentally learned that Karlrobert had been executed, with 185 other inmates, in Plötzensee.
- Johanna "Hanna" Kirchner.
- Lieutenant-Colonel Caesar von Hofacker, a member of a resistance group in Nazi Germany whose goal was to overthrow Hitler.
- The White Rose resistance movement.
- Max Metzger, a German Catholic priest, 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".
