Arthur Otto Riechelmann

Arthur Otto Friedrich Riechelmann (born December 30, 1903 in Ost-Großefehn ) was a German lawyer. Under National Socialism he was the presiding judge of the second chamber of the Prague Special Court , where he led a large number of political show trials for acts against the Nazi occupation regime.

Justice service in the Third Reich

The doctor of law began his career in 1926 when he entered the state judicial service. He became a member of the SA in 1933. On November 5, 1933, he was promoted to SA Oberscharführer. In Verden he was first as a district judge from 1935, then until 1939 as a district judge.

On May 1, 1937, he joined the NSDAP as member No. 4,186,578 . He developed an active activity in the NSDAP, where he was active as a party judge. He also took part in training courses in the NSDAP. According to Eger i. B. he was transferred to the local German regional court in 1939. In Eger, he was supposed to instruct the judges at the regional court in the practice of Nazi criminal law.

Presiding judge at the Special Court in Prague

In July 1941 he was transferred to the German regional court in Prague. He was promoted to district court director in January 1942. At the Special Court in Prague , he worked from 1942 to 1945 as chairman of the II. Trial Chamber of the Special Court. The War Merit Cross, Second Class with Swords, was awarded to him in September 1942.

In his capacity at the Prague Special Court, Riechelmann has participated in several death sentences. After the war, he worked as a district judge at the Hagen district court in the 1960s .

After the war he was searched internationally by the United Nations War Crimes Commission in the Alpabetical index of war criminals .

Riechelmann was involved in these two death sentences, January 28, 1944

Judgments

• Richard Bloch (born July 5, 1916) from Vodnany, who was able to flee the Warsaw Ghetto , was sentenced to death on April 15, 1943 and executed on August 13, 1943 for his unregistered stay in the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . Bozena Dolejsi (born July 22, 1900) from Zrala in Prague was also sentenced to death for supporting Bloch. Her execution took place on November 22, 1943 (Ref .: 5 Ls 1126/42)
• For helping people who were wanted by the Gestapo for political reasons , Ruzena Kodadova from Prague, Vaclav Zivec from Vidoule and his wife Jarmila Zivcova were sentenced to death on May 29, 1943 (Ref .: 4 K Ls 180 / 43- II-1063/43)
• Frantisek Thein from Prague was sentenced to death on July 22, 1943 because he had forged his identity papers as a Jewish persecutor in order to avoid being deported to the concentration camp. The worker Josef Maly from Malesice was also sentenced to death for helping and supporting Thein (Ref .: 7 K Ls 231/43)
• Because they wrote letters advising their son, who was serving as a soldier at the front, to desert, the German citizen Josef Nedorost from Prague and his wife Marie Nedorost (née Laubner) were sentenced to death on August 5, 1943 ( Ref .: 5 K Ls 205/43-II-1253)
• The managing director Frantisek Jehlik from Pardubice and the sergeant Bohumil Koncel, also from Pardubice, were sentenced to death on December 17, 1943 for listening to foreign news on the radio and distributing it (file number: 3 K Ls 245/43-II-2174)
• Police inspector Vaclav Hajek from Prague was sentenced to death on January 6, 1944, because he had housed a Jewish woman wanted by the Gestapo (Ref .: 3 K Ls 265/43-II-2361/43)
• On March 23, 1944, the works foreman Ladislav Cervinka from Plzeň was sentenced to death for installing a part for listening to short-wave messages in a radio set (Ref .: 2 K Ls 52/44-II-431/44)
• The electrical engineer Karel Valasek was sentenced to death on July 13, 1944 for having built a part of the radio into a radio to receive shortwave messages and listening to messages from foreign broadcasters (Ref .: 5 K Ls 170/44-II-1092/44 )
• Because he had helped Frantisek Vlasaty, who was to be arrested, to escape, Josef Kus from Horni Ostrovec was sentenced to death on August 1, 1944 (Ref .: 4 K Ls 297/43-II-1773/43)
• Jaroslav Machacek from Hradec Králové had publicly stated that he would have liked to see Adolf Hitler died in the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944. Therefore he was sentenced to death on November 2, 1944 (Ref .: 5 K Ls 296/44-II-1931/44)
• Because Ruzena Svobodova, nee Walzerova, had urged German soldiers to desert from Prague, she was sentenced to death on November 2, 1944 (Ref .: 7 K Ls 194/44-II-1243/44)

literature

• Criminals in judges' robes. Documents on the criminal activities of 230 Nazi judges and prosecutors on the occupied territory of the Czechoslovak Republic who are currently serving in the West German judiciary . Oribs, Prague 1960.
• Wolfgang Koppel (ed.): Unpunished Nazi justice . 100 judgments indict their judges . Organizing committee of the document exhibition "Unpunished Nazi Justice", Karlsruhe 1960.

Web links

• Literature by and about Arthur Otto Riechelmann in the catalog of the German National Library