Lanškroun blood court
The blood court of Lanškroun is a people's court held in Lanškroun (German: Landskron ) after the end of the Second World War from May 17 to 21, 1945 against the primarily German residents of the city and the surrounding villages . This people's court was carried out by Czech partisans from the nearby town of Vysoké Mýto (German: Hohenmauth ). It is usually referred to in German-language literature as the blood court , since in many cases the death penalty was carried out immediately.
procedure
On May 17, 1945, around 11 a.m., buses with Czech partisans arrived in the town square of Lanškroun. After an address by a Russian officer, the partisans dispersed in the city and rounded up the German residents on the town square. The People's Court had set up in front of the District Office and was now imposing sentences in quick succession. Most of the judgments provided for corporal punishment, which was carried out immediately. Eyewitnesses report atrocities in the treatment of the convicts, some of whom were killed in the beating; others were shot on the town hall wall or hung from street lamps. On the first day, 24 convicts were killed and well over 100 punished by beatings.
An incident occurred on the second day when the owner of a shop adjacent to the town square set herself and her home on fire, interrupting the day's convictions.
On the third day, the German residents of Thomigsdorf were taken to Lanškroun. On May 20, 1945, Pentecost Sunday, the court paused. On the following May 21, 1945, it was the turn of the residents of Lukau and Nieder Johnsdorf .
From the Germans rounded up during the days in Lanškroun, 1,200 men were selected and interned in the Lanškroun grammar school building. They were first taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp and from there to Siberia for forced labor. During the Lanškroun Blood Court, more than 100 people died by suicide and some other family members had also been killed beforehand.
A legal review of the event has not yet taken place. On the basis of the “ Amnesty Law ” No. 115 of May 8, 1946, such acts committed up to October 28, 1945 are exempt from punishment.
literature
- Wilhelm Turnwald: Documents for the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans. Landskron 1951, p. 55ff.
- Franz JC Gauglitz: home district Landskron. Home book for the city and district of Landskron. Bietigheim 1978.
- Franz JC Gauglitz: Landskroner hardship and death. Bietigheim 1997.
- Rudolf Grulich : Contemporary witnesses of the ethnic cleansing 1945/46 - Catholic priests report from the Schönhengstgau. Goeppingen 2003.
- Federal Ministry for Displaced Persons (Ed.): The expulsion of the German population from Czechoslovakia. dtv (Volume 2), 1957, Report No. 48, ISBN 978-3-423-34188-2 .
- Emil Trojan: Tak přísahali . Oftis, Ústí nad Orlicí 2002, ISBN 80-86042-41-3 , p. 259 ff. (Czech)