Emma Martin (Nazi victim)

Judgment of the People's Court

Emma Martin's last letter to her husband, dated Nov. 29, 1943, the prison did not deliver the letter.

Emma Martin (* October 25, 1892 in Holzweißig as Emma Schumann ; † December 16, 1943 executed in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a housewife and farm worker who was committed and openly against the war, National Socialism and the " Führer ".

Life

Childhood, youth, marriage

Emma Martin was born in Holzweißig in the Bitterfeld district (today a part of Bitterfeld-Wolfen ) in Saxony-Anhalt and was executed on December 16, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee for undermining military strength and favoring the enemy.

Her first husband was called Müller, the second Arthur Martin. She last lived in Alt Jeßnitz (today: Altjeßnitz ), Bitterfeld district (today a part of Raguhn-Jeßnitz in the Anhalt-Bitterfeld district ). Little is known about her youth and her life in general up to around 1941; her second husband was a war invalid, received a pension and was driven in a wheelchair. At the court hearing in 1943, she is said to have stated that she used to be a Marxist . In any case, she joined the SPD in 1926 and was known in her hometown as a spontaneous woman who never held back with her opinion, not just politically.

In the 1940s she worked as a farm worker on the estate of Baron Hans von Ende. On the occasion of a May demonstration in 1941 she is said to have said: “Why are you marching for Hitler? It is his fault that your men and sons are at the front and being shot to the cripple! ”The following words of her have come down to us from this period:“ People, don't you realize that you are being abused, the ruin of Hitler leads?"

Denunciation, imprisonment, murder

The local leadership of the NSDAP received the first, partly anonymous, partly open reports from informers from the small town (approx. 600 inhabitants). Local group leader Walter Rose wanted to inform the Gestapo , his subordinate local group leader Kurt Herbst stood up for them and nothing was done for the time being. More urgent inquiries came and Kurt Herbst burned them in his home stove. He says to his son, the still living local writer Lothar Herbst: “If what I'm doing here comes out, then I'll be hanged!” He went to a well-known old communist in the village and told him: “Tell Emma, ​​she for heaven's sake shut up! "

The unfortunate fate took its course when the Ortsgruppenführer was once on vacation and his representative passed another report and request to finally do something against Martin without comment to the Gestapo (Secret State Police), Bitterfeld branch. On September 10, 1943, uniformed men appeared in the field and took Emma away. She was taken to the Halle (Saale) " Roter Ochse " police prison , where she was also interrogated by the Gestapo; The prevailing opinion in Alt Jessnitz was: "It wasn't that bad what she said!" The informers Otto F., Anna G., Irmgard L. and Anna H. were interrogated, as well as others from the village Most of them said they hadn't heard Emma's remarks because of the noise from the agricultural machinery.

On October 8, 1943, Emma was brought to Berlin, to the Moabit remand prison. The next day she was brought before the notorious People's Court and Roland Freisler without having seen an indictment or a defense attorney. The five informers now testified against them "with certainty". Emma denied the allegations, “Bad people turned my words around. But five against one, that's probably easy, ”she wrote later in the letter to her husband; the judiciary never sent this letter and put it on file. The hearing was only brief, the verdict only comprised a typewriter page. “Anyone who disrupts our inner front while doing important work in the fourth year of the war that he says that our Führer was to blame for the war is forever dishonorable. He must ... be punished with death! ”That is the last sentence. On the same day, three other minor offense negotiations ended with the death penalty. One of the witnesses present called to Emma: “But we stopped you!” In addition to Freisler, the court also included: District Court Director Martin Stier, SA Brigade Leader Daniel Hauer , SS Standard Leader Heinrich von Kozierowski , 1st Public Prosecutor Heinz Heugel. It was not until 1985 that the 10th Bundestag ruled that the judgments of the People's Court were invalid. Most of the high and highest courts ( Federal Court of Justice , Higher Regional Court , etc.) in the Federal Republic of Germany had previously considered these judgments to be valid. In total there were around 6000 death sentences from the People's Court. However, a former judge or public prosecutor of the People's Court was never lawfully convicted before a German court.

Arthur Martin wrote to his wife on October 14, 1943. The letter has been preserved, but it probably did not reach her. The husband was obviously unaware of the death sentence and describes the reactions in the village to her arrest. Because of this letter he had to go to the Gestapo in Halle (Saale) months later .

Emma stayed in Moabit until November 24, 1943 - the night before there was a massive Allied bombing raid (incidentally, during these day-and-night attacks, the prisoners are never taken to shelters) as part of the Battle of Berlin, Moabit was repeated several times hit and some prisoners were transported to the notorious Barnimstrasse women's prison ; The author and workers' leader Rosa Luxemburg was also held there in 1905 and 1915/1916 . Emma received a letter from a Dr. Günther Grzimek , he announced his visit, but it did not take place. Emma wrote to him desperately and asked if he had any connection with her husband, “because I don't know anything!” Certainly out of fear, she signed “with German greetings”. On November 29, Emma wrote to her husband - this letter has also been received. The handing over of the moving letter was not approved because it "accused witnesses".

Emma knew about a mercy petition and hoped it would succeed. However, she did not know that on October 9th, the Reich Minister of Justice, Dr. Otto Georg Thierack added in a succinct sentence to the files: "With the Fuehrer's authorization, I decided not to make use of the pardon." It is likely that the pardon was rejected before it was written - this will happen in others Cases from the same period even clearer.

The day before, on October 8, before the rejection of the pardon, the senior Reich attorney Ernst Lautz gave detailed instructions on how to carry out the death sentence. In a two-page handwritten note on the file, he ordered the execution for December 16 at 5:00 p.m. and further, “Appointment for opening to the convicted woman on December 16 (the same day! ) From 3:00 p.m. Determination of the corpse: Anatomical Biological Institute of the University of Berlin ”. He was forbidden to give the body to relatives or to provide information about it. A defense attorney, Counselor Hercher, was granted access to the prisoner and to be present at the execution, with "the remark that you are obliged to maintain the strictest secrecy of the impending execution." When this defense attorney was appointed and whether or not he had permission (and one sent Admission ticket) is not clear. A Judicial Councilor Hercher had appeared in other negotiations of the People's Court during this time. The executioner Wilhelm Röttger was commissioned to execute Emma Martin with the guillotine.

On December 15, 1943, Emma was transferred to Plötzensee prison, but it is not clear whether she was now aware of what was about to happen. It is also unclear whether she was still allowed to see the prison pastor Harald Poelchau (after the war he wrote a book about his term in office in Plötzensee prison: The last hours ). The next day, October 16, at around 11:00 am, she was informed that her death sentence was imminent. Then an old shoemaker came into her cell (who was only in Plötzensee for this job), cuffed her hands behind her back, took off her clothes and shoes (which he exchanged for wooden slippers) and cut her hair so short that her neck has been exposed. With her torso bare, two officers then led her to the execution shed, which was in a far corner of the Prison III courtyard. The guillotine (one of 20 that Hitler had re-ordered in 1933) was set up in a windowless room, 8 × 10 m , still hidden behind a curtain. At a table stood the chief public prosecutor Volk, the prison inspector Runge and the judicial clerk Karpe, behind Emma the executioner Röttger and three assistants in black suits. After the public prosecutor's call: “Executioner, do your job!” The curtain of the guillotine device was pulled aside and the executioners threw Emma practically at the device so that her head was right under the guillotine . Röttger pressed the appropriate button, the guillotine dashed down and Emma's head fell into a wicker basket. It was 1:02 p.m.

"The convict was calm and collected, the execution took 8 seconds from the presentation to the report of execution." Laconically reports the protocol, signed with "Volk" and "Karpe" (see above). There were 122.18 Reichsmark costs, 120, - special allowance for executioners and assistants, 2.18 RM for their meals. On December 23, the district administrator responsible for Alt Jessnitz was asked to notify the relatives of the enforcement. The mayor of Alt-Jessnitz (as the local police authority) should determine whether the husband was able to pay court costs or whether other solvent people could be liable for the costs. On January 12, 1944, the board of directors of the women's prison asked the People's Court whether Emma's belongings (1 upper skirt, 1 blouse, 1 underskirt, 1 lower waist, 1 corset and 1 handkerchief) should be handed over to her husband. In addition, 3.23 RM were in the custody of the institution, which was transferred to the People's Court on April 21, 1944.

Arthur Martin, who was 100% severely disabled (he received a pension of RM 167 net monthly), had to appear before the Gestapo in Halle (Saale) on February 25, 1944 because of the content of his letter to Emma . He said that "people completely unknown to him said that one day the traitor would be treated the same as his wife was treated". He was told something similar in anonymous letters. Nothing more happened to him.

Immediately after the war, the Soviet administration gave Emma Martin death sentences, prison sentences and deportations to Russia (for example, the Ortsgruppenführer Herbst). Arthur Martin lodged several complaints with the VVN ( Association of the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime ) in 1949 , including names of informers: "Everything fell asleep again," he wrote bitterly.

Reception today and oblivion

In 1946 a small castle in Schköna / Saxony-Anhalt, which was requisitioned by the Soviets from the von Bodenhausen family's property , was rebuilt and named the Emma Martin children's home. The street in which she lived in Alt-Jessnitz ("settlement") was named Emma-Martin-Straße. A retirement home in Bitterfeld also bears her name. Otherwise it was not recognized and is almost forgotten today. There was a sign on her husband's grave, but it was leveled along with the grave.

literature

• Brigitte Petzold: The betrayal. Edition Winterwork, 2012
• Lothar Herbst: Paths of Life. Terra Bi 3, Kultur- und Heimatverein Bitterfeld eV, 2009
• Harald Poelchau: The last hours. Memories of a prison minister. People and the world, 1949
• Claudia von Gélieu: women in custody. Barnimstrasse prison. Elefanten Press, 1994
• Walter Wagner: The People's Court in the National Socialist State. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2011

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Federal Archive Berlin, file criminal case against Emma Martin, 2 J 547/43, p 24
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Lothar Herbst: Paths of Life. Terra Bi 3, Kultur- und Heimatverein Bitterfeld eV, 2009, p. 82.
3. ↑ Brigitte Petzold: The betrayal. Edition Winterwork, 2012, p. 73
4. ^ Claudia von Gélieu: Women in custody. Barnimstrasse prison. Elefanten Press, 1994, p. 118
5. ↑ Senior Center "Emma Martin"

Web links

• Website for Emma Martin