Dolgesheim murder
The Dolgesheim murder occurred on March 7, 1933 in Dolgesheim in Rheinhessen . The Jewish Reichsbanner member Julius Frank was most likely murdered in the morning by thugs of the SA . He was in protective custody at the time and was found hanged. Despite the attempted judicial processing of the case in 1949, the criminal case could not be fully resolved.
prehistory
Even before the “ seizure of power ”, the Frank family was targeted by the local SA in Dolgesheim . As members of the Reich Banner Black-Red-Gold and as devout Jews they were involved in several disputes with the SA. On the night of May 9-10, 1930, there was a mass brawl in which the Frank family was involved. The Dolgesheim NSDAP went to a meeting in Gau-Odernheim on May 9, 1930 . On their return they met the group of the Reichsbanner and a dispute developed, as a result of which the so-called "Dolgesheim Trespae Trial" came about. 29 defendants from the ranks of the NSDAP and the Reichsbanner were charged. However, there was only one sentence. The remaining defendants were sentenced to fines, with Julius Frank being sentenced to a fine of 100 Reichsmarks for grievous bodily harm . Ultimately, the Frank Dolgesheim family left and moved to Worms , where they tried to escape the terror of the SA.
Sequence of events
On the night of March 6th to 7th, 1933, four SA men stormed the house of the Frank family. When they did not find their father, Nathan Frank, they kidnapped Julius Frank instead and brought him to the police headquarters in Worms for "interrogation". He was beaten up and arrested there, later he was put on a provisional head bandage and was brought back to Dolgesheim by truck. There he was taken to the syringe house and locked in a cell. Frank allegedly hanged himself on the window cross there that morning. What exactly happened cannot be said with certainty today. The doctor called who issued the death certificate was a member of the NSDAP and presumably covered his party comrades. However, the caretaker Georg Eifler reported that the skull had been broken.
Reception of the case
The Frank case was received both in the German Reich and abroad. Only reports of an alleged Frank suicide appeared in the local press. For example, the Rheinhessische Landeszeitung reported: “Self-directed. Julius Frank, known from the trespassing trial in Dolgesheim, who moved from here to Worms after the trial, but has now been brought back here by the auxiliary police and held in custody, hanged himself in the detention center. ”There was no legal preparation, although that Justice was not yet synchronized everywhere.
It looked different abroad. Numerous exiles were concerned with the events in their home country. In 1933 a Theodor Krämer published a paper entitled Blood March 1933 , in which the murder was treated as follows:
“In Worms the Reichsbannerführer Frank, who had to flee Dolgesheim two years ago, was taken out of bed by the National Socialists and beaten to death with steel rods and rubber truncheons. Then swastikas were cut on the back of his hand. Eventually he was beaten to death and hung up in the stable. The district doctor issued a 'suicide' certificate, and it is only thanks to the intervention of a steel helmet doctor that the truth finally became known. "
An author by the name of Paul Kreglinger also adopted this text and distributed it with the same wording in his book Persecution of Jews in Germany. Documents that shake the cultural world, Utrecht 1933 . Frank's murder was also discussed in the Braunbuch published in 1933 . This and similar cases were the reason why Werner Best appointed all SA men to auxiliary police on March 7, 1933, i.e. on the day of the event , in order to legalize their violent actions. In order not to damage the reputation abroad, the treachery ordinance was issued, which made any act liable to endanger the reputation of the Reich government punishable. Heinrich Schwarz, who broached Frank's case in a restaurant and described it as murder, was sentenced to three months imprisonment in the Butzbach prison on the basis of this law . A mentally handicapped Jew was also charged for publicly discussing the case or a variation of it. Jakob Frank, the brother of the murder victim, was able to protect the man in court by approving the official version of the suicide and denying the man's statements.
Legal preparation
The case was reopened in 1948 and laboriously conducted. Frank's body was exhumed and several witnesses were interviewed. However, it was purely a circumstantial process. The mayor at the time was sentenced to six months in prison for having turned Frank over to the main culprit. The two main perpetrators were sentenced to one year in prison. The concentration camp guard Jakob Ritzheimer was acquitted because he was under arrest by Karl d'Angelo at the time of the crime .
literature
- Wolfgang Kemp: Julius Frank, Jewish Reichsbannermann from Worms - one of the first victims of Nazi terror . In: Hans-Georg Meyer, Hans Berlkessel (Ed.): The time of National Socialism in Rhineland-Palatinate. Volume 1 . Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-87439-451-4 , pp. 114-119.
- Winfried Seibert: The Dolgesheim murder: The death of the Jew Julius Frank in the spring of 1933 - an approximation . Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-86099-204-X . The first 4 chapters on mainz1933-1945.de (PDF).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Winfried Seibert: The Dolgesheimer murder: The death of the Jew Julius Frank in the spring of 1933 - an approximation . Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-86099-204-X , p. 34 f.
- ↑ Winfried Seibert: The Dolgesheimer murder: The death of the Jew Julius Frank in the spring of 1933 - an approximation . Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-86099-204-X , p. 33
- ↑ Winfried Seibert: The Dolgesheimer murder: The death of the Jew Julius Frank in the spring of 1933 - an approximation . Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-86099-204-X , p. 35
- ↑ Winfried Seibert: The Dolgesheimer murder: The death of the Jew Julius Frank in the spring of 1933 - an approximation . Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-86099-204-X , p. 38 f.