Riga War Crimes Trial

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Friedrich Jeckeln in Soviet captivity

The war crimes trial in Riga took place from January 26th to February 3rd, 1946 in Riga against six Wehrmacht generals and the Higher SS and Police Leader Friedrich Jeckeln (in the Reich Commissariats Russia South and East Country ), as well as the SA standard leader Alexander Boecking before the military tribunal of the Baltic Military district. In contrast to the purges of Stalin in the CPSU during the 1930s, criminal offenses did not have to be specially invented, so that one does not speak of a show trial , but a demonstration trial .

background

On the basis of the Allied Moscow Declaration of October 30, 1943, the Soviet Union atoned for war crimes that had been committed on its territory. Already the decree 43 of April 19 of 1943 provided "German, Italian, Romanian, Hungarian and Finnish criminals who have been convicted of murder and mistreatment of civilians and of captured Red Army soldiers, and spies and traitors among Soviet citizens with the death penalty to be punished by hanging. ”This concerned mass shootings of the civilian population, atrocities against prisoners of war and civilians, the deportations and the various destruction on site during the German-Soviet war . Key persons from the SS and the Einsatzgruppen , but also high-ranking Wehrmacht officers, were tried in a first wave of eight public trials. Because of the sometimes psychological and physical torture of the accused, some false accusations and the active involvement of the local population, research speaks of demonstration or even show trials. The judgments appeared not only harsh and relentless, but legitimate based on the evidence and testimony presented.

accusation

In contrast to other trials of the first wave, the prosecutors wanted and were able to prove that the main defendant Jeckeln had specific responsibilities. Jeckeln, a race warrior par exellance, whose name is primarily associated with the massacre in the Rumbula forest , was able to prove guilt based on his own statements, as well as testimony from other people involved in the crime and survivors of the massacre, as well as German documents. He had not only given the orders, but was also present in person and carried out shootings himself and boasted about them. The prosecutors succeeded in tracing Jeckeln's “trail of blood” through the Ukraine and the Baltic States and ascertained his responsibility for the murder of the Jews, even if there were occasional oversubscriptions. Jeckeln defended his actions by stating that he had acted on higher orders from Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler .

Boecking, the district commissioner of the Tallinn district, was blamed for the Germanization policy in Estonia with the looting and extermination of the Estonian people and the settlement of Germans. Specific allegations such as forced labor , forced resettlement and looting were also raised and those specifically affected were named.

accused
Surname born rank function
Friedrich Werther 1890 Major general 1943/44 various field command offices in the east;
1944 Commander of the coastal defense of Riga
Bronislav Pavel 1890 Major general 1942 Commander of two POW camps and commander of the prisoner of war system for Commander Ostland;
1943/1944 Oberfeldkommandant 392 (Minsk) and Korück AOK 4
Friedrich Jeckeln 1895 General of the Waffen SS Higher SS and Police Leader in Russia South and East Country;
1944 Commander of the V. SS Mountain Corps
Wolfgang von Ditfurth 1879 Lieutenant General 1939–1942 Commander 403rd Security Division;
Local commander of Kursk
Siegfried Ruff 1895 Lieutenant General 1942 Commander 401st Replacement Division;
April 1944 local commander of Riga
Hans Küpper 1891 Major general 1942–1944 head of several field command offices in Ukraine and the Baltic States
Albrecht Baron Digeon of Monteton 1887 Lieutenant General August 1942-September 1944 Commander of the 391st Field Training Division , renamed in March 1944 to 391st Security Division zbV
September 1944 - May 1945 Commander of the 52nd Security Division
April 1945 - May 1945 Commander of the "permanent place" in Libau
Alexander Boecking 1897 SA standard leader Tallinn District Commissioner

According to Ukas 43, Jeckeln, Boecking and the generals were sentenced to death for war crimes on Soviet territory and immediately after the sentence was pronounced on February 3, 1946, they were publicly executed by hanging.

Documentation of the German atrocities

As with the Minsk and Kharkov trials , the minutes of the main hearing were published in book form and documentary film recordings were made of the trial.

literature

  • Mike Schmeitzer: Consistent accounting? - Nazi elites targeted by Soviet courts 1945–1947 . In: Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944–1947): a historical-biographical study . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015, ISBN 978-3-5253-6968-5 , p. 63 ff.
  • Mike Schmeitzer: Particularly tough? - The Soviet procedures in the SS and police complex . In: The SS after 1945: Debt narratives, popular myths, European memory discourses . Ed .: Schulte and Wildt, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2018, ISBN 978-3-8470-0820-0 , pp. 145 ff.

Movie

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mike Schmeitzner : Consistent accounting? . In: Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944-1947): a historical-biographical study . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2015, ISBN 978-3-5253-6968-5 , p. 67.
  2. ↑ Andreas Hilger : Let justice take its course . In: Norbert Frei (ed.): Transnational politics of the past. How to deal with German war criminals in Europe after the Second World War. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2006, ISBN 978-3-89244-940-9 , p. 215.
  3. ↑ Mike Schmeitzner: Consistent accounting? . P. 66.
  4. ↑ Manfred Zeidler : Stalin Justice contra Nazi crimes . Hannah Arendt Institute 1996, Reports and Studies No. 9, p. 28 f.
  5. ↑ Mike Schmeitzner: Consistent accounting? . P. 67.
  6. ↑ Mike Schmeitzner: Consistent accounting? . P. 68.
  7. ↑ Mike Schmeitzmer: Soviet procedures in the SS and police complex . In: The SS after 1945: Debt narratives, popular myths, European memory discourses . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2018, ISBN 978-3-8470-0820-0 , p. 146.
  8. ^ Donald M. McKale, Nazis After Hitler: How Perpetrators of the Holocaust Cheated Justice and Truth . Rowman & Littlefield 2012, ISBN 978-1-4422-1316-6 , p. 86.
  9. ↑ Mike Schmeitzner: Consistent accounting? . P. 68.
  10. ↑ Manfred Zeidler : Stalin Justice contra Nazi crimes . Hannah Arendt Institute 1996, Reports and Studies No. 9, p. 28.
  11. ↑ Mike Schmeitzner: Consistent accounting? . P. 67 f.
  12. ↑ Mike Schmeitzner: Consistent accounting? . P. 68.
  13. ↑ Manfred Zeidler: Stalin Justice contra Nazi crimes . P. 30.