Sachsenhausen trial

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Place of the process: The Pankow town hall as the seat of the Soviet headquarters, 1946
inscriptions on the banners: "Long live the constitution of the USSR ", "Glory to the Stalin generals" (between the rows of windows) and "Glory to the great Stalin " (middle section above the portrait)

The Sachsenhausen Trial , officially referred to in Russian as the Berlinskij Trial (Berlin Trial), was a war crimes trial of the USSR that was carried out in the Soviet occupation zone before a Soviet military tribunal (SMT) against members of the former camp staff of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . This process took place from October 23 to November 1, 1947 in the town hall of Pankow on the legal basis of the Control Council Act No. 10 . The last camp commandant of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and twelve members of his staff, a civil servant and two former prison functionaries were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity . The trial ended with 16 convictions; in addition to 14 life sentences, two fifteen-year sentences were imposed. The Sachsenhausen trial, one of the few public SMT trials, was a Stalinist show trial .

Preparations

After the liberation from National Socialism , the British military authorities handed over at least twelve of the defendants who were in their custody, including extensive evidence and investigative material, to the Soviet authorities by September 1946. Two accused prison functionaries and one accused civilian had been in Soviet custody since 1945. In total, at least 30 members of the Sachsenhausen camp personnel were in Soviet internment.

Since it was initially unclear whether the process would not also be carried out in a German court, the Brandenburg Public Prosecutor's Office also launched an investigation into this matter. In addition, the Soviet authorities carried out extensive investigations, in particular into the shooting of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On December 10, 1946, it was finally decided against 16 defendants to conduct a main public trial before an SMT and to conduct non-public trials against the other defendants. The background to this decision at the highest Soviet level for the selection of defendants for a public trial was probably not only the seriousness of the offenses but also the function and familiarity of the defendants. Preparations for the trial were intensified in December 1946 and the accused were increasingly interrogated. Previously, the film Sachsenhausen death camp was made in the former concentration camp, which was later to serve as evidence in the trial.

Before the start of the Sachsenhausen trial, the later defendants were interned as remand prisoners in the Sachsenhausen special camp . In the course of the preparations for the trial, the accused were interrogated intensively, witnesses confronted and prepared for their testimony in court by Soviet interrogation specialists in order to guarantee a "smooth process" according to Soviet ideas.

Legal bases

Originally it was planned to carry out the process according to Ukas 43. Due to the foreign policy effect, however, on the recommendation of the Soviet Ministry of Justice, a procedure was determined according to the Control Council Act No. 10.

accusation

Arrival of Soviet prisoners of war in Sachsenhausen concentration camp on a photo taken in 1941. More than 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war were shot in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

The accused were u. a. 13 former members of the SS camp personnel of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp: the last camp commandant, the on-site doctor, the second and third protective custody camp leaders, the labor deployment leader, the cell construction manager, the head of the Klinkerwerk subcamp, a report leader and five block leaders. In addition, two prisoner functionaries from Sachsenhausen and the civilian Brennscheid, who as an official of the Reich Ministry of Economics, headed the shoe inspection department in the camp, were also charged . In this function he was responsible for a 180-strong prisoner detachment that had to run in Wehrmacht shoes for eleven hours a day, heavily loaded, 40 km . As a result of this exertion, many prisoners perished from exhaustion or collapsed, whereupon Brennscheid abused them. The prisoner functionary Sakowski was considered the "executioner of Sachsenhausen" because he was present at executions of fellow inmates and the brutal Kapo Zander was deployed in the camp crematorium. The charges were based on war crimes and crimes against humanity . The members of the SS camp personnel were mostly accused of participating in the murder of Soviet prisoners of war and all of the accused were also accused of being jointly responsible for the criminal camp regime. The site doctor Baumkötter was also involved in medical experiments on prisoners.

dish

The Soviet military tribunal was composed of trial-experienced Soviet military lawyers. Lieutenant Colonel Majorov took over the chairmanship of the Soviet military tribunal in the Saxony Trial. The prosecutors were the prosecutor F. Beljaev and his deputy Nikolai Kotlyar. Soviet lawyers were put to the side of the accused.

Process execution

On October 23, 1947, the Sachsenhausen trial began in the Pankow town hall against 16 defendants before a Soviet military tribunal, officially known in Russian as the Berlinski trial (Berlin trial). This process was one of the few publicly managed SMT processes. In addition to international press representatives, there were also personalities such as Wilhelm Pieck , Anna Seghers and Otto Grotewohl in attendance. The focus of the crime in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was the mass murder of more than 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war in autumn 1941. A total of 27 witnesses were summoned, 17 of whom testified during the trial. The procedure was carried out within a few days; the indictment was followed by the taking of evidence, pleadings and finally on November 1, 1947 the judgment was announced.

The verdicts were 14 life sentences with forced labor and two fifteen-year prison sentences, also with forced labor. The verdicts were based primarily on the defendants' extensive confessions and less on the results of the investigation. In order to exonerate them, the defendants cited an orderly emergency .

The 16 judgments in detail

Defendant function rank judgment
Anton Kaindl Camp commandant SS standard leader Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Heinz Baumkötter Site doctor SS-Hauptsturmführer Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
August Höhn 2. Protective custody camp leader SS-Untersturmführer Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Michael Körner 3. Protective custody camp leader SS-Obersturmführer Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Gustav Sorge Report leader SS-Hauptscharführer Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Kurt Eccarius Cell construction manager SS-Hauptscharführer Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Horst Hempel Block leader and camp clerk SS-Hauptscharführer Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Ludwig Rehn Head of Labor Deployment Department SS-Hauptscharführer Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Fritz Ficker Block leader SS-Oberscharführer Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Wilhelm Schubert Block leader SS-Oberscharführer Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Heinrich Fressemann Director of the clinker factory SS squad leader Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Manne Saathoff Block leader SS-Unterscharführer Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Martin Knittler Block leader SS Rottenführer Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Paul Sakowski Kapo Function prisoner Life sentence with the obligation to do forced labor
Karl Zander Block elder Function prisoner 15 years imprisonment with compulsory forced labor
Ernst Brennscheid Head of shoe inspection department Official of the Reich Ministry of Economics 15 years imprisonment with compulsory forced labor

Execution of judgments

After the verdicts were pronounced, the convicts were sent to the Vorkuta Gulag for forced labor in December 1947 . In the course of 1948 Körner, Ficker, Fressemann and Saathoff and later Kaindl died. The survivors were released as so-called non-amnesties, at the latest after Konrad Adenauer's state visit to the Soviet Union in 1955, in January 1956 to the Federal Republic of Germany to serve further sentences. Initially, these returnees did not have to commence their remaining custody, but many of them later had to answer again in court and also serve prison sentences, such as Sorge, Schubert, Höhn, Hempel, Baumkötter and Eccarius. The former Kapo Paul Sakowski, the so-called executioner of Sachsenhausen, was the only one who was transferred to the GDR . There he had to continue serving his term in various penal institutions until 1970.

Valuations and effects

The Sachsenhausen trial, which, analogous to the Soviet show trials, was directed centrally from Moscow , served mainly propaganda purposes. A number of defendants made extensive confessions supporting the indictment and criticized monopoly capital, which was held responsible for the exploitation of the labor of the concentration camp inmates. Therefore, some of the accused's statements seemed rehearsed to western trial observers. In contrast to the judgments handed down by military courts in the western occupation zones , the judgments pronounced in the Sachsenhausen trial were rather mild, as the death penalty was abolished in the Soviet Union in May 1947.

Further processes

  • In the GDR there were further trials against members of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp personnel. B. against Arnold Zöllner, who in 1966 was sentenced to life imprisonment by the district court in Rostock for his actions in the camp .
  • In the Federal Republic of Germany, there were also trials against members of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp personnel. B. the Sachsenhausen trials in Cologne in the 1960s.

Further process information

  • During the Sachsenhausen trial, a Soviet and East German film was used to make a trial report that was completed in 1948.
  • To commemorate the Sachsenhausen trial, there has been a memorial plaque in the Pankow town hall since 1989. After this memorial plaque was stolen in the summer of 2008, a newly designed and revised memorial plaque was installed in the town hall of Pankow in November 2008.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Andreas Hilger, Ute Schmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Soviet military tribunals. The conviction of German civilians 1945–1955 . Volume 2, Cologne 2003, pp. 187f.
  2. ↑ Dieter Pohl : Justice in Brandenburg 1945–1955: Harmonization and adaptation in a state justice , Munich 2001, ISBN 3-486-56532-X , p. 90.
  3. ↑ a b Petra Haustein: history in dissent. The disputes over the Sachsenhausen memorial after the end of the GDR , Leipzig 2006, p. 203.
  4. ↑ Petra Haustein: History in Dissent. The disputes over the Sachsenhausen memorial after the end of the GDR , Leipzig 2006, p. 76.
  5. ↑ a b Andreas Hilger, Ute Schmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Soviet military tribunals. The conviction of German civilians 1945–1955 . Volume 2, Cologne 2003, p. 188.
  6. ↑ a b Andreas Hilger, Ute Schmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Soviet military tribunals. The conviction of German civilians 1945–1955 . Volume 2, Cologne 2003, p. 189.
  7. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Benz: The Sachsenhausen process , in: Federal Agency for Civic Education , Issue 259, Germany 1945-1949
  8. ↑ a b Petra Haustein: history in dissent. The disputes over the Sachsenhausen memorial after the end of the GDR , Leipzig 2006, p. 76f.
  9. ↑ a b Andreas Hilger, Ute Schmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Soviet military tribunals. The conviction of German civilians 1945–1955 . Volume 2, Cologne 2003, p. 187
  10. ↑ Andreas Hilger, Ute Schmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Soviet military tribunals. The conviction of German civilians 1945–1955 . Volume 2, Cologne 2003, pp. 186f.
  11. ^ Günter Agde: Sachsenhausen near Berlin. Special camp No. 7, 1945-1950 , Aufbau-Verlag 1994, ISBN 3-7466-7003-9 , p. 246
  12. ↑ Günter Agde: "If additional recordings are desired ..." - media strategic and film historical aspects of two early Sachsenhausen films - In: Klaus Marxen , Annette Weinke : Staging of the right: show trials, media trials and trial films in the GDR . BWV Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-8305-1243-0 , p. 109.
  13. ↑ New memorial plaque for the Sachsenhausen trial in the Pankow town hall on www.berlin.de