Werner Holländer

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Werner Wolfgang Holländer (born August 2, 1914 in Cologne , † May 30, 1944 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a victim of the Nazi regime . The Hungarian engineer who lives in Kassel and works for Henschel was sentenced to death on April 20, 1943 by the special court at the Kassel Higher Regional Court for “ racial disgrace ” and beheaded on May 30 of the following year .

Condemnation

The graduate engineer Werner Holländer, born in Germany and baptized Protestant as a child, had only found out in 1941 that his parents were of Jewish descent. He was accused of being guilty of “racial disgrace” in four cases.

The race-political death sentence was passed on April 20, 1943 after three hours of hearing by the judges Fritz Hassencamp and Edmund Kessler; As an assessor , the Higher Regional Judge Bernhardt had voted for a milder judgment. The law stipulated imprisonment or penitentiary sentences as the penalty for “racial disgrace” . The judges constructed a death sentence by classifying the so far unpunished defendant as a "dangerous habitual criminal" and found in the verdict:

"According to German legal perception, it is a requirement of just atonement that the accused, who dared to kick German racial honor in the dirt with the supporters of world Jewry during a war in Germany , be destroyed."

"For criminals of this kind there can ... only one punishment, the death penalty"

Avoidance proceedings

Two of the judges had to answer for this judgment in court after the war. In June 1950, however, the Kassel regional court denied the allegation of perversion of the law and acquitted the accused judges. In its decision under file number dated June 28, 1950, the regional court attested to the special judge Kessler, as the author of the Dutch judgment of April 20, 1943, that he was “probably the most capable lawyer in Kassel”, with the wish “a special legal achievement to accomplish ". In addition, the Kassel Regional Court made the following finding in the judgment:

“The laws that were in force at that time were binding for the courts, their application cannot in itself constitute a perversion of the law. Hollander was once found guilty of racial disgrace on four counts. The application of the Blood Protection Act was undoubtedly right at that time. "

Judge Kessler - according to the Kassler district court - was permeated by the sentence “Law is what is useful to the people ” and “may also have believed in the Dutch case that it was a commandment of just expiation to condemn and stamp out Dutch people for the good of the people ". He was not able to prove any “conscious flexing of the law”. The presiding judge threatened to let the police evacuate the courtroom because of great unrest in the room.

In February 1951, the public prosecutor initiated an appeal procedure before the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court . In October 1951, new proceedings were brought before the Kassel Regional Court. On March 28, 1952, the court classified the death sentence as a false sentence, but denied the fact that the law had been "perverted" and acquitted the judges. While other Nazi criminals in their trials the fanatical political blindness of an extremely National Socialist attitude was interpreted to the disadvantage, here in the acquittal judgment this attitude and motivation to act was interpreted in favor of the judges Hassencamp and Kessler, in such a way that they “convinced, yes fanatical National Socialists were ”and therefore“ the possibility of legal blindness based on political blindness ... cannot be ruled out ”.

See also

literature

Radio broadcast

  • Horst Meier : He was fun-loving, sometimes greedy for life. The Nazi judicial murder of Werner Holländer. Radio feature, SWR 2 / Deutschlandfunk, March 31st / March 20th April 1999.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The case is presented in detail in Jörg Friedrich: acquittal for the Nazi justice. The judgments against Nazi judges since 1948. Ullstein Tb 26532, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-548-26532-4 , pp. 397-419.
  2. ↑ on Edmund Kessler, see his dissertation The educational problem in prison , Marburg 1926; his writings What every manager and young person should know about the Youth Protection Act , 1938, and Crimes and Punishment , 1939
  3. ^ Jörg Friedrich: acquittal for the Nazi judiciary. The judgments against Nazi judges since 1948. Ullstein Tb 26532, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-548-26532-4 , p. 402.
  4. ↑ Ingo Müller: Furchtbare Juristen Kindler-Verlag Munich 1987, ISBN 3-463-40038-3 , p. 120.
  5. ^ Ingo Müller: Terrible lawyers. Kindler-Verlag Munich 1987, ISBN 3-463-40038-3 , p. 278.
  6. ^ Hans-Dieter Otto: The lexicon of legal errors. Scandalous cases, innocent victims, persistent investigators. Ullstein Tb, Berlin 2003, p. 136f. ISBN 3548364535 .
  7. ^ Fritz Bauer Institute: Elimination of Jewish Influence. Anti-Semitic research, elites and careers in ... 1999, Campus Verlag, p. 243f. ISBN 3593360985 .
  8. ↑ Jörg Friedrich: acquittal for the Nazi justice ... , p. 419.
  9. ^ Ingo Müller: Terrible lawyers. Kindler-Verlag Munich 1987, ISBN 3-463-40038-3 , p. 278.
personal data
SURNAME Dutchman, Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holländer, Werner Wolfgang (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian engineer, victim of the Nazi regime
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 1944