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LANDSBERG, A DOCUMENTARY ACCOUNT

A RARE 1951 GERMAN BOOK ABOUT LENIENCY OR CLEMENCY FOR SENTENCED NAZI WAR CRIMINALS

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Landsberg, ein Dokumentarischer Bericht (Landsberg, a Documentary Account) is a very interesting German language publication regarding the prison and death sentences of high-ranking Nazis (referred to as Kriegsverbrecher or war criminals in the Foreword) who were sentenced in Nürnberg and Dachau (and were imprisoned at Landsberg), and their subsequent requests for leniency or clemency.

This 32-page book contains the decisions on those requests by US High Commissioner John J. McCloy and General Thomas T. Hardy, the High Commissioner of the American Forces in Europe and is accompanied by documents relating to the individual cases. The decisions on their sentences were made public on 31 January 1951 and published in this book.

* Oswald Pohl was an early Freikorps member, a member of the SA and had joined the Nazi Party in 1926. He became the Chief of Administration of the SS and SS Treasurer in 1935, he oversaw the Nazi Konzentrationslager or concentration camp system and was heavily involved in Heinrich Himmler’s Projekt Wewelsburg. In February 1942 he became the head of the new SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (SS-WVHA or the SS Main Office for Economic Administration), the office in charge of the Lebensborn eV, the concentration camp system and the use of slave labor in concentration camp industries. On 20 April 1942 he was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS. Later the same year he married Eleonore von Brüning, the widow of one of the founders of IG Farben. Pohl was convicted of war crimes in Nürnberg in 1947 and after several appeals was hanged on 7 June 1951.

Right, many high-ranking Nazi cabinet members received reduced sentenced or were set free.

Left, the case of former Field Marshal Erhard Milch, State Secretary at Hermann Göring’s Luftfahrtministerium and Inspector General of the Luftwaffe.

He was charged with exploiting slave laborers in airplane factories, not for military matters. Milch had requested leniency and his life sentence was reduced to a 15 prison sentence due to health problems.

There are also chapters dedicated to men whose death sentences were not overturned. They were those of:

- SS-Standartenführer Werner Braune for ordering the mass murder of Jews and gypsies (men, women    and children) at Simferopol in December 1941 (see below)

- SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel whose Einsatzgruppen were responsible for the murder of an    estimated 60,000 people in Ukraine (including Babi Yar in Kiev)

- SS-Oberführer Erich Naumann who was responsible for the liquidation of thousands of Jews,    gypsies, partisans and communists in Russia between November 1941 and March 1943

- SS-Brigadeführer Otto Ohlendorf whose Einsatzgruppe D was responsible for killing approximately    90,000 people in Russia between July 1941 and July 1942

- Oswald Pohl, head of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office and the head administrator    of the Nazi concentration camps (above).

These men were all hanged at Landsberg Prison in Landsberg am Lech on 7 June 1951.

The list on the right shows the accused who received reduced prison sentences, the men who were set free (time served) and Oswald Pohl*, whose death sentenced was not overturned.

The different cases covered are:

- Medical doctors who participated in medical experiments in Nazi concentration camps (see above)

- Field Marshall and State Secretary Erhard Milch of Hermann Göring’s Air Ministry

- Nazi lawyers and judges

- SS and Concentration Camp personnel found guilty of the murder of Jews at Auschwitz, the    destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and involvement in Aktion Reinhardt

- Nazi Generals who were involved in brutal actions against civilians during Wehrmacht campaigns    in south-eastern Europe

- High-ranking employees of Heinrich Himmler’s Rassen- und Siedlungshauptamt involved in    systematic murder of foreign women and children, forced sterilization, and brutal Germanization

- Different SS men of Einsatzgruppen charged with mass execution of Jews and gypsies

- Krupp industrialists charged with using forced labor and for plunder in France and Holland

- Nazi cabinet members

This fascinating 6-5/8 x 9-5/8 inch softcover book was published in 1951 by the Information Services Division Office of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany. It was printed by the publishing house of the Amerikanischen Hochkommission für Deutschland located at Schellingstrasse 39 in Munich which once housed the office of the Nazi Party newspaper Völkischer Beobachter!

This 73 year old example of Landsberg, ein Dokumentarischer Bericht is in very nice, little-used condition and has no odor.

Shown left is information about the men involved in the "Hostages Trial" of 1947-48. Twelve German Field Marshals and Generals were found guilty of war crimes in Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece:
ordering the taking civilian hostages; ordering the wanton shooting of hostages; ordering the reprisal killings of civilians; and ordering the summary execution of captured partisans, from 1941 onwards.

Most men had their sentences reduced or commuted, except for General Wilhelm List and General Walter Kuntze.

Left, the sentences of many Krupp AG industrialists were reduced or commuted. Alfred Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was set free and also did not have to forfeit his assets!
If you own the cigarette card album Männer im Dritten Reich, he is picture number 136.

Right, the chapter about high-ranking officials of the Rassen- und Siedlungshauptamt of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler involved in the systematic murder of foreign women and children, kidnapping of foreign children, forced sterilization, brutal Germanization and forced resettlement, among other things.

All the accused had their sentences reduced or commuted.

Left, the accused in this group were involved in the administration of concentration camps or industries run by the SS at Konzentrationslager. They had received death sentences of life sentences due to their involvement in the extermination of Jews, the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, plunder of Jewish possessions in the East and selection of prisoners for medical experiments.