The Bundestag declares the verdicts of the Nazi state’s military justice system invalid
As part of its preparations for the Second World War, the Third Reich tightened its laws on “war treason”, bringing a wide range of behaviour into the remit of the criminal justice system, with punishments up to and including the death sentence. The military justice system was also given greater powers, and its jurisdiction was extended to include civilians – in clear violation of all previous rulings. Arguing that such action could impinge on the war effort, anything from “pacifist propaganda”, solidarity with Jews and black marketeering could attract draconian punishment. Whilst German military courts had handed down some 150 death sentences during the First World War, this figure reached and probably even exceeded 40,000 during the Second World War. Prison sentences could also result in death, as many prisoners ended up in concentration camps or were sent on suicide missions at the front. Lower-ranking soldiers were affected much more frequently than officers, who often went unpunished.
Despite the Third Reich’s clearly criminal nature, many of those it had prosecuted remained social outcasts after 1945. It took the justice system a long time to recognize its mistakes, and court hearings in 1950 even upheld the summary executions carried out in Düsseldorf in the dying days of the war, in which individuals were executed for trying to arrange the surrender of the city to prevent unnecessary death and destruction. Although attitudes began to change, conservative politicians opposed attempts to issue a blanket rehabilitation of those convicted of treason, insisting that each case be re-examined individually. The families of those executed by the Third Reich for treason were forced to wait until 8 November 2009 for the Bundestag to pass a law declaring that, due to the illegitimate nature of the Third Reich, all verdicts of “war treason” handed down by Wehrmacht courts were to be ruled null and void.
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