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RuSHA Trial
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The RuSHA Trial (or, officially, The United States of America vs. Ulrich Greifelt, et al.) was the eighth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before U.S. military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal, but took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice. The twelve U.S. trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" or, more formally, as the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT).
In the RuSHA Trial, the 14 defendants were all officials of various SS organizations responsible for the implementation of the Nazi "pure race" programme: the Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt (RuSHA), the office of the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germanism (Reichskommissar für die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums, RKFDV, a post held by Heinrich Himmler), the Repatriation Office for Ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, VoMi), and the Lebensborn society. The charges centered on these racial cleansing and resettlement activities.
The judges in this case, heard before Military Tribunal I, were Lee B. Wyatt (presiding judge) from Georgia, Daniel T. O'Connell from Massachusetts, and Johnson T. Crawford from Oklahoma. The Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution was Telford Taylor. The indictment was served on July 7, 1947; the trial lasted from October 20, 1947 until March 10, 1948.
Indictment - Crimes against humanity by implementing "racial purity" programmes by kidnapping children, forcing "non-Aryan" pregnant women to undergo abortions, plundering, deportation of populations from their native lands in occupied countries and resettling of so-called "ethnic Germans" (Volksdeutsche) on such lands, sending people who had had "interracial" sexual relationships to concentration camps, and general participation in the persecution of Jews.
- War crimes for the same reasons.
- Membership of a criminal organization, the SS.
All defendants were indicted on counts 1 and 2. Inge Viermetz was excluded from count 3. All defendants pleaded "not guilty".
Defendants | Name | Function | Charges | Sentence |
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| | | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
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| Ulrich Greifelt | Chief of Staff of RKFDV | G | G | G | lifetime imprisonment | | Rudolf Creutz | Deputy to Greifelt | G | G | G | 15 years | | Konrad Meyer-Hetling | Office head in RKFDV | I | I | G | Time already served (since May 27, 1945);
released after the judgment | | Otto Schwarzenberger | Office head in RKFDV | I | I | G | Time already served (since May 2, 1945);
released after the judgment | | Herbert Hübner | Chief of Poznan office of RKFDV and
representative of RuSHA in western Poland | G | G | G | 15 years | | Werner Lorenz | Head of VoMi | G | G | G | 20 years | | Heinz Brückner | Office head at VoMi | G | G | G | 15 years | | Otto Hofmann | Head of RuSHA until April 20, 1943,
later head of the SS in southwestern Germany | G | G | G | 25 years | | Richard Hildebrandt | Head of RuSHA, Hofmann's successor | G | G | G | 25 years | | Fritz Schwalm | Chief of Staff of RuSHA and head of the "Immigration
Office" (Einwandererzentrale, EWZ) in Lódz | G | G | G | 10 years | | Max Sollmann | Head of the Lebensborn society | I | I | G | Time already served (since July 6, 1945);
released after the judgment | | Gregor Ebner | Head of Health Dept. of Lebensborn | I | I | G | Time already served (since July 5, 1945);
released after the judgment | | Günther Tesch | Head of Legal Dept. of Lebensborn | I | I | G | Time already served (since May 13, 1945);
released after the judgment | | Inge Viermetz | Deputy to Sollmann | I | I | | acquitted |
I — Indicted G — Indicted and found guilty
The four Lebensborn members were not found guilty on counts 1 and 2 of the indictment. The tribunal considered the Lebensborn society not responsible for the kidnapping of children, which was carried out by others.
Greifelt died in the Landsberg prison on February 6, 1949. Hildebrandt was turned over to Polish authorities. He was put on trial for war crimes again in Poland and sentenced to death. He was hanged on March 10, 1952. Hübner, Brückner, and Schwalm were released in 1951. Also in that year, the sentences of Hofmann and Lorenz were reduced to 15 years, and that of Creutz to 10 years. Hofmann was released in 1954.
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