Mother of executed saboteur gets 25 years: 1942
Erna Haupt, accused of aiding her son in a Nazi-organized effort to conduct sabotage in the United States during World War II, is shown in a mugshot after her arrest in 1942.
Erna Haupt came to the United States with their son Herbert in 1925 to join her husband, who had arrived in 1923, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
The Haupt’s were charged with knowing that their son Herbert Haupt brought large sums of money with him, sheltering Haupt, buying him an automobile in Herbert’s father Hans’ name and being fully advised of their son’s plans for sabotage.
Six relatives and friends of Nazi saboteur Herbert Haupt, who was executed with five others in August 1942, faced charges of aiding Haupt in his effort to carry out sabotage of U.S. factories, transportation infrastructure and other facilities.
The six were among 14 people in the United States indicted in 1942 for aiding the eight convicted Nazi saboteurs--six of whom were executed, one received a life sentence and one received 30 years imprisonment following a Washington, D.C. military trial.
A three week civilian trial in Chicago of those six charged with aiding the saboteurs ended November 14, 1942. Found guilty of treason and aiding and sheltering Herbert Hans Haupt were Hans and Erna Haupt, Herbert Haupt’s parents; Walter and Lucille Froehling, Herbert Haupt’s uncle and aunt; and Otto and Kate Wergin, family friends of the Haupts and Froehlings.
On November 24th, Federal Judge William J. Campbell sentenced the three men to death and gave the women twenty-five year prison sentences and fined $10,000 each.
“The sentence must serve notice upon the enemy that the cunningly devised scheme for the use of American citizens of German birth as pawns in the game of sabotage and espionage in this country is doomed to failure.”
“How different this trial was from the treatment given in Germany to persons accused of similar offense against the German Reich.
“In pronouncing this sentence upon these six men and women this court is constrained to give full consideration to the fact that our nation, and every man, woman and child in it, are engaged in a global death struggle against forces of tyranny and evil unprecedented in the history of mankind. Our enemies seek to destroy us both by force of arms on our far flung battlefronts and through disaffection and treacherous sabotage within our borders.”
“The home front in our titanic struggle against the enemy is equally important and certainly more vulnerable than our battle lines. This is a war of people against people, as well as cannon and cannon. To endanger this home front, therefore, is as treasonable act as the act of spiking our guns in the face of the foe.”
On June 29, 1943, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the verdict, citing serious errors in the proceedings. The ruling saved the three men from the electric chair.
Among the trial errors cited was the admissibility of “confessions” that had been obtained by the FBI without advising the defendants of their right to counsel and the judge’s denial of motions to sever the defendants trials from each other.
Otto Wergin and Walter Froehling pled guilty July 22, 1944 to misprision of treason (deliberate concealment of knowledge of treason) and were sentenced to five years each in prison.
Hans M. Haupt was tried a second time, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $10,000
Charges were dropped against the wives of the defendants, although Erna Haupt was interred for the duration of the war, had her citizenship revoked and was deported to the American sector in Germany after the war ended.
Hans Haupt, a formerly naturalized U.S. citizen, was granted clemency by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in 1957 and scheduled for deportation to Germany.
The conditions of Haupt’s release provided that if he set foot on American soil, the clemency would be automatically revoked and he would be returned to prison for the rest of his life. Haupt had already lost his citizenship upon his conviction.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmPiRmT4
The photographer is unknown. The image is believed to be a U.S. government photograph. It is housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.
Mother of executed saboteur gets 25 years: 1942
Erna Haupt, accused of aiding her son in a Nazi-organized effort to conduct sabotage in the United States during World War II, is shown in a mugshot after her arrest in 1942.
Erna Haupt came to the United States with their son Herbert in 1925 to join her husband, who had arrived in 1923, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
The Haupt’s were charged with knowing that their son Herbert Haupt brought large sums of money with him, sheltering Haupt, buying him an automobile in Herbert’s father Hans’ name and being fully advised of their son’s plans for sabotage.
Six relatives and friends of Nazi saboteur Herbert Haupt, who was executed with five others in August 1942, faced charges of aiding Haupt in his effort to carry out sabotage of U.S. factories, transportation infrastructure and other facilities.
The six were among 14 people in the United States indicted in 1942 for aiding the eight convicted Nazi saboteurs--six of whom were executed, one received a life sentence and one received 30 years imprisonment following a Washington, D.C. military trial.
A three week civilian trial in Chicago of those six charged with aiding the saboteurs ended November 14, 1942. Found guilty of treason and aiding and sheltering Herbert Hans Haupt were Hans and Erna Haupt, Herbert Haupt’s parents; Walter and Lucille Froehling, Herbert Haupt’s uncle and aunt; and Otto and Kate Wergin, family friends of the Haupts and Froehlings.
On November 24th, Federal Judge William J. Campbell sentenced the three men to death and gave the women twenty-five year prison sentences and fined $10,000 each.
“The sentence must serve notice upon the enemy that the cunningly devised scheme for the use of American citizens of German birth as pawns in the game of sabotage and espionage in this country is doomed to failure.”
“How different this trial was from the treatment given in Germany to persons accused of similar offense against the German Reich.
“In pronouncing this sentence upon these six men and women this court is constrained to give full consideration to the fact that our nation, and every man, woman and child in it, are engaged in a global death struggle against forces of tyranny and evil unprecedented in the history of mankind. Our enemies seek to destroy us both by force of arms on our far flung battlefronts and through disaffection and treacherous sabotage within our borders.”
“The home front in our titanic struggle against the enemy is equally important and certainly more vulnerable than our battle lines. This is a war of people against people, as well as cannon and cannon. To endanger this home front, therefore, is as treasonable act as the act of spiking our guns in the face of the foe.”
On June 29, 1943, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the verdict, citing serious errors in the proceedings. The ruling saved the three men from the electric chair.
Among the trial errors cited was the admissibility of “confessions” that had been obtained by the FBI without advising the defendants of their right to counsel and the judge’s denial of motions to sever the defendants trials from each other.
Otto Wergin and Walter Froehling pled guilty July 22, 1944 to misprision of treason (deliberate concealment of knowledge of treason) and were sentenced to five years each in prison.
Hans M. Haupt was tried a second time, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $10,000
Charges were dropped against the wives of the defendants, although Erna Haupt was interred for the duration of the war, had her citizenship revoked and was deported to the American sector in Germany after the war ended.
Hans Haupt, a formerly naturalized U.S. citizen, was granted clemency by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in 1957 and scheduled for deportation to Germany.
The conditions of Haupt’s release provided that if he set foot on American soil, the clemency would be automatically revoked and he would be returned to prison for the rest of his life. Haupt had already lost his citizenship upon his conviction.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmPiRmT4
The photographer is unknown. The image is believed to be a U.S. government photograph. It is housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.