Erna GertrudeJoachim Schmid in: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (Hrsg.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Hannover 1996, , S. 641. Wazinski (born September 7, 1925, in Ihlow (Oberbarnim);Bernhild Vögel: Ein kurzer Lebensweg – Der Fall Erna Wazinski. Arbeitsmaterialien für die schulische und außerschulische Jugendbildungsarbeit, Braunschweig 1996, S. 1. died November 23, 1944, in Wolfenbüttel) was a German armorer worker. She was denounced by a neighbor at the age of 19 for alleged looting after the bombing of Braunschweig and sentenced to death as a "public enemy" by the Special Court of Braunschweig on the basis of the Ordinance Against Public Enemies, (VVO), issued on September 5, 1939.Aktenzeichen: SAW: 42 Neu Fb 7 Nr. 1610, 1 Sond Js 835/44, nach: Pollmann: Der Schwierige Weg in die Nachkriegszeit, S. 91.
Wazinski, who had confessed only after being mistreated by criminal investigators and for whom two pardons for clemency had previously been filed, died under the guillotine in Wolfenbüttel Prison. The case came back before German courts several times over a period of 40 years after the war. In 1952, a court mitigated the old sentence; in 1991, an acquittal was issued on the basis of new testimony.Ludewig, Kuessner: "Es sei also jeder gewarnt" – Das Sondergericht Braunschweig 1933–1945, S. 242. After the law called Gesetz zur Aufhebung nationalsozialistischer Unrechtsurteile in der Strafrechtspflege came into force on September 1, 1998, all sentences under the Ordinance Against Public Enemies were sweepingly repealed.Nr. 32 der Anlage (zu Artikel 1 § 2 Nr. 3) des Gesetzes zur Aufhebung nationalsozialistischer Unrechtsurteile in der Strafrechtspflege.
The almost completely preserved trial files are now in the Wolfenbüttel Department.Johannes Unger: Der Fall Erna Wazinski, In: Kirche von unten, Heft 50, Braunschweig 1991, p. 14–20.Signatur der Prozessakten im Niedersächsischen Staatsarchiv Wolfenbüttel: 42 B. Neu FB Nr. 7/1979 Nr. 60.
Life
Wazinski was the only child of Wilhelmine Wazinski, née ChmielewskiUrteilsbegründung des Sondergerichts Braunschweig vom 21. Oktober 1944. In: vernetztes-gedaechtnis.de, retrieved 10 September 2019. (Geburtsname der Mutter Chmielewski) and Schmielewski,Von der Mutter unterzeichnete Aussage vom 26. Oktober 1944, In: Helmut Kramer (Hrsg.): "Die Verordnung gegen Volksschädlinge vom 5.9.1939 war geltendes Gesetz ...", Reader zum Fall Erna Wazinski. respectively, and her later husband, the invalid Rudolph Wazinski. Her parents were both born in East Prussia and worked as farm laborers on Brandenburg properties around 1925. Her father, 24 years older than her mother, did not marry her until after the family moved to Essen in the Ruhr region in 1930. In 1931, the family moved to Braunschweig, where they lived in very modest conditions in Lange Straße, in a poor people's quarter in the Neustadt. During the redevelopment of this old residential area starting in 1936, many of the small and winding half-timbered houses were demolished. The family then moved to the Magniviertel. The new apartment was at Langedammstraße 14, again in an old half-timbered house.Bernhild Vögel: Ein kurzer Lebensweg – Der Fall Erna Wazinski. Arbeitsmaterialien für die schulische und außerschulische Jugendbildungsarbeit, Braunschweig 1996, pp. 2 f. Only a little later, on February 16, 1938, Rudolph Wazinski died when Erna was not yet 13 years old. From the age of 12, Erna was a member of the Jungmädelbund, but subsequently did not join the BDM. She was confirmed in the Petrikirche at Easter 1940.Bernhild Vögel: Ein kurzer Lebensweg – Der Fall Erna Wazinski. Arbeitsmaterialien für die schulische und außerschulische Jugendbildungsarbeit, Braunschweig 1996, S. 3.
At first, she probably attended the girls' school at Südklint near Lange Straße and later, after moving to the Magniviertel, the Axel-Schaffeld school (today Georg-Eckert school),Bernhild Vögel: ... und in Braunschweig? Materialien und Tips zur Stadterkundung 1930–1945, 2. aktualisierte Auflage, S. 37. until the regular end of her schooling in 1939. Afterwards, she stayed at home for some time and then had various jobs. Among others, she worked for Otto Block, who ran a lunch counter on the first floor of the residential building at Langedammstraße 14, for some time from 1942. Block had several criminal records, which prompted the Jugendamt of the city of Braunschweig to place Wazinski in youth welfare education by committing her to a residential child care community at the age of 17.Bernhild Vögel: Ein kurzer Lebensweg – Der Fall Erna Wazinski. Arbeitsmaterialien für die schulische und außerschulische Jugendbildungsarbeit, Braunschweig 1996, p. 4. In August 1942, she was sent to Wunstorf, where a newly established reception and observation home had just been opened. After Wazinski had been classified by psychiatrists there as being at "normal risk," she was transferred to the Birkenhof, a Protestant home in Hanover for girls who had been released from school, where she had to stay for about a year.
After her return to Braunschweig in November 1943, the employment office found Wasinski a job as a housekeeper. In July 1944, she was then assigned a job at the armaments company VIGA. The subsidiary of Brunsviga-Werke, located at Hamburger Straße 250, produced precision mechanical parts for weapons and was classified as essential to the war effort. She worked here until her arrest on October 20, 1944.
The act On the night of Sunday, October 15, 1944, Wazinski was working the night shift. At about 1:50 a.m. there was an air raid alarm and shortly thereafter the Royal Air Force flew a bombing of Braunschweig, causing a firestorm and destroying 90% of the city center, including the Magniviertel.Braunschweiger Zeitung (Hrsg.): Die Bomben-Nacht. Der Luftkrieg vor 60 Jahren. Braunschweig 2004, p. 8. Within just under 40 minutes, about 12,000 high explosive bombs and 200,000 phosphorus and incendiary bombs were dropped. The fires did not go out for two and a half days. Together with her colleague and friend Gerda Körner, Wazinski walked several kilometers from Hamburg Straße to the Magniviertel to look for her mother while the city center burned down. Around 4 o'clock they arrived at the destroyed house. It was the fourth time that mother and daughter Wazinski had been bombed out, losing most of their belongings. She could not find her mother, but assumed she was safe with neighbors. It later turned out that Wilhelmine Wazinski had survived in the cellar of the house diagonally across the street, Langedammstraße 8.Bernhild Vögel: Ein kurzer Lebensweg – Der Fall Erna Wazinski. Arbeitsmaterialien für die schulische und außerschulische Jugendbildungsarbeit, Braunschweig 1996, p. 5.
Wazinski spent the night with her friend who lived at Friedrich-Wilhelm-Strasse 1. On the morning of October 16, with the city still burning, she and her friend, Günter Wiedehöft, a soldier on furlough, went into the ruins of the apartment building to find personal belongings, if possible. After they had spent about two hours clearing rubble out of the way, Wazinski recovered two suitcases, a rucksack, and some clothes of which it was not clear to whom they belonged. The total value of the lost property was about 200 Reichsmarks.Bernhild Vögel: ... und in Braunschweig? Materialien und Tips zur Stadterkundung 1930–1945, 2. aktualisierte Auflage, p. 35. Wazinski assumed that it was her mother's property, as she stated to her boyfriend; a mistake, as it later turned out. Martha F.Ludewig, Kuessner: "Es sei also jeder gewarnt" – Das Sondergericht Braunschweig 1933–1945, p. 240. or Marina Fränke,Todesurteil vom 21. Oktober 1944 gegen Erna Wazinski, In: Helmut Kramer (Hrsg.): "Die Verordnung gegen Volksschädlinge vom 5.9.1939 war geltendes Gesetz...", Reader zum Fall Erna Wazinski. a neighbor from the house at Langedammstraße 8, filed a complaint against unknown persons on October 18, because some objects had been stolen from her. She gave Wazinski as the suspect. According to the historians Ludewig/Kuessner, the reason for the accusation was that the SS member F., an acquaintance of the neighbor, had been stalking Wazinski, which is why the neighbor was "not well disposed" to the accused.Ludewig, Kuessner: "Es sei also jeder gewarnt" – Das Sondergericht Braunschweig 1933–1945, p. 125.
Arrest
On Friday, October 20, Wazinski's boyfriend wanted to visit her in her emergency shelter with the Körner family at Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße 1, but did not meet her because she was still at work. While he was waiting, two detectives appeared who also wanted to visit Wazinski because of the "complaint against unknown persons" of October 18. While they waited together, Günter Wiedehöft was interrogated informally about his girlfriend, describing in detail what had happened, including the joint rescue operation.Aussage von Günter Wiedehöft 13 June 1990, In: Helmut Kramer (Hrsg.): "Die Verordnung gegen Volksschädlinge vom 5.9.1939 war geltendes Gesetz ...", Reader zum Fall Erna Wazinski. When Wazinski arrived, he had to leave the room and wait outside the door in the corridor while the police officers talked to her. After a short time Wiedehöft heard the loud voices of the policemen, including the word "Volksverräterin" several times, as well as loud clapping of blows. When all three left the room and Wazinski was led away, Wiedehöft saw that she had apparently received blows to her face; her lips were swollen and her nose was bleeding.
One of the officers told Wiedehöft on his way out that he should "vamoose" to the front as quickly as possible.Urteilsbegründung des Landgerichts Braunschweig zum Freispruch 20 March 1991, from: Helmut Kramer (Hrsg.): "Die Verordnung gegen Volksschädlinge vom 5.9.1939 war geltendes Gesetz ...", Reader zum Fall Erna Wazinski. Since the 20-year-old soldier now also felt threatened himself, he turned to the father of an acquaintance who worked for the Gestapo and asked for help. The latter promised to "keep him out of this," but he could do nothing "for the criminal." Wiedehöft then reported back to his unit on October 23 and was sent to the Eastern Front. He did not return from captivity until September 20, 1949.
Confession A short time later it turned out that Wazinski had made a confession during the time she was alone in the room with the two policemen, on which the indictment was based the following day. The content of this forced "confession" differed in essential points from the actual events of October 16, 1944, and almost coincided with the neighbor's report. According to it, the accused had admitted to having opened a suitcase in an undestroyed outbuilding, into which the neighbor had brought some objects from her property to safety, and to having taken the described parts from it. Wazinski concealed the fact that her boyfriend had been present during the recovery. Nor was his presence in Friedrich-Wilhelm-Strasse during the interrogation of the criminal investigators or the statements he had previously made about the matter mentioned in the police record.
Indictment A few hours later, on Saturday, October 21, Chief Public Prosecutor Wilhelm Hirte drew up a terse indictment based on the "confession" of the previous day. In it, Wazinski was charged with plunder under § 1 of the VVOVVO: § 1 Plünderung im frei gemachten Gebiet (1) Wer im frei gemachten Gebiet oder in freiwillig geräumten Gebäude oder Räumen plündert, wird mit dem Tode bestraft. (2) Die Aburteilung erfolgt [...] durch die Sondergerichte. [...]. and requested the death penalty. The presiding judge of the special court, Walter Lerche, convened the trial for the same day, although there were still older unheard cases; the reason for the expedited hearing of her case is unknown. Walter Ahrens and Ernst von Griesbach also sat on the bench. Christian von Campe was the public defender for the defendant Wazinski.