Roland Friesler

Roland Freisler born in Germany in 1893 was a German socialist and state secretary of the Prussian Ministry of justice of Nazi Germany who was in part responsible for enforcing the Jewish genocide in the concentration camps.

Background

At a young age Friesler joined the German Army and during the First World War he was captured by the Russian Army and was a prisoner of war.

On his return to Germany he joined the German Communist Party. However on studying law at university his political views gradually moved to the right and in 1925 he joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP).

Career

When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 Freisler was appointed chief personnel officer in the Prussian Ministry of Justice. Then in 1934 he became state secretary in the Prussian and then the federal Ministry of Justice.

In July 1942, Freisler joined Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Muller and Adolf Eichmann at the Wannsee Conference where they discussed the issue of the large number of inmates in Germany's concentration camps. At the meeting it was decided to make the extermination of the Jews a systematically organized operation. Friesler's colleague, Eichmann was then placed in charge of what became known as the Final Solution. After this date extermination camps were established in the east that had the capacity to kill large numbers of Jewish prisoners.

Freisler became president of the People's Court in August 1942. The court had been set up to judge "political crimes" and presided over the trial of those involved in the July Plot.

Death

Roland Freisler was killed during an Allied air raid when he was struck heavily on the head by falling masonary in February, 1945.