Twice Convicted Nazi Prosecutor. Hellmuth Holland's Cases Before Polish Courts (1949–1954)

Abstract

The study is devoted to two criminal cases brought before Polish courts against Hellmuth Holland in connection with his function as the head of the German Prosecutor's Office in Piotrków in the General Government. Holland was a prosecutor in proceedings before the Special Court in Piotrków, in which he filed motions for the defendants to be sentenced to death, which was then imposed and carried out. While performing his function, he abused his powers, violating the occupant's legislation. His actions were recognized in two separate criminal proceedings, which resulted in two convictions - the District Court in Piotrków in 1949 and the Provincial Court in Łódź in 1954. The legal basis for the conviction was the decree of the Polish Committee of National Liberation of August 31, 1944, punishments for fascist-Nazi criminals guilty of murder and mistreatment of civilians and prisoners of war, and for traitors to the Polish nation. Because he was convicted twice and the severity of the punishment, Holland's case differs from other cases of convictions of lawyers of the Third Reich for their activities in the occupied Polish territories, described so far in the literature. The study primarily uses the files of two criminal proceedings, stored in the Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance, Branch in Łódź. Archival materials from Germany were used as an aid, including the files of the proceedings against Holland in the Federal Republic of Germany, which were discontinued, and the literature on the subject. Historical and formal-dogmatic methods were used in the research. Holland's conviction has so far been unknown in the literature, and his criminal case files have not been used scientifically.