In Nazi Germany, the term was revived to justify the punishment of kin (relatives, spouse) for the offence of a family member. In that form of
Sippenhaft, the relatives of persons accused of crimes against the state were held to share the responsibility for those crimes and subject to arrest and sometimes execution.
1943–1945: for desertion and treason '' of two of the Leiss family in
Moers, punished due to the desertion of Wenzeslaus Leiss Examples of
Sippenhaft being used as a threat exist within the
Wehrmacht from around 1943. Soldiers accused of having "blood impurities" or soldiers conscripted from outside of Germany also began to have their families threatened and punished with
Sippenhaft. An example is the case of
Panzergrenadier Wenzeslaus Leiss, who was accused of desertion on the
Eastern Front in December 1942. After the
Düsseldorf Gestapo discovered supposed Polish links in the Leiss family, in February 1943 his wife, two-year-old daughter, two brothers, sister and brother-in-law were arrested and executed at
Sachsenhausen concentration camp. By 1944, several general and individual directives were ordered within divisions and corps, threatening troops with consequences against their families.
Families of 20 July plotters Many people who had committed no crimes were arrested and punished under
Sippenhaft decrees introduced after the failed
20 July plot to assassinate
Adolf Hitler in July 1944.After the failure of the 20 July plot, the
SS chief
Heinrich Himmler told a meeting of
Gauleiters in
Posen that he would "introduce absolute responsibility of kin ... a very old custom practiced among our forefathers". According to Himmler, this practice had existed among the ancient
Teutons. "When they placed a family under the ban and declared it outlawed or when there was a
blood feud in the family, they were utterly consistent. ... This man has committed treason; his blood is bad; there is traitor's blood in him; that must be wiped out. And in the blood feud the entire clan was wiped out down to the last member. And so, too, will
Count Stauffenberg's family be wiped out down to the last member." Accordingly, the members of the family of von Stauffenberg (the officer who had planted the bomb that failed to kill Hitler) were all under suspicion. His wife,
Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg, was sent to
Ravensbrück concentration camp (she survived and lived until 2006). His brother
Alexander, who knew nothing of the plot and was serving with the
Wehrmacht in Greece, was also sent to a concentration camp. Similar punishments were meted out to the relatives of
Carl Goerdeler,
Henning von Tresckow,
Adam von Trott zu Solz and many other conspirators.
Erwin Rommel opted to commit suicide, rather than being tried for his suspected role in the plot, in part because he knew that his wife and children would suffer well before his own all-but-certain conviction and execution.
1944–1945: Soviet POW "League of German Officers" After the 20 July plot, numerous families connected to the Soviet-sponsored
League of German Officers made up of German prisoners of war, such as those of
Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach and
Friedrich Paulus, were also arrested. Unlike a number of the 20 July conspirators families, those arrested for connection to the League were not released after a few months but remained in prison until the end of the war. Younger children of arrested plotters were not jailed but sent to orphanages under new names. Stauffenberg's children were renamed "Meister".
1944–1945: for "cowardice" After 20 July 1944 these threats were extended to include all German troops, in particular, German commanders. A decree of February 1945 threatened death to the relatives of military commanders who showed what Hitler regarded as cowardice or defeatism in the face of the enemy. After
the surrender of Königsberg to the Soviets in April 1945, the family of the German commander General
Otto Lasch were arrested. These arrests were publicized in the
Völkischer Beobachter. == Present legal status==