Trial of Neumann and Sass

participates in the rebels parade in Klaipėda, 1923 The Klaipėda Region was detached from East Prussia, in the German Empire, by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and became a mandate of the League of Nations under provisional French administration until a more permanent resolution could be worked out. Lithuania acquired the region after the Klaipėda Revolt of 10–15 January 1923, which had been carried out mainly by soldiers and volunteers from Lithuania. According to Lithuanian intelligence, about 60% of the region's population supported an uprising, about 30% were neutral, and only about 10% supported a free state. A Lithuanian census carried out in the region in 1925 found its total population was 141,000. The census classified inhabitants by declared language as 43.5 percent German, 27.6 percent Lithuanian, and 25.2 percent "Klaipėdan" (Memelländisch). However, by tradition, the population of the region generally supported Germany, rather than Lithuania. German politicians promoted a Memellander ideology and argued that Germans and local Lithuanians were "two ethnicities (Volkstümer), yet one cultural community (Kulturgemeinschaft)". The German population of the region considered that to be a Lithuanian provocation, but Lithuanians denied. The German-Lithuanian Klaipėda Regional Union, whose members slandered Lithuanians and advocated for the region to be returned to Germany, was established in Berlin and had branches in Tilsit and Königsberg. The “Kulturverband der Deutschen Litauens” financed German schools, boarding schools, bookstores, libraries, and clubs; it also organized celebrations and, from 1933, actively promoted National Socialism in Lithuania. The anti-Lithuanian activities were co-ordinated and financed by the German consulate in Klaipėda. ==Crimes==

The accused at the trial of Neumann and Sass were leaders and active members of the Union of Christian Socialist Workers of the Memel Region (Christlich Sozialistische Arbeitsgemeinschaft des Memelgebiets, or CSA) and the Socialist People's Union of the Memel Region (Sozialistische Volksgemeinschaft des Memelgebiets, SOVOG); both political parties had been established in 1933. A clandestine branch of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) was located in Klaipėda starting in 1928. After Adolf Hitler's coming to power on 30 January 1933, their activity increased. Shortly thereafter, the pro-German politicians of the region convinced the NSDAP leadership that Sass was too weak to implement the plans of the Nazis and that Neumann should be appointed the Nazi commander of the region. That resulted in a struggle for power between the CSA and SOVOG; the SOVOG rose to greater influence, and the NSDAP stopped funding the CSA. After the Lithuanian State Security Police's successful infiltration of both parties and the recruitment of agents providing information on the leadership's activities, Neumann and Sass were arrested. Among 805 party members, the investigators found 1,104 firearms and many works of illegal NSDAP propaganda. ==Prosecution==

A total of 126 people were prosecuted, of whom 92 were from the SOVOG and 34 from the CSA. The Nazis attempted to disturb the prosecution process by killing G. Jesuttis, the chief Wachtmeister of the Klaipėda Regional Court, since they feared of him testifying about the Nazi activities in the region. The local Nazis also attempted to assassinate Wilhem Lopp, who collaborated with the Lithuanian authorities. On 13 August 1934, both political parties were banned. The final criminal case contained 32 volumes and an indictment of 528 pages. Charges were filed against 123 Nazis, half of whom were aged 18–26. ==Trial==

The trial is described as the first mass trial of the Nazis by many Lithuanian sources, albeit they had been preceded by mass trials of Austrian Nazis by the Austrian government after the failed July Putsch. Lithuania planned a public trial in Kaunas Sports Hall on 5 November 1934, which would have been broadcast on Lithuanian radio, but Nazi Germany, supported by the Triple Entente, demanded a secret trial and light penalties. The trial concluded that the Nazis of the Baltic states had collaborated. Seeking to influence the Lithuanian court's judgement in the trial, Germany mobilized its army near the Lithuanian border, violated Lithuanian airspace, and sent 17 protest notes. Despite foreign pressure, on 26 March 1935, the Court of the Lithuanian Armed Forces went ahead with sentencing. In total, 14 members of the CSA and 73 members of the SOVOG were convicted and were sentenced to life-long or fixed-term imprisonment in a heavy labor prison. However, the court also acquitted 35 people, and one defendant fled. The most severe penalties were imposed against the assassins of Jesuttis, who were sentenced to death. The Supreme Tribunal of Lithuania upheld the court's decision on appeal. ==Execution of sentences==

(Bajorai) Heavy Labor Prison, where the convicts of the trial of Neumann and Sass were imprisoned in the 1930s. At the order of Neumann, the building was demolished by explosion in 1939. Lithuanian President Antanas Smetona in May 1935 commuted the death sentences to life imprisonment and released several other convicts in response to foreign pressure. A proposal was then made by Stasys Lozoraitis, the Lithuanian Minister for Foreign Affairs, to exchange Lithuanian political prisoners in Germany for the convicts in the trial. However, Germany rejected the proposal. In 1937, Smetona dismissed the sentence of Sass and amnestied 35 other convicts, and in 1938, he also amnestied Neumann and Bertuleit. The last amnestied convicts of the trial were four assassins of Jesuttis and two who had attempted to assassinate Lopp. In August 1938, at the request of the Directorate of the Klaipėda Region, all civil rights were restored to the convicted and formerly-convicted Nazis. ==Aftermath==

shaking hands with Neumann in Klaipėda in March 1939 After the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania, Nazi Germany annexed the Klaipėda Region, and in March 1939, Adolf Hitler visited Klaipėda and met personally with Neumann and the others who had been convicted. The trial of Neumann and Sass revealed Nazi Germany's plans to annex the Klaipėda Region. The United Kingdom encouraged France and Italy, which sent a démarche to Lithuania on 13 March 1935. On 30 March, the British suggested for France and Italy to send a common ultimate note to Lithuania. The Italian government of Fascist Italy requested for Lithuanian President Antanas Smetona to pardon the National Socialists, who were sentenced to death. The British representative, Thomas Hildebrand Preston, stressed to Lozoraitis that Lithuania could count on British support only if the "normal functioning of the autonomous system" in Klaipėda was restored. Moreover, Preston also noted the need to back down to Nazi Germany and not to carry out the executions of the convicted National Socialists. France did not provide support to Lithuania either. Furthermore, Lithuania was not supported even by its closest allies in the Baltic Entente: Latvia and Estonia. The trial of Neumann and Sass has been seen as a prototype for the Nuremberg trials. The trial exposed Nazi ambitions and methods, but it had minimal effect since adequate measures were not taken to quell the development of Hitlerism or to turn back Germany's increasingly aggressive territorial claims that ultimately led to the outbreak of the Second World War. ==References==