Truppenausweis – Oberst Max Röhrs – Judge in Berlin Reichskriegsgericht – Sent “WinzenGruppe German Resistance -” leader to death

Description

Truppenausweiss for Oberst Max Röhrs, born on the 26.01.1893 in Brake, Germany.

Röhrs served as a Judge in the Reichskriegsgericht (German War Court).

Super rare to find anything for the Reichskriegsgericht in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

Röhrs was a Judge that sent Paul Winzer to death, the leader of the Winzengruppe. As well as that, Röhrs was a judge in other high profile cases such as the case against Werner Engel another German Resistance member.

This Identification paper was used right up to 1944. He is wearing the WW1 Marine Wounds Badge as well as the Iron Cross First Class with WW2 Clasp.

Paul Winzen * November 24, 1911 in Dortmund

Paul was born as the youngest child of the Winzen family. It is no longer possible to determine when he left his parents’ house. In the Dortmund address book from 1941 he is still listed under this address, his profession is given as a stationer.

Paul Winzen was a member and leading figure of a resistance group that had emerged from free-thinking/free-religious organizations. People met to go to the theater, visited exhibitions and discussed a wide variety of topics. Politically, they rejected both Soviet communism and social democracy. They advocated a humanistic social order.

After 1933, the Dortmund group, which was also called the Winzen Group after its founder Paul Winzen, met in various places and organized the resistance: leaflets against the Nazi regime were printed and foreign radio stations were listened to.

When an informer finally crept into the group in 1940 and betrayed the members, they were arrested as members of the Winzen group.

The trial of Paul Winzen took place in February 1942 in Berlin before the People’s Court. He and another head of the group, Josef Kasel (see Stolperstein Gneisenaustr. 89) were sentenced to death for “undermining the military force” and “preparing for high treason”. Winzen was also convicted of “broadcasting crimes”.

The judgment was carried out on June 12, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee.