Hans Weidel
Hans Weidel was a German lawyer, Nazi activist and military judge.
Life
Weidel was born in Neustadt, Upper Silesia. He studied law in Munich and Breslau. He joined the Nazi Party in 1932, and in July of that same year he became a judicial assessor in Leobschütz. Later, he started working as a lawyer. He joined the SS in January 1933. He gained the rank of an Oberscharführer in Oppeln. He was also a member of Luftschutzbund, Bund Deutscher Osten, Reichskolonialbund, NS-Reichskriegerbund and NS-Volkswohlfahrt.As a "loyal supporter of the movement" he ran for the position of Landrat in Neustadt in February 1937. He opened his law office by the Prudnik Town Hall. He bought shares in a local brewery and a disused cement plant, where he arranged apartments and rented warehouses.
From 1939 to 1941, Weidel was Kreisgruppenführer of the National Socialist Association of Legal Professionals in the district of Leobschütz. He joined the German army at the start of World War II. In March 1941, he took training as a military judge in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. He became a military judge at the Warsaw commandant’s office in July 1941. On 12 October 1944, Adolf Hitler appointed him a Chief Staff Judge. He was responsible for sentencing opponents of the Third Reich.
In May 1945, he settled in Gütersloh, Westphalia with his family. In November 1948, the Bielefeld tribunal opened a case against Weidel for "membership of a criminal organization". He defended himself by claiming he was insignificantly involved in Nazi politics, and that he joined the Nazi Party and SS in spring 1933. In actuality, he joined those organisations before Hitler's rise to power. During the Nazi era, he declared loyalty to the Nazi Party: "Even before the September 1930 election, I voted National Socialist and actively campaigned in the movement’s election propaganda". During a 1948 hearing, Weidel claimed to have no knowledge of Nazi's treatment of Jews and of the SS's crimes. Prosecutors closed the case against Weidel, citing a lack of evidence.
He opened a law office in Gütersloh. He became a leader of the local Federation of Expellees and sought compensation for his abandoned property in Upper Silesia. In the 1970s, police in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg reopened investigations into Weidel, but did not prosecute him.