Hermann Röhn
Hermann Gustav Philip Röhn was a German Nazi Party politician who sat as a deputy of the Reichstag from 1933 to 1945. As Deputy Gauleiter of Gau Baden, he was involved in Nazi crimes in occupied Alsace, including Germanization and forced military conscription. After the end of the Second World War, he was tried and convicted of war crimes by France, and was executed by a firing squad.
Early life
Röhn was born in Heidelberg in 1902, and after attending Volksschule, Realschule and a commercial trade school, he completed a commercial apprenticeship from 1920 to 1922. From 25 October 1922 to 31 December 1924, he served with the 21st Infantry Regiment of the Reichswehr. After being discharged from the military, he initially earned his living as an insurance clerk and, from 1925 to 1933, he worked in a pewter foundry owned by his parents.
In May 1922, Röhn joined the Nazi Party Ortsgruppe in Mannheim. Following the lifting of the ban imposed on the Party in the wake of the Beer Hall Putsch, he rejoined it on 17 February 1926. As an early Party member, he later would be awarded the Golden Party Badge. He founded an Ortsgruppe in Heidelberg and, from April 1925 until 1929, he was the SA-Führer of the local Sturmabteilung, the Nazi paramilitary unit. In 1929, Röhn became the Geschäftsführer (business manager
Post-war prosecution and execution
After Germany's defeat, Röhn was arrested and brought before a French military court in Strasbourg on 23 April 1946 for his involvement in the Germanization policy in Alsace. He was also accused of inciting French citizens to bear arms against France between 1940 and 1942 and of participating in the forced conscription of Frenchmen into the German army from 1942 to 1944. On 3 May 1946, he was sentenced to death along with Wagner and two other Nazi officials. They were executed by a firing squad on 14 August 1946, at Fort Ney near Strasbourg.