The Pittsburgh Press (October 26, 1942)
Accused German spy aides begin court fight for life
Jury selection opens trial of relatives and friends of executed Nazi saboteur, Herbert Haupt
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Three men in manacles and their wives, German-born naturalized U.S. citizens charged with the highest crime against their adopted land, filed into a tiny courtroom today to go on trial for alleged treasonable aid to a Nazi sabotage mission.
The scene – a tightly-packed federal court chamber accommodating 100 persons, including FBI guards – was another in the Gestapo-planned fiasco which began last June with the landing of eight saboteurs by submarine from Germany.
The indictment, which Judge William J. Campbell read to the accused, asking each to stand and identify himself for the benefit of the 50 prospective jurors in the first venire, specifically charged the defendants with helping Herbert Hans Haupt, former Chicago schoolboy and one of the six executed as a member of the sabotage mission.
Jury panel questioned
J. Albert Woll, U.S. District Attorney, immediately began questioning a panel of 12 veniremen in the jury box. He asked for positive answers to these questions:
Do you believe every citizen should do his utmost for his country in time of war?
Do you think every citizen should do everything against his country’s enemies in time of war?
The first four jurors to answer were natives of small Illinois towns, to housewives, a paint and varnish businessman and a laborer, all born in the United States. They answered Mr. Woll in the affirmative and said they had no prejudices against German nationals and had never held memberships in any German-American organization.
Mrs. Haupt depressed
The 50 veniremen, entirely filling the small space allotted to the public in the small chamber, were two-thirds women and Mr. Woll said this ratio would hold for the other 100 veniremen on call.
Mrs. Hans Max Haupt appeared more depressed than the other defendants. It was her first public appearance since she learned that her son, Herbert, the convicted saboteur, had been electrocuted. She wore black.
The other defendants were her husband, Hans Max Haupt; Mr. and Mrs. Walter Fröhling, aunt and uncle of Herbert Haupt; and Mr. and Mrs. Otto Richard Wergin, friends and neighbors of Herbert and his parents.
Variety of charges
The indictment said the defendants gave Haupt shelter, fed and transported him, gave false information to government agents, secreted “large sums” of money for him and purchased him an auto:
…in full knowledge of his mission against the United States and for the German Reich.
U.S. District Judge William J. Campbell will preside at the trial, expected to last a month or more.
More than 140 witnesses will testify against the six defendants. They will include federal agents, one of the two saboteurs not sentenced to death, and Mrs. Gerda Melind, widow, who was Haupt’s fiancée. Mrs. Melind testified against Haupt during his trial in Washington.
Spy to testify
Ernst Peter Burger, Nazi agent sentenced to life imprisonment after he reportedly testified for the government during the Washington trial, will be brought here for the trial. It was understood the government would not offer testimony of George John Dasch, the other saboteur who escaped death.
The prosecution staff will attempt to prove the defendants knew the younger Haupt had returned from Berlin on a sabotage mission. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of death and a minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.