Catalogue description Horst Wagner

The documents in this collection comprise copy papers relating to Wagner's trial in Essen September 1959. They have been arranged in date order

The history of the custody of these documents prior to deposit is unknown.

This former legation counsellor in the Nazi foreign ministry was accused of being accessory to the murder of several hundred thousand Jews. He was head of Gruppe Inland II, which worked with Adolf Eichmann, on the deportation of Jews from a number of European countries. He managed to evade justice for 30 years.

Born in Posen in 1906, trained as a journalist in Berlin where he joined the SA in 1933, in May 1938 he joined the foreign ministry. In January 1944 he became liaison officer between the foreign office and the SS, during which period he became involved in the deportation of Jews. He was in custody during the Nuremberg trials where he was a witness, and after which, in 1948, he was released.

He was immediately issued with an arrest warrant by a court in Bavaria but he escaped to Argentina. After his return to Europe he changed his name to Peter Ludwig and worked as a correspondent for various Argentinian newspapers.

In March 1953 he was arrested in the shadow of the Vatican. Bonn hoped to extradite him but due to some technicality with his name change he had to complete a short sentence in Italy first. On release an Italian judge ruled that he could not be extradited on account of his crime being political, not criminal. Thinking that he could no longer be tried for war crimes, Wagner returned to West Germany voluntarily in 1956, whereupon he was arrested. After 15 months on remand, the district court of Hamm had no option but to release him with a 80,000 DM fine- any longer in jail would have been in breech of his human rights. There followed a protracted period of information gathering, delays through illness, and changing of attorneys, during all of which time Wagner remained at liberty. He employed an old colleague from his Nazi days to represent him- Dr. Ernst Achenbach, an MP for the FDP.

Finally after years of evasion, Wagner was brought to trial on 3 July 1972. However after months of further evasion and procrastination over his physical health he never had to appear again on the grounds of old age.