Erna Wazinski

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Erna Gertrude Wazinski (September 7, 1925 – November 23, 1944) was a young German armorer worker from Braunschweig. After Braunschweig was heavily bombed in October 1944, a neighbor accused her of looting some items from the rubble. She was arrested and, under interrogation, confessed. The Special Court of Braunschweig tried her very quickly and, applying a Nazi law called the Ordinance Against Public Enemies, sentenced her to death for looting.

She was executed by guillotine in Wolfenbüttel Prison on November 23, 1944, at the age of 19. Her case became a focus of controversy and debate after the war, because many believed the confession had been coerced and the punishment was far too harsh for the act.

In 1952, a retrial reduced the sentence to nine months for theft, but this did not reverse the fact of the conviction. In 1991, new witness testimony led to an acquittal on the basis of information not known to the court in 1944. In 1998, Germany repealed all Nazi-era sentences under the Ordinance Against Public Enemies.

The case prompted long-lasting scrutiny of Braunschweig’s wartime judiciary and sparked local history programs and memorials. Wazinski’s mother, Wilhelmine Wazinski, campaigned for justice for many years. A memorial site opened in 1990 at the former Wolfenbüttel execution building. The story inspired books, a theater production, and documentaries exploring the flaws of the Nazi legal system and the impact on those accused.