Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Princess indicted for helping the Nazis

March 3, 1948

Princess Pauline of Württemberg was indicted this afternoon by a United States Military government court for "having concealed two prominent Nazis since October 1945. The 70-year-old princess admitted "having deliberately provided a haven for Frau Gertrud Scoltz-Klink" and her husband, former Maj. General August Heissmayer of the SS.

According to the New York Times report, the Princess acknowledged knowing that Frau Scholtz-Klink was "known as the chief of all Nazu women's organizations," but she denied that she had been aware of Heissmayer's SS position.

Princess Pauline and her nurse, who was also indicted, were released "on her personal bail." She will be tried in Ludwigsburg on March 23. She informed the United States interrogator that she was for many years the director of the German Red Cross for the Rhineland, Hesse, Nassau, and Westphalia, and had met Frau Schlotz-Klinik, "during the Nazi regime in their respective capacities as leaders of important organizations."

Frau Schlotz-Klink and her husband were interviewed at a police station in Tübingen in the French, and they "readily admitted that they sought the sanctuary of Princess Pauline's home on their arrival in this area in 1945." They said that Princess Pauline had told them "as a German should not refuse to give them shelter." Princess Pauline arranged for the couple "to live quietly in the village of Bebenhausen" where they were found last Saturday by "French, United States, and German authorities."

Frau Schlotz-Klink told the authorities that she did not know whether "Adolf Hitler was alive or dead," but "as long as he lives in the hearts of his followers, he cannot die."


Princess Pauline is the daughter of the last king of Württemberg, Wilhelm II, who abdicated in 1918, and his first wife, Princess Marie of Waldeck und Pyrmont. In 1898, she married Friedrich, Prince of Wied, who died on June 18, 1945. 


The princess was a registered member of the Nazi Party.


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