hilde benjamin

Hilde Benjamin (née Lange, 5 February 1902 – 18 April 1989) was an East German judge and Minister of Justice. She is best known for presiding over a series of political show trials in the 1950s. She is particularly known as responsible for the politically motivated persecution of Erna Dorn and Ernst Jennrich. Hilde Benjamin was widely compared to the Nazi-era judge Roland Freisler and referred to as the "Red Freisler." In his 1994 inauguration speech German President Roman Herzog referenced Benjamin's status as a symbol of injustice, noting that her name was incompatible with the German constitution and the rule of law.…more

Characters

Friedrich Paulus

Officer of the 6th German army during the battle of Stalingrad.After surrendering to the Soviets, Paulus became an leading member of the National Committee for a Free Germany....
Käthe Kollwitz

German painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose work offered an eloquent and often searing account of the human condition in the first half of the 20th century. Her empathy for the less fortunate, expressed most famously through the graphic means of drawin...
Andrey Vlasov

Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov or Wlassow (Russian: Андрéй Андрéевич Влáсов, September 14 [O.S. September 1] 1901 – August 1, 1946) was a Russian Red Army general and collaborationist. During World War II he fought in the battle of Moscow and later was capture...
Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (25 September 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Russian composer and pianist, and a prominent figure of 20th-century music.After a period influenced by Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky, Shostakovich developed a hybrid style,...
Kurt Gerstein

Kurt Gerstein (11 August 1905 – 25 July 1945) was a German SS officer and member of the Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS and Head of Technical Disinfection Services. He witnessed mass murders in the Nazi extermination camps Belzec and Treblinka. He ...
Nadezhda Krupskaya

Nadezhda Konstantinovna "Nadya" Krupskaya (Russian: Наде́жда Константи́новна Кру́пская, scientific transliteration Nadežda Konstantinovna Krupskaja; 26 February [O.S. 14 February] 1869 – 27 February 1939) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, politician,...
Fanya Kaplan

Fanya Yefimovna Kaplan (Russian: Фа́нни Ефи́мовна Капла́н; real name Feiga Haimovna Roytblat, Фейга Хаимовна Ройтблат; February 10, 1890 – September 3, 1918) was a Russian revolutionary who tried to assassinate Vladimir Lenin....
Roman Karmen

Roman Lazarevich Karmen (Russian: Рома́н Ла́заревич Карме́н; 29 November [O.S. 16 November] 1906 in Odessa – 28 April 1978 in Moscow) was a Soviet war camera-man and film director and one of the most influential figures in documentary film making; insofar...
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya (alternatively Romanised as Kosmodemyanskaya; Russian: Зо́я Анато́льевна Космодемья́нская; September 13, 1923 – November 29, 1941) was a Soviet partisan, and recipient of the Hero of the Soviet Union (awarded posthu...
Hilde Benjamin

Hilde Benjamin (née Lange, 5 February 1902 – 18 April 1989) was an East German judge and Minister of Justice. She is best known for presiding over a series of political show trials in the 1950s. She is particularly known as responsible for the politically...