Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-4 of 4
- Roland Freisler rose from small-town lawyer to chief judge, prosecutor and jury at the Nazi Ministry of Justice, where he oversaw thousands of trials of opponents--both real and imagined--of the Nazi regime. A soldier in the German army during World War I, he was captured by the Russians and interned in Russia, where he embraced Communism and joined the German Communist Party upon his release after the war. He soon saw the writing on the wall, however, and switched allegiance to the Nazi Party, becoming one of its more brilliant legal minds. A well-regarded speaker with an innate grasp of the finer points of the law and the ability to use them to the party's advantage, he rose quickly through the ranks and was eventually appointed to head the Ministry of Justice. He became notorious for his unsparing use of the death penalty. Over 90% of all trials conducted by the Ministry of Justice during his reign ended in a death sentence--more than 5000 were handed down in trials conducted by the Ministry between 1942-45, 2600 of them by Freisler himself (many of which were decided upon before the trial was even held). He usually acted as not only the judge but also the prosecutor, and was infamous for his habit of leaping up, insulting, shouting, screaming at and otherwise humiliating defendants who appeared before him, and he often pronounced the death sentence with a wave of his hand and a dismissive "Off with his head". He had many of these trials filmed--often screaming so loudly at defendants that he would cause the microphones to blow out--so there is actually footage of him "in action".
Freisler was in the courthouse in Berlin on 2/3/1945 when waves of Allied bombers struck the city. He had taken refuge in the cellar when a bomb hit the courthouse. In what can only be regarded as poetic justice, the building in which he sentenced so many thousands to die collapsed on top of him, and a huge beam crushed him to death. - Frank C. Glut was born in 1917. He is the father of well known movie producer Donald F. Glut, brother of William Glut and married to Julia. In 1939, Julia Blasovits bought for her boy friend Frank a Keystone 16mm silent movie camera as a Christmas gift. Frank took many home movies using this camera. The camera would later become his son Donald's camera, that Donald would use to make many amateur movies. Frank married Julia on 28 November 1942. In February 1943, he joined the Army Air Corp as a cadet. In September 1943, Julia joined Frank (who was now a Second Lieutenant ) at Tucson Arizona. Frank was later transferred to the United Kingdom. On 3 February 1945, he was the pilot of a B-24 Liberator, flying a mission over Germany, will co-pilot William Lozowski. His plane was hit by flak. Frank & William bailed out, but as they were too close to the ground, their shoots did not open. After the warm, The Gluts and the Lozowski remained good friends, with son William Roddy Lozowski appearing in two of Donald's movies - Spy Smasher Vs The Purple Monster (1964) and Dinosaur Valley Girls (1996).
- Robin 'Pop' Ordell was born on 16 June 1920 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was an actor, known for The Kid Stakes (1927). He died on 3 February 1945 in Netherlands.
- Betty Waid was born on 23 August 1856. She was an actress, known for Zwischen Lachen und Weinen (1919), Troika (1930) and The Trip to Tilsit (1939). She died on 3 February 1945.