Isobel Lillian Steele Went to a Party and Ended Up in a Nazi Jail
American Isobel Lillian Steele was swept up in Germany’s transformation from a civilized country of laws and culture to a Nazi "Thousand year Reich." The National Socialist German Workers Party- the Nazis- were determined to circumvent the German legal system or at least twist it to serve their own purposes. When the German parliament building called the Reichstag, was burned in February 1933, newly appointed Chancellor Adolf Hitler seized the German legal system.
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler Creates the People’s Court
Chancellor Adolf Hitler suspended civil liberties and vigorously hunted Communists whom he accused of burning the Reichstag. Five men were arrested and charged with arson and attempting to overthrow the government and the trial, called the Leipzig Trial, took place from September 21 to December 23, 1933. The Leipzig Trial was widely publicized and broadcast on the radio. Judges from the old German Imperial High Court, the Reichsgericht, acquitted four of the five accused men.
In early 1934, the Nazi government announced a new "People’s Court" to try all cases of high treason from the penal division of the Supreme Court, charging that Chief Justice Wilhelm Bunger and his fellow judges were "too legalistic and lacked the common touch." Only two members of the five member People’s Court were lawyers. Chancellor Hitler chose the other three and he chose them on the basis of those "who have had special experience in fighting off attacks against the State."
The People’s Court operated outside of the frame of German Constitutional law and no one could appeal its verdicts. It issued death sentences for any suspicion of disagreement or action against the Nazi regime. People’s Court proceedings were most often sham courts, with no evidence presented and no arguments presented from either side. The court president often acted as a prosecutor, denouncing defendants and issuing his verdict and sentences. The defense counsel usually did not dare object and remained silent throughout the proceedings.
Two Americans Fall into the Clutches of the People’s Court
During the tenure of Judge-President Roland Freisler, the People’s Court decreed an enormous number of death sentences, especially those stemming from the trial of the men involved in the July 20, 1944 plot to kill Hitler. Many of the prisoners that the Court found guilty died slowly and painfully in the Plotzensee Prison.
Through unfortunate circumstances, two unwary and naïve Americans, Isobel Lillian Steele and Richard Roiderer, were caught in the tentacles of the People’s Court. Isobel Lillian Steele was born in Canada, educated in California, and naturalized a United States citizen. An article in Time Magazine described her as a "lean, ebullient girl with a long inquisitive nose and an assertive chin." She studied the violin for four years in Germany, and with her German born mother and younger sister, she navigated the fringes of Berlin’s international society. Isobel’s younger sister, Marion, even had a Nazi suitor.
The Baroness Invites Isobel Steele to a Party
Isobel Steele thoroughly enjoyed rubbing shoulders with barons and baronesses and wrote articles and translations for a few German papers, freely voicing what she called "honest criticism." Her "honest criticism" was mostly sympathetic to the German government. Isobel also had a habit of dashing off letters of prophecy and enlightenment to her friends back in the United States.
In one letter she said, "I hear from fairly sources that America is on the verge of Communism. The sailors on the big war ships have their red flags all ready to hoist to the tune of the "Internationale." If the NRA fails, there is bound to be Hells-a-popping."
Then one night in the winter of 1934, Isobel went to a party with a Baroness. One night in February 1934, Isobel primped in front of the mirror getting ready for a party at the Baron's house. Although she knew the dashing Baroness Benita von Berg only casually, the Baroness invited Isobel to one of Baron George Sosnowski’s famous parties.
The Baron was Baron George Sosnowski, a handsome young Polish soldier whose party invitations were almost as highly prized as personal attention from him. The Baron was a man about town with a wide acquaintance among literary, theatrical and official lions. It was rumored that he had a way with women, the Baroness von Berg included. Isobel jumped at the opportunity of going to such a party and rubbing shoulders with German nobility.
The Baroness is Infatuated with the Baron
Baron George "Yurek" Sosnowski was a handsome and debonair young Polish nobleman who had served gallantly in the Austrian Army and loved women and excitement. Baroness Benita von Berg was a beautiful blonde who had been married to Richard von Falkenhayn, son of the late Erich von Falkenhayn who had been Chief of the German General Staff during World War I.
The beautiful baroness had divorced Richard von Falkenhayn and had remarried Baron von Berg, but she was infatuated with young Baron Sosnowski. The Baroness and the three men maintained friendly relationships and they all went to the same parties. Baron Sosnowski’s parties kept the tongues of Berlin gossips wagging. People who weren’t invited to the parties insisted that buckets of champagne and sexual orgies were always part of the Baron’s parties.
Isobel Lillian Steele attended just one of Baron Sosnowski's parties, but her presence at the party almost condemned her to death and changed the future she had imagined
Baron Sosnowski is a Lover and a Spy
Even Isobel's vivid imagination and dramatic personality could not overcome the reality of Baron Sosnowski. Attached to the Polish Embassy, he became an important person in social, noble and diplomatic circles in Berlin. Handsome, dashing Baron Sosnowski established several love affairs with secretaries in the offices of Germany's Defense Ministry. He also became the lover of Benita von Berg, and her friend Renate von Natzmer and he convinced Renate to give him information and papers from inside the German Defense Ministry.
The Baron's affairs with Benita von Berg and Renate von Natzmer allowed Polish intelligence forces into sensitive diplomatic areas of the German government. By 1934, Baron Sosnowski had succeeded in obtaining about 70 of the 200 pages that comprised the German Mobilization & Attack Plan, and he intended to secure more information.
The Nazis Attend the Party and Arrest the Partiers
Excited and without an inkling of what was about to happen, Isobel Steele arrived at the Baron’s apartment with Baroness von Berg. The two women and about fifty other guests encountered a cordon of secret police at the door. The Nazis had long suspected the Baron of espionage, but up until this point they hadn’t been able to catch him in any illegal activity.
The Nazis hauled the guests to jail and many of them were kept in jail for days without even being allowed to change their party clothes. The questioning and the process of elimination went on for several weeks.
The Nazis released Richard von Falkenhayn, the first husband of the Baroness, who turned out to be a member of the secret police himself. They arrested Baroness Benita von Berg, Renate von Natzmer, and Baron Sosnowski for spying and treason, and detained Isobel Lillian Steele on the suspicion of treason.
The United States State Department Negotiates with the Nazis
Nazi secrecy kept a tight lid on the Sosnowski case and the German Press didn't leak a word about it. Then slowly American correspondents heard that the Nazis were holding a young American woman for "treason" and she might be in danger of being beheaded. Isobel languished in jail for four months while the United States government worked to free her.
The United States State Department ordered William Edward Dodd, Ambassador to Germany "to proceed actively to clarify the status of Isobel Steele." At first the German Government refused to tell the United States Government the charges against Isobel, but finally the Nazis admiited that she wasn't guilty of anything and deported her to the United States.
Isobel joined her mother who had returned to New York shortly after her daughter's arrest. From a Manhattan hotel room, Isobel wrote her story and the Sosnowski story for the tabloids and crafted them into a book. She also made a movie called "I Was a Captive in Nazi Germany," which played in theaters in 1936.
The People's Court Decrees the Death Sentence
The People’s Court tried the Baron Sosnowski, Baroness von Berg and Frau Renate Natzmer. The underground Berlin grapevines spread the world that the People’s Court had sentenced Baroness von Berg and Frau von Natzmer to death. They sentenced Baron Sosnowski and two women from the Defense Ministry to life in prison.
The question of the manner of the execution buzzed down the grapevine. Would the two doomed women be executed by Nazi axe or would they enjoy the traditional privilege of facing a firing squad allowed to spies? Would they be hanged as traitors? Newspaper correspondents arrived at Plotzensee Prison in Berlin armed with passes on the day of the execution, February 18, 1935, but they still could learn nothing. Finally the huge prison hearse drove up and two bodies were loaded into it.
At first the officials said the women were shot, but after persistent questioning, they finally admitted that the women were beheaded. The backs of their heads were shaved bald and Baroness von Berg and Frau von Natzmer, dressed in coarse prison clothing, were led to the bloody executioner’s block. The huge axe was first chilled so that freezing cold, it would stop the flow of blood the instant it decapitated its victims. One of the last sights the women saw was the headsman wearing his colorful costume- a celluloid shirt front, an old silk hat and a red spotted tail coat-and raising his axe.
The Baron Survives and is Deported to Poland
The Baroness and Renate von Natzmer were two of the last people to be beheaded with an axe in Germany. Baron Sosnowski was shocked at the death of his mistresses. In the August 17, 1936, issue of Time Magazine he said, "I am haunted by the deaths of those women…The tragic deaths of those two-my former associates-haunt me night & day and I can only attempt to gain peace through prayer for their souls."
The Nazis released Baron Sosnowski in April 1936, when he was exchanged for three German spies, caught in Poland.
References
Gellately, Robert. Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany. Oxford University Press, 2002.
H.W. Koch.In the Name of the Volk: Political Justice in Hitler’s Germany. I.B. Tauris, 1997.
Muller, Ingo. Hitler’s Justice: The Courts of the Third Reich. Harvard University Press, 1992.
Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon & Schuster, First Touchstone Edition, 1990.
Stolleis, Michael and Dunlap, Thomas. The Law under the Swastika: Studies on Legal History in Nazi Germany. University of Chicago Press, 1998.
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler Creates the People’s Court
Chancellor Adolf Hitler suspended civil liberties and vigorously hunted Communists whom he accused of burning the Reichstag. Five men were arrested and charged with arson and attempting to overthrow the government and the trial, called the Leipzig Trial, took place from September 21 to December 23, 1933. The Leipzig Trial was widely publicized and broadcast on the radio. Judges from the old German Imperial High Court, the Reichsgericht, acquitted four of the five accused men.
In early 1934, the Nazi government announced a new "People’s Court" to try all cases of high treason from the penal division of the Supreme Court, charging that Chief Justice Wilhelm Bunger and his fellow judges were "too legalistic and lacked the common touch." Only two members of the five member People’s Court were lawyers. Chancellor Hitler chose the other three and he chose them on the basis of those "who have had special experience in fighting off attacks against the State."
The People’s Court operated outside of the frame of German Constitutional law and no one could appeal its verdicts. It issued death sentences for any suspicion of disagreement or action against the Nazi regime. People’s Court proceedings were most often sham courts, with no evidence presented and no arguments presented from either side. The court president often acted as a prosecutor, denouncing defendants and issuing his verdict and sentences. The defense counsel usually did not dare object and remained silent throughout the proceedings.
Two Americans Fall into the Clutches of the People’s Court
During the tenure of Judge-President Roland Freisler, the People’s Court decreed an enormous number of death sentences, especially those stemming from the trial of the men involved in the July 20, 1944 plot to kill Hitler. Many of the prisoners that the Court found guilty died slowly and painfully in the Plotzensee Prison.
Through unfortunate circumstances, two unwary and naïve Americans, Isobel Lillian Steele and Richard Roiderer, were caught in the tentacles of the People’s Court. Isobel Lillian Steele was born in Canada, educated in California, and naturalized a United States citizen. An article in Time Magazine described her as a "lean, ebullient girl with a long inquisitive nose and an assertive chin." She studied the violin for four years in Germany, and with her German born mother and younger sister, she navigated the fringes of Berlin’s international society. Isobel’s younger sister, Marion, even had a Nazi suitor.
The Baroness Invites Isobel Steele to a Party
Isobel Steele thoroughly enjoyed rubbing shoulders with barons and baronesses and wrote articles and translations for a few German papers, freely voicing what she called "honest criticism." Her "honest criticism" was mostly sympathetic to the German government. Isobel also had a habit of dashing off letters of prophecy and enlightenment to her friends back in the United States.
In one letter she said, "I hear from fairly sources that America is on the verge of Communism. The sailors on the big war ships have their red flags all ready to hoist to the tune of the "Internationale." If the NRA fails, there is bound to be Hells-a-popping."
Then one night in the winter of 1934, Isobel went to a party with a Baroness. One night in February 1934, Isobel primped in front of the mirror getting ready for a party at the Baron's house. Although she knew the dashing Baroness Benita von Berg only casually, the Baroness invited Isobel to one of Baron George Sosnowski’s famous parties.
The Baron was Baron George Sosnowski, a handsome young Polish soldier whose party invitations were almost as highly prized as personal attention from him. The Baron was a man about town with a wide acquaintance among literary, theatrical and official lions. It was rumored that he had a way with women, the Baroness von Berg included. Isobel jumped at the opportunity of going to such a party and rubbing shoulders with German nobility.
The Baroness is Infatuated with the Baron
Baron George "Yurek" Sosnowski was a handsome and debonair young Polish nobleman who had served gallantly in the Austrian Army and loved women and excitement. Baroness Benita von Berg was a beautiful blonde who had been married to Richard von Falkenhayn, son of the late Erich von Falkenhayn who had been Chief of the German General Staff during World War I.
The beautiful baroness had divorced Richard von Falkenhayn and had remarried Baron von Berg, but she was infatuated with young Baron Sosnowski. The Baroness and the three men maintained friendly relationships and they all went to the same parties. Baron Sosnowski’s parties kept the tongues of Berlin gossips wagging. People who weren’t invited to the parties insisted that buckets of champagne and sexual orgies were always part of the Baron’s parties.
Isobel Lillian Steele attended just one of Baron Sosnowski's parties, but her presence at the party almost condemned her to death and changed the future she had imagined
Baron Sosnowski is a Lover and a Spy
Even Isobel's vivid imagination and dramatic personality could not overcome the reality of Baron Sosnowski. Attached to the Polish Embassy, he became an important person in social, noble and diplomatic circles in Berlin. Handsome, dashing Baron Sosnowski established several love affairs with secretaries in the offices of Germany's Defense Ministry. He also became the lover of Benita von Berg, and her friend Renate von Natzmer and he convinced Renate to give him information and papers from inside the German Defense Ministry.
The Baron's affairs with Benita von Berg and Renate von Natzmer allowed Polish intelligence forces into sensitive diplomatic areas of the German government. By 1934, Baron Sosnowski had succeeded in obtaining about 70 of the 200 pages that comprised the German Mobilization & Attack Plan, and he intended to secure more information.
The Nazis Attend the Party and Arrest the Partiers
Excited and without an inkling of what was about to happen, Isobel Steele arrived at the Baron’s apartment with Baroness von Berg. The two women and about fifty other guests encountered a cordon of secret police at the door. The Nazis had long suspected the Baron of espionage, but up until this point they hadn’t been able to catch him in any illegal activity.
The Nazis hauled the guests to jail and many of them were kept in jail for days without even being allowed to change their party clothes. The questioning and the process of elimination went on for several weeks.
The Nazis released Richard von Falkenhayn, the first husband of the Baroness, who turned out to be a member of the secret police himself. They arrested Baroness Benita von Berg, Renate von Natzmer, and Baron Sosnowski for spying and treason, and detained Isobel Lillian Steele on the suspicion of treason.
The United States State Department Negotiates with the Nazis
Nazi secrecy kept a tight lid on the Sosnowski case and the German Press didn't leak a word about it. Then slowly American correspondents heard that the Nazis were holding a young American woman for "treason" and she might be in danger of being beheaded. Isobel languished in jail for four months while the United States government worked to free her.
The United States State Department ordered William Edward Dodd, Ambassador to Germany "to proceed actively to clarify the status of Isobel Steele." At first the German Government refused to tell the United States Government the charges against Isobel, but finally the Nazis admiited that she wasn't guilty of anything and deported her to the United States.
Isobel joined her mother who had returned to New York shortly after her daughter's arrest. From a Manhattan hotel room, Isobel wrote her story and the Sosnowski story for the tabloids and crafted them into a book. She also made a movie called "I Was a Captive in Nazi Germany," which played in theaters in 1936.
The People's Court Decrees the Death Sentence
The People’s Court tried the Baron Sosnowski, Baroness von Berg and Frau Renate Natzmer. The underground Berlin grapevines spread the world that the People’s Court had sentenced Baroness von Berg and Frau von Natzmer to death. They sentenced Baron Sosnowski and two women from the Defense Ministry to life in prison.
The question of the manner of the execution buzzed down the grapevine. Would the two doomed women be executed by Nazi axe or would they enjoy the traditional privilege of facing a firing squad allowed to spies? Would they be hanged as traitors? Newspaper correspondents arrived at Plotzensee Prison in Berlin armed with passes on the day of the execution, February 18, 1935, but they still could learn nothing. Finally the huge prison hearse drove up and two bodies were loaded into it.
At first the officials said the women were shot, but after persistent questioning, they finally admitted that the women were beheaded. The backs of their heads were shaved bald and Baroness von Berg and Frau von Natzmer, dressed in coarse prison clothing, were led to the bloody executioner’s block. The huge axe was first chilled so that freezing cold, it would stop the flow of blood the instant it decapitated its victims. One of the last sights the women saw was the headsman wearing his colorful costume- a celluloid shirt front, an old silk hat and a red spotted tail coat-and raising his axe.
The Baron Survives and is Deported to Poland
The Baroness and Renate von Natzmer were two of the last people to be beheaded with an axe in Germany. Baron Sosnowski was shocked at the death of his mistresses. In the August 17, 1936, issue of Time Magazine he said, "I am haunted by the deaths of those women…The tragic deaths of those two-my former associates-haunt me night & day and I can only attempt to gain peace through prayer for their souls."
The Nazis released Baron Sosnowski in April 1936, when he was exchanged for three German spies, caught in Poland.
References
Gellately, Robert. Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany. Oxford University Press, 2002.
H.W. Koch.In the Name of the Volk: Political Justice in Hitler’s Germany. I.B. Tauris, 1997.
Muller, Ingo. Hitler’s Justice: The Courts of the Third Reich. Harvard University Press, 1992.
Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon & Schuster, First Touchstone Edition, 1990.
Stolleis, Michael and Dunlap, Thomas. The Law under the Swastika: Studies on Legal History in Nazi Germany. University of Chicago Press, 1998.