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North Dakota politician credited with getting high-ranking Nazi's 1948 death sentence commuted
UND Special Collections digitized letters showing Langer pressed U.S. authorities to spare Martin Sandberger, whose death sentence was later commuted in 1951.
- North Dakota politician William "Wild Bill" Langer lobbied U.S. High Commissioner for Germany John J. McCloy to halt the death sentence of Martin Sandberger, a high-ranking Nazi official convicted of mass murder and sentenced April 10, 1948.
- Cold War tensions prompted the United States to prioritize a "happy West Germany," leading officials to commute sentences for convicted Nazis; McCloy organized the Peck Panel to review clemency recommendations.
- Eva Sandberger and Pastor Strieter sent more than a dozen affidavits to Langer, with Eva urging him to help "extricate us from the chaos" and recognize that not all things German are "bad" or "criminal."
- Following the commutation in 1951, Sandberger's death sentence was reduced to life in prison, and he was released seven years later; Langer wrote to Eva expressing relief that her husband's life had been spared.
- The Nuremberg trials produced 161 convictions with 25 death sentences, yet 11 were later commuted to life imprisonment; Gregory Gordon called this mass commutation "really a travesty of justice.
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Duluth News Tribune+13 Reposted by 13 other sources
North Dakota politician credited with getting high-ranking Nazi's 1948 death sentence commuted
GRAND FORKS — A longtime North Dakota politician, recipient of multiple letters sent on behalf of a high-ranking Nazi sentenced to death in 1948, was later credited with getting the man's life spared. In an unprecedented act, the United States and other nations rallied together after World War II to prosecute Nazis for criminal acts committed throughout the Holocaust, including the targeted murder of millions of Jews and other people, such as co…
·Cherokee County, United States
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Total News Sources14
Leaning Left0Leaning Right8Center5Last UpdatedBias Distribution62% Right
Bias Distribution
- 62% of the sources lean Right
62% Right
C 38%
R 62%
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