Erna Petri

Horst Petri (March 18, 1913 – December 12, 1962) and Erna Petri (May 30, 1920 – July 2000)

Erna Kürbs was born into a farming family in the village of Herressen near Weimar. In 1936, the 16-year-old Erna met Horst, who spoke to her about the Greater German Reich. Although her father was opposed, the two quickly struck up a relationship. When Erna became pregnant a year later, the two wed in 1938. The child was a boy. Erna became pregnant once more in 1942 and had a daughter in January 1943.

War crimes In 1939, Horst received SS Camps Division training at the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps. During the war, he would eventually rise to the rank of Untersturmführer.

When four Jews were caught in the estate while trying to escape from a transport to a concentration camp, Horst told Erna and her female guest that "this was men's work, nothing that women should be concerned about." Horst then executed the Jews as they were walking away.

After the harvest in autumn 1942, the approximately 150 Jews from Grzenda were also transported to the Janowska concentration camp or the Belzec extermination camp.

Arrest and trial Horst and Erna both avoided detection during the initial search for war criminals in the post-war period. They settled down in East Germany and became farmers. Horst joined the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany, the Free German Trade Union Federation, and the Peasants Mutual Aid Association. In an audio recording of the trial, Erna was so open with the details of her crimes that the prosecutor cut her off and said "Thank you, we have heard enough". Although Horst was less cooperative, the testimony of the witnesses confirmed his guilt beyond any doubt. After the reunification, Erna, who was still in prison, petitioned for a review of her case.

Although a West German court affirmed the verdict and sentence, Erna was released from prison on health grounds in 1992. One account claims that Stille Hilfe, a relief organization for the SS, convinced a court to release her. Stille Hilfe allegedly paid for Erna's apartment after her release. The organization was likely also responsible for her being invited to Bavaria, where she went on trips to the Alpine mountains and lakes with Gudrun Burwitz, the daughter of Heinrich Himmler and a prominent member of Stille Hilfe. Erna once referred to Burwitz as "the most wonderful woman."

The children of the Petris never retracted their support for their mother. In an interview in 2006, Erna's daughter, who was 18 when her mother was arrested, said her parents had often showed the photo albums to her and special guests. Had she realized that the Stasi were going to eventually find them by chance, she said she would have just gotten rid of them.