Hans John (31 August 1911 – 23 April 1945) was a German lawyer and World War II resistance figure. Hans John was born in

Ziegenhain Ziegenhain is a municipality in the district of Altenkirchen, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe ...

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

, and studied law at the University of Berlin. In 1939, he was hired as a legal assistant at the Aviation Law Institute in Berlin. In June 1940, he was instated into the ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

'', but after suffering a wound at the Eastern Front, he was released back into academics. With his brother

Otto Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded f ...

, John was in contact with the resistance elements within the '' Abwehr'' and '' Oberkommando der Wehrmacht''. After hearing about Operation Walküre, the brothers joined the resistance, and became heavily involved in the 20 July Plot to kill

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

. After

Hans Oster Hans Paul Oster (9 August 1887 – 9 April 1945) was a general in the ''Wehrmacht'' and a leading figure of the anti-Nazi German resistance from 1938 to 1943. As deputy head of the counter-espionage bureau in the ''Abwehr'' (German military inte ...

and

Hans von Dohnanyi Hans von Dohnanyi (; originally ''Johann von Dohnányi'' ; 1 January 1902 – 8 or 9 April 1945) was a German jurist. He used his position in the Abwehr to help Jews escape Germany, worked with German resistance against the Nazi régime, a ...

were arrested in the spring of 1943, they kept the escaped

Ludwig Gehre Ludwig Gehre (5 October 1895 – 9 April 1945) was an officer and resistance fighter involved in the preparation of an assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler. Life Gehre was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. Little detail is known of his early ye ...

hiding from the Gestapo. John was arrested in August 1944 on plotting charges, and was severely mistreated in jail. The People's Court sentenced him to death in February 1945. He was shot in April 1945 by members of the '' SS-Sonderkommando'', near Berlin's RSHA office. His brother

managed to escape Germany in July 1944.

References

Sources

* August Schnell et al.: ''Die Abiturienten des Realgymnasiums''. In: ''100 Jahre Staatliches Gymnasium und Realgymnasium Wiesbaden'', Wiesbaden 1951, pp. 167 ff., 178 * Johannes Tuchel,: ''"... und ihrer aller wartete der Strick." Das Zellengefängnis Lehrter Straße 3 nach dem 20. Juli 1944''. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2014, , pp. 185–266

External links

Hans John: biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:John, Hans 1911 births 1945 deaths People from Schwalmstadt German Army personnel of World War II Executed members of the 20 July plot People from Hesse executed by Nazi Germany Executed German people People executed by Nazi Germany by firing squad People from Hesse-Nassau People condemned by Nazi courts