Dar kartą apie Ernsto Neumanno ir Theodoro Sasso procesą
Another Look at the Trial of Ernst Neumann and Theodor Sass

Summary/Abstract: The Neumann-Sass trial is the best example of the how the tautininkai regime absolutely controlled foreign and domestic affairs. In ten years the Lithuanian State Security Police accumulated a huge body of evidence on the seditious and separatist activities of pro-German organizations in the Klaipėda region. Max Schneidereit and Adam Molinus, undercover agents of the Lithuanian security Police who infiltrated German Nazi parties, delivered the most important information. The legal process was initiated due to the tangible threat that the Lithuanian government felt from the German side and because of the abundance of accumulated evidence. The Lithuanians expected political support from the Great Powers yet received none. Lithuania ventured on starting the process by strictly following international and national legal norms. The best qualified lawyers were hired for the process. Even the German authorities who were closely observing the course of the case had no legal objections. But while the trial was in progress Germany invoked a full-scale propaganda war against Lithuania. In the course of the Neumann-Sass trial the Lithuanian government managed to mobilize a significant part of Lithuanian society and the Jewish minority. It was at this time that an image of the Klaipėda region as very near and dear to each and every Lithuanian began to flourish, including a commonly felt obligation to protect it. The Lithuanian authorities encouraged Lithuanian citizens to manifest heroism coping with the German pressure. The trial as a historical experience of Lithuanian society played itself out in the shape of an active anti-Nazi resistance movement during the Nazi occupation in World War II.

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