Die Todesurteile und die Propaganda. Die härtesten Urteile des Sondergerichts Kattowitz (1939–1945) und deren Ausnutzung in der lokalen Presse
Death Sentences and Propaganda. The Harshest Penalties of the Special Court in Katowice /1939–1945/ and their Use in the Local Press

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to the propaganda use of the Special Court's death sentences in Katowice during the Second World War. It outlines the statistics on the use of the death penalty by the special court. The provisions regulating the judiciary's operation of press centers, which were a vital link between the judiciary and the press, were discussed. Then the practice of announcing the execution of death sentences imposed by the Special Court in Katowice was presented, based on archives illustrating the court's activities and a query of the local press during the Second World War. The research covered both the practice of using the characteristic red posters informing about the executions and the use of newspapers for this purpose. The press inquiry results were discussed in detail, taking into account the content and form of press releases. In summary, an attempt was made to answer the question to what extent the discussed Katowice practice differed from the practice of proclaiming death penalties in other regions of the territories incorporated into the Reich, in particular in Poznań and Łódź, and to estimate the impact on the propaganda on the Upper Silesian population.

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