Hans Dohnanyi
Hans Dohnanyi, the son of an Hungarian pianist, was born in Vienna, on 1st January, 1902. After training as a lawyer he began work at the Reich Ministry of Justice in 1929.
Dohnanyi was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court and during the Second World War was employed as a special leader on the staff of the High Command of the Armed Forces under Major-General Hans Oster.
Appalled by the persecution of the Jews in Germany and the occupied territories he began sending details to his brother-in-law, Dietrich Bonhoffer. He also used his position as project chief at Abwehr to help some Jews escape before being sent to concentration camps.
Dohnanyi was arrested by the Gestapo on 5th April, 1943. Released for lack of evidence, he was re-arrested shortly before the July Plot. Sent to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Dohnanyi was murdered on 8th April, 1945.
Primary Sources
(1) Hans Dohnanyi to Otto John (June, 1944)
Not one of us really knows how long he can resist torture once they start doing their worst.
(2) Otto John, Twice Through the Lines (1972)
Roeder in his investigations used methods which we at the time used to call Gestapo methods. I knew that not only from what Frau Dohnanyi and Frau Muller told me after their release. He put them under great mental pressure by threatening to persecute their wives if they did not make statements. I also remember the notes smuggled out of prison by Dohnanyi stating that Roeder would stop at nothing to get his way.
Dohnanyi lived under constant threat that Roeder would hand him over to the Gestapo. I remember this very clearly because that would have led to Dohnanyi being tortured. None of us was under any illusion that subject to such appalling duress he might well be forced to make statements which could jeopardize the entire conspiracy against Hitler.