Even among the many evils of the Third Reich, the judge Roland Freisler stood out. A former attorney and avid bureaucrat, Freisler rose high in the ranks of the National Socialist bureaucracy. In 1942, he enthusiastically supported the so-called Final Solution, Hitler's plan to eliminate all European Jews. Rewarded for his loyal service, the 49-year old Freisler was made president of the Volksgericht, or People's Court, a tribunal before which appeared many enemies of Nazi ideology. His reputation for sadism in court was unmatched. He screamed at defendants, mocked their physical suffering, and gleefully sent many to painful deaths.

Born in Celle, Germany, on October 30, 1893, Freisler was the son of peasants. Serving in World War I in his early twenties, he was captured and imprisoned in Russia. He lived in a Siberian prison camp for years, where he learned Russian. Escaping to Germany in the 1920s, he studied and...