Herbert Hans Haupt

In 2001, Herbert Haupt was in the news again as President Bush attempted to use military tribunals to try American citizens after the September 11, 2001, attacks. The Supreme Court ruling regarding Haupt, the only U.S. citizen executed in the affair, was cited again. (Ex parte Quirin)

Haupt was buried with the five others in the Potter's Field in Blue Plains, D.C. The graves were originally marked by wooden boards with numbers, but eventually a small monument was placed by the American Nazi Party over the graves in 1982. The marker went largely unnoticed until it was removed by the National Park Service in 2010.

The entire group later won trials due to technical errors. Walter and Otto later pleaded guilty to misprision of treason and received 5-year sentences. Hans Haupt was retried, found guilty of treason once more, but received a life sentence. Charges were dropped against Lucille and Kate, albeit Erna Haupt was held until the war ended and deported in 1946. In 1957, Hans Haupt was granted clemency by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and deported to Germany on the condition that he would never return to the United States.

Operation Pastorius consisted of 12 English-speaking Germans who were trained as secret agents at the Brandenburg Sabotage School. Eight eventually graduated and were sent to the United States via U-boat to try to damage the U.S. war industries. Haupt and three others landed on Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida on June 17, 1942. The remaining group landed on Long Island.

Haupt, Edward Kerling, Hermann Neubauer, Werner Thiel, Heinrich Heinck, and Richard Quirin were all executed on August 8, 1942 in the District of Columbia's electric chair. It was the largest mass execution by electrocution ever conducted at the District of Columbia jail.

In 1941, Haupt, with two friends, Wolfgang Wergin and Hugo Troesken, set off on a world trek. Troesken was turned back at the Mexican border for lack of proper identification, but Haupt and Wergin continued. Neither Haupt nor Wergin had been able to secure American passports before the trip. As they were German born (and thus still considered by Germany to be its citizens), they secured German passports from the Embassy in Mexico City.

Born in Stettin, Germany, Haupt was the son of Hans Max and Erna (Froehling) Haupt. Hans Haupt was a World War I Imperial German Army veteran who came to Chicago in 1923 to find work. His wife and son followed in 1925. Herbert Haupt became a United States citizen in 1930, at the age of 10, when his parents were naturalized. He attended Lane High School and later worked at the Simpson Optical Company as an apprentice optician.

Herbert Hans Haupt (December 21, 1919 – August 8, 1942) was a spy and saboteur for Nazi Germany during World War II under Operation Pastorius.