Überholung
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The Überholung (Reconditioning) was a period of political repression and mass killings carried out by the socialist revolutionary government after the climax of the August Revolution. It's form continued that of sporadic killings and repression conducted by Red Guards during the final phase of the Revolution. The KOMINSI (the Commissariat for National Security) carried out the repressions of the Überholung, albeit with the assistance of localised militias and the military. Estimates for the total number of people killed during the Überholung for the initial period of repression are at least 11,000. Estimates for the total number of victims of Socialist Workers repression vary widely. One source asserts that the total number of victims of repression and pacification campaigns could be 450,000, whereas another gives estimates of 2,000 executions per month from September 1918 to April 1919. The most reliable estimations for the total number of killings put the number at about 100,000, whereas others suggest a figure of 200,000. These numbers are however subject to further debate, over the inclusion of uprisings and rebellions by regions against the new socialist regime, including the Rebellion in Hvornum.
Purpose
On the 5 September 1918, the RANKOM through the Decree of Revolutionary Security (Dekret der Revolutionären Sicherheit) created the Commissariat for National Security (Kommissariat für Nationale Sicherheit), commonly known as the KOMINSI. The task of KOMINSI was to pursue and eliminate any individual who advocated or represented counter-revolutionary activites. The new secret-police made extensive use of already existing militias and death-squads that emerged during the revolution.
On 18 September 1918, RANKOM announced the “Reconditioning” (Überholung) of Liothidian society, to “ease the passage of the Fatherland toward Socialism.” This was the official pursuit of all groups, elements and parties the new regime deemed "counter-revolutionary" or an "obstacle on the path to socialism." This included allies of the Socialist Workers' Party during the revolution, as well as pro-monarchists. While initially the plan involved small numbers of individuals, primarily figures who survived the chaos and violence of the revolution, it would rapidly expand in consequence of events outside the regime's control.
Process
With the exception of revolts and rebellions against the new communist government, the central process of the terror has since been identified. Numerous records since released by the Liothidian government indicated a step-by-step process of consolidating control over the country through the elimination of particular sets of individuals.
Liquidation of the Roses
The first group to be targeted specifically by the revolutionary government were known colloquially as "Roses" (Rosen). The Roses were comprised entirely all moderate leftists, social democrats, trade unionists, democratic socialists and competing far-left revolutionaries such as the Radical League of Dannenburg.
On the 19 September, KOMINSI executed by firing squad over 300 detained members of the Liothidian Socialist Party (SPL), who were held at the Wiegerschloss Prison, having been arrested during the revolution. This was followed two hours later the mass execution of the entire prison population of 500. The RANKOM's earlier refusal to release all prisoners detained during the revolution is widely considered as a pre-planned move to ease access to those deemed a threat to the SWP's hold on power.
On September 21, 22 and 25, KOMINSI executed a further 1,500 members and supporters of the SPL detained in prison, while death-squads and KOMINSI units were dispatched across the country to arrest and execute all senior leaders of the SPL, Socialist-Revolutionary Left Party, Radical League of Danneburg and the Grenzists. By the end of the month, over 3,000 moderate leftists had been killed or disappeared. The new regime was further aided by many leftists betraying and reporting their fellow comrades in wake of their joining with the SWP.
From September until December 1918, the KOMINSI pursued and executed hundreds of trade unionists and worker council leaders, who were considered overly critical of the SWP and its plans for Liothidia. All senior leaders of the National Mine Worker's Union, All-Laborer Union and the National Committee for Industrial Workers; unions that opposed the SWP's domination of the Constituent Assembly, were detained on November 1 and executed en-mass in the Herzhorn Forest three days later.
As Gustav Wolff stated in 1939:
Within a month, we had decimated and liquidated all those Roses. Everyone who'd dare propagate a different path to socialism to one pursued by the Party. We had betrayed those who would surely betray us and did so with the ruthlessness and cold fury demanded of the revolutionary times."
On January 1 1919, KOMINSI executed Erich Gernhardt, the former leader of the Worker's League and original leader of the revolutionary movement. He was reportedly beaten to death before being mutilated by KOMINSI officers. On January 3, his wife, three sons and daughter were executed by KOMINSI after they requested an update on his health.
Liquidation of the Lavenders
Running concurrently to the massacre of moderate leftists was the liquidation of the group known as the Lavenders ("Lavendel"). The Lavenders were the largest category of "revolutionary enemies", encompassing numerous bourgeois citizens, including lawyers, journalists, business people, civil servants, officers, soldiers and politicians from before the revolution. The sheer number of targets corresponds to the estimated 125,000 victims who were killed.
Only 3,200 people were reportedly listed prior to the revolution for detention and execution, the vast majority of whom, were senior state officials; civil servants, journalists, politicians and loyalist military officers. Throughout the period, the overwhelming majority of "Lavender" victims would be killed by either Red Guards, or through denunciation by neighbors or co-workers, in what many historians dub the "most bloody settling of scores in modern history." More often enough, middle-class professionals would save themselves, by using denunciations to prove their "revolutionary zeal." Working class citizens often acted with impunity under the guise of the Revolutionary Socialist Committees, persecuting and killing factory foremen, their factory owners, wealthy neighbors or often any who they feared was a pro-monarchist.
Between September 1918 and February 1919, RANKOM established the Revolutionary Hunter Group (Revolutionäre Jägergruppe), comprised of the most zealous military defectors and red guards, to pursue and execute all politicians of the Imperial-period. RANKOM ordered the RJG to pursue both politicians of the revolution-period and all those who had served as far back as 1890. With the assistance of supporters in the cities and rural regions, the RJG was successfully in eliminating 390 of the 700 politicians who served in the Generalstag during the revolution, by Christmas 1918. Utilising state radio, the revolutionary government would declare the names of remaining politicians across the country, promising rewards for any red guard of ordinary citizen who captured or killed any among the list.
From January until February 1919, a further 670 politicians from during and prior to the revolution were murdered by either the RJG or revolutionary mobs. Despite their efforts, several key members of the Kaiser's court and government succeeded in fleeing abroad in the final days of the revolution. Eager to deny any counter-revolutionary movement a popular figurehead, those who escaped would later fall victim to Operation Great Hunt.