Mechelen Incident - Aftermath

Aftermath

Erich Hoenmanns and Helmuth Reinberger were in Germany condemned to death in absentia. Transporting secret documents by plane without explicit authorisation was strictly forbidden and a capital offence. The verdicts would never be executed. After a stay in an internment camp in Huy both men were evacuated in 1940, first to Britain and then to Canada. Hoenmanns's wife however, did not long survive an interrogation by the Gestapo; his two sons were allowed to serve in the army and were killed in action during the war. The men were later in the war part of a prisoner of war exchange; on returning to Germany they were partially pardoned.