He had a long-standing friendship with a young photographer, Irene Seiler (née Scheffler, born 26 April 1910 in Guben), who rented rooms in an apartment house the Katzenbergers owned that was next to the firm's offices.
[3][4] An unknown person denounced Katzenberger to the authorities, and he was arrested on 18 March 1941 under the so-called Rassenschutzgesetz ("Racial Protection Law"), one of the Nuremberg Laws, which made it a criminal offence, Rassenschande ("racial defilement"), for Aryans to have sexual relations with Jews.
Recognising the publicity such a trial would generate and seeing it as a way to display his Nazi credentials and further his career, Rothaug arranged for the case to be brought to him.
Seiler was found guilty of perjury for denying an affair had taken place and sentenced to two years' imprisonment: in accordance with Adolf Hitler's wishes, women were not charged under the Racial Protection Law, but could be charged with perjury or obstruction of justice.
[citation needed] Rothaug was moved to a state attorney's job in Berlin in 1943 because Justice Minister Otto Georg Thierack considered him unfit to be a judge.