Max Stephan (July 10, 1892 – January 13, 1952) was a German-born American citizen convicted of treason for aiding Peter Krug, a German pilot who had escaped from a prisoner of war camp in Canada.

During the final year of the war, he was assigned to a military post office where he was tasked with reading and censoring soldiers' mail.

According to the judgment written by Judge Tuttle, Stephan also sold "moonshine liquor" and operated "a disreputable house for the accommodation of unmarried couples.

He purchased a restaurant at 7209 E. Jefferson Avenue in Detroit,[1] an area with a large concentration of recent German immigrants that became known as "Sauerkraut Row".

Judge Tuttle concluded that, in their citizenship applications, both Stephan and his wife had misrepresented the length of their residence in the United States.

[3] The Detroit Free Press published a story in August 1939 exposing the restaurant as a regular meeting place for the German American Bund, an organization promoting a favorable view of Nazi Germany.

At the time, Stephan denied any connection to the Bund and stated that he rented the restaurant's hall, which had seating for 150 persons, to several German societies.

Stephan claimed that the restaurant's meeting hall was used by numerous organizations for banquets, weddings, birthday parties and other events.

He satisfied their suspicion by showing them a forged document identifying him as "Jean Etiat", a carpenter on the crew of the French ocean liner SS Normandie.

A store clerk and fellow German immigrant, Dietrick Rinterlen, reported the incident to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In a jailhouse interview with James Melton of the Detroit Times, Stephan reportedly admitted that he was aware that Krug sought to escape in order to return to the fight and help Germany win the war.

He says the Germans will win the war next fall, so he has to get back in the fight fast.Following Stephan's arrest a manhunt was launched to capture Krug before he could reach neutral territory in Mexico.

"[17] The Detroit Times described Stephan as "an insignificant pawn" and called his specific act to be "negligible in consequence."

Nevertheless, the Times urged that Stephan be given "short shrift" in order to demonstrate to Nazi and Japanese followers that Americans are not "softies and dilettantes in the war business" and to deliver "a severe blow to the entire fraternity" of "phoney naturalized citizens of German birth.

Appearing in a dress uniform with gold epaulets and Nazi Luftwaffe wings,[25] Krug was escorted into court by six FBI agents and a Canadian army officer.

In response to Krug's inquiry, Judge Tuttle folded his arms and shook his head, saying, "I can't help who you are testifying against.

"[29] In an attempt to meet its constitutional burden, on June 30 and July 1 the government called other witnesses to confirm Stephan's overt acts.

[36][37] On August 6, 1942, Judge Tuttle sentenced Stephan to be hanged by the neck until dead, setting an execution date of November 13, 1942.

In his comments from the bench, Judge Tuttle also reported that he had learned that the Stephans obtained their American citizenship by lying about residing in Detroit when they had been living in Windsor, Ontario (across the river in Canada) and operating a saloon and bed-house for unmarried couples.

Tuttle also criticized Stephan's wife for disloyal statements and urged that proceedings be launched to revoke her citizenship and have her interned.

Tuttle further offered his belief that there was a well-established "underground railway" of German loyalists to aid escaped prisoners with Stephan as an essential link.

[39] On his return to prison from the sentencing, Stephan reportedly told a deputy U.S. marshal who was guarding him, "I'll bet all the tea in China I won't hang.

[46] On June 5, 1943, after the petition for rehearing was rejected, Judge Tuttle reset the execution date for July 2, 1943, between the hours of 1 and 2 a.m. at the Federal Correctional Institution, Milan, in Washtenaw County, Michigan.

He noted that thousands of American soldiers were dying while Stephan's execution was postponed and questioned the judgment of those who would hesitate to take the life of a traitor.

"[48] At 4:55 p.m. on July 1, nine hours before the scheduled execution, word was received by the warden that President Roosevelt had commuted Stephan's sentence to life imprisonment.

The President believes that the sentence imposed by the court was too severe in that it did not sufficiently take into account the statute which provides for the consideration of different qualities of treason.

He remained there for eight years, at which time he was transferred to the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.

[52][53][8] Theodore Donay, born Thaddeus Donaj, the shopkeeper whom Stephan visited with Krug, spent six-and-a-half years in prison and had his citizenship revoked.

In it, he explained his decision with the fact that his nerves had been wrecked by the "constant fear of deportation", which he saw as "a very dark outlook for [his] future" and didn't have the financial means to appeal.

[55][56] Bertelmann, the woman who called on Stephan to help Krug, was interned for the rest of the war and then deported to Germany.