Sippenhaft or Sippenhaftung (English: "kin liability") was a legal practice in Nazi Germany whereby relatives of those accused of crimes against the state were held to be equally responsible and were arrested and sometimes executed. Many people who hadn't committed any crimes were arrested and punished under Sippenhaft laws introduced following the failed July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944. A law of February 1945 also threatened death to the relatives of military commanders wh… (More on Sippenhaft)