was accused of having ties to Catholic Action, a group opposed to the regime. Relationships with any religious organizations were strictly forbidden for high Party functionaries. In addition, it was known that Wagner had sent his children to Catholic schools. There was a report that his wife had genuflected to the Pope at a Vatican reception. Finally, a letter that Wagner's wife had sent to their pregnant daughter, Gerda, had been brought by Himmler to Bormann's attention. In it, Frau Wagner forbade on religious grounds, her daughter's planned marriage to the child's father, a member of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler who had left the Church. All this ran counter to the Nazi anti-Catholic doctrine, and Bormann used it to attack Wagner. Subsequently, on 9 November 1941 at the annual Beer Hall Putsch anniversary celebration in Munich's Führerbau with all the Gauleiters and Reichsleiters present, Hitler personally dismissed Wagner as Gauleiter of Gau Westphalia-South. After Bormann read the contents of Frau Wagner's letter, Hitler publicly denounced Wagner and ordered him to leave the hall. Wagner requested the floor to defend himself, which further enraged Hitler who announced that he was dismissing Wagner from all his offices, and then had him removed from the hall. Wagner immediately was replaced as Gauleiter in Westphalia-South by Paul Giesler, a functionary in Bormann's Chancellery. Interestingly, Giesler, at Wagner's instigation, had been dismissed as SA-Führer in Westphalia-South in July 1934 and brought up on charges before the Supreme Party Court in connection with the Roehm Purge. On 26 November, Wagner was also expelled from the Reichstag. On Hitler’s orders, Wagner subsequently was brought up on charges before the Supreme Party Court, which was headed by Walter Buch, and which had jurisdiction over matters of Party membership. Wagner put up a persuasive defense and, surprisingly, in a 6 February 1942 decision, the Court acquitted him and refused to expel him from the Party. This infuriated Bormann and Hitler who refused to endorse the decision. The matter, however, was allowed to simmer over the spring and summer until the autumn when Hitler summoned Buch to his headquarters, furiously berated him, and ordered him to reverse the decision immediately. That same day, Buch wrote to Wagner expelling him from the Party effective forthwith, 12 October 1942. At the direction of Himmler, Wagner was placed under Gestapo surveillance in October 1943. Suspected of involvement in the attempt on Hitler's