The Nazi conspirators confined, under the guise of “protective custody” Reichstag members, Social Democrats, Communists, and other opponents or suspected opponents. (2544-PS; L-73; L-83; 1430-PS.)
E. The Nazi conspirators created and utilized special agencies for carrying out their system of terror.
(See Chapter XV, Sections 5 and 6, on the Gestapo, SS, and SD)
F. The Nazi conspirators permitted organizations and individuals to carry out this system of terror without restraint of law.
(1) Acts of the Gestapo were not subject to review by the courts. In 1935 the Prussian Supreme Court of Administration held that the orders of the Gestapo were not subject to judicial review; and that the accused person could appeal only to the next higher authority within the State Police itself. (2347-PS)
In 1936 a law was passed concerning The Gestapo in Prussia which provided that orders in matters of the Gestapo were not subject to review of the Administrative Courts. (2107-PS)
On the same subject, the following article appeared in the official German Lawyer’s Journal, 1935.
“Once again the court had to decide on the question of whether political measures could be subjected to the review of the ordinary courts. * * * The case in question concerned the official performance of his duty by an official of the NSDAP. * * * The principle of the importance and the mission of the Party and its ‘Sovereign Functionaires’ cannot be overlooked. Therefore, the plaintiff should have been denied the right to be in court.” (2491-PS)
(2) Where no definite law protected terroristic acts of Nazi conspirators and their accomplices, proceedings against them were in the first instance suppressed or thereafter their acts were pardoned. In 1935, proceedings against an employee of the Gestapo accused of torturing, beating, and killing of inmates of a concentration camp were suppressed (787-PS; 788-PS). In June 1935 twenty-three SA members and policemen convicted of the beating and murder of inmates of the Hohnstein concentration camp were pardoned (786-PS). The prosecutor was forced to resign from the SA. (784-PS)