[Memorandum of Minister of Interior concerning
the Clarification of Police Matters, 1935]
As chief of the department of police in the Reich and Prussian ministry of the interior, I have noticed lately an ever increasing internal political tension which makes a clarification of authority both as regards the general police and more especially the political police, evidently urgently necessary.
1. Fight against the Church
The Reich minister of the interior is the competent authority for general rules on confessional policy. Therefore, the leaders of the diverse confessional groups address their petitions to our office. Lately, half of the political police reports concerned clerical matters. We have untold petitions from all kinds of cardinals, bishops, and dignitaries of the church. Most of these complaints concern matters under the jurisdiction of the Reich Ministry of the Interior, although the respective rules were not decreed by it. It happens very often that we have in our capacity as a court of appeal to settle incidents, about which sometimes we know nothing at all until we receive the complaint. There does not seem to be any unity any longer between our principles as regards political, ecclesiastical matters and the executives thereof in the states. It is an inexcusable state of affairs to give directions to complainants and make promises to ecclesiastical leaders, if there is no reliability of their being carried out in the states. Therefore, I deem it an absolute necessity that full clarification be given on this controversial philosophical matter not only as regards the principles but also the execution thereof.
I would like to point out that, in my opinion, these principles should be both considered and executed not only from an internal political, but also from the foreign political viewpoint. I enclose an encyclical of the Pope that was submitted to me today. The question arises for instance as to whether the manner of treatment of returning Catholic young people in front of Swiss customs guards has something to do with the unfavorable foreign political commentaries which have been evoked by this action by the political police.
This concerns not only the political police; the whole police force as such will be implicated by the consequences resulting from the religious struggle. Instances of gross disturbance of congregations are mounting terribly fast lately, often necessitating intervention of the emergency squad. In the long run I cannot carry the responsibility, for officials will become involved and be forced to support one party or the other. The struggle [Kampfzeit] is so recent that we know from our own experience that in the end the police official will be blamed quite often for everything by both warring parties. After discarding the rubber truncheon, the idea of exposing executive officials to situations in which, during gross interruption of meetings, they may be forced to use cold steel, is unbearable.
It is my opinion that everything must be done to prevent the wearing out of the police force as well as the state authority in general with an untimely religious struggle. Should this philosophical conflict continue I would be forced,—incidentally this was proposed to me in a letter from the chief of the Gestapo, to give lectures to the police officials on Christian religions or the particular importance of the religious movement and the attitude of the party to these.
Neither do I believe that it is desirable if the lower grade police authorities carry out the handling and reporting of these religious matters in a certain one-sided manner.
2. Lately, there has been a marked increase of cases of protective custody. I demand urgently that in this matter also, final directives be given concerning methods, proof, length of time and manner of execution. The decree on protective custody by the Reich Ministry of the Interior has been made invalid long ago by the actions of the political police. It is almost impossible to receive an adequate report on a case of protective custody. The petitions, addressed to us in this matter, all stress the same point which I also regard as important. The parties concerned and their relatives accept protective custody as a matter of fact, but not the complete uncertainty as regards the manner and principles by which it may or may not be imposed. This unquestionable lawlessness fosters unrest and antagonism. It is intolerable for the Reich Ministry of the Interior, when there is a different interpretation and application of the law in the respective states, thereby obstructing a uniform execution of the law. The question must also be settled whether as approved by the judicial association N.S., in agreement with the Reichminister of Justice, in cases of protective custody a person is allowed a lawyer, or as is actually practised by the secret state police this is refused. I refer in this connection to the case of lawyer Puender. He was confined to protective custody with his colleagues for bringing an action, being forced to do this by a Reich law, after duly informing the Reich Ministry of Justice and our ministry. This complaint could not involve any complications, as it could immediately be legally restrained by us.
3. For official political reasons I must object on principle to the fact that lately once more and without previous knowledge of the superior authorities, officials have been taken into protective custody or what is sometimes even more, they have been subjected to state police investigations. I cite here only the case of my teacher and Kreisleiter at Esterwegen, who was kept in protective custody for 8 days, because he had sent a correct report, as proved afterwards, to his district councillor on abuses by the SS. I remember the investigations by criminal assistants of the Gestapo in Kottbus, lasting two weeks, on the chief of police in that phase, by the way an SS Brigadefuehrer. Likewise I have already presented today a complaint by the Oberpraesident Lohse, concerning the order to an official of the gendarmerie for espionage on superior officials by officers of the political police.