On 5 September 1939, by the Decree Against Public Enemies, it was provided that looting in liberated territory may be punished by hanging. The following additional provisions are of importance because of the arbitrary manner in which the instrument was construed and applied by the courts. The provisions are as follows:
“Section 2.—Whoever commits a crime or offense against life, limb or property, taking advantage of air raid protection measures, is punishable by hard labor of up to 15 years or for life, and in particularly severe cases punishable by death.
“Section 3.—Whoever commits arson or any other crime of public danger, thereby undermining German military efficiency, will be punished by death.
“Section 4.—Whoever commits a criminal act exploiting the extraordinary conditions caused by war is punishable beyond the regular punishment limits with hard labor of up to 15 years or for life, or is punishable by death if the sound common sense of the people requires it on account of the crime being particularly despicable.”[607]
On 25 November 1939 the death penalty was authorized as punishment for intentionally or negligently causing damage to war materials and the like, if it endangers the fighting power of the German armed forces. The death penalty was also authorized in case of anyone who “disturbs or imperils” the ordinary function of an enterprise essential to the defense of the Reich or to the supply of the population.[608]
On 5 December 1939 the death penalty was authorized for various crimes of violence and it was provided that “this decree is also applicable to crimes committed before it became valid”.
On 4 September 1941 the Criminal Code was supplemented and changed to provide the death penalty for dangerous habitual criminals and sex criminals “if necessitated for the protection of the national community or by the desire for just expiation”. The decree was signed by Adolf Hitler and by the defendant Dr. Schlegelberger in charge of the Reich Ministry of Justice.
By the decree of 5 May 1944, the judges were substantially freed from all restrictions as to the penalty to be invoked in criminal cases. That decree reads as follows:
“With regard to all offenders who are guilty of causing serious prejudice or seriously endangering the conduct of war, or the security of the Reich, through an intentional criminal act, a penalty may be imposed in excess of the regular penal limits up to the statutory maximum for a given type of punishment, or hard labor for a term or for life, or death, if the regular statutory maximum limits are insufficient for expiation of the act according to the sentiment of the people. The same shall also apply to all offenses committed by negligence by which one made himself guilty of a particularly grave prejudice or a particularly serious danger to the conduct of war, or to the security of the Reich.”[609]
On 20 August 1942 Hitler issued the famous decree which marks the culmination of his systematic campaign to change the German judicial system into an instrumentality of the NSDAP. The decree was as follows: