“A strong administration of justice is necessary for the fulfillment of the tasks of the great German Reich. Therefore, I commission and empower the Reich Minister of Justice to establish a National Socialist Administration of Justice and to take all necessary measures in accordance with my directives and instructions made in agreement with the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery and the Leader of the Party Chancellery. He can hereby deviate from any existing law.”[610]
The statutes which we have reviewed were merely steps in the process of increased severity of the criminal law and in the development of a loose concept concerning the definition of crime. The latter concept was especially evident in the statutes concerning the “sound sentiment of the people”, crime by analogy, and undermining the military efficiency of the nation. In place of the control of law there was substituted the control of National Socialist ideology as a guide to judicial action.
The Draconic laws to which we have referred were upon their face, of general applicability. The discriminations on political, racial, and religious grounds are to be found not in the text, but in the application of the text.
But the Nazis were not content with statutes of a nondiscriminatory nature even in view of the discriminatory manner in which they were enforced. Coincidentally with the development of these laws and decrees there arose another body of substantive law which expressly discriminated against minority groups both within and without the Reich, and which formed the basis for racial, religious, and political persecution on a vast scale. On 7 April 1933, a decree by the Reich government provided in part that—
“Article 2. Persons who, according to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of 7 April 1933,[611] are of non-Aryan descent, may be refused permission to practice law, even if there exists none of the reasons enumerated in the Regulations for Lawyers. The same rule applies in cases, as where a lawyer described in section 1, clause 2, wishes to be admitted to another court. * * *”
“Article 3. Persons who are active in the Communistic sense are excluded from the admission to the bar. Admissions already given have to be revoked.”[612]
The act was implemented by the power of injunction. The fact that the license to practice law had been canceled was also stated as a ground for the cancellation of employment contracts and office leases.
On 15 September 1935, the Reichstag enacted the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor.” We quote—
“Article 1. (1) Marriages of Jews and citizens of German or related blood are prohibited. Marriages which are concluded nevertheless, are void even if they were concluded abroad in order to circumvent this law.
“(2) Only the district attorney can sue for nullification of marriage.