On 13 November 1934, Goering, in an address before the Academy of German Law, expressed similar sentiments concerning the position of Hitler.
“Gentlemen, for the German nation this matter was settled by the words of the judge in this hour, the Fuehrer, who stated that in this hour of uttermost danger he alone, the Fuehrer elected by the people, was the supreme and only judge of the German nation.”
The defendant Schlegelberger, on 10 March 1936 said:
“It should be emphasized, however, that in the sphere of the law, also, it is the Fuehrer and he alone who sets the pace of development.”
To the same effect we quote Reich Minister of Justice Dr. Thierack, who, on 5 January 1943 said:
“So also with us the conviction has grown in these 10 years in which the Fuehrer has led the German people that the Fuehrer is the chief justice and the supreme judge of the German people.”
On 17 February 1943 the defendant Under Secretary Dr. Rothenberger summed up his legal philosophy with the words (NG-415, Pros. Ex. 26):
“The judge is on principle bound by the law. The laws are the orders of the Fuehrer.”
As will be seen, the foregoing pronouncement by the leaders in the field of Nazi jurisprudence were not mere idle theories. Hitler did, in fact, exercise the right assumed by him to act as supreme judge, and in that capacity in many instances he controlled the decision of the individual criminal cases.
The evidence demonstrates that Hitler and his top-ranking associates were by no means content with the issuance of general directives for the guidance of the judicial process. They tenaciously insisted upon the right to interfere in individual criminal sentences. In discussing the right to refuse confirmation of sentences imposed by criminal courts, Martin Bormann, as Chief of the Party Chancellery, wrote to Dr. Lammers, Chief of the Reich Chancellery, as follows (NG-102, Pros. Ex. 75):