Use of NN Prisoners in Armament Industry
In file of reports for the years 1943 and 1944 of NN cases still pending in the Ministry of Justice, the attorney general at Katowice (Poland) stated to the Ministry of Justice the following (NG-264, Pros. Ex. 334):
“NN prisoners held within the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of Katowice are already employed to a large extent in the armament industry, regardless of whether they are being held for questioning or punishment. They are quartered there in special camps at or near the place of the respective industrial enterprise. In this way it is intended, if possible, to place all NN prisoners at the disposal of the armament industry.
“It has been disclosed that the NN prisoners already employed in the armament industry, as for instance the 400-odd prisoners working in Laband, have done a very good job and excel in particular as skilled workers. The armament industry therefore wants to retain the employed NN prisoners also after their acquittal or after they have served their sentence.
“I ask for a decision on whether and, if so, how that demand can be complied with. Considerable doubts arise from the fact that there is no legal right to confine them further and that the judicial authorities would thus take preventive police measures. There is the question, however, whether the situation of the Reich does not justify even such extraordinary measures.”
This request was handled by defendant von Ammon, who endorsed it as follows:
“Submitted * * * first to Department V (headed by defendant Engert) with the request for an opinion. If you have no objections I intend to contact the RSHA in accordance with the report of the attorney general at Katowice.”
Clemency in the NN Cases
As Under Secretary, defendant Klemm was required to pass upon clemency matters either while acting with or in the absence of the Minister of Justice. He admits passing upon clemency pleas in NN death cases and refusing all of them. Fourteen documents concerning NN matters passed through defendant Klemm after he became under secretary of State. He knew of the transfer of NN cases from Essen to Silesia and knew of “routine” NN matters which passed through his department.
In the fall of 1944 Hitler ordered the discontinuance of the NN proceedings by the justice and the OKW courts and transferred the entire problem to the Gestapo, the NN prisoners being handed over to the Gestapo at the same time. In later conferences attended by defendant von Ammon, the Ministry of Justice agreed to and later actually carried out the transfer by committing them from the Ministry’s prisons to the Gestapo’s custody. Defendant Lautz was ordered to suspend People’s Court proceedings against NN prisoners and transfer them to the Gestapo. The witness Hecker stated that those NN prisoners of the Berlin district, of which he had knowledge, were sent to Oranienburg.