The defendants were charged with participation in various types of criminal conduct “by distortion and denial of judicial and penal process.” The selections from the evidence below have been grouped into five main sections (sec. VB through VF) treating of various types of conduct by which it was alleged that the defendants engaged in criminal acts as principals or accessories.
In Hitler’s Third Reich many persons were placed entirely outside the judicial process. Therefore the first section (B) is concerned with measures under which persons were committed to the “protective custody” of the police (usually the Gestapo) or to the concentration camps of Himmler’s SS.
The next four sections (C through F) deal with various methods whereby it was charged that perversions of law and the judicial process were employed to persecute, imprison, and execute or exterminate large numbers of persons. Section C, which contains evidence on numerous topics, has been divided into three periods of time: 1933—January 1941 when Guertner was Reich Minister of Justice; January 1941—August 1942, when the defendant Schlegelberger was acting Reich Minister of Justice; and August 1942—1945, when Thierack was Reich Minister of Justice. The next section (D) deals with large groups of persons allegedly subjected to discriminatory treatment of many kinds: Germans, Poles, Jews of several nationalities, the Night and Fog prisoners from occupied western Europe, and others. Section E deals with the growth, development, and application of such concepts as treason, undermining the defensive strength, and public enemies. These concepts were applied in cases against persons who were not nationals of Germany as well as against Germans. The final section (F) deals with the handling of religious matters.
Because of the close relationship of the developments of these various topics to the crowded history of the Nazi regime, there necessarily is considerable over-lap between the several sections into which the evidence has been organized. A case where a Pole was convicted of treason against Germany (reproduced here in sec. E) cannot be divorced from the materials concerning the general treatment of Poles (included in sec. D2). The Night and Fog prisoners offer another example, since these prisoners were ordinarily kept incommunicado in concentration camps, and the evidence concerning them (D3) is closely related to the evidence dealing with protective custody and concentration camps (B). The over-lap is often quite pronounced in the extracts from the testimony of defendants. Most of the defendants were active in a number of different fields and held different official positions during the 12 years of the Nazi era. In making out his case, each defendant chose his own course in grouping together various items. In facing this unavoidable problem of over-lap, the editors have employed footnotes extensively in making cross-references between the materials contained in various sections, particularly in extracts from testimony where mention is made of decrees and other documents reproduced in various parts of the volume.
B. Measures Outside the Judicial Process—Protective Custody, Transfer of Persons to Concentration Camps and the Police
- TRANSLATION OF KLEMM DOCUMENT 28
- KLEMM DEFENSE EXHIBIT 28
ORDER OF PRUSSIAN MINISTRY OF JUSTICE, 15 MARCH 1934, INFORMING AUTHORITIES OF GOERING’S DECREE OF 11 MARCH 1934, AUTHORIZING THE GESTAPO AND CERTAIN PRUSSIAN AUTHORITIES TO ORDER PROTECTIVE CUSTODY FOR POLITICAL REASONS[185]
No. 76 Order concerning measures of protective custody, Executive Order of the Prussian Ministry of Justice of 15 March 1934 (I 3540), German Justice, page 341.
On account of its importance also with regard to the official sphere of activities of judicial authorities, I hereby inform these authorities of the following decree, by the Prussian Ministerpraesident (Secret State Police), dated 11 March 1934.
Berlin, 11 March 1934