Berlin, 14 May 1935

To the Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior,

Berlin

Subject: Mistreatment of Communist prisoners by policemen

Enclosure: 1 loose sheet

My Dear Reich Minister!

Enclosed you will find copy of a report of the inspector of the Secret State Police, dated 28 March 1935.[188]

This report gives me an occasion to state my fundamental attitude toward the question of the beating of internees. The numerous instances of ill-treatment which have come to the knowledge of the administration of justice can be divided into three different causes for such ill-treatment of prisoners.

1. Beating as a disciplinary punishment [Hausstrafe] in concentration camps.

2. Ill-treatment, mostly of political internees, in order to make them talk.