1 July
Subject: Crimes committed under cover of the black-out
Reference: Letter Reich Chancellery 7593 B dated 29 May 1940.[240]
[Handwritten]: To be filed. [Initial] L [Lammers]
Dear Reich Minister Dr. Lammers:
I am very much obliged to the Fuehrer for having complied with my request to take the sentence of the Special Court in Munich against Anton Scharff as an opportunity to have me informed about his views as to the proper expiation for crimes committed under cover of the black-out. I shall again inform the presidents of the district courts of appeal and the attorneys general of this view of the Fuehrer as soon as possible.
The short notice in the Munich edition of the “Voelkischer Beobachter” dated 24 May, which was enclosed in your letter of 29 May, does not make the sentence comprehensible in my opinion either. In the judgment the following facts are stated. Scharff, who was not quite 19 years old when he committed the crime, is the only child of a painter’s family and comes from a very poor home. On account of an infection of the lungs his father is unable to work as a painter and his only occupation is in the office of the Nazi Party Public Welfare Organization in Pfaffenhofen on the Ilm. The parents have barely the necessaries of life.
Since the middle of 1937 the defendant was thrown on his own resources and gained his living without parental help and away from home on poorly paid jobs, first by agricultural work and recently as an unskilled worker with a firm in Augsburg. His conduct and efficiency were satisfactory. As the defendant, whose wages amounted to 50 pfennig per hour, could not make both ends meet and contracted harassing debts, he absented himself from work several times in order to get better earnings through odd jobs, such as helping in the loading of wagons at the railroad station and also in this way to obtain dismissal from his employers who would not discharge him.
Around Easter 1941 he left his job after having spent his last wages. He reckoned with his early drafting into armed forces, since he had volunteered for an antitank unit and, with consent of his father, had enlisted for 12 years in order to bring his financial troubles to a final stop. This time he did not find work at the railroad station. Thus, it happened that he soon found himself without means, and hit upon the idea of getting money by stealing a handbag. After having watched the district in question, he thought that on 18 April 1941 at about 2200 hours he had found a fitting opportunity and snatched the handbag from under the arm of a young woman whom he had followed for some time when she was about to unlock the door of her house. When the woman, a war widow, called for help and people approached, the defendant fled and threw away the handbag but was arrested a short time later without offering resistance.
On the basis of these facts which help to elucidate the peculiarity of the offense and the character of the perpetrator, the court was induced to pass a mild sentence. Since no violence could be proved, the defendant was not convicted of robbery, but only of theft. As extenuating circumstances, the clean conduct sheet, satisfactory work, his youth and immaturity, as well as the hard life, full of deprivations, led by defendant, were put to his account by the court and for these reasons the death penalty was dispensed with.