But the most notorious Nazi judicial innovation was the so-called “People’s Court” (Volksgerichtshof), established by the decree of 24 April 1934, after the Reich Supreme Court’s acquittal of the defendants in the Reichstag fire trial. The People’s Court replaced the Supreme Court as the court of first and last instance for most treason cases.

The People’s Court sat in divisions, or “senates,” of five members each. Two of the five had to be qualified judges; the other three were trusted Nazi laymen selected from high ranking officers of the Wehrmacht (armed forces) and SS, or from the Party hierarchy. They were appointed for 5-year terms by Hitler, on the recommendation of the Minister of Justice. Six “senates” were established, each of which heard cases from a particular geographical section of Germany. In 1940 a “special senate” was established to retry cases where, in the judgment of the chief public prosecutor of the Reich, an inadequate punishment had been imposed.

As time went on, the concept of “treason” was much enlarged by a variety of Nazi decrees, and both the Special Courts and the People’s Court were given jurisdiction to try a great variety of offenses. In 1936, for example, the smuggling of property out of Germany was proclaimed an offense against the national economy, and the People’s Court was given jurisdiction over such cases. In 1940, a new decree defined the jurisdiction of the Special Courts and People’s Court, and all sorts of offenses, such as evasion of conscription and listening to foreign broadcasting stations, were brought within their purview.

Toward the end of the war, by a decree of February 1945, emergency civil courts martial (Standgerichte) were set up in areas “menaced by the approaching enemy.” Each consisted of three members appointed by the Reich Defense Commissar, usually the Gauleiter (regional leader) of the district; the president was a professional judge, who sat with one associate judge from the Nazi Party, and one from the Wehrmacht or SS. These courts martial could only condemn the accused to death, acquit him, or transfer the case to a regular tribunal.

Thierack was president of the People’s Court prior to his appointment as Reich Minister of Justice. He was then succeeded by Freisler, the former under secretary of the Ministry of Justice, who remained as president until nearly the end of the war, when he was killed in an air raid. The defendant Engert was vice president of the People’s Court prior to his transfer to the Ministry of Justice in 1942. The defendant Nebelung was president of the Fourth Senate of the People’s Court. The defendant Petersen, the only nonlawyer in the dock, was an SA Obergruppenfuehrer (lieutenant general) who sat as a lay judge on many occasions in the First and Special Senates of the People’s Court.

Three of the defendants were judges of the Special Courts. The defendant Cuhorst was president of the Special Court in Stuttgart, and the defendant Rothaug was president of the Special Court in Nuernberg. The defendant Oeschey also sat on the Special Court in Nuernberg and succeeded Rothaug as its president when the latter became a public prosecutor. Oeschey was also president of the emergency civil court martial at Nuernberg.

4. Public prosecutors—The prosecution of criminal offenses, under the Third Reich, was handled by a special group of state attorneys (Staatsanwaltschaft) directed by the Ministry of Justice. Increasingly under the Third Reich there was interchange of personnel among judges and prosecutors.

The defendant Rothaug, for example, left the bench of the Special Court at Nuernberg to become a senior public prosecutor of the Reich (Reichsanwalt). The defendant Barnickel also held this title. The defendant Joel, in 1943, left the Ministry of Justice and became the public prosecutor of the district court of appeals for Westphalia, at Hamm.

The most important prosecutor among these defendants, however, was Ernst Lautz, Chief Public Prosecutor of the Reich (Oberreichsanwalt). In this capacity, Lautz prosecuted many important cases before the People’s Court.

COUNT ONE