(b) The Chief Reich Prosecutors at the Reich Supreme Court and at the People’s Court.
Subject: Poles and Jews in proceedings against Germans
Enclosures: Copies for the Presidents of the District Courts, Chief Public Prosecutors, Local Courts, and Public Prosecutors at the Local Courts
The Penal Ordinance for Poles of 4 December 1941[359] (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 759) was intended not only to serve as a criminal law against Poles and Jews, but beyond that also to provide general principles for the German administration of law to be adopted in all criminal proceedings against Poles and Jews irrespective of the role which the Poles and Jews play in the individual proceedings. The regulations of article IX, for instance, according to which Poles and Jews are not to be sworn in apply to proceedings against Germans as well.
I have found that the special legal status of the Poles and Jews who are subject to the penal ordinance for Poles is not always taken into account. Reference is therefore made to the following points:
1. Proceedings against Germans should be carried on whenever possible without calling Poles and Jews as witnesses. If, however, such a testimony cannot be evaded, the Pole or Jew must not appear as a witness against the German during the trial, he must always be interrogated by a judge who has been appointed or requested to do so, (art. II, par. 1 of the Order for Execution of 31 Jan. 1942[360]—(Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 52)).
2. Evidence given by Poles and Jews during proceedings against Germans must be received with the utmost caution especially in those cases where other evidence is lacking. I request that the Fuehrer order published in my circular decree of 3 September 1941-4103-II a-2-2041/41 concerning the interrogation of enemy subjects be applied to Poles and Jews as well.
3. Proceedings against Germans on the basis of charges preferred by Poles and Jews are only justified if sufficient proof is available that such a charge is well founded and if paragraph 153 of the Code of Criminal Procedure appears to be nonapplicable right from the beginning. As a rule, a thorough interrogation of the person preferring charges will have to take place first. The public prosecutor will also limit his application to the police in the same way. Coercive measures against the accused German as well as his official interrogation should in every case be undertaken only if the suspicion that the German has committed a serious offense has been sufficiently substantiated.
No information about the result of the proceedings is to be given to a Pole or Jew who has preferred charges against a German.
As deputy: