From the situation report which I mentioned, it is also evident what the number of cases was which came to us at the time. They amounted to about seven to eight hundred a month. This figure shows me that when I was interrogated preliminary to this trial, I made a wrong estimate. At that time I thought it was twice as high as it actually was.
Q. Witness, you have just said that the number of cases in the undermining of military efficiency increased to about seven to eight hundred cases a month. I would like to put another question to you on that subject. Did that mean that before the People’s Court seven hundred to eight hundred cases of undermining of military efficiency were tried every month?
A. No. That figure refers to the number of cases which were submitted to the Reich prosecution for examination. As I will mention later, only a small percentage of those cases—I estimate about 10 percent—were kept back. All other cases were returned to subordinate courts. In my situation report, if I may repeat that, I only gave the number which I did mention there because only at the trial here I saw that situation report again. I ascertained that the figures which I had given in Exhibit 126,[525] from memory were evidently incorrect.
Q. By that you mean to say that the figures in Exhibit 126, the figures which you gave from memory, are too high?
A. That is what I did mean to say.
Q. How did you, in general, treat these questions of undermining military efficiency?
A. To a large extent the treatment of such cases depended on the clear instructions from the Minister of Justice. It also depended on the basic importance of these cases. To mention one example, I would like to revert once again to the situation report of 9 February 1944, that is Exhibit 220. In that report it says that the undermining of military efficiency when committed by clergymen would have to be tried before the People’s Court. That was due to a decree by the Reich Minister of Justice. Generally speaking, however, in treating these cases I attached the greatest importance to having every single file examined carefully by the head of the department so that those points would not be left unobserved which would justify treating that case in a more lenient manner. For in particular the transfer of these cases as being cases of lesser importance to the district courts of appeal or to the Special Courts, to that I attached the greatest importance, as far as it was at all possible. That is proved not only by the testimony of the witness Gruenwald[526] before this Tribunal but it is also evident from Prosecution Exhibits 178, 474, and 100.[527] For the numbers of cases where criticism was exercised by the ministry on sentences passed by lower courts, and in particular at the Weimar conference [NG-674, Pros. Ex. 100] would remain incomprehensible unless many cases which were more serious had been transferred to the lower courts by the Reich prosecution.
In the last analysis, perhaps the percentage of cases which we kept back, as I mentioned before, and of the cases where an indictment was filed, at the People’s Court, I estimate those cases at 10 percent.
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Q. Witness, do you still remember what information you received in regard to the question whether recruiting offices for the Polish Legion existed in Switzerland?