Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume IIIVarious
History
Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume III
Various
Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946; War crime trials -- Germany -- Nuremberg
“It is, of course, much easier for the tribunal to have the case
of a person charged put before them by a lawyer nicely arranged
and in the German language. But the judge must dispense with
these facilities when such great issues are at stake for the
German people.”
The Court will, in due course, have an opportunity to examine all of
these documents and an opportunity to observe the ruthless manner in
which this “special legislation” was administered. It is perhaps
superfluous to quote a statement by the president of the court of
appeals of Danzig summarizing the “situation” in his district for a
2-month period in 1942 following the effective date of the decree of 4
December 1941. “There were,” he says, “no complaints about too lenient
decisions during the period reported on.”
The defendant Schlegelberger, shortly after the decree became
effective, conferred with the Reich Governor of Eastern Territories
and worked out a system of administration pursuant to the decree of
4 December 1941, which (1) provided for summary courts martial, (2)
delegated to the Reich Governor the sole right to grant amnesty,
and (3) agreed to the holding of civilian prisoners as hostages. In
summarizing the results of this conference the defendant Schlegelberger
assured the Reich Governor that the “interest of the State can best be
served by regulating matters along the lines of our unanimous consent.”
Thus, it is clear that the extension of German law and German courts
into the Eastern Territories, especially insofar as the Poles and the
Jews were concerned, eventually deprived them of any legal recourse
whatsoever.
What has been said respecting the part played by key officials of
the Ministry of Justice in extending German Law and the German court
system to the occupied territories is equally true of Czechoslovakia
and particularly the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In one sense,
by virtue of the fact that Czechoslovakia fell to the Nazis before
the war, the experience there served as a proving ground for measures
which were later extended to the Eastern Territories and other occupied
countries.
The decree of 14 April 1939 and the decrees of 2 November 1942 and
of 1 July 1943, the texts of which, among others, will be presented
in evidence, mark the progress of the Nazis in extending German
jurisdiction to Czechoslovakia and are mute evidence of the “legal”
justification for the robbery, extortion, and atrocities, the knowledge
of which has already shocked the world. The prosecution will show
that the Ministry of Justice not only had full knowledge of what was
going on in the Protectorate, but its “experts” took a leading part
in the establishment and administration of the court system in the
Protectorate from the very outset to the end of the war as they did in
the Eastern Territories.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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