GERMAN JUSTICE [Deutsche Justiz]
10th. year, Edition A, No. 42 Beilin, 16 October 1942,
Page 6-62.
The Judge is-therefore not the supervisor-of, but the direct assistant in the Administration of the State. He is responsible to the leadership of the State [Staatsfuehrung] within his sphere of duty for the conservation of the national community. By protecting the national values [Voelkische Werte] and eliminating (dangerous elements from the community of the people) he is, in this respect akin to the political leader, the promulgator of national self preservation [Voelkische Selbsterhaltung[. This point of view must be decisive for the Judge. The Judge taking it for his guiding principle will find many a decision which seemed very difficult to be solved at first, facilitated.
This task brings the Judge in direct and close contact with the leadership of the State. This association must be felt down to the last Judge. Every Judge must be made familiar with the problems facing the leadership of the State to the extent necessary to enable the Judge to perform his duties within the total order of life in the community [gesamtvoelkische Leben-sordnung[. Resulting from this is the meaning and the necessity of leadership in the Administration of Justice. It is one of the most difficult questions among the problems of Justice altogether. Leadership in the Administration of Justice does not bind the Judge to regulations on the part of the leadership of the State. The essence of the so-called independence of the Judge—a word that should be eliminated from the vocabulary for the above reasons—his free though regulated [freie, weisjungsungebundene] decision should and will remain, there would be no more Judge. But the leadership of the State should and
233
2482-RS
ought to give the Judge the general rules to be observed, if JuS-* tice is to fulfill its purpose. For this purpose serve among others the confidential "Letters for the Judge" [Richterbriefe] edited by me which every German Judge and Public prosecutor receives.
Extract from a legal periodical, on the judge's responsibility to the leadership of the state
Authors
Otto Georg Thierack (President of People's Court; Minister of Justice, 1942-45)
Otto Georg Thierack
German politician (1889-1946)
- Born: 1889-04-19 (Wurzen)
- Died: 1946-10-26 1946-11-22 (Sennelager Civilian Internment Camp No. 7, Eselheide Paderborn)
- Country of citizenship: Germany
- Occupation: judge; politician
- Member of political party: Nazi Party (since: 1932-01-01)
- Member of: Corps Guestphalia et Suevoborussia Marburg
- Participant in: Aryanization; The Holocaust (role: criminal)
- Position held: Federal Ministry of Justice; Judge of the People's Court; Reich Minister of Justice (period: 1942-08-20 through 1945-05-23; replaces: Franz Schlegelberger)
Date: 16 October 1942
Literal Title: German Justice (Deutsche Justiz)
Total Pages: 1
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-2482
Citation: IMT (page 255)
HLSL Item No.: 450246
Notes:The author is not stated explicitly, but is identified by reference to Thierack's "Letters for the Judge."