[EXTRACT FROM A PAMPHLET "JUDGES' LETTERS"] Information Pamphlet on the Reichs Ministry of Justice.
Confidential
5. Concealment of Jewish Identification.
Judgment of a Lower Court of 24th April 1942.
The Jewish proprietress of a boarding house failed to apply for the name SARA to be added to her own name in the official Telephone Directory. The Lower Court condemned her to a fine of RM30 or ten days' imprisonment. Reason given is: According to the decision of the District Court, Jews are obliged to have their names supplemented with the name SARA in the telephone book. The Jewess was therefore to be punished. The leniency of the punishment was explained by the fact that individual judges had sometimes not given their decisions along the lines laid down by the District Court.
Confidential.
No. 1, 1 Oct. 42.
GERMAN JUDGES.
According to the ancient Teutonic conception of justice, the leader of the Nation was also its supreme judge. If, therefore,
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the Fuehrer invests the authority of a judge on a third person, it not only implies that this person receives his judge's power from the Fuehrer and is responsible to him, but it also proves the close relationship between leadership and the duties of a judge.
I, therefore, decided to issue "Judges' Letters" which will be sent to all German judges and Attorney Generals. In particular these "Judges' Letters" will contain such findings, which, in my opinion, deserve to be specially discussed in view of their results or grounds for judgment. I propose to show by means of these findings how a better decision could, and should have been made. On the other hand, it is proposed to point out correct decisions of sufficient importance to the community.
The contents of the letters are confidential. They will be handed to all Judges and Attorney Generals by the departmental chiefs, against receipt.
I am convinced that the "Judges' Letters" will contribute considerably towards the creation of a German corps of judges, homogeneous in spirit.
Berlin, 1 Oct 42.
(Sgd) Dr. Thierach.
Reichs Minister of Justice.
No. 4
CRIME AGAINST FOREIGN CURRENCY LAWS BY A JEW. Judgment by a County Court of 26 May lt2.
The accused, a S6 year old Jew, took over the textile business of his deceased father in 1936 and emigrated to Holland in 1938. In 1941 he was arrested at Amsterdam.
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The County Court decided that "for the reasons stated by the accused" a particularly serious case under para. 42 of the Foreign Currency Law of 4 Feb. 44, and para. 69 of the Foreign Currency Law of 12 Dec 38, did not exist. It sentenced the accused to a total imprisonment of two years, and fined him 9,000 RM. The time spent in prison on remand will be deducted from the sentence.
The judgment, in considering the reasons for the sentence, is weighing up the mitigating circumstances and states that the accused was, in principle, without previous conviction; that he had been under certain amount of stress owing to the action of his father and the stubbornness of his sister. One crime had inevitably been followed by another. Furthermore, by making a confession he had greatly assisted in clarifying the whole evidence.
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The lengthy period of criminal conduct is then quoted as an aggravating factor, as well as the fraudulent conduct towards German authorities. Certain demands made of former employees are also stressed.
COMMENTS BY THE REICHS MINISTER OF JUSTICE In deciding the sentence, the Court is using the same considerations which would be applied if the accused had been a German national. This is not admissible. A Jew is an enemy of the German people who has plotted, stirred up and prolonged this war. Thus he has brought endless misery upon our German nation. He is not only of a different, but also of an inferior racial type. Justice demands that equal measures must not be applied to the unequal and that this racial point of view must not be overlooked in deciding the sentence. In passing a sentence on the accused, who was—as is typical for a Jew—a profiteer to the detriment of German interests, it ought to have been considered first and foremost that he had extracted considerable values from the German people over a period of years. Like all of his race, he deliberately and selfishly damaged vital German interests by ruthlessly profiteering and fraud. He has abused German hospitality which had enabled him and his father to accumulate a considerable fortune, and finally did not hesitate to entice Germans who were economically dependent on him, to commit grave breaches of the Foreign Currency Laws, which endangered their entire existence. The question of whether or not this was a particularly serious case, should have been examined with a view to the general aspect of the German people. It did not suffice in this connection to refer to the unconvincing statements of the accused himself who was certainly not under compulsion during all those four years, but who was acting in his own interest and on his own initiative. The typically Jewish conduct which is damaging National interests, calls for the sternest judgment and the most severe punishment. In view of those reasons considerations of the psychology of the Jew and his family should have been a matter of utter insignificance.
iji * sje * * * *
No. 3, 1 Dec 42.
REFUSAL TO GIVE THE GERMAN SALUTE BY A SCHOOL CHILD.
Decision of a juvenile court on 21 Sept 40.
An 11 year old girl attracts attention by constantly refusing the Hitler salute in school. She states that the reason is her religious conviction and even quotes passages from the Bible. At
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school she shows no interest if questions are asked, which refer to the Fuehrer. The parents, who have another 6 year old daughter, approve of the child's conduct and refuse persistently to influence the child to the contrary. They, too, refuse the Hitler salute and refer to a quotation from the Bible "Do nothing with thy hand raised because this displeases the Lord". They adhere to this in spite of admonitions by the Court and by the director of the school. The mother completely refuses to talk to the child about it. The father agrees to talk it over with the child but the decision is to be left to her. Altogether the parents show signs of being opposed to the National Socialist State. They do not possess a single Swastika flag. They have not arranged for their child to join the Hitler Youth. They have been barred from the NSV, because they have not made any donations in spite of a sufficient income by the husband. All the same, they deny being opponents of the National Socialist Movement. .
The department for the care of Juveniles has recommended that, owing to this attitude, the parents should be deprived of their jurisdiction over their children; the juvenile court had declined, and has merely decreed protective supervision.
[Instructions for issuing steel switches to Krupp camps]
The steel switches (birches) have been delivered. How shall they be distributed?
80 pieces (switches)
Herrn Sager, the 80 steel switches (birches) may be distributed as follows:
Extracts from "Judges' Letters," on the Teutonic concept that the nation's leader is also its supreme judge, the proper legal treatment of Jews as enemies, and the case of a child refusing to give the "German salute"
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: 01 October 1942
Literal Title: Extract from a Pamphlet "Judges' Letters."
Total Pages: 3
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: D-229
Citation: IMT (page 255)
HLSL Item No.: 450199
Trial Issues
Conspiracy (and Common plan, in IMT) (IMT, NMT 1, 3, 4) IMT count 1: common plan or conspiracy (IMT) Nazi regime (rise, consolidation, economic control, and militarization) (I… Persecution of political, religious, and ethnic ("racial") groups (IMT, NM…
Document Summary
D-229: 'Judges Letters' extracts from a periodical edited by Thierack Reichsminister of Justice, showing jurisdiction as regards Jews and against people who did not support Nazi Party