Note
1. Just now, at 1030, State Secretary Dr. Meissner telephoned and asked me to deliver the following message to the Minister, whom he had been unable to contact:
Concerning the pardon of those sentenced in connection with the maltreatment in the Hohnstein Concentration Camp, Herr Bouhler informed him yesterday that he had reported to the Fuehrer on the result of the fresh inquiries, which he and Reich Governor Mutschmann had instituted. The Fuehrer has now decided to remit all other sentences remaining. State Secretary Meissner wished to inform the Ministry of Justice of this, so that it might be made the subject of corresponding decrees. He, State Secretary Meissner, mentioned that the Minister of Justice had likewise been commissioned by the Fuehrer to carry out special inquiries, to determine in which cases the motives for maltreatment had been sadistic and therefore a pardon would be out of place. The Minister of Justice would have to be given the opportunity of reporting to the Fuehrer his ideas, based on his still inconclusive investigations. Herr Bouhler also stated that the Minister of Justice was still at liberty to do so. The Fuehrer merely desired that his inquiries be hastened as much as possible so that the statement could be made within the next few weeks and that, in any case, he submit ar decree granting full pardon.
State Secretary Meissner, when finally summing up, therefore requested that, should the Minister not approve of a total pardon, a double decree be submitted.
2. The Minister for his favourable consideration.
Berlin, 29th November 1935
[Signature illegible]
Memorandum on Hitler's instructions to the Ministry of Justice for an expedited review of the Hohnstein case and the proposed pardon
Authors
Kaulbauch (Ministry of Justice, 1935)
Kaulbauch
- Additional details not yet available.
Date: 29 November 1935
Literal Title: [No]te
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-786
Citation: IMT (page 255)
HLSL Item No.: 450204
Notes:Part of the title is missing; another copy confirms that is it "Note." The memo is not signed; the document book table of contents states that the author was Kaulbauch. Hitler's instructions were relayed by Otto Meissner. For other documents on the case, see PS 783-785.
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…
Document Summary
PS-786: Letter of Minister of Justice Guertner re Legal proceedings against [Illegible] Jahnichen and others for the Mistreatment of Inmates of the Concentration Camp Hohnstein
PS-786: Memorandum from Kaulbach to the Reich Minister of justice, 29 November 1935, to the effect that Hitler had decided to remit all remaining punishments in the case of the men sentenced in the Hohnstein trial