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Volume III · Page 3
| INTRODUCTION |
| The "Justice Case" was officially designated
United States of America vs. Josef Altstoetter, et al. (Case 3). Of the sixteen
defendants indicted, nine were officials in the Reich Ministry of Justice. The
two persons who held the position of Reich Minister of Justice during the
Hitler regime, Franz Guertner and Georg Thierack, were both dead before the
indictment was filed. Between Guertner's death in January 1941 and Thierack's
appointment in August 1942, the defendant Schlegelberger served as Acting Reich
Minister of Justice. The defendants Schlegelberger, Rothenberger, and Klemm
each had held the position of Under Secretary ("Staatssekretaer", also
translated as State Secretary) in the Reich Ministry of Justice. Two other
officials of this Ministry were indicted but not tried: the defendant Westphal
committed suicide in Nuernberg jail after indictment and before the opening of
the trial; a mistrial was declared as to the defendant Engert, whose physical
condition prevented his presence in court for most of the trial. The defendants
who were not officials of the Reich Ministry of Justice included the chief
public prosecutor of the People's Court and several prosecutors and judges of
both the Special Courts and the People's Courts. Both the Special and the
People's Courts were established as important parts of the administration of
justice during the Nazi regime. All sixteen defendants named in the indictment were charged with criminal responsibility under the first three counts of the indictment. Count one charged participation in a conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity; count two alleged the commission of war crimes against civilians of territories occupied by Germany and against members of the armed forces of nations at war with Germany after September 1939; count three charged the commission of crimes against humanity, including offenses against both German civilians and the nationals of occupied countries, after the outbreak of World War II. The specific offenses charged included murder, persecution on political, racial, and religious grounds, deportation and enslavement, plunder of private property, torture and other atrocities. Count four charged seven of the defendants with membership in the SS, the SD, or the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, all organizations declared to be criminal by the International Military Tribunal. |
