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Volume III · Page 309
conversation I said to him that the Party at every opportunity made difficulties for our ministry, he said to me: "That cannot surprise you. The reason lies in the centralization of the administration of justice under the circumstances under which it was achieved. That is the reason why the Party as a group is opposed to the Reich Ministry of Justice and makes life as difficult as possible for that ministry. The Party is of the opinion that the administration of justice should again be taken over by National socialist hands." Goering added, "I myself will never pardon Guertner and you for the way you acted in 1934."
Q. I shall submit Schlegelberger Document 26, Schlegelberger Exhibit 66,¹ in reference to the aforesaid statements. Will you please give us a brief description of the organization of the Reich Ministry of Justice?
A. Under the very top, that is, under the Reich Minister of Justice, there were two separate under secretariats: the under secretariat for civil law matters, the head of which was myself; the direction of the secretariat for penal law matters which was in the hands of Freisler. Further, he was in charge of the so-called Organization section [Organisationreferat] , the Hereditary Farm Law [Erbhofrecht] and the Inspection Office for Judicial Affairs [Justizpruefungsamt].
Under the two under secretariats there worked a total of six ministerial directors each of whom was the head of his specialized divisions. The number of these divisions and their sphere of work changed several times in the course of time.
Inside some departments, subsections had been created which were in charge of a Ministerialdirigent. The number of higher officials² in the Reich Ministry of Justice amounted to approximately 250. Personnel matters were divided into regions. As regards the East, I was only in charge of my own home province, East Prussia. Otherwise, I dealt with western and southern Germany, Freisler was in charge of the remaining [regions]. Freisler was in charge of the People's Court. The Reich Supreme and the Reich patent office were in my charge. The two divisions, directed by Under Secretaries were entirely separate from one another. Freisler and myself had different times at which we went to report to the Minister. The Minister asked me to come to see him when Freisler had finished his report and had left the room. Only very rarely, and only when one of my officials was to be pointed to a head office in Freisler's sphere, or vice versa, did
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¹ This document is the Second Law concerning the transfer of administration of justice to the Reich, dated 5 December 1934. Extracts from this law are reproduced as a part of Doc. NG-715, Pros. Ex. 112, on p. 172.
² Higher officials belong to the top group of German Civil Servants. See table on German Civil Service Ranks in the appendix.
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