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Volume III · Page 525
| For the publication of the
Judges’ Letters the collaboration of all the judges and prosecutors is
needed. 1 expect suitable decisions from all branches of justice to be
presented to me for publication. When published, neither the judge nor the
tribunal pronouncing the sentence will be named. I am convinced that the Judges' Letters will help essentially to adjust the administration of justice uniformly along National Socialist lines. |
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| [Typed] Signed] DR. THIERACK | |
| Certified] :
[Signed] MASSMUND As Chief Secretary of the The Ministerial Chancery |
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| [Stamp] Reich Ministry of Justice | |
| PARTIAL
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NG-298 PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 81 |
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| THE FIRST ISSUE OF
THE JUDGES' LETTERS, 1 OCTOBER 1942 |
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| RICHTER BRIEFE
[Judges' Letters] Communications of the Reich Minister of Justice, Issue No. 1, 1 October 1942 |
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| Confidential | |
| German Judges | |
| According to ancient Germanic
interpretation of the law, the leader of the nation has always been its supreme
judge. When the leader therefore invests another person with the authority of a
judge, this means that the latter not only derives his judicial power from the
leader and is responsible to him, but also that leadership and judgeship have
related characters. The judge is therefore also the guardian of national self-preservation. He is the protector of the values of the nation and helps in the annihilation of the unworthy. He regulates those functions of life, which are considered diseases in the body of the nation. Justices vested with absolute authority are essential for maintaining a true national community. On account of this task, the judge is the direct assistant of the leadership of the State. This position renders him prominent, but also shows the limits of his tasks which cannot, as a liberal doctrine assumed, lie in the supervision of the leadership of the State. For, if a state does not have an organization which grants the leadership to the best, the administration of justice cannot substitute this selection by its activity. The judge is the embodiment of the wide-awake conscience of the nation. Any state is bound to fall if honesty and common |
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