. NMT03-T0912
Volume III · Page 912
| F. Handling of Religious Matters | ||
| TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NG-630 PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 428 |
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| LETTER FROM
DEFENDANT SCHLEGELBERGER TO CHIEF PUBLIC PROSECUTORS AND SENIOR PUBLIC PROSECUTORS, 20 JULY 1935, CONCERNING THE "STRUGGLE AGAINST POLITICAL CATHOLICISM" |
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| The Reich Minister
of Justice V a 25 399 |
Berlin
W8, 20 July 1935 Wilhelmstrasse 65 |
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| [Illegible
Stamp] Handwritten] 2 copies sent to [illegible] |
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| To: Messrs. Chief Public
Prosecutors and Senior Public Prosecutors Subject: Struggle against political Catholicism For your confidential information and notice, I enclose a copy of the Prussian Ministerpraesident's decree of 16 July 1935 — St.M.I. 7905 — to the Oberpraesidenten and Regierungspraesidenten, etc. I decree it to be the duty of all prosecuting authorities to cooperate closely with the competent State Police and administrative authorities in taking action — with the deliberation necessary to avoid mistakes but also with the severity necessitated by the dangerous nature against all manifestations of the efforts of political Catholicism to undermine the unity of the State and create discord among the people, wherever they appear without regard for the person or rank of the perpetrator. |
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| [Handwritten remarks on left margin illegible; illegible signature.] | ||
| For this purpose, the
application of the following laws will be found particularly useful: Articles
130a, 131, 134a, 134b (as of 1 September 1935) Reich Criminal (Penal Law;
further, articles 1 and 2 of the law against insidious attacks on the State and
Party and for the protection of Party uniforms of 20 December 1934' (Law
Gazette I, p. 1269) ; the decree of the Reichspraesident for the Protection of
People and State of 28 February 19332 (Law Gazette I, p. 83) ; the law against
the founding of new parties of 14 July 1933 (Law Gazette I, p. 479) ; and the
law against public collections of 5 January 1934 (Law Gazette I, p. 1086).
The cases must be investigated with the utmost rapidity, so that the punishment will follow the crime as quickly as possible. The penalties called for at the trials shall be such as the national |
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¹ Document 1393-PS, Prosecution Exhibit 508, reproduced in section IV B.
² Reproduced as a part of Document NG-715, Prosecution Exhibit 112, on page 160.
