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Volume III · Page 1052
| feared objections from the Wehrmacht because
of the longer transportation involved in the transfer. A directive by the Reich Minister of Justice with respect to treatment of NN prisoners, dated Berlin, 21 January 1944, initialed by defendant von Ammon, to the president of the People's Court, to the Reich Leader SS, Reich prosecutor of the People's Court (defendant Lautz), to the Chief Public Prosecutor at Hamm (defendant Joel), and others, states that when an NN prisoner had been acquitted by a general court, if it appears that the accused is innocent or if his guilt has not been established sufficiently, then he has to be handed over to the Secret Police. The directive further states: |
"If in the main trial of an NN proceeding it appears that the accused is innocent or if his guilt has not been sufficiently established, then he is to be handed over to the Secret State Police; the public prosecutor informs the Secret State Police about his opinion whether the accused can be released and return into the occupied territories, or whether he is to be kept under detention. The Secret State Police decide which further actions are to be taken. |
| A letter dated 21 January 1944, Berlin, to
the OKW and the Judge Advocate General Department, dispatched 22 January 1944
(copy to Dr. Mettgenberg with request for approval) complains of lack of
coordination in NN cases between military courts and justice officials. This
complaint relates primarily to transfer of NN cases. In answer to the objections to the transfer of NN cases arising in France from Cologne to Breslau, dated 18 January 1944, the defendants Mettgenberg and von Ammon insisted that the transfer is necessary and directed its accomplishment. Three days later a letter endorsed by Mettgenberg informed Himmler that this transfer of NN cases had taken place. On 24 April 1944 von Ammon reported in detail on a trip he made to Paris previously referred to. This official visit served particularly to obtain information of the security situation in France and to determine whether the NN procedures of the Breslau Special Court were approved by the army. This meeting occurred in the office of the Chief Justice of the German Military Governor of Paris, General von Stuelpnagel. Von Ammon submitted this report both to Klemm and Mettgenberg who initialed it. |
