. NMT03-T1085
Volume III · Page 1085
| and Jews; he was also guilty of violation of
the laws and customs of war by establishing that legislation in the occupied
territories of the East. The extension of this type of law into occupied
territories was in direct violation of the limitations imposed by the Hague
Convention, which we have previously cited. It is of interest to note that on 31 January 1942 Schlegelberger issued a decree providing that the provisions of the law against Poles and Jews "will be equally applicable with the consent of the public prosecutor to offenses committed before the decree came into force". We doubt if the defendant would contend that the extension of this discriminatory and retroactive law into occupied territory was based on military necessity. Schlegelberger divorced his inclinations from his conduct. He disapproved "of the revision of sentences" by the police, yet he personally ordered the murder of the Jew Luftgas on the request of Hitler, and assured the Fuehrer that he would, himself, take action if the Fuehrer would inform him of other sentences which were disapproved. Schlegelberger's attitude toward atrocities committed by the police must be inferred from his conduct. A milking-hand, Bloedhug, was sentenced to death in October 1940, and during the trial he insisted his purported confession had been obtained as, a result of beatings imposed upon him by the police officer Klinzmann. A courageous judge tried Klinzmann and convicted him of brutality and sentenced him to a few months imprisonment. Himmler protested against the sentence of Klinzmann and stated that he was going "to take the action of the Hauptwachtmeister of the police Klinzmann as an occasion to express gratitude for his farsighted conduct which was only beneficial to the community." He said further: |
"I must reward his action because otherwise the joy of serving in the police would be destroyed by such verdicts. But finally K. has to be rehabilitated in public because his being sentenced by a court is known in public." |
| On 10 December 1941 Schlegelberger wrote to the Chief of the Reich Chancellery stating that he was unable to understand the sentence passed against Klinzmann. We quote: |
"No sooner had the verdict passed on Klinzmann become known here, orders were for this reason given to the effect that the sentence in case of its validation should not be carried out for the time being. Instead, reports concerning the granting of a pardon should be made as soon as possible. In the meantime, however, the sentence passed on Klinzmann became valid, by decision of the Reich [Supreme] Court of 24 November 1941 which abandoned the procedure of revision as apparently un- […founded] |
