. NMT03-T1109
Volume III · Page 1109
offices as well as the offices of the NSDAP are requested to assist him in his work." |
| On 26 September 1939 Rothenberger, as president of the Hanseatic Court of Appeals, notified the Prosecutor General of Kauffmann's order and requested that a copy of the indictment "in all politically important cases or cases which are of special interest to the public should be sent to him." In a report to Schlegelberger of 11 May 1942 he spoke of the "crushing effect" of the Fuehrer's speech of 26 April 1942 and of the feeling of consequent insecurity on the part of the judges, and said: |
"I have therefore assumed responsibility for each verdict which the judges discuss with me before passing it." |
| In the same report he states that on 6 May
1942 he made arrangements with all senior police officers, senior SS, senior
officers of the criminal police, of the Secret State Police, and of the SD "to
the effect that every complaint about juridical measures taken by judges was to
be referred to me before the police would take action (especially regarding
execution of sentence)." In June 1942 Rothenberger reported to the defendant Schlegelberger that he had made similar arrangements in Bremen with the Kreisleiter, president of the police, leader of the Secret State Police (Gestapo), and the leader of the SD. He reported to Schlegelberger: |
"In view of the present situation, I am intensifying the internal direction and control of jurisdiction which I have considered to be my main task since 1933." |
| On 7 May 1942 Rothenberger issued an order
in which he stated his intention to inform himself prior to the proceedings on
cases which are of political significance "or which involve the possibility of
a certain conflict between formal law and the instinctive reactions of the
people or National Socialist ideology." He directed that reports be submitted
to him which must be in sufficient detail in order, as he said, "to enable my
deputy to judge the necessity of my intervention." By reference to his own words we have already set forth Rothenberger's expressed convictions as to the duty of a judge as the "vassal" of the Fuehrer to decide cases as the Fuehrer would decide. The conclusion which we are compelled to draw from a great mass of evidence is not that Rothenberger objected to the exertion of influence upon the courts by Hitler, the Party leaders, or the Gestapo, but that he wished that influence to be channeled through him personally rather than directed in a more public way at each individual judge. On the one hand he estab- [...lished] |
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