. NMT03-T1136
Volume III · Page 1136
| The nature of these reports will be later
discussed. On 1 May 1941 Joel was promoted to ministerial counsellor. He remained with the Reich Ministry of Justice until 12 May 1943. The reason for his leaving the Ministry was that on 7 May 1943 he was appointed attorney general to supreme provincial court of appeals in Hamm (Westphalia). By letter dated Fuehrer Headquarters, 12 May 1943, Bormann, Chief of the Party Chancellery (sentenced to death in absentia by the IMT) personally confirmed his appointment. It should be added that a few weeks earlier, by letter of 13 March 1943 to Reich Minister of Justice, Thierack, the Gauleiter of Westphalia, Alfred Meyer, also formally endorsed Joel's appointment for attorney general at Hamm, in his own name and in the name of deputy Gauleiter Hoffmann, in charge of the administration of the Gau Westphalia-South. Shortly after this new appointment, namely, as of 9 November 1943, Joel was promoted to the high rank of SS Obersturmbannfuehrer, which appointment was approved by Himmler. His political and Party career went hand in hand with his professional career, and his promotions were made by or approved by such high ranking Nazi officials as Himmler, Bormann, Heydrich, Thierack, and Freisler — whose desperate and despicable characters are known to the world; the record in this case is replete with many atrocities and crimes committed by these leaders and members of organizations which have been declared criminal by the IMT. Thus, Joel continued to the end as the confidant and trusted protegé of these most outstanding and notorious criminals of all time. It will be remembered that ever since December 1937, Joel in his several capacities at the Ministry of Justice had, in addition to his other duties, acted as liaison officer between the ministry and the SS, the SD, and the Gestapo. To this position a successor, Chief Public Prosecutor Franke, was appointed on 1 August 1943. Joel claims that in fact he had ceased to act as such liaison officer when Thierack assumed office as Reich Minister of Justice in August 1942. However, the record shows that even after that time Joel made numerous reports, some of which are mentioned below, relating to the execution of death penalties imposed under the law against Poles and Jews, and relating to the transfer of Poles who had received mild sentences, or had been acquitted, or had served their term, to the Gestapo. These were the very duties which he had to perform in the Reich Ministry as liaison officer. Even after Thierack's appointment as minister, Joel was connected with the interests of the Reich Security Office, and his work was productive and satisfactory in the carrying out of the plan or scheme of racial persecution and extermination of Poles |
