We Accuse: 800 Bloodstained Nazi Judges Uphold the Adenauer Regime

Beschreibung

(This book contains a Documentary Supplement with its own page numbering; in the physical book, it was arbitrarily inserted between pages 96 and 97, and I've moved to the end.) Introduction The Committee for German Unity herewith presents documentary evidence showing that according to incomplete researches, more than 800 of Hitler’s Special Court Judges and Military Judges today occupy positions of responsibility in the West German judicial system, although it can be proven that they were guilty of terrible crimes during the Nazi period, including innumerable illegal death sentences and sentences of hard labour. These judges, as willing tools of German imperialism and militarism sent thousands of Germans and non-Germans to the scaffold. They helped Hitler in planning and waging war against Germany’s neighbours. They were responsible for the death of men and women who fought against war and mass murder; men and women who opposed the draconic Nazi measures of oppression in the occupied countries; men and women who stood up for their democratic and anti-fascist principles and fought against the Nazis and for the liberation of their countries; and also men and women whose only crime was that they had let fall an unguarded word against the Hitlerite system. The verdicts pronounced by these terrorist judges were not legal verdicts: they were naked terrorism. The war-time allies pledged themselves, in the Potsdam Agreement and in other documents, to remove from office and to arraign these murderers after the defeat of fascism. Law No. 4 of the Allied Control Council of October 30th 1945 stated: “In order to reform the German legal system, all former members of the Nazi Party who gave their active support to the Party, and all other persons who had a direct part in the penal methods of the Hitlerite regime must be removed from office as judges and public prosecutors, and may not be allowed to occupy such office”. The documentary evidence here presented shows that the West German Government and the western powers have broken this clear and unmistakeable agreement, and that today a majority of the Nazi jurists have been restored to office. Yesterday they were the accomplices of German militarism; today under Adenauer they are the accomplices of the West German militarists who are preparing atomic war. On October 19th 1958, Dr Max Guede, West German Federal Prosecutor General, admitted that “the mass of today’s judges and public prosecutors were already active in legal office between 1933 and 1945 … They were tools of illegality, and instruments of terror”. Dr Guede stated that these persons had made themselves guilty “because the rule of law perished, but they survived”. He did not, however, draw any practical conclusions from this state of affairs, or suggest any steps to change it. International public opinion has noted with growing uneasiness not only that the majority of Nazi judges have been returned to office, but also that the 800 special court judges and military judges who are particularly implicated, according to research done by the Committee for German Unity, are today again occupying responsible positions, although they had an active part in “Nazi enterprises involving or resulting in atrocities or war crimes” as the Potsdam Agreement stated. The West German Government, and the Provincial Governments in West Germany, are well aware of these facts. All documents and evidence on the crimes of these Nazi judges, published by the Committee for German Unity since 1956, has been submitted to these West German authorities. Instead of removing these judges from public office, as provided for in international agreements, the West German Government has promoted many of them, so that today they hold leading posts in the West German judicial system. The 800 special court judges and military judges today occupy the following positions: 11 are employed in Ministries in the Federal Republic. 17 are employed in Federal Courts. 181 are Public Prosecutors, including 55 Senior Public Prosecutors. 109 are employed in Upper Provincial Courts, including 27 Presidents and Senate Presidents. 222 are employed in Provincial Courts, including 121 Presidents and Directors. 213 are employed in District Courts, including 17 Presidents and Directors. 40 are employed in other courts, including 15 Presidents and Directors. 7 are employed in other functions in the judicial system. These facts show that the West German Government has no intention of dismissing these Nazi judges, some of whom sent more than 100 victims to the scaffold. In fact the West German Government gives protection to these Nazi judges, who were responsible for thousands of executions. Legal proceedings against these men are quashed, and they are granted generous pensions, while their victims and dependents wait in vain for recognition as victims of Nazism and the compensation or pension which accompanies such recognition. We are witness of the fact today that many of these hanging judges today again persecute those who struggle against the warlike plans of German imperialism. Yesterday they persecuted the opponents of fascist war, today they persecute the opponents of atom war. Yesterday they banned working class organisations, ordered arrests and searches, and seized anti-war leaflets. Today many of them are doing the same at the behest of the militarists who control West Germany. At the same time they spread their blood-stained robes protectively over the anti-Semites, war criminals and mass murderers who are on top again in West Germany. Examples of this are the acquittal of the anti-Semite Nieland in Hamburg and SS General Simon, the favour shown to the Arnsberg murderers of 208 Soviet slave-workers, and the employment in state service of murderers of Jews, such as Braeutigam and Globke. We accuse the West German Government of covering the crimes committed by these judges against the German people and the people of Europe during the years of Nazi tyranny, and of preparing new crimes against the German people and its neighbours with the help of these judges. The West German Government cannot conceal this fact by establishing a so-called “Central Office for the Prosecution of Nazi Crimes”. Neither the West German Government nor other responsible West German politicans have suggested that the establishment of this Central Office would entail the dismissal of these Nazi judges. As a result of the international indignation against the re-installment of these Nazi judges, the West German Government drew attention to this Central Office in an official communication to the British Government: it only took this step in order to trick and pacify public opinion in Britain and other countries. this fact by establishing a so-called “Central Office for the Prosecution of Nazi Crimes”. Neither the West German Government nor other responsible West German politicians have suggested that the establishment of this Central Office would entail the dismissal of these Nazi judges. As a result of the international indignation against the re-installment of these Nazi judges, the West German Government drew attention to this Central Office in an official communication to the British Government: it only took this step in order to trick and pacify public opinion in Britain and other countries. With this publication the Committee For German Unity charges the West German Government with re-installing in responsible positions 800 former active Nazis, and agents of fascist tyranny. Hitler’s generals and SS leaders head the West German Wehrmacht, and pursue a policy of militarisation and of atomic arms; the old Nazi diplomats are employed once again in the West German Foreign Ministry and in the diplomatic service; in West Germany industry, agriculture and banking the old “Economic Leaders” and “Food Supply Leaders” have returned to the key posts. The West German Government has thus intentionally and systematically broken the international agreements on the democratisation of Germany. Instead of democratisation, we see that the militarists, revenge-seekers and anti-Semites become ever more insolent, that they are permitted to establish their organisations, while at the same time democratic organisations like the Communist Party, the Free German Youth. the German-Soviet Friendship Society, the Democratic Women’s League, and in some provinces even the Association of Nazi Persecutees, are banned. We see that they spread imperialist, chauvinist and revengeful ideas in the interests of German imperialism, and make propaganda amongst the West German population for the annexation of territory belonging to other countries. This policy on the part of the German imperialists and militarists and of the West German Government headed by Chancellor Adenauer has turned West Germany into the centre of a new war danger, and has prevented the reunification of Germany as a democratic and peace-loving state. In presenting this documentary evidence to the public, the Committee for German Unity calls for the dismissal from government service of these Nazi judges and all other incriminated Nazis the employment of whom is an insult to all decent West German jurists. This would remove an obstacle to the peaceful reunification of Germany and to the relaxation of tension in Europe. Committee for German Unity (Translated: February 1959)