Food for thought: By Bruce Lindner
A century ago, the Nazi Party of Germany began to restructure the German judiciary system more to Hitler’s liking. Too many judges were ruling against Der Führer and his captains, so following the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, the party established “Führerprinzip;” literally, “the leader’s word is above all written law.”
Hitler’s head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler in particular, locked horns with the judiciary over his treatment of certain undesirables of the Reich. Himmler wanted the freedom to transfer his perceived enemies of the Reich from local jails to his concentration camp system, but the courts wouldn’t permit it. Many of those in custody had never been convicted of any wrongdoing in courts of law.
As Hitler’s power grew, he outlawed opposition parties and eventually became both Chancellor and President of the Nazi State. He appointed several Nazi lawyers, including a fierce loyalist named Otto Thierack to “clean up” the Ministry of Justice.
He was promoted to Reich Minister of Justice in 1942. Thierack was obsessed with eliminating what he saw as unnecessary red tape in dealing with undesirables and so-called enemies of the state. So by decree, he had all Jews, Gypsies, Poles and Russians with 3 year sentences, and all Czechs and Germans with 8 year sentences, reclassified as “asocial elements” (might as well have classified them as terrorists), and transferred over to Herr Himmler to deal with. They were of course, never heard from again.
Himmler eventually prevailed in his war with the courts. Fifteen members of the Ministry of Justice were either replaced, sent to concentration camps, or shot by firing squad.
Who needs a strong judiciary when you’ve got a strongman in charge of the apparatus of state?
