| Hauptamt SS-Gericht | |
|---|---|
| The Hauptamt SS-Gericht was an office of the SS. | |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | c.1933 |
| Preceding agency | SS-Gericht |
| Dissolved | 8 May 1945 |
| Jurisdiction | Germany Occupied Europe |
| Headquarters | Hauptamt SS-Gericht, Karlstraße, Munich |
| Employees | 650 |
| Minister responsible | Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, (1933-1945) |
| Agency executives | SS-Oberführer Dr Ernst Bach, Chef des Hauptamtes SS-Gericht, (1933) SS-Obergruppenführer Paul Scharfe, Chef des Hauptamtes SS-Gericht, (1933 -1942) SS-Obergruppenführer Franz Breithaupt, Chef des Hauptamtes SS-Gericht, (1942 -1945) SS-Oberfuhrer Dr Gunther Reinecke, Chef des Hauptamtes SS-Gericht, (1945) |
| Parent agency | Allgemeine-SS |
The Hauptamt SS-Gericht (English: SS Court Head Office) was the legal department of the SS during the Third Reich. It was responsible for formulating the laws and codes that the SS and various other groups of the secret police and Wehrmacht were to adhere to, as well as administering the SS and Police Courts and penal systems.[1]
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Early in the Nazi regime SS personnel were charged with breaking the law through the performance of their duties at the Dachau concentration camp in 1934. Under such circumstances, the Nazi regime realised it would be expedient to remove the SS and police units from the jurisdiction of the civilian courts. This was achieved with a petition to the Reich Ministry of Justice.
This legal status meant all SS personnel were only accountable to the Hauptamt SS Gericht effectively placing them 'above regular German law'.
The Hauptamt SS Gericht was an extension of the previous SS Gericht, an organization that administered surveys of the SS and police forces and their codes of honor. The Hauptamt SS Gericht had four departments (German: Ämter or Amtsgruppe):
The Hauptamt SS Gericht's headquarters were the high court offices in Munich. The Hauptamt SS Gericht had 605 qualified lawyers that passed sentences on members of the German armed forces, though Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler often changed the sentences. By 1944, the number of SS-Hauptamt offices within Germany had grown from 8 to 12.[1]
The Hauptamt SS-Gericht administered also 38 regional SS courts throughout the Third Reich under legal jurisdiction which superseded civilian courts. These laws extended to all SS and police force members operating in Germany or throughout occupied Europe.[2] The SS and Police Courts were the only authority that could try SS personnel for criminal behaviour.
The different SS and Police Courts were as follows:
The one exception to the SS and Police Courts jurisdiction involved members of the Allgemeine-SS who were serving on active duty in the regular Wehrmacht. In such cases, the SS member in question was subject to regular Wehrmacht military law and could face charges before a standard military tribunal.
In 1943 SS-Sturmbannführer Georg Morgen, from the Hauptamt SS-Gericht, began investigating corruption and criminal activity within the Nazi concentration camps system. He eventually prosecuted so many SS officers that by April 1944, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler personally ordered him to restrain his cases. Among the people he investigated was Karl Otto Koch, the commandant of Buchenwald and Majdanek, and husband of Ilse Koch - as well as Buchenwald's concentration camp doctor Waldemar Hoven, who was accused of murdering both inmates and camp guards who threatened to testify against Koch.
In 1944, while investigating the Auschwitz commander, Rudolf Höß, Morgen's assistant Hauptscharführer Gerhard Putsch disappeared and was not heard from again. Some theorized this was a warning for Morgen to ease up on his investigations, as his quarters were burned down shortly afterwards.[3]
Morgen, who had been an SS judge and investigator, later testified at the Nuremberg trials. He later claimed that he fought for justice during the Nazi era, and cited his long list of 800 investigations into criminal activity at concentration camps during his two years of activity.[4]
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