Existing comment:
Prisoners of war or war criminals?
The "Central Division for Legal Protection to Germans Prosecuted Abroad" in the Federal Ministry of Justice official help and warnings for Nazi criminals
"On the basis of the Ordonnance of August 1944 that was authoritative during the trials in France (...), it is assumed that every member of an SS or SD unit or of the Feldgendarmerie is guilty, unless he proves that he was forced to join these organisations or was not involved in the act in question, proof that is practically impossible to provide. (...) I am only telling you this to show you how necessary it is for us to help the defendants from here so that there is the possibility of adequate legal protection."
Thomas Dehler, German Bundestag, 1 December 1949
01 Political Tailwind
The French High Commissioner André François-Poncet accused the Central Division for Legal Protection of systematically attempting to "present those convicted as victims of Allied justice."
André François-Poncet: Letter to Adenauer of 2 July 1951
Adenauer replied to François-Poncet on 2 August 1951 in a letter largely drafted by Walter Strauss, State Secretary at the BMJ:
"The Federal Government exercises its right and its duty through this department to grant legal protection to German citizens accused or sentenced by Allied courts for war crimes. (...)."
Dr. Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963
02 A Fatal Choice
The choice of Dr. Gawlik as Director of the Central Division for Legal Protection proved fatal. From 1933, Dr. Gawlik had been a Nazi Party member and associate judge at the Nazi Gau Court in Lower Silesia. From 1942, he had worked as a public prosecutor at the special court in Breslau, where he had been involved in passing many death sentences. He was part of the Nazis' politicised penal judicial system that imposed death sentences on supposed enemies of the regime for even the most trivial offences.
After 1945, Dr. Gawlik had acted as defence counsel for Nazi criminals. He appeared at the Nuremberg trials and later defended Waldemar Hoven, an SS camp doctor at Buchenwald concentration camp. Dr. Gawlik thus consistently used the opportunities of the Legal Protection Division to warn Nazi war criminals and protect them from punishment.
03 Secret Advice
Encouraged by the political tailwind, Dr. Gawlik operated in particular in the Western countries. Here there was more hope of achieving something on behalf of the perpetrators than in East Germany, Yugoslavia or the USSR. By mid-1950, 2,784 people, mainly convicted or wanted war criminals, were being advised. The Central Legal Protection Division developed into an instrument that protected Nazi perpetrators who were officially being sought. In 1953, Dr. Gawlik and his division were transferred to the Federal Foreign Office.
The Central Legal Protection Division informed Nazi perpetrators that they had been convicted and were being sought. The perpetrators reacted by going underground, thus escaping their punishment. |