Article contents
Law and Justice in the Nazi SS: The Case of Konrad Morgen
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2008
Extract
The role of law in the totalitarian state is problematic. In principle, law and unfettered political authority are antithetical but, in practice, the two have coexisted in uneasy and unequal partnership. As the Third Reich neared its apex in terms of internal and external power, a German expatriate described it as a “dual state” in which law existed side-by-side with the dynamic, ideologically charged will of the Führer. Duality did not imply balance, however, for law survived largely as a discretionary tool of total power. Nevertheless, pretotalitarian legality was never entirely deprived of a residual potency, a fact illustrated by an unlikely agent—SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) Dr. Georg Konrad Morgen, judge in the judicial branch of the SS. But the organizational context of Morgen's career is sufficiently unfamiliar as to require elucidation.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1983
References
1. The expatriate was Ernst Fraenkel, who published The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship in 1941. See Broszat, Martin, The Hitler State: The Foundation and Development of the Internal Structure of the Third Reich (London and New York, 1981), pp. 328–29.Google Scholar
2. Broszat, Martin, “Nationalsozialistische Konzentrationslager 1933–1945,” in Krausnick, Helmut et al. , Anatomie des SS-Staates, 2 (Munich, 1967): 53–55 (hereafter Anatomie)Google Scholar; Krausnick, Helmut and Wilhelm, Hans-Heinrich, Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges: Die Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, 1938–1942 (Stuttgart, 1981), pp. 80–83.Google Scholar
3. Ibid., p. 87; Buchheim, Hans, “Die SS—das Herrschaftsinstrument,” Anatomie, 1: 153.Google Scholar
4. Ibid., 1: 154–57; Mitteilungen des Reichsführers SS und Chef der Deutschen Polizei, Hauptamt SS-Gericht 2, no. 3: 76–77Google Scholar (hereafter Mitteilungen) in Records of the Reich Leader of the SS and Chief of the German Police, U.S. National Archives and Record Service Microcopy No. T-175, Roll 3, Frames 2503701–2 (hereafter cited in the following form: T-175/3/2503701–2).
5. Wegner, Bernd, Hitlers politische Soldaten: Die Waffen-SS 1933–1945 (Paderborn, 1982), p. 269, n. 22.Google Scholar
6. Anatomie, 1: 158–59Google Scholar; Mitteilungen 1, no. 1: 6–7, and 1, no. 6:147, T-175/3/no frame numberGoogle Scholar.
7. Ibid. 1, no. 1:5, T-175/3/no frame number.
8. “Merkblatt für Gerichtsoffiziere,” n.d., p. 1, T-175/3/2503792. See also “Auszug aus Befehlsblatt Nr. 6 vom 12.2.44,” p. 2, T-175/3/2503877 and Mitteilungen 2, no. 3: 79, T-175/3/2503702, and 1, no. 1: 8, T-175/3/no frame number.Google Scholar
9. Ibid. 1, no. 1: 6, 9, T-175/3/no frame numbers, and 2, no. 3: 78–79, T-175/3/2503702. See also Trials of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Germany (Nuremberg, 1947), 20: 416Google Scholar (hereafter IMT).
10. Ibid. On military court procedure, see Schweling, Otto Peter, Die deutsche Militärjustiz in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus (Marburg, 1978), pp. 23–27.Google Scholar
11. Mitteilungen 1, no. 1: 10, T-175/3/no frame numberGoogle Scholar; “Merkblatt für Gerichtsoffiziere,” p. 7, T–175/3/2503798.
12. Hauptamt SS-Gericht, XXI (RA III), 1139/40 July 15, 1940, p. 3, T-175/3/2503776. Mitteilungen 1, no. 4: 79–80, T-175/3/no frame numberGoogle Scholar.
13. Ibid. 1, no. 4:94–95, T-175/3/no frame number.
14. “Hauptamt SS-Gericht: Auszug aus der Kriminalstatistik für das 1. Vierteljahr, 1943,” T-175/60/2576152–54. A small fraction of these cases involved foreigners who were not in the service of the SS, but twenty-nine of the death sentences were handed down against such persons.
15. Mitteilungen 1, no. 1: 3, and 1, no. 6: 149, T-175/3/no frame number.Google Scholar
16. Ibid. 1, no. 2: 36–37, T-175/3/no frame number. See Hofer, Walther, ed., Der Nationalsozialismus: Dokumente, 1933–1945 (Frankfurt a.M., 1957), p. 285.Google Scholar
17. Mitteilungen 1, no. 6: 149, T-175/3/no frame number.Google Scholar
18. Ibid. 1, no. 2: 38–39, T-175/3/no frame number. See Buchheim, Hans, “Befehl und Gehorsam,” Anatomie, 1: 254–55.Google Scholar
19. IMT, 20: 492; “Anklageschrift gegen SS-Staf. Koch und Dr. Hoven: Wesentliches Ermittlungsergebnis,” Apr. 11, 1944, Nuremberg Trial Document NO-2366, pp. 46–47 (hereafter “Anklageschrift”).
20. Himmler to Bender, Mar. 16, 1944 in Heiber, Helmut, ed., Reichsführer! … Briefe an und von Himmler (Stuttgart, 1968), p. 254.Google Scholar
21. Mitteilungen 2, no. 6: 184, T-175/3/no frame number.
22. “Auszug aus der Kriminalstatistik fur das 1. Vierteljahr, 1943,” T-175/60/2576152–54; Mitteilungen 2, no. 5: 143. T-175/3/2503739.
23. See “Befehle des Reichsführers-SS über die Heiligkeit des Eigentums,” Mitteilungen 1, no. 5: 108–10, T-175/3/no frame number.
24. Ibid. 1, no. 5:111–14, T-175/3/no frame number.
25. Berlin Document Center (hereafter BDC), SS-Personalakte Morgen; interrogations of Morgen by U.S. war crimes investigators on Aug. 30, 1946, pp. 1–2, and on Sept. 19, 1946, pp. 1–2, U.S. National Archives and Record Service Microcopy 1019/47/496–97, 562–63.
26. Morgen interrogation of Aug. 30, 1946, loc. cit.; U.S. vs. Josias Prinz zu Waldeck, et al., National Archives and Record Service, Record Group 153, War Crimes Case No. 12–390 (Buchenwald), Roll 12, transcript page 2737 (hereafter Buchenwald Trial).
27. Morgen interrogation of Aug. 30, 1946, p. 8, 1019/47/503; affidavit by Morgen, Feb. 26, 1947, pp. 3–4, NO-1900.
28. “Aktenvermerk,” Apr. 21, 1941, p. 1, NO-2366.
29. Ibid., pp. 1–2; Morgen interrogation of Aug. 30, 1946, p. 14, 1019/47/509. “Aktenvermerk,” SS und Polizeigericht VI, Sept. 8, 1941, p. 4, NO-2366.
30. Morgen interrogation of Aug. 30, 1946, p. 16, 1019/47/511. See also Pohl (not Oswald Pohl) to Scharfe, Sept. 8, 1941, NO-2366.
31. Höhne, Heinz, Der Orden unter dem Totenkopf: Die Geschichte der SS (Gütersloh, 1967), pp. 294–95.Google Scholar
32. Morgen interrogation of Aug. 30, 1946, pp. 10–12, 1019/47/505–07.
33. Morgen, “Eidesstattliche Erklärung,” Jan. 28, 1947, pp. 1–2, NO-1908; Stein, George H., The Waffen SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War, 1939–1945 (Ithaca, 1966), pp. 266–67.Google Scholar
34. Morgen to Pohl, Nov. 2, 1941, NO-2366.
35. Morgen interrogation of Aug. 30, 1946, p. 23, 1019/47/518.
36. Morgen to Pohl, Nov. 2, 1941, NO-2366.
37. Morgen to Hinderfeld, Mar. 27, 1942, p. 3, NO-2366.
38. Morgen, “Eidesstattliche Erklärung,” Jan. 28, 1947, pp. 3–5, NO-1900; “Vernehmung von Dr. Konrad Morgen,” Oct. 21, 1946, p. 1, 1019/47/627.
39. Morgen interrogation of Aug. 30, 1946, pp. 18–19, 1019/47/513–4.
40. Ibid., p. 20, 1019/47/515; Morgen interrogation of Sept. 4, 1946, p. 5, 1019/47/526.
41. See Georg, Enno, Die wirtschaftlichen Unternehmungen der SS, Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, no. 7 (Stuttgart, 1963), pp. 61–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Speer, Albert, Infiltration: How Heinrich Himmler Schemed to Build an SS Industrial Empire, trans. Neugroschl, Joachim (New York, 1981), p. 3.Google Scholar
42. Buchenwald Trial, 7/5221–22, 5295–96.
43. “Dienstlaufbahn,” BDC, SS-Personalakte Koch.
44. Buchenwald Trial, 12/2745.
45. Ibid., 2864–65.
46. Ibid., 2745 and Roll 7/5196, 5240.
47. See report on the escape dated July 15, 1942 in BDC, SS-Personalakte Koch.
48. Koch to SS und Polizeigericht VI, Aug. 2, 1942; “Tatbericht,” SS und Polizeigericht VI, July 15, 1942; “Feld-Urteil,” SS und Polizeigericht VI, Aug. 17, 1942. BDC, Personalakte Koch.
49. Schmidt-Klevenow to SS und Polizeigericht VI, July 22, 1942, BDC, Personalakte Koch; “Anklageschrift,” p. 2, NO-2366.
50. Morgen interrogation of Sept. 4, 1946, pp. 10–11, 1019/47/531–32; Buchenwald Trial, 7/5226–27, 12/2749; Waldeck interrogation of Mar. 5, 1947, p. 8, ibid., 5/no frame number.
51. IMT, 20: 478.
52. “Eidesstattliche Versicherung Paulmann, SS-Richter,” n.d., pp. 6–7, Buchenwald Trial, 5/no frame number.
53. Buchenwald Trial, 7/5298.
54. IMT, 20: 438.
55. “Anklageschrift,” p. 36, NO-2366.
56. Ibid., pp. 46–47.
57. Ibid., pp. 52–65, 67–77.
58. Ibid., p. 53.
59. Ibid., p. 78.
60. Ibid., p. 81.
61. Ibid., p. 86.
62. See memorandum of SS-Richter Ende of SS und Polizeigericht z.b.V. beim Hauptamt SS-Gericht, dated Jan. 6, 1945, BDC, SS-Personalakte Koch.
63. Morgen interrogation of Jan. 18, 1947, p. 3, 1019/47/729; Morgen interrogation of Sept. 4, 1946, pp. 21–22, 1019/47/542–43.
64. Morgen, “Short Remarks to the Bill of Indictment Against SS Standartenführer Koch, Formerly Commander of the KZ Buchenwald,” pp. 2–3 in NO-2366 (hereafter ‘Short Remarks’).
65. Ibid.; Ende memorandum of Jan. 6, 1945, BDC, SS-Personalakte Koch.
66. Ibid.; Morgen, “Short Remarks,” p. 3, NO-2366. See also “Interrogation Summary 150,” p. 2, 1019/47/no frame number.
67. Buchenwald Trial, 7/5223–24, 12/3713–14; Morgen, “Short Remarks,” p. 3, NO-2366.
68. See, for example, IMT, 20: 493–95; 42: 551–62.
69. For a conflicting view, see Kogon, Eugen, Der SS-Staat: Das System der deutschen Konzentrationslager (Berlin, 1947), pp. 277–80.Google Scholar
70. Buchenwald Trial, 12/2900; Anatomie, 2: 132–33.
- 2
- Cited by