. NMT03-T1114
Volume III · Page 1114
| should decide against the Jew in any event on
political grounds. Concerning this suggestion Rothenberger ventures no comment.
The defendant in the Prenzlau case takes his cue from the advice of the
economic advisor and denies liability; the court grants to the Jew the right to
proceed in forma pauperis. Rothenberger criticizes this action, although
the lower court had acted in strict conformity with the law. In March the
awaited law excluding the Jew from the benefit of the poor-law is passed. In
May, Rothenberger overrules the protest of a judge and directs the canceling of
the order which was made by the lower court. This dictation by the defendant
Rothenberger to other courts and judges of his district was not done in the
course of a legal appeal from the lower court to the court over which he
presided. It was done after the manner of a dictator directing an
administrative inferior how to proceed. Rothenberger not only participated in securing the enactment of a discriminatory law against Jews; he enforced it when enacted and, in the meantime, before its enactment, upon his own initiative he acted without authority of any law in denying to Jewish paupers the aid of the courts. It is true that the denial to Jews of the right to proceed in civil litigation without advancement of costs appears to be a small matter compared to the extermination of Jews by the millions under other procedures. It is nevertheless a part of the government-organized plan for the persecution of the Jews, not only by murder and imprisonment but by depriving them of the means of livelihood and of equal rights in the courts of law. The defendant Rothenberger testified that various judges reported to him "that they had heard rumors to the effect that everything was not quite all right in the concentration camps" and that they wished to inspect one. Accordingly, Rothenberger and the other judges visited the concentration camp at Neuengamme. He testified that they inquired about food conditions, accommodations, and the methods of work, and spoke to some inmates, and he asserts that they did not discover any abuses. This was in 1941. Again in 1942, according to his own testimony, the defendant visited Mauthausen concentration camp in company with Kaltenbrunner, who was later in charge of all concentration camps in Germany and has since suffered death by hanging. At Mauthausen concentration camp the defendant Rothenberger again inspected installations, conferred with inmates, and inquired as to the cause of detention of the inmates with whom he had talked. He states that from his spot checks he "could not find out that there was any case of a sentence being 'corrected.' " |
