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Law and Justice in the Nazi SS: The Case of Konrad Morgen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

James J. Weingartner
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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
Central European History , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 1983 , pp. 276 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1983

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.