Sondergericht Warschau Sąd Specjalny w Warszawie (Sygn. 643/III)

Copyright Holder: Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych In October 1939, the German authorities announced that in addition to the existing Polish judicial system, German-administered courts would also be established in Poland. The German Courts (Deutsches Gericht) and Sondergericht (Special Court) were established by ordinances of the Governor General in Feb. 19, 1940 (in Chełm, Kraków, Lublin, Radom, Rzeszów and Warsaw). The courts tried German citizens, ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) living in Poland, Poles and Jews. In 1941 the German judiciary system in the General Government (GG) started actively participating in the implementation of polices that were discriminatory toward Jewish residents in particular, as well as ethnic Poles, and widely used these courts of terror to impose sentences, including death penalties, for alleged offenses, such as, for all forms of resistance against the German occupation authorities; for failure to register by the officers of the Polish Army; for failure of farmers to fulfill quotas; for the hiding of Jews (the death penalty had been in effect for this since 1942, and was often carried out immediately without the judgment of the court); for offenses against the laws and regulations of the German occupation authorities, etc. The judges were supervised by the district governor. Appeals of the verdicts of the German Court were settled by the Higher German Court (Deutsches Obergericht) and its decisions were final. The court arbitrated the cases consistently under German civil and criminal law. The Staatsanwaltschaft bei dem Sondergericht Warschau (State Prosecutor of the Special Court Warsaw) was directly subordinate to the Department of Justice of the General Governor’s Office of the Warsaw District. It conducted investigations in criminal cases and transferred them to the Sondergericht (Special Court). See also: Warsaw under Deutscher Herrschaft. The Structure of the Administration of Justice: http://www.wintersonnenwende.com/scriptorium/deutsch/archiv/warschau/wdh09.html Selected files of criminal cases from the German Special Court in Warsaw (Sondergericht Warschau). Note: Related collections are available at the USHMM:: RG-15.267, Staatsanwaltschaft bei dem Sondergericht Warschau (Sygn. 1601/III), and RG-15.268, Sąd Niemiecki w Warszawie (Sygn.1207/III).