NR Nazi ReportSeven Circles of Responsibility

English source-aligned edition

Franz Schlegelberger

life sentence; medical parole granted in 1951 1876–1970

Franz Schlegelberger served as state secretary (1931–1942) and acting Reich minister of justice (1941–1942). The profile reconstructs the person’s function in the German Reich and occupied Polish territories through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.

JudiciaryRacial lawLegal repression

Confirmed findings

  • Appointed state secretary on 10 October 1931, Schlegelberger took charge of the Reich Ministry of Justice after Franz Gürtner’s death in January 1941. He left office on 20 August 1942, when Otto Georg Thierack became minister. (Judges’ Trial judgment, 4 December 1947, transcript pp. 10787)
  • The Judges’ Trial found that his draft formed the basis, with modifications, of the decree of 4 December 1941 imposing discriminatory criminal law on Poles and Jews in German-annexed territories. The tribunal treated his role in this legislation as racial persecution and a violation of the laws of war. (Judges’ Trial judgment, 4 December 1947, transcript pp. 10790–10792)
  • He signed the decree of 7 February 1942 assigning the Ministry of Justice and the courts responsibility for prosecuting and trying prisoners under Hitler’s “Night and Fog” programme. The judgment identified this signature as a basis of his personal responsibility. (Judges’ Trial judgment, 4 December 1947, transcript pp. 10789)
  • In the Luftgas case, the tribunal found that Schlegelberger personally ordered a Jewish prisoner’s murder at Hitler’s request. This specific finding demonstrates intervention in an individual case as well as responsibility for ministerial policy. (Judges’ Trial judgment, 4 December 1947, transcript pp. 10792)

Place in the chain of responsibility

Schlegelberger’s responsibility lay in using legislation, ministerial instructions and judicial procedures for persecution. He argued that remaining in office had protected the justice system from worse interference by the police. The tribunal rejected that justification: it found that the ministry itself had served criminal ends. His departure in August 1942 did not undo the decisions he had already made. (Judges’ Trial judgment, 4 December 1947, transcript pp. 10793–10794)

Key events and mechanisms

No victim-count ranking

The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.

Postwar accountability

On 4 December 1947, the American military tribunal in the Judges’ Trial sentenced Schlegelberger to life imprisonment after finding him guilty on counts II and III, concerning war crimes and crimes against humanity. John J. McCloy’s order of 31 January 1951 left that sentence unmodified; the accompanying announcement provided for release on medical parole. This distinction matters: health-related release was not an acquittal or a cancellation of the life sentence in that decision. (Sentencing, 4 December 1947, transcript p. 10934; McCloy’s order and announcement, 31 January 1951, NMT vol. XV, pp. 1170 and 1182)

Limits of the evidence

The wartime findings here are attributed to the tribunal’s judgment, rather than inferred from Schlegelberger’s title alone. They do not establish that he personally issued every sentence under Nazi rule. Later measures taken under Thierack require their own evidence and must be distinguished from Schlegelberger’s documented acts. (Judges’ Trial judgment, 4 December 1947, transcript pp. 10787, 10792–10794)

Sources

The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.