English Translation

Department VIII Prague, 19 December 1942. III/1-7 V. 70 701/00 State Secretary e tamaaaA. The question whether a regulation on the fight against the thefts in the Eisehbahn= as well as postal traffic should be issued for Bohemia and Moravia was examined in accordance with the order and came to the following conclusion: In Reich there is no special criminal law against railway theft. Serious cases of property offences involving goods carried by rail and mail are covered, namentlioh to the extent that they have been caused or contested by the war conditions, as a rule by § l of the Code of Civil Procedure of 4.9.1939 - RGBl I p. l6o9 - and by § 4 of the Order of 5.9.1939 – RGBl 1 p. 1679. § 1 (1) of the Warwirtschaftsverordnung, which according to the regulation of 2.4.194l - RGBl I p. 199 - also applies in the Protectorate to persons who are not German nationals, reads in the version of the regulation from 25.3.1942 RGbr p. 147 - : "Anyone who destroys raw materials or products belonging to the vital needs of the population, aside creates ödèr withholds and thereby maliciously endangers the coverage of these needs, is punished with prison or prison. In particularly serious cases, the death penalty can be recognized." In § 4 of the Ordinance against people's pests, which applies equally in the Protectorate also to non-German nationals ( § 6), it is determined: * "Anyone who intentionally commits another offence under the exceptional circumstances caused by the war shall be punished with a penitentiary of up to l5 years, with a life-long penitential or with death, if this requires a healthy popular feeling because of the particular reprehensibility of the offence." The characteristics of these two crimes are very