English Translation

179 police in the Protectorate. In this context, in September 1943, he requested and received permission from H.Himmler to "submit politically burdened and suspicious Czechs from disturbing peace and order in the Protectorate outside state police or criminal procedures to special treatment. ... As a means of execution, hanging is considered, if possible, at the scene of the crime, and thus the number of executions in the Protectorate and, above all, their publication is dosed according to the requirements of the political situation. (494) In connection with the extension of the powers of the Reich Protector in 1943 to the right of grace, which de facto increased the space for the State Secretary, whose office prepared the documents for grace, Frank became a real lord over life and death. (495) However, overall, he remained a decisive instrument of "whip," i.e. The ubiquitous threat of the Gestapo, concentration camps, firing squads, and since April 1943, also the guillotines in the Prague Pankrác prison, which was able to control the active resistance of the local population. (496) During the war, the terrorist character of German justice and the brutality of the occupying police-security apparatus increased. Until then, the procedures applied, which aimed primarily to intimidate the civilian population, were still sharpened by a wave of simplification and formalization, especially in the process of punishment. According to the instructions of the head of the Gestapo headquarters, which was issued in December 1942, the imposition of protective custody by the individual offices of the headquarters should only be notified without having to wait as before for an answer. (497) As the queue approached, the gestapo ceased to be transmitted to the courts of any case. In the necessary cases, only protective custody was requested and in the most difficult cases, the execution without a trial at the head of the security police in Prague. (498) However, the use of the most drastic methods was only to come when at the end of April 1945 the commanding power over the rest of the protectorate was taken over by the commander of the group of armies (Mitte) Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) F. Schörner. He had previously ordered his subordinate executions, the burning of municipalities etc. and these his