English Translation

In addition to the gradual extension of their competence in relation to the Czech population and its submission to the new Nazi regulations, 187 were added to the proper courts of Germany in a short period of time. Since May 1939, two courts of defence (522) have worked in the Protectorate and in February 1940 special courts (Sondergerichte) (523) were introduced, representing the Empire's extraordinary criminal justice and gradually expelling other species and degrees of the German judicial apparatus. (524) These special courts were applied for the first time in occupied Poland, but later also in their own empire, including the protectorate, where five were established, apart from Prague and Cheb, Opava, Litoměřice and Brno. Special courts have tried serious crimes against the occupation order. For the purposes of the Special Court at the German Earth Court in Prague, the Nazis later built a separate judicial department in Prague in Pankrác, and in early 1943 they established a prison of investigative custody (Untersuchungshaftanstalt). While in 1941 the Senates of the Special Court dealt with about a hundred cases, a year later they were 1800 and in 1943 2400 cases. The increasing agenda also increased the number of Chambers of Special Courts, which were three members. In 1944 only six of them worked in Prague, four of them permanent. The remaining two, extraordinary, decided in so-called. The Czech patriots were arrested one day, sentenced the next day and executed within 24 hours (Schnellgericht). The judgments were final and immediately enforceable. In other cases, the convictions were mostly taken to the courthouse in Dresden, where they were executed within three months. In order to multiply the deterrent effect, executions were often held in public. In order for the death penalty to be handed down, it was sufficient to establish that the defendant had demonstrated anti-German thinking and harmed the well-being of the German nation. (525) In 1941 the SS Court and the Police for Bohemia and Moravia (SS-und Polizeigericht VIII) began to work in Prague for security matters, when it was not desirable for other courts to deal with them.