English Translation

190 to the mass graves, in the empire it travelled to the anatomical institutes. The most prestigious scientific workplaces throughout Germany, the University of Jena, Cologne, Heidelberg, Göttingen and elsewhere were mostly the bodies of young and healthy people. (536) In anticipation of the upcoming aggression against Czechoslovakia and Poland, in August 1938 the Reichs regulations were amended by proceedings before the martial court (Standrecht) which was to respond flexibly to the rapidly changing combat situation and, inter alia, according to § 13a, the president of the maroon court could form the closest available commander of the regiment or commander of a weapons section that was currently available. The court of martial (Standgericht) thus conceived still maintained the form of a field court of war according to the standards of war law and the proceedings were to be initiated only in the event of an urgent suspicion of a criminal offence. The defendant was to be present in the proceedings with his lawyer and should have been allowed to deal properly with the case, if necessary also in the presence of an interpreter. After the oral hearing, a secret meeting was to follow, the court was to pass the sentence in the presence of the defendant, but these procedural prerequisites for the exercise of martial law did not suit the Nazis because the repressive forces in terrorizing the civilian population, particularly in occupied eastern territories, were unnecessarily bound by their hands. On these occupied territories, the form of martial law became only a small cloak of mass extermination of civilians and captured soldiers. (537) The martial law was one of the effective forms to promote not only the control of the Nazis over the occupied countries, but also their germanization measures with a measurement of the destruction of intelligence and did not avoid the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, where its application was limited in time but with a very intense and deterrent effect.