I.
Reich Security Head Office Amt IV Bk. No. 409/39 Top Secret
Berlin, 26 October 1939 Top Secret
a. To all State Police District Offices.
b. To the Gestapo office (according to restricted distribution C.)
For information
a. To all inspectors of the Security police and the SD.
b. To the Inspector-General of the reinforced SS-Death's Head Units (with 8 copies for the camps).
Subject: Execution of protective custody.
By order of the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police, all prisoners under protective custody due for transference
693257—46—7
93
153I-PS
153I-PS
to a concentration camp will, during the war, be assigned to a special penal section. The only exceptions will be prisoners under protective custody, who are assigned to a camp as a preventative police measure, (particularly those under index A), or those who are expressly exempt on the nominal role.
In order to achieve a further deterrent effect, the following-must, in future, be observed in each individual case.
3. The length of the period of custody must in no case he made known, even if the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police or the Chief of the Security Police and the SD has already fixed it.
The term of A commitment to a concentration camp is to be openly announced as "until further notice." .
In serious cases, there is no objection to the increasing of the deterrent effect by the spreading of a cleverly carried out rumor propaganda, more or less to the effect that, according to hearsay, in view of the seriousness of his case, the arrested man will not be released for 2 or 3 years.
4. In certain cases, the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police will order flogging in addition to detention in a concentration camp. Orders of this kind will, in future, also be transmitted to the State Police District Office concerned. In this case too, there is no objection to spreading the rumour of this increased punishment as laid down in Section 3, paragraph 3, in so far as this appears suitable, to add to the deterrent effect.
5. Naturally, particularly suitable and reliable people are to be chosen for the spreading of such news.
* * * * * * *
By Order
(signed) Mueller Authenticated: (signed) Bleeck
Chancellery employee
II
Chief of the Security Police and the SD Bk. No. IV—226/42 Top Secret
Berlin, 12th June 1942 120 Copies 110th Copy TOP SECRET
As Top Secret
to all Chiefs of the Security Police and the SD '
to all Directors of Groups IV A, IV B, IV C, and IV E of the Reich Security Head Office
94
1531-PS
to all Commanding Officers of the Security Police and the SD to all Heads of the State Police District Offices
For Information
to the Inspectors of the Security Police and the SD Subject: Third degree
Enclosure: 1 receipt
In order to simplify things the Decree of the Chief of the Security police and the SD of 1.7.37 Bk. No. 28 (II) 301/37 Secret (to be destroyed according to sealed orders) will be superseded by the following new ruling, with immediate effect:
1. Third degree may only be applied if it is clear from preliminary investigation that the prisoner can give information on important facts, as social or subversive to the State and to the Reich, but will not disclose what he knows, and the information cannot be obtained by investigation.
2. Third degree may, under this supposition, only be employed against Communists, Marxists, Jehovah's Witnesses, saboteurs, terrorists, members of resistance movements, parachute agents, anti-social elements, Polish or Soviet-Russian loafers or tramps. In all other cases, my permission must first be obtained.
3. Third degree may not be used to extort confessions of a prisoner's own crimes. Also this method may not be employed against persons who are temporarily detained by law for further investigations.
My previous permission is also necessary in exceptional cases.
4. Third degree can, according to the circumstances, consist, among other methods, of very simple diet (water and bread), hard bunk, dark cell, deprivation of sleep, exhaustion drill, but also in the administration of flogging (for more than 20 strokes a doctor must be consulted).
I. V.
(signed) Mueller Authenticated: (signed) Nellmuth - Registered Secretary (Female)
Instructions to state police offices on the execution of protective custody orders, including the use of "rumour propaganda" about indefinite detention in order to increase deterrence, and the use of "third degree" methods to extract information
Authors
Heinrich Mueller (Chief of Gestapo, Reich Security Main Office)
Heinrich Mueller
German police official and head of the Gestapo (1900-1945)
- Born: 1900-04-28 (Munich)
- Died: 1945-05-01 (Berlin) (sourcing circumstances: presumably)
- Country of citizenship: Germany
- Occupation: aircraft pilot; police officer; politician
- Member of political party: Nazi Party
- Member of: Schutzstaffel (series ordinal: 107043; since: 1934-04-20)
- Military rank: general
- Military branch: Imperial German Air Service; Reich Main Security Office
Date: 26 October 1939
Literal Title: Subject: Execution of protective custody.
Total Pages: 3
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-1531
Citations: IMT (page 1421), IMT (page 2259)
HLSL Item No.: 450967
Trial Issues
Concentration camp system (administration, forced labor, abuse of inmates)… Persecution of political, religious, and ethnic ("racial") groups (IMT, NM…
Document Summary
PS-1531: PWD Copies of Orders concerning Treatment in Concentration Camps
PS-1531: Extracts from two top-secret matters: (1) decree of the Reich security main office, office Iv, 26 October 1939, on measures for increasing deterrent effect when persons are consigned to concentration camps (2) decree of the chief of the security police and the Sd, 12 June 1942, regarding third degree methods of interrogation, such as deprivation of food and sleep, beatings and confinement in dark cells