Nazis prosecute Cruelty

the reason for that possibly is the fact that the germans wanted cruelty cases to be hidden and not talked about
glad i could help you man

 

Appologies for bumping this thread up, bu I hope I may add some information. Konrad Morgen's role as a SS judge was in particular to combat corruption. Every piece of juwelry, golden teeth and all money taken from the victims belonged to the Nazi state, not to SS staff. Because there was a lot of theft and embezzlement by camp guards and commanders Morgen was send to concentration camps by Himmler to investigate charges. It were other judges who decided on the punishment. In all cases Himmler could any time drop charges against his cronies.

During his investigations Morgen concluded most corrupt SS men also committed crimes like cruelty and murder. In this cases the men weren't ordered to do so by their commanders, but acted on their own, which was not allowed. Killing Jews in the gas chambers and officially prescribed corporal punishment wasn't illegal in the Nazi state, because it was ordered by Hitler. But even stealing a sigaret from a collegue was out of the question, according to the policy of Himmler.

I don't consider Konrad Morgen to be a forgotten humanitarian hero. Although he did his best to prosecute SS criminals, he was part of the whole evil system. As a judge he wasn't on the right place and time to bring justice. After WW2, as a witness of the defense during the Nuremberg trials, he denied all responsability by the SS for crimes against humanity.

If you want to know more about about this ambivalent Konrad Morgen and his work you can read my book 'A Judge in Auschwitz', published by Pen & Sword in 2021. A free summary can be found on: Morgen, Konrad - TracesOfWar.com

Please let me know if there are questions about Konrad Morgen and 'justice' in the SS. I will do my best to answer them.

 

The Nazis were a death cult, killing and cruelty were both important parts of indoctrination into that cult.