Trial of the Major War Criminals before International Military Tribunal ...

(2) on its absolute power and
(3) the abuse of this power.
A police organisation which reached the last hamlet, which had
to take interest in every detail of the public and private life of
every citizen of the Republic and which in fact closely watched
every individual, was bound to be a source of uneasiness for the
entire population. And this uneasiness had to reach terror when
it depended on the arbitrariness of this police to order the deportation
to a place like a concentration camp.
There is no legal basis either for the "Protective" or for the
"Preventive Custody". The stipulation of the reasons for which
they may be ordered in general or in particular was left entirely to
the police. Dr. Werner Best, SS Brigadefuehrer and German
Minister in Denmark has frankly admitted this: "An express author-
isation of the police for the interference with the individual
necessary for the prevention of crimes is missing. These measures
are, nevertheless, not imposed without or contrary to the law. For
according to the national conception of law the order given to the
police by the leaders of Nation and State to carry out comprehen-
sive measures for the combat of crimes has created the rule to which
the police as well as the
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individual have to adjust themselves . . . The order to the police to
impose all measures necessary for the prevention of crimes compels
at the same time the individual "Volksgenossen" to co-operate
actively or passively in those measures; passively co-operates the
criminal taken into preventive custody. This is the legal basis for
the police on which they carry out the measures for the prevention
of crimes . . . ." . . .. ."That, in accordance with this order, it has
thus been proceeded with the consent of the highest authorities of
the Reich for such length of'time, proves that this order has become
part of the police law valid at present in the German Reich" (Best,
op. cit., p.37 and 38).
The Ordinance of 9th March 1942 (Slg.No.89 (Annex 4) deals
with the imposing of "Preventive Custody" in the "Protectorate".
It enumerates in 8 6 the reasons for which this type of custody may
be ordered. They are, however, of such general nature, that they
do not actually restrict the police in any way. In other words it is
in spite of this Ordinance, left entirely to the arbitrariness of the
police to stipulate the reasons for ordering "Preventive Custody".