Waffen-SS discipline code?

[sid guttridge]

I have recently read that at the outbreak of war the Waffen-SS was under the same military justice system as the rest of the Wehrmacht.

However, after the Polish campaign it was reportedly made entirely autonomous on disciplinary matters because a number of embarrassing charges had been brought by the Army against Waffen-SS men for indiscipline in Poland. (Reportedly these included a charge of looting against Sepp Dietrich). The charges were dropped at the same time.

Is this true?

If so, under what justicial system did the Waffen-SS operate during the war? Did it simply use the Army code or did it adopt one of its own?

Many thanks,

Sid.

[militaryhistorywriter]

Dear Sir,
The information you are requesting in regards to the SS can be found at the following web sites:

http://www.1us.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/nca/ ... 05-03.html

http://amh.freehosting.net/waffen.html
Scroll down to October, 1939

In regards to Sepp Dietrich and the looting charge; it is more speculation than truth. May God Bless-Major Robert A. Lynn, USMCR

[sid guttridge]

Hi Militaryhistorywriter,

I cannot get the first site you suggested but the second confirms that the W-SS did have its own courts from October 1939. Thanks.

However, it remains unclear what laws and standards these courts adhered to. Any ideas?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Rob - WSSOB]

Hi Sid - the W-SS became subject to the legal codes of the SS Legal Department (Hauptamt SS-Gericht) as applied by special SS courts.

On Oct 17, 1939 the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich published the "Decree Relating to a Special Jurisdiction in Penal Matters for Members of the SS and for Members of Police Groups on Special Tasks". This decree in essence removed SS troops from Wehrmacht juristiction. W-SS troops were of course still subject to a military penal code, but as interpreted by the SS Legal Department and the SS courts.

This legal action stemmed from the Sept 19th 1939 incident in which a member of the SS artillery regiment attached to Panzerdivision Kempf and an MP killed 50 Polish Jews in a synagogue in what seems to be a spontaneous act as oppored to a specific order. Both men were tried by the Heer juduciary and found guilty of manslaughter; interestingly enough, the judge recommended a lesser sentence for the SS man than the Army MP. The Heer prosecuting attorney appealed the lesser sentence, but a more senior military judge upheld the judgement, commenting in part that the SS man deserved a lighter sentence because "as a SS man he was also particuarly sensitive to the sight of Jews and...acted quite unpremeditatedly in a spirit of youthful enthusiasm" (see Stein The Waffen-SS p271.) It's important to point out that neither man served a day of their sentence.

To avoid further incidents like the one above, Himmler pursuaded Hitler to have SS troops tried by the separate SS court system.

The decree was originally published in the 1939 and 1940 issues of the Reichsgesetzblatt, and republished in Nuremburg Trial documents 2926-PS & 2947-PS.

I don't know if there has been much scholarship done on the SS judicial system, especially as it pertained to the W-SS. Combat SS units such as divisions and corps did have their own legal officers functioning as as a military judge avocate, and the SS court system may have been organized along the HSSPF structure, but I have no idea about the relationship between the two.