Special Courts (Sondergerichte) in the General Government (1939–1945)

Abstract

Summary This article presents the legal bases of operation and organisation of the special judiciary in the General Government for the occupied Polish territories. Special courts were subject to the policy pursued by the German authorities in the General Government. The German legislation in the gg delegated to the jurisdiction of special courts chiefly such criminal matters that involved safeguarding German interests in the occupied country. Adjudication in such cases boiled down to applying normative acts related to combatting serious (severe) crime or expressly pursued the German policy in the gg, including the exterminatory anti-Jewish legislation. The special courts created by the German occupier in the General Government were not judicial authorities in the traditional sense. The literature on the topic is not particularly extensive. The article would be the first comprehensive study of this subject written in English.