The General Government considered it one of its foremost responsibilities to clear up this state of judicial uncertainty and to restore the legal system to order. This undertaking consisted of two major parts: the establishment of German legal jurisdiction, and the restoration of the former Polish judiciary to working order.

The first concern was to create orderly legal conditions for the ethnic Germans living in the territory of the General Government.

What the ethnic Germans have had to endure and suffer under the former Polish state is common knowledge. The body count of 58,000 murdered ethnic Germans speaks more clearly than the longest account of the details of their plight. But what is not commonly known is that particularly where the administration of justice is concerned, the Germans in Poland had next to no rights whatsoever. It was high time to put an end to these conditions. The ethnic Germans who faithfully maintained their Germanness under the former Republic of Poland have a right to be judged as Germans, by German judges and in accordance with German laws.

For this reason, German legal jurisdiction was introduced in the General Government for the members of the German ethnic group.

The structure of German judicial authority is very simple: the German courts rule on first trials and the German Supreme Courts on appeals. In the District of Warsaw, there is one German court each in Warsaw and in Zyrardow, as well as a German Supreme Court in Warsaw.

Furthermore, the establishment of German judicial authority was a necessity for monitoring the entire population's compliance with the new laws.

Following the conclusion of the military dispute, large sectors of the Polish populace attempted to undermine the German authorities. In particular, numerous decrees of the Governor General and orders of the individual Governors which were aimed at restoring peace and order in the General Government were initially sabotaged. It was the German civil administration's self-evident duty to take any and all measures necessary to ensure that the legal orders it issued were obeyed and that each and every Polish violator of these orders was called to account in a court of law.

It goes without saying that the sentencing of criminal offences of this kind could not be delegated to Polish judges. This task could only be fulfilled by German courts, and thus German Special Courts were established within the General Government.

The administration of justice as practised by the German Special Courts within the General Government, and particularly by the Special Court in Warsaw, has frequently been the object of severe criticism in the foreign press, as it has been claimed that these Special Courts constantly impose the death penalty. This is a mendacious horror story intentionally spread by hostile foreign propaganda and is disproved by the facts; for in the 2.5 years that the General Government has been in existence, of the tens of thousands of criminal cases that have gone through the hands of the prosecution of the Warsaw Special Court, the death sentences imposed altogether by all the divisions of the Special Court total only 149. In almost every case, those so sentenced were criminals whose removal was also particularly in the interests of the Polish people because they were members of gangs which, in the early stages of the General Government's jurisdiction, had endangered public safety on the roads and highways, or because they were social pests who had done severe damage to the interests of the general public through their intentional sabotage of measures aimed at the combating of black-marketeering, or because they were Jews who had left the Jewish residential districts assigned to them by law and in doing so had contributed to the spread of typhus fever.

Certainly, tough legal measures are taken against every law-breaker; but the severity of the law is directed only at those who have consciously and intentionally sabotaged law and order.

Anyone who complies with and faithfully supports the German reconstruction efforts can be assured in every respect of the far-reaching protection of the law.

It was only a short time before the District's 25 County Courts, which correspond roughly to the German County Courts, could resume their activities. The two Regional Courts in Warsaw and Siedlce, which are approximately equivalent to the German District Courts, were restored to a functional state in equally short order. The third level of the Polish judiciary, the Appeal Court of Warsaw, was also reopened and is now the highest Polish legal authority.

The former Supreme Court in Warsaw, corresponding approximately to our Court of the Reich, was the only one to be dissolved, as this institution had lost its right to exist with the collapse of the former Polish Republic.

Today, Polish judges still pronounce their judgements in accordance with Polish law. This fact is largely unknown, as the common and general assumption is that Polish judicial authority has been invalidated. In fact, however, this was purposely avoided; for if the General Government is to be "an institution the Poles can call their own", then it is self-evident that the Poles, in trials of purely Polish concern, must be judged by their own judges and in accordance with their own laws.

No Polish judge will claim in all seriousness that he is in any way restricted in his dispensation of justice, as German intervention in this process is confined to a merely supervisory body which has very rarely had cause to step in. Since the establishment of the General Government, only four verdicts pronounced by Polish judges were reviewed by the German supervisory body in re-examination trials in the entire District of Warsaw, even though hundreds of thousands of legal conflicts were settled in Polish courts during this time. These figures are the best possible proof that Polish judicial authority to this day remains free and uninfluenced in its administration of justice in accordance with Polish laws.

In the restoration of the Polish judiciary, a matter of particular significance was the screening of the Polish agents of justice.

Judges and public prosecutors were required to give a promissory declaration of loyalty and obedience whose verbatim content was: "I pledge to do my duty in the administration of justice loyally and conscientiously, and in obedience to the German Administration." All Polish judges and public prosecutors as well as officials of the penal system, court ushers and office personnel have given this promise of obedience, and have done their duty loyally in accordance with their declaration.

In the screening of the Polish agents of justice, the Polish legal profession underwent particular scrutiny. In contrast to the judges and public prosecutors, the advocacy of Warsaw was thoroughly reorganized as the conditions prevailing here were in no way commensurate with German expectations and standards of legal counsel.

Almost 50% of the Polish lawyers then active in the District of Warsaw were Jews, whose typical Jewish behavior had severely compromised the respect accorded to Polish legal practice.

Added to this was the fact that an examination of disciplinary documentation revealed misdirections of justice by the former Polish legal profession of a kind and magnitude such as was almost incomprehensible for German concepts of legal practice.

The most important measure taken towards the elimination of this deplorable state of affairs was the immediate exclusion of all Jews. A total of 1,131 Jewish lawyers have been removed from the former Law Society of Warsaw; and with that, the legal body of Warsaw is free of Jews.

This exclusion of the Jews has fulfilled a long-cherished goal of the former Polish Law Society. The elite of the former Polish legal practice – among whose Aryan Polish members anti-Semitic sentiments had been remarkably pronounced, particularly in light of the Jewish saturation of the profession – had spent decades in the fight to have the Jews removed from the legal profession without, of course, ever having attained their goal, given the political framework of the former Republic of Poland. The majority of Polish lawyers have thus welcomed the exclusion of the Jews. A survey of all Polish legal practitioners showed this clearly: in the course of this survey almost 90% of all Polish advocates declared themselves in favour of the exclusion of the Jews.

Aside from this purging of Jewish elements, the Law Society was further cleansed of professionally objectionable advocates whose past misdemeanors have shown them to be unworthy of sharing in the administration of justice.

The self-governing bodies of the Polish legal profession have contributed vigorously to this process. In particular, the disciplinary court of the Warsaw Law Society has ensured by means of severe legal provisions that the unduly lax attitudes dating from the times of the former Polish Republic have gradually been replaced by a more strict approach to professional responsibility.

On the whole, it is apparent that objective work has achieved much good in the administration of justice. The temporary legal council presiding over the Warsaw Law Society has always lent energetic support to the improvement of the Polish advocates' professional ethical attitude, and has received extensive support in its efforts from the German supervisory council.

Three years' work in the field of the dispensation of justice has resulted in the fact that Polish guardians of justice have of their own accord begun to support an improvement in the attitude of their profession, and that this has come about without there having been any need for the German judiciary to employ draconian measures towards that end. A strict but always fair supervisory council, monitoring the measures of the Polish judicial system which was otherwise free to work independently and in accordance with its own laws, has been completely sufficient to effect the proper administration of justice.

Warsaw Under German Rule
German Reconstruction and Development in the District of Warsaw