Automatic arrest

After the Second World War, automatic arrest meant the arrest of certain groups of people without an individual examination. On the basis of an arrest categories handbook published by the Western Allied High Command SHAEF , occupation officers in the three western zones were able to decide whether someone should be interned . According to this manual the following should be interned:

A) The German secret services: the staff of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the Secret Field Police and the Reich Security Service

B) The security police , Gestapo and border police from the rank of criminal secretary

C) Senior police officers, district presidents , district administrators , senior SS and police leaders

D) Criminal police , order police and specialized police forces from the rank of lieutenant colonel or senior government and criminal adviser or with an SS officer rank

E) Leaders and officers of the paramilitary organizations: Waffen-SS , Allgemeine SS , Sturmabteilung (SA), Hitler Youth , National Socialist Motor Vehicle Corps (NSKK), National Socialist Aviation Corps (NSFK), Reich Labor Service (RAD), Bund Deutscher Mädel

F) Officials of the NSDAP ("Nazi Party Officials"): Administrative officials from district level, local group leaders and their deputies, party members from section leaders, the training staff of the Ordensburgen , training castles , Adolf Hitler schools and the Napolas , all National Socialist command officers

G) State officials: members of the higher service who had been appointed since March 1, 1939, state officials above the rank of Ministerial Council regardless of the date of appointment

The preventive arrest of potentially dangerous Nazi activists was primarily intended to prevent the activity and spread of a Nazi underground movement; the internment of suspected war criminals also created the conditions for criminal prosecution by the judiciary. About 65,000 people were arrested by the British in the first year of the occupation for falling into one of the automatic arrest categories. However, with the approval of the British, many high officials remained in their offices, for example the district administrators of Münster or Coesfeld , in some cases hardly any persons were interned because of denunciations . Anyone who was arrested by the British as part of the automatic arrest was usually taken to one of the civil internment camps. There were prisoners of war only in the Rheinberg reception camp on the Lower Rhine . Rheinberg was one of the Rhine meadow camps that the Americans had set up and that had been handed over to the British in June. While the British left many prisoners of war under the supervision of their old officers in Schleswig-Holstein , the Americans had set up huge camps in which civilians and soldiers were literally cooped up. The American military government estimated the number of people it had arrested at around 80,000 by the end of July 1945. A total of around 182,000 people were interned in the three western zones of occupation , of whom, however, 86,000 had been released from the camps by January 1, 1947.

The rules of automatic arrest were relaxed on September 1, 1945; now an individual check was planned for most groups of people and internment only if the respective person was expected to pose a threat to security. This relaxation of the regulations was gradually applied to those already interned. By March 1946, the majority of the internees had therefore been interrogated and gradually released.

Individual evidence

^ Heiner Wember : re-education in the camp. Internment and punishment of National Socialists in the British zone of occupation in Germany. (= Düsseldorfer Schriften zur Neueren Landesgeschichte Nordrhein-Westfalens. Vol. 30) Klartext-Verlag, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-88474-152-7 , p. 35 ff., (At the same time: Münster, Universität, Dissertation, 1990: Internierung und Judgment of National Socialists, "militarists" and "suspect persons" in the British zone of occupation in Germany. ).
^ Clemens Vollnhals : Denazification, political cleansing under Allied rule. In: Hans-Erich Volkmann (Ed.): End of the Third Reich - End of the Second World War. A perspective review. (= Piper. Vol. 2056). Piper, Munich et al. 1995, ISBN 3-492-12056-3 , p. 377.
^ Heiner Wember: re-education in the camp. Internment and punishment of National Socialists in the British zone of occupation in Germany (= Düsseldorfer Writings on the Modern History of North Rhine-Westphalia. Vol. 30). Klartext-Verlag, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-88474-152-7 , p. 46 ff., (At the same time: Münster, University, dissertation, 1990: Internment and sentencing of National Socialists, “militarists” and “suspect persons” in the British Occupation zone of Germany. ).

[1] Heiner Wember : re-education in the camp. Internment and punishment of National Socialists in the British zone of occupation in Germany. (= Düsseldorfer Schriften zur Neueren Landesgeschichte Nordrhein-Westfalens. Vol. 30) Klartext-Verlag, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-88474-152-7 , p. 35 ff., (At the same time: Münster, Universität, Dissertation, 1990: Internierung und Judgment of National Socialists, "militarists" and "suspect persons" in the British zone of occupation in Germany. ).

[2] Clemens Vollnhals : Denazification, political cleansing under Allied rule. In: Hans-Erich Volkmann (Ed.): End of the Third Reich - End of the Second World War. A perspective review. (= Piper. Vol. 2056). Piper, Munich et al. 1995, ISBN 3-492-12056-3 , p. 377.

[3] Heiner Wember: re-education in the camp. Internment and punishment of National Socialists in the British zone of occupation in Germany (= Düsseldorfer Writings on the Modern History of North Rhine-Westphalia. Vol. 30). Klartext-Verlag, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-88474-152-7 , p. 46 ff., (At the same time: Münster, University, dissertation, 1990: Internment and sentencing of National Socialists, “militarists” and “suspect persons” in the British Occupation zone of Germany. ).