NEW NAZI CODE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3842, 4 December 1936, Page 8

NEW NAZI CODE

CRIMINAL LAW REVISED. London, November 6. The German Penal Code Cimmission to-day published a draft of the new Code which, in the words of its preamble, ensures “that the Criminal Law of Germany shall be imbued with National-Socialist principles.” The Commission has been sitting for three years, says the Berlin correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. The Code represents a fundamental departure from any previous form of codified law, since it derives its validity from the watchwords—“ The general good overrides the good of the individual.” Definitions of ordinary crime have, in many cases, been modified, while new “crimes” have been created. A murderer is defined as “one who kills a human being out of lust of killing, the satisfaction of a sex instinct, greed of gain or from other low motives in a malicious, perfidious or cruel manner, or in order to prepare the way for some other criminal deed." The punishment provided for murder is death, or, in certain exceptional cases, penal servitude for life. Birth Control Propaganda. All other forms of killing are treated as manslaughter and are punish- | able with penal servitude for not less than five years. The killing of a person at his own request is treated as a separata offence. Attempted suicide is not punishable though incitement by one person to the suicide of another now falls under the law. Anyone who procures instruments with which to commit murder is punishable for “preparation of murder,” and the “endangering ot human life through ruthless conduct” ' is also now punishable. It is pointed out that, whereas in 1932 out of 77 persons condemned to death, not a single one was executed, since 1933 three-quarters of the sentences have been carried into effect. The protection of children is made the subject of special provisions. Public ridicule of marriage or maternity, propaganda for birth control,

abortion and the abandonment of children are criminal offences. Kidnapping for the purpose of gain is punishable by death. White Slave traffickers will be treated “with special severity going beyond the obligations of national law.” Political Offences. Political and semi-political offences occupy a large proportion of the new Code which is specifically intended “to furnish special protection to the labour of the individual and the nation.” Thus, strikes and lock-outs are forbidden and punishable as criminal offences. The “betrayal of industrial secrets to foreigners” remains a serious offence. Judges are instructed to make the punishment they inflict agree with what is described as “the rightful demands of the people.” Apart from this, “the personality of the offender, his status and his conduct as a member of the community, are to be taken into account.” Nazis will thus start off with a legal advantage. In calculating fines, the unit is in future to be one day’s income of the offender. In this manner, it is explained, the danger will be avoided of punishing the rich too little and the poor too severely. A poor person who is unable to pay a fine so calculated may be ordered to give a day’s work instead of a day’s income.