Altstotter Josef

Josef Altstotter est né le 4 janvier 1892 Bad Griesbach im Rottal et décédé le 13 novembre 1979 à Nuremberg.

Il était directeur ministériel pour la justice impérial. Après après des études à l'école primaire et au lycée à Landshut, Altstötter étudie dès 1911 le droit à Munich et Erlangen, études interrompues par sa participation à la première guerre mondiale, où il à été décoré,  entre autres choses de la croix de fer 1ère et 2ème classe. Altstötter termine ses études en 1920 à Munich et commençe à travailler, en 1921 comme Gerichtsassessor dans le ministère de la justice bavarois. A partir de 1927, il intègre le ministère de la justice impérial, passant en 1933 à la justice impériale de Leipzig et, enfin, en 1936 dans le Conseil des prud'hommes impérial. De 1939 jusqu'à 1942 il il intègre les forces armées.

A partir du 1 janvier 1943, il est de nouveau dans le ministère de la justice impérial (le service VI : droit civil et juridiction), où il est  nommé, en mai 1943 Reichsministerialdirektor et y reste jusqu'à la fin de la guerre. Il y travail sur la législation de la race. Son service s'occupe également de la modification du droit sur les successions et sur le droit familial, si bien qu'après la mort des Juifs, tout les biens en leur poossession sont confisqués. Devant la prise de pouvoir des nationalsocialistes Altstötter devient membre de l'organisation du casque d'acier, membre des SA et s'inscrit en septembre 1938 au NSDAP (numéro de membre 5.823.836). Josef Altstötter s'était lié d'amitié avec d'importants chefs de la SS, et notamment avec Heinrich Himmler, Ernst Kaltenbrunner ainsi que Gottlob Berger. Le 15 mai 1937 Altstötter quitte les SA pour intégrer la SS (numéro de membre 289.254) et atteint, en 1944 un rang très élevé au sein de l'appareil nazi.

Josef Altstötter est accusé en 1947 durant le procès des juges nazis à Nuremberg, entre autres choses de participation à des crimes de guerre, et de crimes contre l'humanité. Concrètement cela signifiait non seulement sa collaboration sur la création des lois raciales et antisémites nazis, mais encore qu'Altstötter était associé à la décision et à l'application du décret, décidé par  Adolf Hitler, dénommé "nuit et de brouillard" Mais les preuves insuffisantes ne permettent de le condamner pour son appartenance au SS. Altstötter est condamné le 4 décembre 1947 à cinq ans la prison, Il est libéré en 1950, de la prison pour criminels de guerre de Landsberg. Altstötter reprend sa carrière d'avocat à Nuremberg de 1950 jusqu'à 1966, il prend sa retraite par la suite et décède à l'âge de 87 ans à Nuremberg..

Josef Altstötter (4 January 1892 Bad Griesbach (Rottal), Lower Bavaria - 13 November 1979, Nuremberg) was a high-ranking official in the German Ministry of Justice under the Nazi Regime. Following World War II, he was tried by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal as a defendant in the Judges' Trial, where he was acquitted of the most serious charges, but was found guilty of a lesser charge of membership in a criminal organization (the SS). After attending elementary and high school in Landshut, Altstötter began the study of law in 1911 Law in Munich and Erlangen. This was interrupted by his participation in the First World War, where he was awarded the Iron Cross First and Second Class.

Altstötter completed his studies in Munich in 1920, passed the state jurisprudence examination and began work in 1921 as deputy judge in the Bavarian Justice Department. In 1927 he worked in the Reich Ministry of Justice. In 1933, he moved to the Supreme Court for Leipzig and finally in 1936 into Reich Labour Court. From 1939 to 1942 he was with the Wehrmacht. From January 1943 he was back in the Reich Ministry of Justice (Division VI:Civil Law and Justice), where he was appointed in May 1943 chief of the civil law and procedure division ("Reichministerialdirektor"), and remained there throughout the Second World War. He was awarded the Golden Party Badge for service to the Nazi party.

Part of Altstötter's department included the Nuremberg racial laws enacted to isolate Jews from German life and deprive them of civil rights. His office also had responsibility for revising the German inheritance and family law by, so that after death, the property of Jews would not go to their children, but by law would be forfeited to the German government. Prior to the takeover of the Nazi party Altstötter was a member of the Stahlhelm, a right-wing veterans association. When this has been restructured as a Nazi organization, Altstötter became member of the SA (SA-number: Member 31). On 15 May 1937 Altstötter moved from SA to the SS (membership number 289,254) in 1944 and reached the rank of SS-Oberführer (senior colonel). In September 1938 he also joined the Nazi Party (membership number 5,823,836). Josef Altstötter was friendly with high-level SS leaders with, among others, Heinrich Himmler, Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Gottlob Berger.

In 1947, Josef Altstötter was one of the accused at the Nuremberg war crimes files. The indictment accused him, and other Nazi judges and legal officials of the participation in war crime and crimes against humanity. For Altstötter, the particular allegations against him were that he was criminally involved with both the Nazi racial laws and also with kidnapping and secret murder of people pursuant to the Nazi "Night and Fog Decree". However, there was only sufficient evidence has only to convict him of membership in the SS. According to the Tribunal, Altstötter

    ... was a member of the SS at the time of the pogroms in November 1938, "Crystal Week," in which the IMT found the SS to have had an important part. Surely whether or not he took a part in such activities or approved of them, he must have known of that part which was played by an organization of which he was an officer. As a lawyer he knew that in October of 1940 the SS was placed beyond reach of the law. As a lawyer he certainly knew that by the thirteenth amendment to the citizenship law the Jews were turned over to the police and so finally deprived of the scanty legal protection they had theretofore had. He also knew, for it was part of the same law, of the sinister provisions for the confiscation of property upon death of the Jewish owners, by the police. ... Conceding that the defendant did not know of the ultimate mass murders in the concentration camps and by the Einsatzgruppen, he knew the policies of the SS and, in part, its crimes. Nevertheless he accepted its insignia, its rank, its honors, and its contacts with the high figures of the Nazi regime. These were of no small significance in Nazi Germany. For that price he gave his name as a soldier and a jurist of note and so helped to cloak the shameful deeds of that organization from the eyes of the German people.

In December 1947 he was sentenced to five years in prison. After 2 ½ years, in 1950, Altstötter was released from Landsberg Prison. From 1950 to 1966, he worked as a lawyer. In 1979, at the age of 87 years he died in Nuremberg.