Hauptamt SS - Gericht The Hauptamt SS - Gericht ( ) was the legal department of the SS during the Third Reich . It was responsible for formulating the laws and codes for the SS and various other groups of the police , conducting its own investigations and trials , as well as administering the SS and Police Courts and penal systems . History . Early in the Nazi regime SS personnel were charged with breaking the law through the performance of their duties at the Dachau concentration camp in 1934 . Under such circumstances , the Nazi regime realised it would be expedient to remove the SS and police units from the jurisdiction of the civilian courts . This was achieved with a petition to the Reich Ministry of Justice . This legal status meant all SS personnel were only accountable to the Hauptamt SS Gericht . This effectively placed the SS above German law and able to live by its own rules and conventions . Organization . The Hauptamt SS Gericht was an extension of the previous SS Gericht , an organization that administered surveys of the SS and police forces and their codes of honor . The Hauptamt SS Gericht had four departments ( ) : The Hauptamt SS Gericht ' s headquarters were the high court offices in Munich . The Hauptamt SS Gericht had 605 qualified lawyers that passed sentences on members of the German armed forces , though Reichsführer - SS Heinrich Himmler often changed the sentences . By 1944 , the number of SS - Hauptamt offices within Germany had grown from 8 to 12 . SS and Police Courts . The Hauptamt SS - Gericht administered also 38 regional SS courts throughout the Third Reich under legal jurisdiction which superseded civilian courts . These laws extended to all SS and police force members operating in Germany or throughout occupied Europe . The SS and Police Courts were the only authority that could try SS personnel for criminal behaviour . The different SS and Police Courts were as follows : The one exception to the SS and Police Courts jurisdiction involved members of the " Allgemeine - SS " who were serving on active duty in the regular " Wehrmacht " . In such cases , the SS member in question was subject to regular " Wehrmacht " military law and could face charges before a standard military tribunal . Investigations by Judge Georg Morgen . In 1943 SS - " Sturmbannführer " Georg Konrad Morgen , from the " Hauptamt SS - Gericht " , began investigating corruption and criminal activity within the Nazi concentration camps system . He eventually prosecuted so many SS officers that by April 1944 , " Reichsführer - SS " Heinrich Himmler personally ordered him to restrain his cases . Among the people he investigated was Karl Otto Koch , the commandant of Buchenwald and Majdanek , and husband of Ilse Koch — as well as Buchenwald ' s concentration camp doctor Waldemar Hoven , who was accused of murdering both inmates and camp guards who threatened to testify against Koch . In 1944 , while investigating the Auschwitz commander , Rudolf Höss , Morgen ' s assistant " Hauptscharführer " Gerhard Putsch disappeared . Some theorized this was a warning for Morgen to ease up on his investigations as the building where his files were stored was burned down shortly thereafter . Morgen , who had been an SS judge and investigator , later testified at the Nuremberg trials . He later claimed that he fought for justice during the Nazi era , and cited his long list of 800 investigations into criminal activity at concentration camp s during his two years of activity .