Direito penal nazista: do ápice à queda

Abstract

The Nazi regime represents one of the darkest periods in the history of criminal law, marked by the instrumentalization of the legal system as a tool for persecution and extermination. During its rule, the legal apparatus was systematically distorted to legitimize discriminatory and authoritarian practices, establishing a historical precedent for how legal institutions can be corrupted to serve totalitarian interests. The gradual transformation of German criminal law, from a system based on fundamental guarantees to a mechanism of state oppression, raises questions about the persistence of authoritarian elements in contemporary penal systems. In view of this, the hypothesis emerged that the Nazi regime used Criminal Law in two distinct ways: as an instrument to legitimize the persecution of groups considered "undesirable" and as a tool for intimidation and social control. The legal system was manipulated to create an appearance of legality for discriminatory practices, while simultaneously establishing a repressive apparatus that transcended traditional legal guarantees.The general objective of the research was to identify to what extent Criminal Law was used as an instrument of political control by the Nazis, analyzing both the theoretical construction and the practical implementation of this system. To this end, the research examined the rise of the Nazi regime, and the legal measures used, elucidated the criminal theories developed during the period, and investigated the structuring of criminal law in the legislative, judicial, and executive spheres. The methodology employed was based on the hypothetical-deductive method, through documentary and bibliographic research, including analysis of books and scientific articles. The work was structured in three main chapters, addressing respectively the rise of Nazism, the criminal law dogmatics of the regime, and Nazi criminal legislation.The research results demonstrated that the Nazi regime developed a sophisticated criminal-legal apparatus that included not only discriminatory legislation but also elaborate legal theories to justify their practices. The Kiel School emerged as a fundamental theoretical center, developing concepts such as criminal law of will and criminal law of the perpetrator. Institutions such as the People's Court and legislation such as the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor materialized this theoretical structure into concrete instruments of persecution and practices that find reflections in the current Brazilian penal system, either through "underground criminal law" or through authoritarian legislative trends. The analysis confirmed the initial hypothesis, demonstrating that Nazi Criminal Law effectively served both the systematic persecution of specific groups and social control through legal terror, establishing practices and concepts that, surprisingly, still echo in contemporary legal systems.