Protective custody () was the extra- or para-legal rounding-up of political opponents, Jews, and other persecuted groups in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. It was sometimes officially defended as necessary to protect them from the "righteous" wrath of the German population. In other cases, such as

homosexuals Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...

, it was considered necessary to protect the German "volk" from their influence. Schutzhaft did not provide for a judicial warrant; in fact, detainees never saw a judge. In providing for the detainment and "relocation" of those taken into Schutzhaft, no documentation was provided. It was considered different from a normal judicial action and did not require warrant or prior notice. Those arrested were sent to

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

s such as Dachau or

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...

.Law And Justice In The Third Reich
(from the United States Holocaust Memorial website)

References

{{reflist Discrimination against gay men Nazi terminology Political repression in Nazi Germany World War II casualties