Schutzhaft (preventive detention) was the term in the Third Reich for the arrest, without a court decision, and the detention in concentration camps of persons who were unwelcome to the National Socialist regime because of their (left-wing) political conviction, religion, orientation or origin, such as Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Sinti and Roma, antisocials and homosexuals. The Schutzhäftlinge were arrested by the SA, the SS or the Gestapo and were detained in camps where the SS or SA was the sole authority. The Schutzhaft could not be challenged in court and there was no judicial protection against ill-treatment during this imprisonment.
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