. |
September and finished on the 17th
November, having occupied fifty-four working days.
The Court was a
military one, and consisted of five British officer, including the President,
Major-General H. P. M. Berney-Ficklin, C.B., M.C.; they were assisted by C. L.
Stirling, Esq., K.C, sitting as Judge Advocate. The Prosecution was conducted
by four officers of the Legal Staff, Headquarters British Army of the Rhine,
headed by Colonel T. M. Backhouse, M.B.E, T.D. The accused were represented by
one Polish and eleven British regimental officers, all of whom had held a legal
qualification in civil life. It was by their own election that the accused were
represented by British, rather than by German, Counsel.
In the course
of the trial, and at the request of the defending officers, Colonel Smith
(sometime Professor of International Law at London University), was added as an
additional defending officer on behalf of the accused. The purpose of this
addition was to enable the defence to be more expertly developed in the sphere
of International Law. It was not until after trial had started that the
assistance of Colonel Smith was obtained and it is for this reason that his
argument (which should logically have taken the form of an objection to the
charge at the start of the proceedings) will be found at the end of the trial
amongst the final speeches of the other defending officers. |
| |
| III |
| |
Before considering the charges it is
necessary to say something about the concentration camps and their
organization. It is important to remember that they were not an original
product of the war, but had existed in a lesser role since the advent of Hitler
to power. In 1939 there were six of these camps with a population of about
21,000 and these internees may be roughly classified as criminals, political
undesirables, and Jews. The object of the camps was the incarceration of all
those whose continued freedom seemed to threaten the security of the Nazi,
régime; they were in fact prisons of a particularly brutal and
unpleasant kind. They operated behind a wall of secrecy, and the terror of the
unknown and the stories which filtered through served as a powerful deterrent
and, discouragement to the opponents of the new Power. The war added greatly to
the number of these camps and radically changed their purpose, but it is fair
to say that the foundations of the system were laid in the days of peace.
As the war continued, the purpose which these camps served began to
change and a new policy became apparent; but it was a double-headed policy, the
two branches of which were inconsistent. On the |
|
