. NMT02-T0326
Volume II · Page 326
the extermination of the Jews; a man thus having, so to speak, the highest degree of knowledge derived from SS membership? It is obvious that such a sentence as the one passed on Poppendick deprives future tribunals of all latitude of discretion, transforms the maximum penalty into the average penalty, and in this way renders the recommendation of the IMT absurd.
V. Prevention of further possibilities of appealThe defendant Poppendick, whose domicile is in the British Zone, would consequently under normal circumstances have to be tried by a tribunal (Spruchgericht) set up in the meantime in consequence of the British Ordinance No. 69. Because he has been sentenced by a Nuernberg Military Tribunal as a member of an organization declared criminal he loses the two further appeals provided for by Ordinance No. 69 and its implementation regulations for the British Zone. Therefore this is the only legal way still open to him to state his case.
VI. Personal ConditionsI make the following application for reduction of penalty with even greater emphasis, because the defendant has already been amply punished for his SS membership. His family has lost all its property and has not a pfennig left. His wife must support her four little children aged 3 to 7 by the labor of her hands under the most primitive conditions, without having a chance during her husband's entire term of imprisonment to obtain the slightest financial assistance for herself and her children.
The defendant used his considerable abilities as a physician to help many people, both Germans and foreigners, during the long years of his medical practice, without ever even mentioning this during the trial, because it is a physician's duty to help suffering humanity. The defendant, who is not involved in the crimes dealt with by this Tribunal, suffers sufficiently under his outward discrimination as an SS member.
In view of all these circumstances and with the request for careful examination of the case, I make in conclusion the
1. For the sentence of imprisonment for ten years inflicted on defendant Helmut Poppendick to be reduced to a tolerable term of imprisonment, perhaps to be commuted into a shorter term of confinement in a labor camp, and at the same time
2. For the 21/4 years' detention already served by the defendant to be included in the then newly-determined term of imprisonment.
Attorney-at-Law.
