. NMT02-T0690
Volume II · Page 690
MR. CLARK DENNY: We close today the trial of a major war criminal — a leader in a slaving operation, the enormity of which is without historical parallel; a principal in a crime of murder in the ironic masquerade of scientific progress which has shocked alike the world of medicine and the world of laymen. The evidence set forth before the Tribunal has shown that Erhard Milch was primarily implicated as a leader in a program to bring laborers into Germany by force, of allocating them to the various segments of the German war economy, and of munitions.
We deal here with a top military and economic planner who at all times was fully informed as to the aims and objectives of the Nazi plan. Unlike his colleagues Speer and Sauckel, Milch entered the conspiracy early. The defendant was one of a small group of men who constituted the leadership of the Reich.
Before dealing directly with the responsibility of the defendant for the crimes charged in the indictment, as shown by the evidence, we should like to review, briefly, the law applicable to these crimes.
The indictment charges and the evidence has connected the defendant with a wide variety of crimes incident to the enforced labor program of the Nazi regime. In themselves, these crimes are not new except in their enormity. In domestic law they have, from ancient times, borne such familiar titles as assault, battery, murder, kidnapping and pillage. In international law the principles which protect the individual from undue interference with his person and his personal freedom have given rise to a series of kindred precepts governing the conduct of a nation which has gained factual control over the citizens of another state. We shall consider briefly some salient precepts and prohibitions of international law up to, and including the provisions of Control Council Law No. 10.
Much of the labor which supplied Germany with the tools of total war was exacted from people who had been uprooted from their homes in occupied territories and imported to Germany. Displacement of groups of persons from one country to another
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*Mr. Clark Denney delivered the closing statement before the Tribunal on 26 March 1947. Tr. pp. 2436-2488.
