. NMT03-T1047
Volume III · Page 1047
| learned only a few moments before the trial
of the nature of the alleged crime for which he was to be tried. The entire
proceedings from beginning to end were secret and no public record was allowed
to be made of them. These facts are proved by captured documents and evidence
adduced on the trial, to some of which we now advert. The first trial of NN cases took place at Essen. A letter from the prosecutor, dated 20 August 1942, addressed to the Reich Minister of Justice, was received on 27 August 1942, states that five defendants were to be tried and that two of them were to get prison terms and that — |
"In the remaining cases the death sentence is to be ordered and inquiries made whether they should be executed by the guillotine." |
| These sentences were later pronounced.
In response to several inquiries from prosecutors at Special Courts in Essen, Kiel, and Cologne citing pending NN cases, the defendants Mettgenberg and von Ammon replied that, in view of the regulation for the keeping of NN trials absolutely secret, defense counsel chosen by NN defendants would not be permitted. In these same inquiries, it is stated that if defense counsel were carefully selected from those who were recognized as unconditionally reliable, pro-State and judicially efficient lawyers, no difficulty should arise with respect to the secrecy of such proceedings. It is suggested that if an attorney should inquire concerning representation of an NN defendant, he should be informed that it is not permissible to investigate whether or not there was any proceeding pending against the accused. This inquiry related to 16 NN French defendants who were to be tried at Cologne. Other evidence introduced in the case showed that this practice was followed. The foreign countries department of the Wehrmacht High Command reported to defendant von Ammon on 15 October 1942 a list of 224 alleged spies arrested in France in the execution of what was known as "Action porto", of whom 220 had already been transported to Germany. Inquiry was made whether these prisoners should be regarded as coming under Hitler's NN Decree. A later directive issued 6 March 1943, which was initialed by defendant Mettgenberg and sent to the SS Chief Himmler, states that orders and regulations covering NN prisoners in general will be applied to "porto action" groups. The circular decree states further that in case of death of "porto action" prisoners, the same procedure is followed with respect to secrecy as is followed in NN cases, and that the estates of "porto action" prisoners are to |
