. NMT03-T1132
Volume III · Page 1132
| until 30 June 1944, which was only a few
months before the Night and Fog matters were taken out of the hands of the
Ministry of Justice, and all prisoners then held by the Ministry of Justice
were transferred to the Gestapo to be placed in concentration camps.
Mettgenberg also testified to the difficulties experienced with the Gestapo arising out of the fact that the Gestapo transferred many of these prisoners directly to concentration camps and thereby retained control over them. Nothing was done about the fact that the police took the NN prisoners into police custody and retained them in police custody. We find defendant Mettgenberg to be guilty under counts two and three of the indictment. The evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that he acted as a principal, aided, abetted, and was connected with the execution and carrying out of the Hitler Night and Fog decree in violation of numerous principles of international law, as has been heretofore pointed out in this judgment. |
| THE DEFENDANT VON AMMON |
| From his own sworn statements we gain the
following information concerning the defendant von Ammon. He joined the SA in
December 1933, in which organization he held the rank of Scharfuehrer. He
joined the NSDAP in May 1937. He was called to the Reich Ministry of Justice as
of 1 January 1935, became a Landgerichtsrat on 1 February 1935, and
Landgerichtsdirektor on 1 July 1937. His main activity in the Ministry during
that period concerned "questions of international legal usage in penal
matters." After the Austrian Anschluss he was employed as liaison officer of Department III (penal matters) in connection with Department VIII (Austria), in the Reich Ministry of Justice. He was consultant in the department for the administration of penal law under Ministerialdirektor Crohne. He was transferred to the Munich Court of Appeals as Oberlandesgerichtsrat where he served until June 1940, at which time he was recalled to the Reich Ministry of Justice. As of 1 March 1943 he was appointed Ministerial Counsellor in the Ministry of Justice. He states (NG-852, Pros. Ex. 55) |
"From 1942 onward I dealt mainly with Nacht and Nebel cases in the occupied territories. In my capacity as consultant for Nacht and Nebel cases I made several duty trips to the occupied territories and took part in discussions in Paris and Holland which dealt with questions of Nacht and Nebel proceedings." |
