. NMT04-T0411
Volume IV · Page 411
| XI. OPINION AND JUDGMENT |
| The indictment filed in this case on 29 July
1947 charged the 24 defendants enumerated therein with crimes against humanity,
war crimes, and membership in criminal organizations. The 24 defendants were
made up of 6 SS generals, 5 SS colonels, 6 SS lieutenant colonels, 4 SS majors,
and 3 SS junior officers. Since the filing of the indictment the number of the
defendants has been reduced to 22. Defendant SS Major Emil Haussmann committed
suicide on 31 July 1947, and defendant SS Brigadier General Otto Rasch was
severed from the case on 5 February 1948 because of his inability to testify.
Although it is assumed that Rasch's disease (paralysis agitans or Parkinsonism)
will become progressively worse, his severance from these proceedings is not to
be regarded as any adjudication on the question of guilt or innocence.
The acts charged in counts one and two of the indictment are identical in character, but the indictment draws the distinction between acts constituting offenses against civilian populations, including German nationals and nationals of other countries, and the same acts committed as violations of the laws and customs of war involving murder and ill-treatment of prisoners of war and civilian populations of countries under the occupation of Germany. Count three charges the defendants with membership in the SS, SD, and Gestapo, organizations declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal and paragraph I (d) of article II of Control Council Law No. 10. Although the indictment accuses the defendants of the commission of atrocities, persecutions, exterminations, imprisonment, and other inhumane acts, the principle charge in this case is murder. However, as unequivocal as this charge is, questions have arisen which must be definitely resolved so that this decision may add its voice in the present solemn re-affirmation and sound development of international precepts binding upon nations and individuals alike, to the end that never again will humanity witness the sad and miserable spectacle it has beheld and suffered during these last years. At the outset it must be acknowledged that the facts with which the Tribunal must deal in this opinion are so beyond the experience of normal man and the range of man-made phenomena that only the most complete judicial inquiry, and the most exhaustive trial, could verify and confirm them. Although the principle accusation is murder and, unhappily, man has been killing man ever since |
