. NMT04-T0514
Volume IV · Page 514
"Do you regard it proper, militarily proper, to shoot fourteen people, or only one person for that matter, because he spreads Communist propaganda?" |
| and he replied — |
"According to my orders these measures had to be carried out. In that far it was correct and justified." |
| Defense counsel in arguing this phase of the
case said that the victims had indulged in Communist propaganda "up to the last
moment". But there is nothing in international law which justifies or legalizes
the sentence of death for political opinion or propaganda. At the trial the defendant testified that he did not remember any reports about "mass executions" during his time. If there had been no such executions during his incumbency, it is reasonable to suppose that Jost would have emphatically so declared. It cannot be assumed that so grave and solemn an event as a mass execution could fall into the realm of the forgettable. Thus, the only possible conclusion is that here the defendant was equivocating. On 15 June 1942, at a time when Jost was admittedly in charge of the area, one of his subordinates, SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Truebe, wrote to the RSHA, requesting shipment of a gas van and gas hoses for three gas vans on hand. Jost denied any knowledge of this letter but admitted that the subordinate in question had the authority to order equipment. It is not reasonable to suppose that the ordering of such extraordinary equipment would not come to the attention of the leader of the organization and the fact that the ordered gas van was to go to White Ruthenia (where he was also in command) does not absolve the defendant from responsibility. The defendant, as all other defendants in this case, is not charged alone with the crime of murder. The indictment lists various offenses, including enslavement, imprisonment, and other inhumane acts against civilian populations. Thus, the defendant cannot escape responsibility for a consenting part at least in the slave-labor program instituted by Sauckel in his territory. Report No. 193, dated 17 April 1942, carried this item — |
"On orders by the new Plenipotentiary for Mobilization of Labor, Gauleiter Sauckel, the commissioner general, 'White Ruthenia', has to muster about 100,000 workers. But until now only 17,000 have been shipped. In order to make available the manpower requested, the principle of voluntary recruiting is abandoned and compulsory measures will be adopted." |
| As already mentioned, Jost claims that he opposed the Heydrich order of 19 May 1942. He testified that he visited Heydrich and Himmler and urged his recall and even spoke to Rosenberg against |
