. NMT05-T0088
Volume V · Page 88
| IX. OPINION AND JUDGMENT |
| The constitution, powers, jurisdiction, and
functions of this Tribunal are fully stated in the judgment of the
International Military Tribunal and the following subsequent cases: The United
States of America vs. Brandt, et al, Case No. 1; the United States of America
vs. Altstoetter, et al, Case No. 3 ; and the United States of America vs. Pohl,
et al, Case No. 4. We deem it sufficient to say that this case was submitted to
this Tribunal, and the trial conducted, in accordance with the law and rules of
procedure applicable to the Tribunal. When it is considered that the oral and documentary evidence in this case consists of approximately 10,000 pages, it becomes readily apparent that any effort to even summarize the evidence would be impracticable. We shall, in the main, therefore record here our findings. Those interested in the details of evidence must be referred to the record. During the course of the trial several witnesses, including some defendants who made affidavits that were offered as evidence by the prosecution, testified that they were threatened, and that duress of a very improper nature was practiced by an interrogator. The affidavits referred to were excluded from the evidence and have not been considered by the Tribunal. Considerable evidence on the part of the defense was adduced to the effect that certain functions, actions, and measures taken, were Party matters while others came under the competency of offices of the government. In our opinion this attempted differentiation of spheres of competency makes no difference. In practice the Nazi Party and the Government in Germany under Hitler were one and the same thing. In fact, the law in Germany under date of 1 December 1933 declared the unity of the Nazi Party and the German State. The indictment in this case is framed in three counts. The first and second counts charge the commission of crimes against humanity and war crimes, respectively. Count one alleges, in substance, that between September 1939 and April 1945, all of the defendants— |
"were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, were connected with plans and enterprises involving, and were members of organizations or groups connected with atrocities and offenses, including but not limited to murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, persecutions on political, racial, and religious |
