. NMT05-T0262
Volume V · Page 262
| political weal! Let us not too soon lose sight of a collective civic responsibility to prevent the growth of such malignant organizations. Before the memory of these crimes die away let us speak of the duty of all patriotic and responsible men, in all walks of life, to protect the nations against such loathsome doctrines as these defendants preached and practiced. Here let the consequences be indelibly recorded of an organization based upon the execrable theories of racism. If there are those who doubt, let them come here and examine the documents which Himmler's vial of cyanide could not destroy, showing the world-wide carnage wrought by that organization; and all peoples may learn that a nation may not be built upon persecution; that industry, no more than medicine or law may not be built upon death, destruction, and desecration; and that production may not be based upon pogroms, nor profits upon pillage. Today's misery exists the world over because these lessons were not sooner learned. |
| B. Extract from Opening Statement for Defendant Pohl * |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| DR. SEIDL: In the indictment which was served
on him, 13 January 1947, the defendant Oswald Pohl is charged on all four
counts of the indictment. In count one of the indictment he is charged with having participated in a common plan with the intent of perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity. In counts two and three of the indictment he is charged with personal responsibility in the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity, while in count four of the indictment he is charged with having been a member of an organization which was found to be felonious by the International Military Tribunal. |
| COUNT ONE — THE COMMON
PLAN OR THE CONSPIRACY |
| In count one of the indictment the defendant
Oswald Pohl is charged between January 1933 and April 1945, together with the
other defendants and several other persons following a common plan, with having
participated in an illegal manner and with malice aforethought, in an agreement
to perpetrate war crimes and crimes against humanity, as they are defined in
the Control Council Law No. 10, Article II. The indictment contains no statements which are based on facts and which reveal in detail the existence of such a scheme |
* Complete opening statement is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 14 May 1947, pp. 1099-1121.
