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Volume V · Page 864
| engaged in hauling food, were among those
carrying out these murders. Sauer saw a noncommissioned officer of the supply battalion kill six Jews with a Tommy gun at another place and witnessed numerous mistreatments of Jews by members of that unit. One of the most significant points of Sauer's testimony was that after Tschentscher was transferred, he never saw another incident of this kind. In considering Tschentscher's credibility in this matter, it should be remembered that he testified that he left the supply battalion in November 1941, whereas his own affidavit, his official transfer and his personal service record all fixed the date of his detachment from the Viking division as 31 December. If General Yamashita * could be executed for being the commanding general in charge of troops who committed atrocities several provinces away from his headquarters in Manila, Fanslau and Tschentscher should be made to bear their responsibility for what was done all around them by men whom they knew by name. Such then in brief is the responsibility of these defendants for the crimes with which they have been charged. Few of these men committed murder with their own hands, but all are as guilty of murder as the operators of the gas chambers in Auschwitz. The concentration camps were one of the cornerstones of the Third Reich. The enormity of the crimes committed in those lawless jungles has been amply proved, and indeed has not been disputed by the defendants. The weary months of defense testimony have rather been devoted to a denial of knowledge of that which was known to the whole world and a relegation of responsibility to dead men. If these men are not responsible for the concentration camp crimes then no one is guilty. In the absence of Hitler and Himmler responsibility for the concentration camps can be pushed no higher than these surviving members of the WVHA. Theirs was the power to establish and operate concentration camps. Theirs was the function to exploit the labor of the subjected peoples who were incarcerated behind the electric fences of the camps. Theirs was the task to make profitable the destruction of human lives on a mass basis. These things they did and gloried in them. It is no use to say, as some have done, that they could not have prohibited the slaughter of Jews and the enslavement and degradation of uncounted millions. Even if it is true it is no defense. It may be that Hitler and Himmler could have found other men, other Pohls, Franks, and Loerners, but these defendants are the men who eagerly did his bidding. They performed essential functions and held responsible positions in the administration of |
* United States Reports, vol. 327, pp. 1-81. Defendant in the Case of United States vs. Tomoyuki Yamashita. Supreme Court of the United States, in re Yamashita.
