. NMT05-T1039
Volume V · Page 1039
| By an order of Himmler, dated 23 September 1940, gold was to be removed from the teeth of deceased concentration camp inmates for the benefit of the Reich. The defendant Pook admitted knowledge of this order, but denied that he participated in the carrying out of this order, saying: |
"As a leading dentist, I had nothing to do with the removal of gold teeth as far as people were concerned who had died natural deaths. As far as removal of gold was concerned from people who had been killed in the extermination programs, there was no question about that. I had no knowledge of the extermination program, and these actions. Therefore, I couldn't know anything at all about the removal of gold teeth either." (R. 3917) |
| The Tribunal concludes from all the evidence
that the extermination program was at least in part an SS task. This program
required many agencies and many SS responsible persons to carry it out and to
conclude it. From the time that tire subjects for extermination were collected
to the time of their final extermination in the gas chambers and crematories,
various individuals had specific tasks assigned to them as their duties in
carrying out this program. One of the final steps was to take from the mouths
of the gassed victims the remaining vestige of value to the Reich, the gold
from their teeth. Thus, when the defendant and his subordinates had completed
their task of removing this gold, the flaming mouths of the crematory completed
the program. The Tribunal finds from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant Pook in his capacity as the chief dentist of the WVHA had constructive knowledge of the policy of extermination as carried out in the concentration camps by the SS, and, as his part therein he was charged with the confiscation of the gold from the months of the subjects and was directly responsible as one of the participants in such a program. The Tribunal will not deal with "Action Reinhardt," at this point as a separate and distinct action, but has made its findings as to this defendant from the over-all picture of the SS extermination program. The confiscation of the dental gold of deceased concentration camp inmates was directly tied into and made a part of the extermination program and "Action Reinhardt." |
| CONCLUSIONS |
| The Tribunal finds beyond a reasonable doubt from the evidence in this case that the defendant Pook was a principal in, accessory to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and was connected with plans and enterprises involving the commission of |
