. NMT05-T1040
Volume V · Page 1040
| war crimes and crimes against humanity, as charged in counts two and three of the indictment. |
| COUNT FOUR |
| The Tribunal further finds beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant Pook was a member of the SS after 1 September, 1939, an organization declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal, as charged in the indictment. Therefore, the Tribunal finds and adjudges that the defendant Hermann Pook is guilty as charged in count four of the indictment. |
| HAMS HOHBERG |
| Hans Hohberg was not a member of the NSDAP
and never joined the SS. Educated and trained as an auditor, he was employed
under contract by the SS Administration in his professional capacity. He first
came into contact with Pohl in 1940 when he was engaged to audit the accounts
of the various SS enterprises, and "if possible, to bring order into his
companies." Hohberg states that his only superior was the Institute of Public
Auditors, and that against his will Pohl made him chief of staff W. He sought
to deny that he was chief of staff W, but the defendants Volk and Baier, as
well as defense witness Karoli from staff W, all confirmed his (Hohberg's)
official position. The evidence shows that Hohberg's part in the SS industries went far beyond that of a simple auditor. The task of coordinating and directing W industries at the top level was the task of staff W, whose chief, according to the business order of SS WVHA, had many duties. He was economic advisor to Pohl, assisted Pohl in the discharge of his duties of management, and the chiefs of the eight offices in department W were to report to Pohl only after conferring with the chief of staff W on all financial, economic, and other important matters concerning the management of the enterprises. The chief of staff W was to supervise the manner in which all funds and moneys furnished by or through DWB were to be used. He was to supervise business transactions of all SS industries, he was to examine the purchase and sale of all plots of land, and he employed and discharged all employees in staff W. In his testimony Pohl declared that staff W was the instrument which he used as the sole business manager of DWB in the supervision of the economic enterprises. Hohberg is definitely associated with concentration camps. All W industries obviously were an essential part of the concentration camp system. Himmler, in his Metz speech, declared: "We cannot exist without the business enterprises." |
