. NMT05-T1174
Volume V · Page 1174
| or enterprises involving its commission * * *." Typical of the attitude of the defendant is this statement in the brief filed 26 July 1948 on behalf of Pohl: |
"Neither Pohl nor the WVHA had any decisive part in the organization of the liquidation of Jewish property. Neither Pohl nor the WVHA played any part in the execution of this liquidation but that their participation was limited to the duty of delivery ordered by the Reich Government, as far as valuables came to hand within the sphere of the WVHA." |
| In order for Pohl to have been criminally
liable for the liquidation of the Jews and the appropriation of their property,
it was not necessary for him to have had a decisive part in formulating the
original plan, nor in carrying it out later. It would be sufficient to
inculpate him, if he was an accessory to or abetted the criminal program or
took a consenting part therein or was connected with plans or enterprises
involving its commission. This could occur at any point in the course of the
program. Counsel for Pohl, in his closing argument, urged that Himmler's order to tear down the Warsaw ghetto was addressed to the Higher SS and Police Leader in Krakow, and not to the defendant Oswald Pohl, who was merely ordered (NO-2494, Pros. Ex. 501) "to have the prisoners collect and salvage the millions of bricks, the scrap iron, and other materials of the former ghetto." The evacuation of the Jews from the Warsaw ghetto was accomplished by Stroop through the use of military force between 19 April and 16 May 1943. Six months before that, Himmler had ordered that all the Jewish workers in the ghetto "are to be gathered together in concentration camps on the spot, that is in Warsaw and Lublin, by SS Obergruppenfuehrer Krueger and Pohl." This was the document (NO-1611, Pros. Ex. 498) in which Himmler stated: |
"Of course, there, too, the Jews shall some day disappear, in accordance with the Fuehrer's wishes." |
| It thus appears that at the very inception of
the Warsaw operation, Pohl was made an active participant by Himmler's order,
with definite duties and responsibilities. The document shows that Pohl's name
is the first on the distribution list. In January 1943, 3 months before the violent evacuation program was launched by Stroop, Himmler wrote to Krueger complaining that his evacuation program was not being carried out with sufficient speed to suit him and ordering the immediate transfer of 16,000 Jews to a concentration camp at Lublin. Pohl's name appears on the distribution list of this letter (NO-1882, Pros. Ex. 499). On 16 February 1943, two months before the program of |
