. NMT05-T1176
Volume V · Page 1176
"As chief judicial officer of the SS, he had full disciplinary power over all guards who served in the concentration camps. All judgments arising in disciplinary proceedings against SS guards were submitted to Pohl for modification or confirmation." |
| This is an error. Pohl's authority to
judicially review disciplinary measures was confined to the personnel of WVHA
and did not extend to the concentration camp guards. Pohl's counsel argues that the "primary criterion of any responsibility is the authority to punish," and that Pohl had no such authority over concentration camp commanders or guards. The conclusive answer to this is that the criterion of responsibility in this case has been fixed by Article II, paragraph 2, of Control Council Law No. 10, to which reference has been repeatedly made herein. "In this military set-up there was no room for an administrative official to cooperate by issuing orders", counsel suggests. But Pohl made room. In R-129, Pros. Ex. 40, signed by Pohl (not "by order"), he signed a document which he designates as an order, addressed to chief of department [Amtsgruppe] D (Maurer) and all camp commanders and work managers, defining the policy in concentration camps and the responsibilities of commanders and work managers, requiring that work must be exhaustive, that working hours are to be fixed by camp commanders and that "sentries on horseback, watch dogs, movable watch towers, and movable obstacles are to be developed." In NO-1290, Pros. Ex. 60, Pohl orders that the working hours of prisoners be kept at 11 hours daily, 6 days per week, with a half day on Sunday. This order is addressed to all concentration camp commandants. In Document NO-1245, Pros. Ex. 89, Pohl orders all camp commanders to maintain closer supervision by guards and to forbid conversation or contact with inmates. In NO-1544, Pros. Ex. 137, Pohl ordered each noncommissioned officer and guard to make loafing prisoners work. The number of such instances could be multiplied, but these are sufficient to show that Pohl found ample room, even as an administrative officer, to issue orders concerning the operation of concentration camps. Counsel states in his brief (p. 17): |
"The securing and allocation of workers for the armament industry was examined by the Reich Ministry for Armament and War Production and was subject to direct approval. It was not possible within the framework of this planned economy that Pohl on his own responsibility could allocate workers from the concentration camps to the armament industries." |
| The record is replete with proof that the defendant Sommer, |
