consider these defendants to be responsible for the occurrences at
the Auschwitz construction site.
On the record before us we find and
adjudge that the defendants Schmitz, von Schnitzler, von Knieriem, Haefliger,
Ilgner, Mann, and Oster are Not Guilty under count three.
The
defendants Gattineau, von der Heyde, and Kugler were not members of
Farben’s Vorstand, nor were they members of the Technical Committee. No
substantial evidence of an incriminating character connects them with any of
the charges in count three in a manner sufficient to establish their guilt.
Each of these three defendants is, therefore, acquitted of all charges under
this count. |
| |
| COUNT FOUR |
| |
| THE PRESIDENT: Count Four. This count charges that: |
| |
“The defendants Schneider,
Buetefisch, and von der Heyde are charged with membership, subsequent to 1
September 1939, in Die Schutzstaffeln der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen
Arbeiterpartei (commonly known as the ‘SS’), declared to be criminal
by the International Military Tribunal, and Paragraph 1 (d) of Article
II of Control Council Law No. 10.” |
It is a matter of history that the organization referred to in the
indictment as the "SS" was established by Hitler in 1925 and that membership
therein was entirely voluntary until 1940, when conscription was also
inaugurated. The SS was composed of several units, many of which were utilized
in the perpetuation of some of the most reprehensible atrocities committed
during the Nazi regime.
Article II 1 (d) of Control Council
Law No. 10 provides that: |
| |
“1. Each of the following
acts is recognized as a crime: * * * "(d) Membership in categories of a
criminal group or organization declared criminal by the International Military
Tribunal.” |
| Article 10 of the Charter of the IMT provides: |
| |
“In cases where a group or
organization is declared criminal by the Tribunal, the competent national
authority of any Signatory shall have the right to bring individuals to trial
for membership therein before national military or occupation courts. In any
such case, the criminal nature of the group or organization is considered
proved and shall not be questioned.” |
| In dealing with the SS the IMT treated as included therein all
persons who had been officially accepted as members of any of the branches of
said organization, except its so-called riding units. The Tribunal declared to
be criminal those groups of said organizations which were composed of members
who had become or remained such with knowledge that such groups were being used
for the commission |
. 
