 |
of war crimes or crimes against humanity connected with the war, or
who had been personally implicated as members of said organization in the
commission of such crimes. Specifically excluded from the classes of members to
which the Tribunal imputed criminality, however, were those persons who were
drafted into membership by the state in such a way as to give them no choice in
the matter and who had committed no such crimes, and those persons who had
ceased to belong to any of said organizations prior to 1 September 1939.
The IMT said: |
| |
“A criminal organization is
analogous to a criminal conspiracy in that the essence of both is cooperation
for criminal purposes. There must be a group bound together and organized for a
common purpose. The group must be formed or used in connection with the
commission of crimes denounced by the Charter. Since the declaration with
respect to the organizations and groups will, as has been pointed out, fix the
criminality of its members, that definition should exclude persons who had no
knowledge of the criminal purposes or acts of the organization and those who
were drafted by the State for membership, unless they were personally
implicated in the commission of acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the
Charter as members of the organization. Membership alone is not enough to come
within the scope of these declarations.”¹ |
| Finally, the IMT made certain recommendations, from which we
quote: |
| |
"Since declarations of
criminality which the Tribunal makes will be used by other courts in the trial
of persons on account of their membership in the organizations found to be
criminal, the Tribunal feels it appropriate to make the following
recommendations: |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
“2. Law No. 10, to which
reference has already been made, leaves punishment entirely in the discretion
of the trial court even to the extent of inflicting the death penalty.
“The de-Nazification Law of 5 March 1946, however, passed for
Bavaria, Greater-Hesse, and Wurttemberg-Baden, provides definite sentences for
punishment in each type of offense. The Tribunal recommends that in no case
should punishment imposed under Law No. 10 upon any members of an organization
or group declared by the Tribunal to be criminal exceed the punishment fixed by
the de-Nazification Law. No person should be punished under both
laws.”³ |
| For having actively engaged in the National Socialistic tyranny in
the SS, the de-Nazification Law of 5 March 1046, for Bavaria. Greater-
[Hesse] |
________
1. Trial of the Major War
Criminals, volume I, page
256.
2.
Ibid., page. 256 and
257.
1197 |
. 
