On February 28, 1943, the defendant, Bobermin, W-1 office chief and manager of the Golleschau Portland Cement Company, which used concentration camp labor from Auschwitz, designated Volk as Syndikus of this company. In January 1942 in Stutthof Volk participated in a conference having to do with the conversion of the civilian internment camp at that place into a concentration camp. This camp wasto house 25,000 inmates including prisoners of war. On January 12, 1942 Volk wrote a long memorandum on the Stutthof concentration camp project. In this memorandum he analyzes in detail the various phases involved in the concentration camp plan, dwelling at length on the lucrative brick works within the area. Volk's inspection of the site, his conferences on the subject, his reports and memorandum demonstrate convincingly his familiarity with concentration camp policy.
In February 1944, Volk accompanied Pohl to Litzmannstadt on the same kind of a mission which had engaged him at Stutthof. The fact that Himmler had, prior to Bolk's visit to Litzmannstadt, ordered the transformation of the Ghetto there into a concentration camp, and the later fact that the plan was abandoned does not take away from the charge of the prosecution that Volk was actually involved in concentration camp affairs. And the fact that Volk himself advised against taking over all the enterprises at Litzmannstadt adds to the logic of the prosecution's charge.
In July 1942 Volk attended a conference which had to do with the Hermann Goering works at Linz. A memorandum on this subject points out that inmates of the Mauthausen concentration camp were to be used in erecting a factory which wasto utilize the klinker returns of the Linz foundry. The fact that a change in the plan dispensed with the use of prisoners here does not wipe out Volk's knowledge of how concentration camp inmates were being employed.
On December 12, 1944, Volk asked that 79 guards he sent to a labor camp at Erzingen. This certainly would establish that he was aware of the use of prison labor.
Volk denies all knowledge of the presence of prisoners of war in concentration camps. Yet on March 10, 1942, he countersigned a letter from Kammler, Chief of Department C, WVHA, to the Inspector of Concentration Camps, Gluecks, wnich contains this significant paragraph:
"In view of the increasing shortage of civilian workers the execution of the construction tasks devolving upon the SS-Economic-Administration Main Office in the 3rd year of war 1942 requires the employment of an increased number of prisoners, prisoners of war and Jews."
On July 1, 1943, Mummenthey wrote the commandant of the concentration camp at Flossenburg that he and Volk were coming to visit him and specifically asked him to make arrangements so that Volk could visit the camp. Volk later denied that he went into the camp but only saw it from a distance, but this does not eliminate Mummenthey's declaration of his (Volk's) interest.
Volk's counsel in his final plea argued that even if concentration camps were employed, this was no crime. He stated:
"It is therefore very doubtful whether the mere use of prisoners for unpaid work alone is sufficient to comply with the definition of the crime of enforcing so-called slave labor."
But, if forcibly depriving a man of his liberty and then compelling him to work against his will without remuneration does not constitute slave labor, then the term has no meaning whatsoever.
Volk seeks to disassociate himself from complicity in the OSTI operation by stating that he was in Switzerland when OSTI was formed on March 12, 1943.
However, he attended one of the first conferences on this project. He states that at this conference, which occurred February 13, 1943, its aims were not obvious and therefore he could not be charged with knowledge of its illegal objectives if any. But the memorandum on the subjects discussed at the conference lists as the first two items: (1) the utilization of the Jewish manpower in the Government General; (2) the utilization of the Jewish movable property.
Since it was obvious that these two utilizations would be without compensation to the Jews involved, the criminal aspect of the operation must have been obvious at once. Volk, however, seeks to explain away his participation in this conference with the statement that he had been summoned to deal with any legal questions which might arise and did not know the subject of this discussion. It is rather difficult to accept that Pohl would ask Volk for a legal opinion without outlining to him the subject matter. Volk goes further and says that he never saw the questionnaire which was the basis for that discussion until the trial:
The evidence establishes that Volk was cognizant of the OSTI operations and the Reinnardt Action. On August 31, 1943, he joined with Baier in requesting a loan of 2,500,000 RM to OSTI. On June 26, 1943, he approved a memorandum signed by Hohberg on the transferring of funds from the Reinhardt fund to the German Industrial firms.
Volk's indefatigable and far-flung efforts in behalf of the SS-Enterprises exploiting concentration camp labor, his close collaboration with Pohl, his initiative and energies exerted for the W-Industries bring him inevitably within the purview of Control Council Law No. 10 defining war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Tribunal finds Leo Volk guilty under Counts II and III of the indictment.
It is not clear, however, that Volk is guilty under Count IV. The fact that he had a written contract with DWB would indicate that his connection with the Waffen SS was not as binding as military service implies. The fact also that he did not give up his position with the Deutsche Gemeindetag (German Community Day) when he was drafted into the Waffen SS also attacks the exclusive authority of the SS over his movements. He continued to draw a salary from the civilian firm until May 1941. Volk's connection with the Waffen SS is not sufficiently free of ambiguity to justify the conclusion that it has been established beyond such reasonable doubt as to bring him within the provisions of the I.M.T. decision on this point. The Tribunal, therefore, finds him not guilty under Count IV.
KARL MUMMENTHEY Karl Mummenthey joined the Allgemeine SS in 1934.
In 1938 he became a legal assistant in the Administrative. Office of the SS under Dr. Salpeter. In 1940, in order to avoid being drafted into the Army he arranged, with Salpeter to be taken into the Waffen SS and placed on detached service with the WVHA.
In his direction and management of the German Earth and Stone Works, known as DEST, none of the defendants was more directly associated with concentration camp inmate labor than Earl Mummenthey.
In January 1939, Mummenthey made an investigation of the Company, and because of his recommendations, a separate legal department was set up under himself. In September 1939 he became second business manager of DEST, and in September 1941, first business manager.
When the Main Office Administration and Economy, and the Main Office Budget and Building amalgamated to form the WVHA, Mummenthey became Chief of Office W-1, and as such continued to control DEST.
DEST had brick works and quarries at the Flossenburg, Mauthausen, Gross-Rosen, Natzweiler, Neuengamme and Stutthof concentration camps. The ceramic works of Allach and Bohemia were also subordinated to Office W-1 under Mummenthey. The gravel works at Auschwitz and Treblinka, the granite quarry at Blizyn, the klinker works at Linz all formed part of the vast DEST establishments employing concentration camp labor. Mummenthey testified that plants subordinated to Office W-1 used a maximum of from 14,000 to 15,000 inmates at one time.
The DEST industries were strictly concentration camp enterprises. Each DEST plant had a works manager appointed by pohl upon recommendation by Mummenthey. These works managers made monthly reports to Mummenthey's office. Mummenthey frequently visited these plants and often called on the concentration camp commanders, Schwartz and Schondorf, in behalf of Mummenthey, also made periodical inspections of the plants.
Mummenthey's attorney in his final argument before the Tribunal said: "Without the connection with its HoldingGesellschaft and Pohl's power of command, and without Mummenthey's membership in the SS, the DEST and thereby Mummenthey also, would hardly have to defend themselves before this forum." But it is precisely this which condemns Mummenthey. It is like saying that were it not for a robbery or two a robber would not be a robber. It was Pohl's command, and by his command the entire WVHA is involved, plus Mummenthey's command as an SS officer, which made DEST what it was, an organization engaged in human slavery and human degradation.
The Tribunal must also renounce defense counsel's contention that Mummenthey did not accept the responsibility of chief of Office W-1. All the evidence points to the contrary.
It has been Mummenthey's plan to picture himself as a private business man in no way associated with the sternness and riger of SS discipline, and entirely detached from concentration camp routine. The picture fails to convince. Mummenthey was a definite integral and important figure in the whole concentration camp set-up, and, as an SS officer, wielded military power of command. If excesses occurred in the industries under his control he was in a position not only to know about them, but to do something. From time to time he attended meetings of the concentration camp commanders where all items pertaining to Concentration camp routine such as labor assignment, rations, clothing, quarters, treatment of prisoners, punishment, etc, were discussed.
The evidence in this case reveals that there was perhaps no industry which permitted such constant mal-treatment of prisoners as the DEST enterprises.
prosecution witness Angler, testifying to conditions in the DEST plants at the Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg concentration camp, declared that the inmates worked 12 hours a day, that the food was insufficient, the clothing inadequate and beatings constant, and that because of the heavy work and inadequate food there was an average of from 800 to 900 deaths per month. As a result of a report made by Angler on deplorable conditions at the camp hospital he was sentenced to a punitive company, 6½ days a week. In one months's time 19 out of 65 men in this company died. Angler stated that the average life duration of a punitive company worker was four weeks.
Mummenthey could not help knowing about concentration camp labor in the DEST enterprises. In SachsenhausenOranienburg the inmate workers daily passed by the very building in which Mummenthey had his office. Their poor physical condition was obvious.
The Prosecution witness, Kruse, a German citizen, testifying to conditions at the Neuengamme concentration camp, declared that the monthly death rate in the camp was from 8,000 to 12,000. During the construction period of the Klinker works of DEST, the death rate went up to about 20,000.
Mummenthey called in his behalf the witness Helmut Bickel, a German citizen who served from 1939 to 1940 in the Klinker Works at Sachsenhausen, and from 1940 to 1945 in the Neuengamme Works of DEST. No witness gave a more harrowing account for concentration camp conditions than Bickel, this defense witness. He testified that the food was not adequate for the work required of the inmates. "Proof of that is the extremely large number of inmates who died directly or indirectly of starvation." He further stated that reports were submitted by the works managers to Mummenthey's office every month and that these reports showed indirectly the intolerable conditions under which the inmates worked and lived. Mummenthey could not have failed to know the plight of the inmate workers.
Bickel described Mummenthey as a "white crow", but it is obvious that he used this characterization because Mummenthey had done him a favor of some proportions. If Bickel is to be believed at all, it cannot be accepted that Mummenthey, amid all these excesses, atrocities and mal-treatment, could remain so white a crow. It is not an unusual phenomenon in life to find an isolated good deed emerging from an evil man. Because of convenience, caprice, or even a sudden emhemeral gleam of benevolence forcing its way through a calloused heart, even a murderer can help a child to safety.
A grim humor can cause a slayer to save his intended victim. But whatever the cause which motivated Mummenthey's benevolence to Bickel, the kind deed is not enough to obliterate his indifference to the wholesale suffering of which he could not but be aware, and to alleviate which, in spite of his protestations, he did little or nothing.
Mummenthey is not an aggressively vicious man. He is too lacking in imagination to conjure up the planning of murder and equivalent enormities. His criminality lies in cuppable indifference to humanity, the sacredness of which demands respect in all parts of the world.
Mummenthey attempted to evade responsibility by first stating that there were no atrocities and no human treatment of concentration camp inmates; secondly, that if they did occur, they were caused by concentration camp guards over whom he had no control, and further that the treatment of inmates was subject to the supervision of the Messerschmidt and Junkers firms and other employers of inmates. But on cross-examination he admitted that he personally dealt with labor allocation. In fact his monthly report on W-1 for May, 191A referred to the shortage of 1,500 inmates in the Gusen quarry, but declared that "this calamity" would be overcome when a new shipment of inmates arrived from Auschwitz the following month.
Mummenthey has argued that DEST had nothing to do with food, clothing and billeting for the workers, and that it was impossible for him to know whether or not the inmates ate well since only the midday meal was consumed in the plants. Still he has testified that he was certain the inmates were sufficiently nourished because his plant managers so informed him.
He even stated that through the ruse of misleading statements he was able to supplement the fare of the workers with extra rations. This, in spite of his assertion that so far as he was concerned the workers were well fed.
Mummenthey's defense is almost naive. He stated that he did not know whether the inmates received any monetary compensation for their work. He went so far as to say that he tried to find out but never got a "satisfactory" answer. With the right spirit he could have found the answer in every document that he examined, and in the face of every concentration camp prisoner. Mummenthey's assumed or criminal naivete went to the extreme of assorting that inmates were covered by accident insurance. We can imagine the tragicomic scene of a Polish Jew, half beaten to death by a concentration camp guard, applying to the concentration camp administration for workmen's compensation for the injuries inflicted upon him by the very organization from which he claimed compensation.
Mummenthey even professes an ignorance as to the hours of work required of concentration camp inmates. Aside from the inherent improbability of such a statement the record shows that Mummenthey received a copy of Pohl's order that inmates must work at least 11 hours a day and half day on Sunday in case of emergency. In his own letter to Baier on May 2, 1944, he revealed his knowledge of the 11 hour rule and said: "I have directed Blizyn to increase the production of the undertaking by making all efforts, and to be particularly anxious that the best use be made of the Polish prisoners."
Mummenthey conceded that he visited the DEST gravel works at Auschwitz in 1940, 1941 and 1943, and at Treblinka in the Spring of 1943.
Whether he knew of the Jewish extermination program at Auschwitz is not demonstrated by concrete proof, but it is difficult to assume that with his position and opportunity for gaining information he could go to Auschwitz and not learn of what was transpiring in the gas chambers and crematorias.
Mummenthey had to know of Osti and its nefarious program. The final audit of OSTI was prepared by one Fischer who said in his statement of the audit: "I received through SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Mummenthey the order to audit the Ostindustrie."
Mummenthey also professed ignorance about the Reinhardt Action. Yet the Allach ceramic works under Mummenthey received a loan of over 500,000 marks in May 1943 from the Reinhardt fund through the DWB.
Mummenthey could see nothing illegal or improper in the whole concentration camp set-up. He even went so far as to say that at the time he could see nothing illegal or improper in all of Hitler's doings and in all of the Gestapo doings.
Mummenthey's assertions that he did not know what was happening in the labor camps and enterprises under his jurisdiction does not exonerate him. It was his duty to know.
In his defense Mummenthey takes two entirely contradictory positions. One, that the concentration camp inmates were well fed, clothed and housed, and decently treated; and the other that he was constantly engaged in conflict with the concentration camp commanders to improve their lot. The absurdity of the contradiction is obvious, but it goes further than is apparent, because the Camp Commanders were themselves plant directors of DEST, and therefore subordinated to WVHA.
In reaching the above findings the Tribunal disregarded entirely the testimony of the witness Krysiak.
The Tribunal finds Mummenthey guilty under Counts II and III of the indictment.
Because of his undisputed membership in the SS, with all the concomitant features outlined in the opinion of the IMT, the Tribunal also finds Mummenthey guilty under Count IV.
THE PRESIDENT: Judge Phillips will continue the reading of the judgment.
JUDGE PHILLIPS.
HANS BOBERMIN Hans Bobermin joined the NSDAP in May 1933 and the General SS in the latter part of that year.
In January 1940 he was "called" to the Waffen SS and placed in charge of the Main Department III/A-4, in the Main Office Budget and Building. His rank at that time was SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer. Bobermin, in addition to the duties of his office, served as Deputy to Dr. Sa;peter, Chief of Division III/A. From October 1, 1940 the Main Department III/A-4 was separated from Office III/A, and in the autumn of 1941 Bobermin's office was designated Amt W-2. In March 1942, when the WVHA came into existence, Bobermin's office became known as W-2.
Bobermin's first and main task in the Waffen SS was to take over, control, and operate some 400 brick works in Poland, confiscated by the Reich with the overrunning, defeat, and conquest of Poland. It was the contention of the defendant that since these properties were located in that territory allotted to Germany in the treaty signed between Germany and Russia, no illegality was involved in the confiscation, at least so far as he was concerned. If this had been out-and-out conquest by Germany of all properties, regardless of private ownership, it would still be clear that Bobermin would not be free of guilt. But here an attempt was made to distinguish between owners. Racial Germans were exempt from the seizure, whereas Poles and Jews lost their property absolutely. They lost it not because they had committed any crime or had received any compensation for it, but simply because they were Jews and Poles.
In a letter drafted for Pohl's signature, Bobermin states on 3 July 1941, the following:
"As a result of the confiscation-order of the Main-TrusteeshipOffice East, dated 29.11.1939, 313 brick works with an estimated annual output of 600 million bricks were seized at the beginning of 1940. As a result of the property-disputes between the communities and the MainTrusteeship Office East, the community-owned brick works were released from this seizure, but leased to the administration of the General Trustee to ensure an experienced management and a quick development.
Out of these originally seized brick works 4 were returned to their owners, who had meanwhile been recognized as racial Germans. Finally, some brick works were handed over to the Reichsworks Hermann Goering after negotiations, as these brick works are in close operation - and economical connection with the mines secured by the Hermann Goering Works. 4 works were given to German repatriates, who could prove to have owned and run brick-work before their resettlement."
Because Bobermin spent most of his time during the war out of Berlin, it may not be assumed that in some way he was disassociated from the WVHA. Many documents were introduced in evidence to demonstrate the close tie-up between him and Pohl. On June 28, 1941, Pohl appointed him as business manager of Ostdeutsche Baustoffwerke GmbH. On September 2, 1941, Pohl appointed Bobermin as his deputy to inspect the former Russian territories for plants producing building material and for places in which now factories might be built. On August 15, 1941; Bobermin, quite proud of his work in reactivating the factory at Krubin, invited Pohl to attend the opening ceremonies which Bobermin described as a "celebration".
Most of the confiscated factories were taken from Jews who either had to flee Poland or were taken into custody and sent to concentration camps or extermination centers. Bobermin denied all knowledge of this wholesale persecution. His witness, Winkler, who was Chief of the Main Trustee Department East, stated that he did not know until late 1944 that many of the Jews whose property he was administering had been killed by the SS and other German forces in the East. Even if we accept this statement at its face value, the fact remains that he did learn of the criminality of the entire confiscation program, and yet remained in the office engaged in the very criminal venture. Could Bobermin have known less?
The massacre of the Jews in Poland was certainly not a secret.
The International Military Tribunal found that "the murder and ill treatment of civilian populations reached its height in the treatment of the citizens of the Soviet Union and Poland", and that one-third of the population of Poland was killed off in the course of the occupation. How much Bobermin knew of these killings is not evident, although it clashes with human observation that he could have lived in Posen in the very heart of the territory where these excesses occurred, without having some awareness of what was taking place. Bobermin explains the phenomenon of the disappearance of the Jews with the observation that it was his impression that they had "fled", but did not know the reason for their flight. He did know, however, that the enterprises under his management would never be returned to their original owners. In the letter already referred to he stated that these properties would be given only to -
"those who are considered worthy by the Reich-commissioner for strengthening the German race in the East" and "those who deserve preferential treatment for service at the front in this or the World (War); original members of the Nazi movement; those who have done useful work in the reconstruction of the East."
It is not clear from the evidence that concentration camp labor generally was used in operating the confiscated brick works. The labor was allocated to the plants by the Labor Office which office also deported Poles to the Reich. These workers fell within the Reich classification of "free workers". That is to say, they came under Saukel's jurisdiction as Plenipotentiary for Labor, and the International Military Tribunal has already passed upon the freedom exercised by the average foreign laborer employed by the Reich under Saukel.
However, it is not disputed that Bobermin used concentration camp labor in his plant at Golleschau. As chairman of the Golleschau cement company and as Chief of Amt W-II, WVHA, within whose office the Golleschau plant fell, Bobermin's authority in the Company could not be questioned. Golleschau was located about 70 kilometers from Auschwitz and it was from this notorious concentration camp that the Golleschau workers were drawn.
Those who were unable to perform the work to which they were assigned in Golleschau were sent back to Auschwitz to whatever fate might await them. Bobermin attempts to deny responsibility for the employment of concentration camp inmates at Golleschau by stating that the proposal for this employment was made by Pohl. But Pohl was commander-in-chief of all WVHA activities. To here expect exoneration from the charge of criminality on the basis of Pohl's superior command is to demand a certificate of innocence because of Himmler's orders or even Hitler's. Where outright criminality is involved, superior orders are in themselves no excuse, although they may be argued in mitigation of punishment.
In the operation of his many enterprises Bobermin found it necessary to borrow money which came from the funds released through the Reinhardt Action. He, however, claims that he was ignorant at that time of the meaning of the Reinhardt operation. Much of the loot, which finally became the Reinhardt fund, was collected in the very area in which Bobermin's plants were operating. In view of his use of inmates from Auschwitz in the Golleschau plant, his high position in the SS, his close association with Pohl, his presence in Posen when Himmler delivered his famous speech (although Bobermin denies having heard it), it is incredible that he would not know at the time the meaning of the Reinhardt Action.
In April, 1944, Bobermin was transferred to Hungary as SS Wirtschafter, or Economic Administrator, bound to Pohl. In this capacity he supplied the SS and Police Units with money, clothes and incidentals. Here he learned of the transportation of Jews out of Hungary, but he states that he did not know they were being consigned to concentration camps or extermination centers. In any event, he affirms that he had no power to prevent the forced movement, even had he been aware of the destination of the Jews. The Tribunal accepts this explanation in the absence of any proof in the record to the contrary.
The Tribunal finds Bobermin guilty under Counts II and III of the indictment.
The Tribunal also finds Bobermin guilty under Count IV.
THE PRESIDENT: Judge Musmanno will continue the reading of the judgment.
JUDGE MUSMANNO: HORST KLEIN
Horst Klein studied law at the Universities of Lausanne, Freiburg and Bonn, and in February 1933 finished his studies and passed his final examination as probationer. He worked in various courts looking toward a judicial career, but abandoned this intention when, as he stated, he observed that under Nazi rule the judges were denied complete independence of judgment and decision. In 1937 he became an assessor and then obtained employment in the bookkeeping branch of the DUERKOPP-JERKE. In February 1938 he took up employment with the "Society Sponsoring and Maintaining German Cultural Monuments, Registered Corporation".
He joined the NSDAP in May 1933 but hold no honorary or functional office therein. In the same year he joined the Allgemeine SS. He never became a member of the Waffen SS. In February 1945 he was about to be inducted into this organization but the induction never materialized.
In 1939, the Society Sponsoring and Maintaining German Cultural Monuments was incorporated into the administration of the SS under the name of HS-1 (Main Department for Special Tasks). In 1940 Klein became Chief of this department. In 1942 when the WVHA came into being, Main Department HS-I was designated Amt W-VIII with Klein as its Chief.
Although Amt W-VIII was definitely an integral part of the WVHA and answerable to Pohl, it is not apparent that it was active in any aggressive way or that it forms part of the pattern of concentration camp inmate exploitation. This office had no connection with SS-industries. It work fell rather into the category of cultural and social welfare. In addition to directing the affairs of the society above-mentioned, Klein also managed the Society of Convalescent Homes for Natural Recovery and Standard of Life which operated convalescence homes for women and children and administered SS-hospitals.
Then there were two other organizations under his charge, the EXTERNSTEIN and the KING HENRY establishment, the former devoted to the preservation of an old Germanic early Christian relic and the latter to the maintenance of the Cathedral at Quedlingburg. All these activities could have been effectively pursued outside the WVHA, and they were not an indispensable part of the machinery of the WVHA. These organizations brought no monetary returns to the coffers of the Reich. The direct opposite is true, since they were subsidized by the State.
It has been charged by the Prosecution that Klein was responsible for excesses in the labor camp at Wewelsburg, but the proof before the Tribunal exonerates Klein from responsibility in that connection. He never managed or directed this camp. Several former inmates of Wewelsburg testified in court that they not only never saw Klein in the camp, but never heard his name mentioned. The evidence would further establish that the Wewelsburg camp was not controlled by Klein, but by SS Obergruppenfuehrer Taubert. Further, that in the construction job itself which was being done at Wewelsburg, the man in charge was the architect SS Standartenfuehrer Bartels. Bartels had immediate control over the 500 men employed here and Klein had no authority what soever over them. In addition, Bartels had a rank superior to Klein's.
The construction work at Wewelsburg, which had to do with the restoration of a castle, was ordered by Himmler and the chain of command from Himmler to Bartels did not even go through Pohl, Chief of the WVHA. The only objective part played by Klein in this entire project was the acquisition of the site, but there was nothing in the plan of taking over the real estate which indicated to Klein that a forced labor camp would go into operation here. On the contrary, his only information was that the land was to be used for enlargement of the castle area and future SS settlements.
The prosecution has charged Klein with obtaining credit on the Dresdner Bank for the financing of the Wewelsburg construction work. But when Klein entered this financial deal, the credit had already been obtained at the bank, the initiative having been taken in this respect by General Wolff on Himmler's orders. The sums which were then made available by Klein were used by Bartels who, on orders from Pohl, was not required to make any accounting for them to Klein.
The Tribunal also finds that Klein's participation in the matter of the acquisition of the Lakowicz property did not involve the commission of a war crime or crime against humanity. The little part which Klein had to do with this acquisition followed in point of time its confiscation by another Reichs Agency with which Klein was in no way connected.
Nor is there any connection between Klein and the pamphlet "The Subhuman", placed in evidence by the prosecution. Although this unsavory document was published by the Nordland Publishing Company of which Klein had at one time been legal advisor and Prokurist, his connection with this organization had been severed a year or two prior to the appearance of the pamphlet.
Although Klein was a member of the SS, his conduct and attitude as it has come to us through the evidence did not reveal any fanatic adherence to the Nazi ideology. In point of fact, he got into personal difficulties himself because of his failure to cooperate whole-heartedly with the Nazi program. On October 1, 1944 he was arrested because of a statement he had made criticizing certain practises of the Third Reich and the SS. An immediately ensuing illness which kept him confined to his home under guard and under observation saved him from trial and a possible severe penalty. His own sister, Frau Helga von Rouppert, was also arrested, denounced by the Gestapo and committed to the concentration camp at Ravensbrueck. Her crime also consisted of derogatory remarks against the Reich. One specific statement had to do with her criticism of the German generals for not having deposed Hitler as the Italians had ousted Mussolini, Frau von Rouppert testified in court and stated that her husband was also persecuted by the Gestapo, and, in order to avoid arrest, with attendant torture and degradtion, committed suicide. Klein states that his own father died as the result "of all this excitement".
From all the evidence in the case the Tribunal concludes that Klein is not guilty under Counts II and III of the indictment.
Under the interpretation of the IMT decision, pointing out the factors required to convict an SS member of criminality, the Tribunal concludes that Klein does not fall within the category specified and therefore finds him not guilty under Count IV.
JUDGE TOMS:
The Secretary General will file the three signed copies of this judgment.
Copies of the opinion and judgment of the Court may be obtained by defense counsel tomorrow morning from the defense information center. Mimeographed copies will be ready for you at that time.
The Tribunal will be in recess for ten minutes.
(The Tribunal adjourned for a short recess.)