There are two threads related to this judgment, at:
General findings of fact in the NMT WVHA (Pohl) case
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=63172
The Nazi Concentration Camp System and the SS-WVHA
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=16879
Oswald Pohl
Introduction
Prior to 1934, defendant Pohl was chief disbursing officer of the German Navy. On a visit by Himmler to the naval base at Kiel in 1934, he met Pohl and persuaded him to sever his connection with the navy and assume an administrative position with the SS Main Office. Pohl had been a member of the National Socialist Party since 1926 and of the SA since 1929. At Himmler's insistence he became chief of the administrative department of the SS Central Office in February 1934. In 1939 that office was organized into two Main Offices under the names, "Main Office Budget and Buildings," and, "Main Office Administration and Economy." These offices were in complete charge of all administrative matters affecting the fast growing SS. On 1 February 1942, these two Main Offices were united and renamed, "SS [Economic] Administrative Main Office," known as, "WVHA," to which was also added the Main Office of Inspector of Concentration Camps, which became Amtsgruppe D.
For 11 years Pohl was continuously the administrative head of the entire SS organisation. His only superior within his field was Himmler. At the beginning of the war he became a member of the "Freundeskreis" or, "Circle of Himmler's Friends," a small select group of intimates who enjoyed Himmler's confidence. As chief of the WVHA he was in absolute control of an organization composed of 5 Amtsgruppen and 28 Aemtel, with a personnel at the peak of over 1,700 employees. He not only directed and administered the fiscal affairs of the entire SS but he was in charge of the administrative aspects of all concentration camps and was head of the tremendous industrial empire which the SS built up under Amtsgruppe W. It is obvious that his duties were not perfunctory or formal but that he was an experienced, active, and dominant head of one of the largest branches of the German military machine. Although he had no actual military duties in the field, he attained the military rank of Obergruppenfuehrer, which is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant general.
Concentration Camps
Three months after the outbreak of the war, Himmler ordered thatThe change in Reich policy by which concentration camps were converted from places of mere detention to places of productive free labor was announced in April 1942, and the ruthless plan of extracting from concentration camp inmates their last ounce of energy in furtherance of the Reich's war plans became operative. It became Pohl's task to implement this policy and to make it work effectively for the Reich. Neither Pohl nor the WVHA had anything to do with the commitment of inmates to concentration camps nor with their release, except by death. Neither Pohl nor any other member of the WVHA had authority to order the execution of concentration camp prisoners. Nor is there any evidence that he or they attempted to exercise any such prerogative. The order for executions originated between the Secret State Police and Himmler personally. The greater part of the task of procuring inmates fell upon the Security Police and the SD, although it is quite evident that the SS and the Wehrmacht in the field rendered no little assistance. Pohl's jurisdiction began when the inmates reached the gates of the concentration camps. Pohl has contended that the inclusion in WVHA of Amtsgruppe D, which was concerned exclusively with concentration camp matters, was more a formal than an actual subordination; and that this Amtsgruppe, under Gluecks and Maurer, continued to operate more or less independently of Pohl, taking most of their orders directly from Himmler. It is probably true to some degree that the heads of Amtsgruppe D, which had formerly been an SS Main Office, resented somewhat their subordination to Pohl and continued look to Himmler for orders. The fact remains, however, that Pohl as head of the WVHA was the superior of Gluecks and Maurer and was in a position to exercise and did exercise substantial supervision and control over Amtsgruppe D. Pohl himself, in his affidavit of 3 April 1947 (NO-26, Pros. Ex. 525), states:"the supervision of the economic matters of these institutions and their application to work is the responsibility of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl."
"* * * Gluecks was chief of Amtsgruppe D and was subordinate to me in my capacity as Main Office Chief. Thus I became authority for the administration of concentration camps within the sphere of activity of the WVHA. The camp commanders were nominated by the SS Personnel Office on my recommendation and appointed by me."
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.
One of the purposes in organizing the WVHA was to centralize and concentrate administrative authority and to reduce the number of independent administrative offices. In view of the fact that the SS enterprises administered under Amtsgruppe W were manned by concentration camp inmates and in many instances operated in concentration camps themselves, it was inevitable that the administrative affairs of the camps should be placed in the hands of Pohl, who was also the head of the enterprises. The camps and the enterprises were so inseparable that a unified control of both had to be fixed, and this control was imposed on Pohl.
Armed with this power, Pohl energetically set about driving the inmates to the limit of endurance in order to further the economic and war efforts of the Reich. In April 1942, he wrote to Himmler:
In the affidavit of Philipp Grimm (NO-2126, Pros. Ex. 298), who in 1942 was labor assignment officer at Sachsenhausen and later was transferred to office D II of WVHA, it is stated:"The custody of prisoners for the sole reasons of security, education, or prevention is no longer the main consideration. The mobilization of all prisoners who are fit for work, for purposes of the war now, and for purposes of construction in the forthcoming peace, come to the foreground more and more."
"Through my activity as labor assignment officer I know that in 1942 an order by Pohl was sent to the concentration camps, which authorized the camp commanders to retain prisoners who had been released for discharge by the Reich Security Main Office, but were important for the organization of labor in the camp. The duration of this illegal imprisonment could be extended to the end of the war."
To the very end of the war, Pohl kept a tight rein on all aspects of concentration camp administration. He constantly fought for longer hours, more intense effort, more production, selection of specialized skills, less loafing, and more strict supervision. As of July 1944 there were 20 concentration camps and 165 labor camps supervised by his Main Office. There was no phase of the administration of these camps in which he was not intensely interested, and this interest manifested itself at times in the smallest details. In some instances he recommended appointments and transfers of camp commanders, who were the slave drivers in the camps. In January 1943, in a letter to all camp commanders, he directed that the working hours of prisoners be kept at 11 hours per day during the winter, 6 days per week, and a half day on Sunday. In May 1941, when he found that half of a shipment of Jews from Hungary were women, he asked Himmler's approval for putting them to work on construction projects. Needless to say, Himmler consented. In December 1943, Pohl wrote to all camp commanders, complaining that SS guards were not urging prisoners to work sufficiently, stating,In 1942, Gluecks, chief of Amtsgruppe D, in writing to the camp commanders, stated that Pohl had ordered that punishment by beating was to be executed by prisoners in concentration camps for men, but that it was forbidden to have foreign prisoners execute the punishment on German prisoners. This letter is significant because it recognizes Pohl's superior authority to issue such an order. If Gluecks enjoyed the degree of independence which Pohl attributes to him, he would have issued this order in person without attributing it to Pohl. On several occasions Pohl's interest led him to inspect concentration camps in person. He visited Ravensbrueck, Auschwitz, Dachau, and Oranienburg. During his visit to Auschwitz in 1943, Pohl was shown the plans for the enlargement of the camp, including the construction of four new crematories with modern gas chambers. His solicitude for the inmates led him to order that specially hardworking prisoners be granted additional rations of food and tobacco and permission to patronize the camp brothel. For this last service Pohl fixed the charge and prescribed the method of dividing the income between the female inmates, the woman manager, and the WVHA. He also held periodic conferences with concentration camp commanders in Berlin. It was part of his duty to select new sites for concentration camps and to determine their economic potentialities. When a new camp was proposed, he determined its size, capacity and the number of inmates which would be utilized in it."Please instruct detachment leaders every Monday on this obvious duty of the guards."
There is no need to further elaborate upon the proof on this point although much more could be adduced. From all the evidence, lt becomes clear to the Tribunal that Pohl at all times had an intimate and detailed knowledge of happenings in any way connected with the concentration camps. He made it his special business to know these facts. It is futile for him to say that he was not aware of the crematories when the plans were drawn and the construction supervised in his own organization and he visited the camps where they were installed. Nearly every Amt chief testified that he reported frequently to Pohl, in person, concerning events and problems arising in his immediate sphere. According to his own testimony and correspondence, he kept a running inventory, classified as to nationalities, of the labor supply of inmates in every camp. He knew how many prisoners died; he knew how many were unfit for work; and he knew what mass transfers were made from camp to camp. There was doubtless no other one person in Germany who knew as much about all the details of the concentration camps as Pohl. At least this much can be said and cannot be denied, that Pohl knew that hundreds of thousands of men and women had been cast into concentration camps and compelled to work, without remuneration and under the most rigid confinement, for the country which had devastated their homelands and abducted them into bondage. When these slaves died from exhaustion, starvation, or from the abuse of the SS overseers, Pohl cannot escape the fact that he was the administrative head of the agency which brought about these tragedies. His was more than a mere consenting part. It was active participation. Leaving all other considerations aside, Pohl stands before this Tribunal as an admitted slave driver on a scale never before known. On this count if no other he is guilty of direct participation in a war crime and a crime against humanity.
The mistreatment of prisoners of war, especially Russian and Polish prisoners, in the concentration camps, must also be laid at the door of Pohl. On 30 September 1944, Martin Bormann, head of the Party Chancellory, sent out an order from Hitler, which said in part:
"The mobilization of labor of the prisoners of war will be organized with the present labor mobilization office in joint action between SS Obergruppenfuehrer Berger and SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl."
On 28 September 1944, Himmler ordered that the question of the labor allocation of prisoners of war was to be submitted to Pohl. Not since the Roman Caesars brought back their prisoners of war, chained to their chariot wheels, has such inhuman treatment been accorded captives in battle as is shown by the record in this case. They, too, were simply grist for Germany's mill. By her treatment of these prisoners, Germany made the honorable profession of a soldier a by-word and a slur.
Destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto
In the fall of 1942, Himmler's plans for the complete subjugation of Poland reached a pinnacle. The Jewish ghetto at Warsaw covered a total area of approximately 320 hectares, or 800 acres. It comprised a large residential area and, in addition, housed a great number of industrial enterprises, principally textile and fur manufacturing plants. The ghetto had a population of nearly 60,000 persons. In October, Himmler ordered that the entire Jewish population of the ghetto was to be gathered together in concentration camps in Warsaw and Lublin to be used as an immense labor pool for armament purposes. After the round-up was completed, the Jews were to be deported to large concentration camps in the East and Polish labor substituted in the Warsaw industries. Himmler added:All private Jewish firms were to be eliminated and no Jew was to be employed in private industry. This order raised a strong protest from the armament firms in Warsaw, in which a large number of Jews were employed, but Himmler was obdurate and insisted on the letter of his order being carried out. The Jewish residents of the ghetto, however, resisted deportation vigorously, and a pitched battle, lasting over a week, was necessary to uproot them. In February 1943, Himmler directed that after the removal of the concentration camp the ghetto be completely demolished. In his order he stated:"Of course, there, too, the Jews shall someday disappear in accordance with the Fuehrer's wishes."
"A master plan for the pulling down of the ghetto has to be submitted to me. It has to be accomplished in any case that the living space, which accommodated 500,000 subhumans and was never suitable for Germans, will completely disappear, and that the city of Warsaw, with its one million inhabitants, will be reduced in size, having always been a dangerous center of rebellion."
This gigantic task of destruction and deportation was committed to Pohl as chief of the WVHA. Himmler directed that the"city center of the former ghetto is to be flattened completely and every cellar and every canal is to be filled in. After the work is finished, the area is to be covered up with earth, and a large park is to be planted."
By an order dated 23 June 1943, addressed to the Higher SS and Police Leader in the East and to Pohl, Himmler ordered the erection of a concentration camp in the vicinity of Riga, to which the largest possible number of the male Jews were to be transferred. Surplus Jews from the ghetto were to be evacuated to the east, which meant ultimate starvation or extermination. In the summer of 1943, Pohl set to work to carry out Himmler's order. The concentration camp in the Warsaw ghetto was established and Pohl appointed Goecke, a veteran of Mauthausen, as commandant. Pohl reported to Himmler that at first there were only 300 prisoners in the camp but that this number would be increased as speedily as possible. In October, Pohl reported that Amtsgruppe C of the WVHA had been charged with the technical execution of the demolition order and Amtsgruppe D with the placing of the prisoners. Pohl engaged four private contracting firms, who guaranteed to pull down and remove 4,500 cubic meters daily. He advised that 1,500 prisoners were being used as laborers at the end of October, but that upon securing additional mechanical equipment 2,000 more prisoners would be needed at once. In February 1944, Pohl reported that 3,750,000 cubic meters of buildings had been demolished, and that 2,040 prisoners were being used. By April, 6,750,000 cubic meters had been "pulled down and blasted," and 2,180 prisoners were being used. By June, 10,000,000 cubic meters had been destroyed and the concentration camp had been completed. Thus was accomplished the most complete task of destruction of a modern city since Carthage met its fate many centuries ago, and in this nefarious undertaking Pohl stood hand in glove with Himmler and Stroop in accomplishing the task of total destruction. This was not a city taken in battle; it had long before been captured and occupied by the German armed forces. It was the deliberate and intentional destruction of a large modern city and its entire civilian population. It was wholesale murder, pillage, thievery, and looting, and Pohl's part in accomplishing this abominable project is recorded in his own handwriting. He cannot free himself from his share in Brigadefuehrer Stroop's shameful boastMedical Experiments"The total number of Jews dealt with is 56,065, including Jews caught, and Jews whose extermination can be proved."
Pohl's connection with the medical experiments, which have already been described, consisted only in supplying the subjects from the inmates of the concentration camps. It is not claimed that he actually participated in the performance of the experiments or did anything more than make them possible by supplying victims from his inmate pool. Here, again, his own writings convict him. In his own affidavit, dated 23 June 1946 (NO-65, Pros. Ex. 18), Pohl outlines his part in these experiments. He states that he was aware that experiments were being performed from April 1942 until the end of 1944; that Dr. Schilling continually asked for prisoners, but that he does not know the exact number that were sent; that at Himmler's request prisoners were sent to Dachau for the purpose of experimentation; that he accompanied Himmler to Dachau on one occasion and observed a high-altitude experiment; he received reports from Dr. Lolling of the number of prisoners used in experiments, totalling 350 to 400; he knew of Dr. Clauberg's experiments in sterilization; he knew that about 40 different experiments were performed. He states (NO-407, Pros. Ex. 184):
"The inmates were simply picked out and assigned for the experiments. Sometimes Himmler specified that inmates condemned to death should be used, but this was not always the case. There was no requirement that the subjects volunteer. We conducted no campaigns in the camp for volunteers; if these doctors were experimenting on volunteers, they need not have gone to Himmler and the concentration camps. It was for the very reason that they could not get volunteer subjects * * * that they went to Himmler and got him to consent to experiments on concentration camp inmates. This was a fact well known to anyone connected with those experiments. * * * In accordance with Himmler's racial policies, non-German nationals were essentially used in preference to German nationals."
Further proof of Pohl's connection with these outrageous experiments would seem unnecessary, but there is plenty in addition. The affidavit of Rudolf Brandt, Himmler's adjutant, states:
"Subjects for experiments were selected by Pohl. Himmler or I used to inform Pohl that a certain number of prisoners should be supplied for a particular experiment. Certain groups were usually specified."
Concerning the warming experiments at Auschwitz and Dachau, Himmler wrote to Dr. Rascher:"I am sending this letter to Pohl, whom I request to order the execution of your experiments."
Himmler wrote to Dr. Grawitz approving the use of eight Jews of the Polish Resistance Movement for experiments in epidemic jaundice at Auschwitz and sent a copy to Pohl, with the notation"Request that you duly note."
Dr. Sievers wrote to Pohl as follows:
"In compliance with our request of 30 September 1943, you approved the carrying out of experiments for the production of a new type of spotted fever vaccine, and for this purpose transferred 100 suitable prisoners to Natzweiler."
Pohl was particularly interested in the production of Schweigrohr, a plant to be used in producing wholesale sterilization. Pohl wrote to Himmler in June 1942, stating that experiments with this plant were at a standstill because the plant was obtainable only from North America and the proposed process for growing the plant in Germany in hot houses would not yield sufficient drug to permit large-scale experiments. Continuing, Pohl stated that he had informed Koch that he would attempt to obtain permission to build a large hot house for cultivation of the plant. Pohl arranged to put Dr. Lolling, whom he refers to as "chief of my office D III," in touch with a Vienna biologist for further study, looking toward the large-scale production of Schweigrohr. Rudolf Brandt sent to Dr. Clauberg Himmler's order to first confer with Pohl and then go to Ravensbrueck to pursue the sterilization program on Jewesses in that camp. Brandt inquires how long it would take to sterilize a thousand Jewesses by X-ray without their knowing it. Further proof could be accumulated, but it is unnecessary. Pohl's participation in the medical experiments was intimate and direct, and he must share the responsibility for their criminality.
The Tribunal finds that the food experiments in which Pohl was greatly interested did not involve the use of poisons but were simply legitimate experiments in the nutritional values of food As such, of course, they had no element of criminality
Action Reinhardt
This action, as has been indicated, involved a plan for draining the Eastern occupied countries of their last vestige of wealth. It had the two-fold purpose of reducing the East to abject poverty so that starvation would be the inevitable result to the population and, at the same time, filling the Reich Treasury. It was a program of deliberate wholesale brigandage which was, at the same time, an added aspect of the extermination program.
In the execution of this program, Pohl's WVHA played a major role. His organization was the clearing house for all the booty. All of the stolen property was routed through WVHA, where it was inventoried, appraised, and distributed. That Pohl knew of the criminal source of this property is evidenced by his letter of 9 February 1944, to Maurer, directing that valuables found in clothing were to be delivered in sealed boxes to Amtsgruppe D, and directing further, that nothing in the shipment should reveal its origin. The money which was stolen was secreted in the Reich Bank under the assumed name of Max Heiliger. On 4 July 1944, Pohl, in a communication to the Main Office chiefs, announced the names of officers responsible for the property seized in several areas, and stated:Property from the Action Reinhardt which had been delivered to the Reich Main Treasury was kept in a separate account, appropriately called, "Department Booty.""As a matter of principle, it has to be kept in mind that the entire Jewish property is to be incorporated into the Reich property."
Moved by the Christian spirit of Christmas, Pohl on 6 November 1943, wrote to Himmler, stating that he intended to make gifts of watches and fountain pens to SS units, and asked whether the gifts should be made in Himmler's name. Himmler approved Pohl's generous plan and added that 15,000 ladies' watches should be distributed to Germans coming from Russia for resettlement. Pohl thought it would be a generous gesture to distribute 3,000 clocks which had been repaired to guards at the concentration camps and to Berlin inhabitants who had been bombed. As an after-thought, he suggested to Himmler that 16 extra-fine gold precision wrist watches, valued at 300 Reichsmarks each, which had been repaired, be distributed among commanders of technical units.
Pohl's own statement as to his knowledge of the operation of Action Reinhardt and of his participation in the distribution of the loot is again quite sufficient. In his affidavit of 2 April 1947 (NO-2714, Pros. E. 555), he states that the action was instituted in 1941 or 1942 and was in direct charge of SS Gruppenfuehrer Globocnik; that by Himmler's direction he contacted the president of the Reich Bank to arrange for delivery of the valuables; these transactions were to be carried out in extreme secrecy. Together with Georg Loerner, Frank, and others, he visited the Reich Bank and was shown the accumulated valuables in the bank vaults. "It was never doubted," he said,"that this loot was taken from Jews exterminated in the concentration camps. * * * As I learned in 1943, gold teeth and crowns of inmates of concentration camps were broken out of their mouths after liquidation. This gold was melted down and delivered to the Reich Bank. * * * When I received all the vouchers, setting out the economic assets received, I realized the extent of the operation. I realized that the greatest part of the textile goods listed in these reports had been taken from people who had been violently put to death and that the purpose of the operation had been the extermination of the Jews."
In another affidavit, 15 July 1946 (4045-PS, Pros. Ex. 536, Pohl further indicates his knowledge of, and participation in the ghoulish scramble. The facts stated therein are cumulative and need not be specifically referred to.
The fact that Pohl himself did not actually transport the stolen goods to the Reich or did not himself remove the gold from the teeth of dead inmates, does not exculpate him. This was a broad criminal program, requiring the cooperation of many persons, and Pohl's part was to conserve and account for the loot. Having knowledge of the illegal purposes of the action and of the crimes which accompanied it, his active participation even in the after-phases of the action make him particeps crminis in the whole affair.
OSTI (Eastern Industry)
Eastern Industries, known as "OSTI," was a running-mate of Action Reinhardt in the so-called final solution of the Jewish problem in the East. OSTI was organized 1 March 1943, and was dissolved one year later. The whole history of this project is clearly described in the report of Johann Sebastian Fischer in a final audit, 21 June 1944 (NO-1271, Pros. Ex. 491). It was impossible to completely strip the Eastern territories of all Jewish property. Some because of its nature could not be removed and some could be operated best by the Reich on the spot. To utilize this unremovable property, OSTI was organized, with a capital of 100,000 Reichsmarks. Of this Pohl held 75,000 and defendant Georg Loerner 25,000. Pohl was chairman of the Aufsichtsrat, or supervisory board, of which Georg Loerner was also a member. Globocnik and Dr. Max Horn were the active managers. Fischer describes the corporate purposes as follows:"OSTI had to administer all Jewish property within the territory of the Government General except cash, jewelry, and clothing; and in particular to utilize the manpower of the Jews living in the Government General for tasks benefiting the Reich."
This involved
(1) Utilization of the working capacity of the Jews by erecting industrial plants in the Government General in connection with the Jewish labor camps.
(2) Taking over commercial enterprises which had previously been maintained by the SS in the Government General.
(3) Taking possession of movable property which was formerly Jewish, especially machines and raw materials. The machines were to be installed in plants and the raw materials to be used.
(4) Utilization of machines, tools, and merchandise formerly Jewish property which had been transferred to non-Jewish ownership.
A partial list of the industries thus administered included a glass works in Wolomin, a peat-cutting plant near Lublin, an iron foundry, a large textile factory, a plant for the manufacture of brushes, and a stone quarry. Globocnik states that the entire manpower was brought together and kept in closed camps into which the manufacture of essential items for war had been transferred. "* * * All together 18 establishments had been built up and still more were to be added. About 52,000 laborers were available."
The project continued as long as the supply of Jewish concentration camp labor was available, but when, due to the exigencies of the war, in the fall of 1943 this labor supply was withdrawn, it was determined to liquidate OSTI, and Dr. Horn was designated as liquidation officer.
As will be observed, OSTI was simply another manifestation of the policy of slave labor and appropriation of private property. Linked with Action Reinhardt, it was the consummation of the Reich plan to leave the occupied Eastern countries as vast stretches of scorched earth. In the OSTI phase of this plan, Pohl had even a more direct connection than he had with Action Reinhardt. Here he was the directing head and the chief executive of the project. As an original incorporator, he was in it from its inception and he actively participated in every phase of it until its liquidation. This being true, he was guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Under a plan which was perhaps devised to give some semblance of legality to this inherently lawless plan, Pohl was designated as a trustee of the properties seized in the East and operated by OSTI. This was a strange species of trusteeship. All of the interests of the trustee were violently opposed to those of the cestius qui trustent. The recognized concept of a trustee is that he stands in the shoes of his beneficiaries and acts for their benefit and in opposition to any encroachment on their rights. Here, however, the trustee was in the service of adverse interests and acted at all times under an impelling motive to serve those interests at the expense of his beneficiaries. Actually, the trusteeship was pure fiction. It cannot be believed that it was ever the plan of the Reich to return any of the confiscated property to its former Jewish owners, most of whom had fled and disappeared, or had been exterminated. The only probative value of this fictitious trusteeship is to furnish another cord to bind Pohl closer to OSTI's criminal purposes.
In an attempt at partial exculpation, Pohl has submitted in evidence- Pohl 3, Pohl Ex. 2) a decree, dated 28 February 1933, signed by Reich President von Hindenburg and Chancellor Hitler, suspending the provisions of the Weimar Constitution, which guaranteed personal freedom, freedom of speech and of the press, the right of assembly, privacy of communication, and immunity from search. The Secret State Police were given almost unlimited power over persons and property, independent of any obligations and free from restraint or review. They became the supreme authority of the land. This tyrannical agency was the partner of WVHA in the administration of the concentration camps. Upon the promulgation of this decree, Germany became a police state and the liberty and lives of all German citizens were dependent upon the whims of men like Heydrich and Kaltenbrunner. It is to be assumed that if this is the kind of national government the people Germany preferred, they were entitled to it. If they consented to surrender their human liberties to a police force, that was their privilege, and an outsider who intruded could well be told to mind his own affairs. But when the attempt is made to make the provisions of such a decree extra-territorial in their effect and to apply their totalitarian and autocratic police measures to nonGermans and in non-German territory, they thereby invaded the domain of international law, where reason still rules. The Nazi leaders, drunk with power, could abuse and deceive the German people just as long as the German people submitted, but when they extended their tyranny into foreign lands and attempted to justify it by the provisions of local German Law, their arrogance became over-extended and a power superior to Hitler's came into play to stop them.
In recapitulation and upon the findings of fact heretofore made, the Tribunal determines that the defendant Pohl is guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as alleged in counts two and three of the indictment.
Count Four
The Tribunal finds that the defendant Pohl was a member of a criminal organization, that is, the SS, under the conditions defined by the judgment of the International Military Tribunal, and is therefore guilty under count four of the indictment.