Evening star., 1948-10-02

d
trials) refused to hear the case on purely juris-
dctional grounds. This left the accused with
out further judicial remedy. However. the
allegations, If true, seemed so serious to Secre
tary Of the Army Royal that he ordered the
executions stayed pending a complete investiga-
ton.
saw the work of some of these investigators.
Most were hard-working, impartial men. But
some left much to be desired for impartial!ty.
I particularly remember witnessing the lineup
for the very.Buchenwald case which Mr.. Den-
son prosecuted and in which 1lse Koch received
her life sentence. The purpose of this lineup,
or fashion show" as 1t was called by prisoners,
was to have witnesses identify suspects as they
were paraded across a stage under glaring
lights. On this occasion the fashion show"
was conducted by one Of the chief investi-
gators at Dachau who I learned later was q
"thirty-niner." The witnesses, all former in
mates OF BuChenWald and numbering several
hundred, were jam-pa cked into a hot low
ceilnged hall. After a harangue in German
by the investigator in which the witnesses
were urged to give their former tormentors
little of what mad been given to them, the
suspects were led on to the stage in the traoi-
tional police lineup technique. But here the
similarity ended The investigator, In turn,
taunted, Knocked and shouted at the suspects
and urged the spectators to do likewise. Soon
pandemonium broke loose In the midst OF
the heat and stencil the mob went wild, hurl-
ing Insults and invectiveS at the half-blinded
wretch covering on the stage, unable to see
his tormentors. In quick succession he was
accused of several crimes and positively iden-
tifled' by score of witnesses. This degrading
procedure Was repeated over and over again
until the list Of suspects for the Buchenwa.d
case was completed. This was mild compared
to what the Germans had done to inmates Ut
their camps, but was our mission to initiate
their methods even in a much milder form, or
was it to dispense justice in a dignihed and
democratic manner?
Unreliability of Some Witnesses
Another point not generally known to the
American public Is that witnesses in the
Dachau trials left much to be desired for
credlbility and reliability. Contrary to popular
belief, not all the inmates of Hitlers camps
were innocent victims of Nazi ideologies Those
interned for racial religious or intellectual
reasons often represented minority in many
camps. The others were habtual criminals.
These "green" prisoners, so called because of
the green triangle they had to wear, were mur-
derers, embezzlers, homosexuals rapists, etc.
In America they would have been lifers in our
penitentiaries. Under the Third Reich tEey
were put into protective custody" At the end
Of the war we unWittingly liberated this horde
Of criminals along with the few surviving
political and religious persecutees and they, of
course, enjoyed for some time the sympathy
and protection to which we innocently thought
all concentration camp inmates were entitled.
Many of these criminals, imbued with the idea
of revenge soon learned that by volunteering
as witnesses they not only could satisfy their
revenge against their former jailers, but also
secure food and warm lodging in Dachau at
army expense as we'll as an invaluable cigarette
ration for their black market operations. It
took some time to overcome our naiyete about
these witnesses. AT first courts accepted their
accusations as gospel truth coming from inno-
cent victims. Later courts looked with great
suspicion on these professional witnesses, many
of whom testified In as many as 10 cases and
told the same stories about different defeud-
ants. In some cases witnesses who in the early
stages were instrumental in obtaining convic-
tions were later themselves discovered to have
been war criminals and convicted as SUCH
"Dragnet" Methods.
Another important aspect of these Dachau
war crimes trials should be mentioned. Even
u
entire administrative machinery there was
geared to a mass-production, assembly-line
technique Of dispensing justice This was no
reflection on the officers in charge Of the
trials. who, in my opinion, were trying their
best to produce fair and just results within the
limitations of the program. The task of trying
thousands Of war criminals within very short
space Of time would have overwhelmed the
facilities Of any long-established law enforce
ment agency Within the frame of reference
which existed at Dachsu first things had to
come first. The basic purpose of these trials
was taken to be the trial and conviction of as
many war criminals as possible. The only way
this could be done was by > dragnet system
OF justice in which as many guilty as possible
should be caught. Experience in law en-
forcement has taught that under such system,
no matter how scrupulously conducted, few
innocent persons are bound to suffer. For this
reason, our concept OF justice, with primary
emphasis on the rights of the individual, has
rejected as totalitarian the dispensation of
justice in wholesale lots and insists that 1t Is
better for hundred guilty criminals to 20
free than for one innocent person to be pun
ished. The magnitude Of this machine which
was organized at Dachau can be judged from
the fact that In a little over two years, not
hundreds, but thousands Of war criminals
were rammed through these courts and on
their way to the waiting cells and scaffolds at
Landsberg. AS many as six courts operated
simultaneously, some Of them hearing two or
more cases per day and each case usually
comprised several defendants. Toward the end
Of 1947. when the trials were scheduled to end.
daily bulletins announced: "Only $40 more war
criminals to be tried before Christmas" etq.
Orderly Justice Difficult.
From what has been said it may be fairly
inferred that every one had an uphill struggle
to try to maintain some semblance of justice
in the disposition of these cases. The plain
truth Is that neither the emotional atmosphere,
nor the abandonment of long established rules
Of evidence and guarantees for the accused, nor
the prejudices Of many investigators, nor the
unreliability Of many witnesses, nor the de-
pressing physical surroundings, nor the con-
slant pressure for faster trials could possibly