dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
those whose general outlook on life was considered undesirable, such as church opponents of the regime and Jehovah's Witnesses. Habitual criminals who had served their term of imprisonment could be placed in preventive custody as well as less serious offenders such as drunkards, vagrants, and persons who changed positions without consent of the Labor Office all of whom were regarded as ''asocials." Another large group of inmates were the Nazi described "racial inferiors" which included Jews, Poles, Slavs, and gypsies. The extermination policies of the SS were particularly directed against this group. Prisoners of war were also committed to concentration camps in great numbers, especially the Russians. A special category of prisoners were " Nacht und Nebel " or night and fog inmates (2) . These were persons alleged to have committed offenses against the Reich or the German forces in occupied countries. The offenders were punished in the occupied territory only if the death penalty could be executed without delay. If this could not be done within one week of apprehension, the accused were taken secretly to Germany and handed over to the Security Police and SD for punishment. No word of the prisoners was permitted to reach their relatives or the country from which they came. In 1941, concentration camps were graded according to the type of prisoners to be committed there. Grade I was for persons who had committed minor offenses. Grade II for persons who had committed major offenses but were thought subject to correction, while those beyond the pale were sent to grade III camps, the "bone mills" which one rarely left alive. This classification was of course, a relative concept; a former inmate of Dachau would regard it a gruesome joke to be told he had resided in a grade I concentration camp. The best that can be said is that his catastrophe might have been worse in Mauthausen, which was for grade III prisoners. In any event, later developments apparently necessitated deviations from the classification plan. Inmates were transferred from one camp to another solely according to their working capabilities and the needs of the economic enterprises run by the WVHA. As to the number of concentration camps and inmates during the war period, it is
developments apparently necessitated deviations from the classification plan. Inmates were transferred from one camp to another solely according to their working capabilities and the needs of the economic enterprises run by the WVHA. As to the number of concentration camps and inmates during the war period, it is only possible to give approximate figures. In April 1944 the defendant Pohl informed Himmler that there were 20 concentration camps and 165 labor camps in the Reich and German occupied territory. A postscript to this letter in Pohl's handwriting boastfully states that: "In Eicke's time there were altogether six camps. Now: 185!" But even those figures are apt to be misleading as there were dozens of outside camps surrounding the so-called "mother camp". In the case of Mauthausen, for example, Camp Commander Ziereiss estimated that there were 45 outside camps. Among the large camps centrally administered by the WVHA were Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Lublin, Mauthausen, Natzweiler, Neuengamme, Ravensbrueck, and Stutthof. It is interesting to note that war crimes trials have been held with respect to most of those camps. Figures on the number of concentration camp inmates are even more difficult. Here one must distinguish between the total number of prisoners present in the camps at a given date and the total number delivered to the camps during the Nazi regime. It is known that in August 1944 there were approximately 524,000 inmates of whom 145,000 were women. But the same document shows that an additional 610,000 persons were on their way to concentration camps. Some 400,000 of these were Poles from Warsaw, which shortly before had risen in arms against the German occupation force. Another 150,000 were Jews from Hungary and the Lodz ghetto, and 15,000 Poles from the Government General, 10,000 "convicts" from the Eastern territories, 17,000 Polish officers, and 20,000 Frenchmen. As to the total number of prisoners delivered to the camps, only a reasonable estimate can be made. If the number of dead at Auschwitz alone is considered, amounting to at least 3.5 million, it is safe to assume that no less than 10 million human beings were at one time or another incarcerated in a concentration camp. Much could be said about the horrible living conditions of concentration camps and the
number of dead at Auschwitz alone is considered, amounting to at least 3.5 million, it is safe to assume that no less than 10 million human beings were at one time or another incarcerated in a concentration camp. Much could be said about the horrible living conditions of concentration camps and the proof of the prosecution will leave no doubt that the prisoners were subjected to systematic cruelty. One former inmate has stated that there stood invisible over the camp gate, the inscription from Dante's inferno: "Through me you enter the city of those elected for grief, Through me you enter the eternal pain, Through me you enter the people of the lost. * * * * * * * All hope abandon ye who enter here." The cold statistics of death rates in concentration camps show an utter lack of hygienic conditions. In September 1943 the defendant Pohl reported to Himmler that the natural death rate for the last 6 months of 1942 averaged 9.89 percent per month. Such figures of course, in no way reflect the agonies of slow death through starvation and overwork. In April 1945, a committee of the Congress of the United States made an official investigation of the conditions in concentration camps of Buchenwald, Nordhausen, and Dachau shortly after they had been overrun by the American armies. The report submitted by the committee contained the following conclusions: "While the above three camps which were visited by the joint committee differed in some details, they were all of the same general pattern and design and administered for the same purpose. "Although different in size, they all carried into effect the same pattern of death by hard labor, starvation, hanging, strangulation. disease, brutality, gas chambers, gallows, and filthy and unsanitary conditions, which meant inevitable death eventually to every imprisoned person. "We found that this entire program constituted a systematic form of torture and death administered to intellectuals, political leaders, and others who would not embrace and support the Nazi philosophy and program. We found the extent, devices, methods, and conditions of torture almost beyond the power of words to describe. "The treatment accorded to these prisoners in the concentration camps was generally as follows: They were herded together
and others who would not embrace and support the Nazi philosophy and program. We found the extent, devices, methods, and conditions of torture almost beyond the power of words to describe. "The treatment accorded to these prisoners in the concentration camps was generally as follows: They were herded together in some wooden barracks not large enough for one-tenth of their number. They were forced to sleep on wooden frames covered with wooden boards in tiers of two, three, and even four sometimes with no covering, sometimes with a bundle of dirty rags serving both as pallet and coverlet. "Their food consisted generally of about one-half a pound of black bread per day and a bowl of watery soup for noon and night, and not always that. Owing to the great numbers crowded into a small space and to the lack of adequate sustenance, lice and vermin multiplied, disease became rampant, and those who did not soon die of disease or torture began the slow process of starvation. Notwithstanding the deliberate starvation program inflicted upon these prisoners by lack of adequate food, we found no evidence that the people of Germany as a whole were suffering from any lack of sufficient food or clothing. The contrast was so striking that the only conclusion which we could reach was that the starvation of the inmates of these camps was deliberate. "Upon entrance into these camps, newcomers were forced to work either at an adjoining war factory or were placed 'in commando on various jobs in the vicinity, being returned each night to their stall in the barracks * * *. A refusal to work or an infraction of the rules usually meant flogging and other types of torture, such as having their fingernails pulled out, and in each case, usually ended in death after extensive suffering. The policies herein described constituted a calculated and diabolical program of planned torture and extermination on the part of those who were in control of the German Government. These camps, on the whole, were conducted and controlled by the SS troops and the Gestapo, who acted under orders from their superiors or who were given wide discretion in the methods which they were to adopt in perpetrating these hideous and inhuman sufferings. "It is the opinion of your committee that these practices constituted
on the whole, were conducted and controlled by the SS troops and the Gestapo, who acted under orders from their superiors or who were given wide discretion in the methods which they were to adopt in perpetrating these hideous and inhuman sufferings. "It is the opinion of your committee that these practices constituted no less than organized crime against civilization and humanity and that those who were responsible for them should have meted out to them swift, certain, and adequate punishment." The International Military Tribunal in Case No. 1 , made the following findings of fact in its judgment on pages 16896-7 of the English transcript (3) : "In the administration of the occupied territories the concentration camps were used to destroy all opposition groups. The persons arrested by the Gestapo were as a rule sent to concentration camps. They were conveyed to the camps in many cases without any care whatever being taken for them, and great numbers died on the way. Those who arrived at the camp were subject to systematic cruelty. They were given hard physical labor, inadequate food, clothes, and shelter, and were subject at all times to the rigors of a soulless regime, and the private whims of individual guards. "A certain number of the concentration camps were equipped with gas chambers for the wholesale destruction of the inmates, and with furnaces for the burning of the bodies. Some of them were in fact used for the extermination of Jews as part of the 'final solution' of the Jewish problem. Most of the non-Jewish inmates were used for labor, although the conditions under which they worked made labor and death almost synonymous terms. Those inmates who became ill and were unable to work were either destroyed in the gas chambers or sent to special infirmaries, where they were given entirely inadequate medical treatment, worse food, if possible, than the working inmates, and left to die Medical Experiments I come now to a very special group of crimes committed in concentration camps under the guise of medical science. Throughout the whole period of the war, medical experiments were performed on thousands of inmates with a wanton disregard for human life. It is an impossible task for the prosecution adequately to portray the
now to a very special group of crimes committed in concentration camps under the guise of medical science. Throughout the whole period of the war, medical experiments were performed on thousands of inmates with a wanton disregard for human life. It is an impossible task for the prosecution adequately to portray the tortures to which those helpless human beings were subjected. In these crimes, the WVHA was an essential party of the conspiracy, a conspiracy which embraced leaders of the military and civilian medical services of the German Reich. It was only through the SS, the WVHA with its control over concentration camps, that the human experimental material could be obtained. A number of the doctors who performed these criminal experiments are now on trial before Military Tribunal I, but in this dock sits the man and his confederates who made the human guinea pigs available, to be kept naked for 14 hours in freezing weather, infected with typhus, and the like . (4) Euthanasia (Action "14 f 13") I pass now to a phase of mass extermination implemented by the concentration camp structure, the so-called euthanasia program. On the opening day of the invasion of Poland, 1 September 1939, Adolf Hitler charged Professor Karl Brandt, at that time his escort physician, and Philipp Bouhler, the chief of the Private Chancellery of the Fuehrer, with the task of organizing and executing a program for the extermination of persons considered incurably ill. The timing of the program with the initiation of a war of aggression was, of course, not a coincidence. By the elimination of insane, aged, and incurable persons, as well as deformed children, it was hoped to make more medical personnel and hospital facilities available for war casualties. It is equally clear that this program implemented the basic Nazi doctrines of race, blood, and State; only those persons who could strengthen the Nordic race and the Third Reich were considered worthy of life. Hence, those who were weak in mind or body, who were unable to work, who were "useless eaters" were systematically and ruthlessly killed. As a result of the Fuehrer order, a large and somewhat complicated organization was established to carry out the euthanasia program. Since we are
were considered worthy of life. Hence, those who were weak in mind or body, who were unable to work, who were "useless eaters" were systematically and ruthlessly killed. As a result of the Fuehrer order, a large and somewhat complicated organization was established to carry out the euthanasia program. Since we are here concerned with euthanasia only insofar as it touches the concentration camps and the jurisdiction of the WVHA, the over-all operation of the program can be sketched in broad strokes. Questionnaires were sent to the Ministry of Interior purporting to report the condition of each patient in the various mental institutions. These questionnaires were submitted to socalled experts in the euthanasia organization who (without so much as having seen the patient) passed sentence on life or death. Then a list was made up of the patients who were judged as "positive" cases and these patients were removed from the asylum to collecting centers and from there were transferred to euthanasia stations and killed. The executions were carried out without the consent of the relatives and, of course, without the consent of the victim. Falsified death notices with stereotype wording were sent to the relatives. The entire procedure was carried out under elaborate code names in an effort to insure secrecy. However, this proved to be quite impossible and the program was common knowledge throughout Germany. Indeed, public opinion and particularly that of the church was effective enough to bring about a temporary stop in the general program in the autumn of 1941. The heartful protest by thousands of decent Germans against this wholesale murder is exemplified in a letter written by the Bishop of Limburg to the Ministry of Justice in 1941, when he said: "About 8 kilometers from Limburg, in the little town of Hadamar on a hill overlooking the town, there is an institution which formerly had served various purposes and of late had been used as a nursing home; this institution was renovated and furnished as a place in which, by consensus of opinion, the above mentioned euthanasia has been systematically practiced for months approximately since February 1941. The fact has become known beyond the administrative district of Wiesbaden, because death
used as a nursing home; this institution was renovated and furnished as a place in which, by consensus of opinion, the above mentioned euthanasia has been systematically practiced for months approximately since February 1941. The fact has become known beyond the administrative district of Wiesbaden, because death certificates from a Registry Hadamar-Moenchberg are sent to the home communities. (Moenchberg is the name of this institution because it was a Franciscan monastery prior to its secularization in 1803.) "Several times a week busses arrive in Hadamar with a considerable number of such victims. School children of the vicinity know this vehicle and say: 'There comes the murderbox again.' After the arrival of the vehicle, the citizens of Hadamar watch the smoke rise out of the chimney and are tortured with the ever-present thought of the miserable victims, especially when repulsive odors annoy them, depending on the direction of the wind. "The effect of the principles at work here are: Children call each other names and say, 'You're crazy; you'll be sent to the baking oven in Hadamar.' Those who do not want to marry, or find no opportunity, say, 'Marry, never. Bring children into the world so they can be put into the bottling machine!' You hear old folks say, 'Don't send me to a State hospital! After the feeble-minded have been finished off, the next useless eaters whose turn will come are the old people.' "All God-fearing men consider this destruction of helpless beings as crass injustice. And if anybody says that Germany cannot win the war, if there is yet a just God, these expressions are not the result of a lack of love of Fatherland but of a deep concern for our people. The population cannot grasp that systematic actions are carried out which in accordance with paragraph 211 of the German criminal code are punishable with death. High authority as a moral concept has suffered a severe shock as a result of these happenings. The official notice that N.N. had died of a contagious disease and for that reason his body had to be burned, no longer finds credence, and such official notices which are no longer believed have further undermined the ethical value of the concept of authority. "Officials of the Secret State Police, it is said,
happenings. The official notice that N.N. had died of a contagious disease and for that reason his body had to be burned, no longer finds credence, and such official notices which are no longer believed have further undermined the ethical value of the concept of authority. "Officials of the Secret State Police, it is said, are trying to suppress discussion of the Hadamar occurrences by means of severe threats. In the interest of public peace, this may be well intended. But the knowledge and the conviction will be increased with the bitter realization that discussion is prohibited with threats but that the actions themselves are not prosecuted under penal law." This case is concerned with the euthanasia program because thousands of prisoners of all nationalities were transported from the concentration camps to euthanasia stations and murdered there. It is also true that camp doctors systematically killed inmates who were no longer able to work under the pretense that they were insane. These killings were usually accomplished by injections of phenol or gasoline. The executions were carried out under the code name "14 f 13" which apparently was derived from a file number in Amtsgruppe D of the WVHA. That office played an essential role in the operation of the program. Thus, on 10 December 1941, the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps sent a letter to the camps of Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Auschwitz, Flossenberg, Gross-Rosen, Neuengamme and Niederhagen advising them that the doctors' commission would visit the concentration camps in the near future to select prisoners for "special treatment 14 f 13" and enclosing the usual form of questionnaire used in the euthanasia program. The camp doctors were directed to complete questionaires on eligible prisoners in order to shorten the work of the doctors commission. Exactly five days later, the camp doctors at Gross-Rosen had selected 293 inmates as eligible for screening by the doctors' commission. These unfortunate people were carefully listed under such headings as "Poles or Czechs in Protective Custody," "Shirkers," "Jews in Protective Custody," "Jews who were Habitual Criminals," "Jews who were shirkers," "Jews who Defiled the Race." A Jew who defiled the race was one who had
screening by the doctors' commission. These unfortunate people were carefully listed under such headings as "Poles or Czechs in Protective Custody," "Shirkers," "Jews in Protective Custody," "Jews who were Habitual Criminals," "Jews who were shirkers," "Jews who Defiled the Race." A Jew who defiled the race was one who had married or had sexual intercourse with an Aryan. This list was sent to the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps, which in turn wrote Gross-Rosen to expect a Dr. Mennecke on 16 January 1942 who would make the final selection. Dr. Mennecke was one of the so-called experts in the euthanasia program who was commissioned to visit concentration camps. He was recently tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by a German court for his part in the program. He was brought to Nuernberg and testified for the prosecution in the case against Karl Brandt et al. Of the 293 inmates listed as eligible by the camp management at Gross-Rosen, 214 were selected for extermination by Dr. Mennecke and no less than 51 of those were of Polish or Czech nationality. A further substantial number were Jews of non-German nationality. Our proof will show that 127 of those prisoners were sent to the Bernburg euthanasia station and exterminated, 36 died before the transport left Gross-Posen, and of the remainder, 42 were not transported because as a result of a thirty-day rest, they were again able to work. This speedy recovery of the 42 inmates selected for extermination brought forth a reprimand from the WVHA. On 26 March 1942, Liebehenschel, chief of Amt D I, wrote to the camp commanders as follows: "Through the report of a camp commander it became known, that 42 of the 51 inmates selected for special treatment 14 f 13 became 'fit to work again' after some time which made their transfer for special treatment unnecessary. This shows that the selection of these inmates is not being effected in compliance with the rules laid down. Only those inmates who correspond to the conditions laid down and, this is the most important thing, who are no longer fit to work, are brought before the examining commission. "In order to enable the concentration camps to carry out the tasks they are set, every inmate fit to work is to be put at the