Fifty-fourth Day - Saturday, 17th November, 1945
Pleas in mitigation of the sentences were made on behalf of the accused by their respective Counsel.
SENTENCES
The PRESIDENT - No. 1 Kramer, 2 Klein, 3 Weingartner, 5 Hoessler, 16 Francioh, 22 Pichen, 25 Stofel, 27 Dorr. The sentences of this Court on each of you whom I have just named is that you suffer death by being hanged.
No. 6 Bormann, 7 Volkenrath, 9 Grese. The sentence of this Court is that you suffer death by being hanged.
No. 29 Zoddel. The sentence of this Court is that you be imprisoned for life.
No. 19 Kulessa, 26 Schreirer, 31 Ostrowski. The sentence of this Court is that you be imprisoned for 15 years.
No. 8 Ehlert, 46 Koper. The sentence of this Court is that you be imprisoned for 15 years.
No. 32 Aurdzeig. The sentence of this Court is that you be imprisoned for 10 years.
No. 11 Lohbauer, 33 Ilse Forster, 37 Bothe, 39 Haschke, 41 Sauer, 43 Roth, 44 Hempel, 48 Starostka. The sentence of this Court is that you be imprisoned for 10 years.
No. 20 Burgraf. The sentence of this Court is that you be imprisoned for 5 years.
No. 40 Fiest. The sentence of this Court is that you be imprisoned for 5 years.
No. 38 Walter. The sentence of this Court is that you be imprisoned for 3 years.
No. 42 Lisiewitz. The sentence of this Court is that you be imprisoned for 1 year.
The PRESIDENT - I should like to say this to the defending officers. This has been a very long trial. To my mind there are two great principles of British justice which I will give you quite simply. The first principle is that any man who is arraigned on a charge is entitled to hear in a language he can fully understand all that is said in evidence, both for and against him, in open court. The second, I think, is that any man or woman who is similarly placed in peril is entitled to give evidence on his or her behalf, and to call witnesses both as to fact and, if necessary, as to character. With forty-five accused who do not speak a common tongue among themselves, the observance of those two principles is bound to be a long procedure, and it is intensified when, as happened in this case, we have witnesses in the court who do not speak either the languages of the accused or English. You defending officers were ordered on account of your legal qualifications to act in defence of the accused. Except for certain Polish accused, the accused have all asked to be represented by British defending officers. There is no need for me to remind you that it is the basis of all discipline that an officer not only accepts orders unquestionably, but carries them out to the very best of his ability. This Court has been fully sensible of the fact that you have done that, and that there has been no idle defence brought forward by you on behalf of the accused. Although - and I think this is to your credit - you have spent the last five years fighting and have not been studying or applying the law, this Court does feel that you have endeavoured to bring forward every single argument that could fairly be considered on behalf of the persons whom you have been defending. That action, when carried out by no less than twelve defending officers, has again, of course, naturally lengthened the period of this trial. The Court cannot but hope that the fact that you yourselves were not seeking a cheap notoriety but were officers not only obeying orders, as of course you must, but obeying them to the full limit of your own knowledge and ability even, I understand, at considerable inconvenience to yourselves (since the Court has been told that some of you by doing so have passed your release dates), therefore the Court feels that that fact should be most widely known, not only to the public, but, to your friends and to your future clients. Now, subject to any order which the Convening Officer might see fit to issue regarding the reassembly of this Court, this Court at 1710 hours on the 17th November, 1945, is finally closed. |