To handle such a large field of work properly—in Handloser’s case it also included the office of the Chief of Army Medical Service—a division of labor had to be made into time, space, and facts. The organization and the progress of work in the sphere of the Army Medical Inspector and the Chief of the Army Medical Service was explained by Professor Handloser in his affidavit. (Handloser 29, Handloser Ex. 4.) According to this the basic and most important questions were dealt with and decided upon in any case by Professor Handloser as the chief of the highest office. In this connection I refer to the testimony of Dr. Wuerfler (Tr. p. 3135) and affidavit of Schmidt-Bruecken. (Handloser 62, Handloser Ex. 58.) Special attention has to be paid here to incoming mail (messages, reports, letters). In the Handloser affidavit (Handloser 29, Handloser Ex. 4), the following is stated:
“All letters and packages, unless they were marked ‘secret’ or ‘top secret’ (Mil.) went to the registry. Here they were opened, the date stamp was affixed by the registrar who simultaneously marked the letter for delivery to the Chief of Staff, or to the various section chiefs direct. The Chief of Staff in turn marked those communications which were to be submitted to the medical chief with a cross in colored pencil.
“Secret and top secret (Mil.) material was handled in a special manner. This material was entered in a journal, and then directed to the attention of the Chief of Staff who in turn determined which documents were to be submitted to, or brought to the attention of, the medical inspector immediately or after they had been dealt with.”
This arrangement could be made without prejudicing a regular settlement since the authorities in question were under the command of specially qualified people (department chiefs) headed by the Chief of Staff who supervised the daily business routine and was responsible for all business matters.
With regard to Handloser it must be borne in mind that during the war he was very rarely present in the head office (Berlin). Owing to Handloser’s double function as an army doctor and Army Medical Chief, and furthermore as a result of the division of the Army Medical Inspectorate into two parts for the front and the zone of the interior, Handloser necessarily had to spend most of his time at army headquarters and at the front. He could only be present in Berlin for about one-tenth of the time. (Tr. p. 3135.) Furthermore, it became necessary to staff the offices at home with specially qualified medical officers since they had to act mainly on their own initiative in performing their tasks.
The Chief of Staff of the Army Medical Inspectorate, for instance, was a Generalarzt; the chiefs of the individual departments were Oberstaerzte. In order to do justice to the burden and the responsibility which Handloser had been shouldering, one must visualize the tasks and scope of work connected with the Medical Inspectorate. Owing to the war these tasks had been intensified to the utmost limits, there was the expansion of the theaters of operation and the personal problems of 26,500 medical officers. One will also realize that Handloser could only attend to the most important and the most basic problems.
The Chief of Staff and the departmental chiefs, as was their duty, determined which matters were of sufficient basic and vital importance to be referred for decision to the Army Medical Chief.
It must be considered most unlikely for the highest authority (i. e., the chief) of a large sphere of activity to have knowledge of all happenings within this sphere.
Furthermore, actual facts do not confirm that the person exercising the highest powers of command within the military hierarchy of the army is in some degree the originator of all orders executed by a subordinate in his hierarchy. If an order has been issued, one must determine who of all the supervising chiefs of the offices in this hierarchy is the originator responsible, under criminal law, for this order. If no special order was issued one must examine whether the incriminating behavior on the part of the defendant personally was prompted by circumstances within the scope of responsibility, under criminal law (such as orders and regulations which rendered possible the criminal behavior of a subordinate or appropriate consent to commit the criminal offense, before its initiation or its completion).
Only if the prosecution maintains and proves (a) that the behavior of a subordinate constitutes a punishable offense, and (b) that this action in particular was the result of an order issued by the superior, or of his consent given prior to the offense, can the defendant be charged as an abettor, offender, accomplice, or participator.