The justification of the killings is materially distinguished from that of the experiments. Those spies, stool-pigeons, and traitors, for whose killing Dr. Hoven accepted responsibility when in the witness stand, had planned to commit serious crimes against their fellow prisoners. Therefore, if the three prerequisites which I mentioned are given, we are concerned with cases of justifiable or excusable homicide.
In my closing brief, I elaborately explained that these conditions existed in the case of all the killings for which Dr. Hoven accepted the responsibility.
The defendant Dr. Hoven had the conviction and good faith that the spies and traitors, who were killed by him or with his knowledge, were about to commit serious crimes, resulting in the death of numerous inmates of the Buchenwald concentration camp. During his examination on the witness stand, Dr. Hoven gave a thorough description of this.
The decision on these killings was not reached by Dr. Hoven alone. Dr. Hoven had no cause for that. It was not his life that was endangered by those spies or traitors. It was, on the contrary, the committee of political German and foreign prisoners, many of whom are today holding high office in their countries. Those persons guaranteed to Dr. Hoven that only such individuals would be killed who already had been active and would continue to be active as spies and as traitors. These statements by Dr. Hoven were expressly confirmed by a number of witnesses who were heard on this subject. These observations may be found in the affidavits I submitted. Above all it has been proven that only such people of whom Dr. Hoven held that conviction were done away with. Dr. Hoven testified to that effect and it has been reaffirmed by the witnesses Dorn, Dr. Kogon, Seegers, and Hummel.
In his interrogation of 23 October 1946, Dr. Hoven stated expressly that he killed or knew only of the killings of such persons of whom he was certain that their deaths were necessary to save the lives of a multitude of political prisoners from the various countries. At that early date he expressly emphasized that he refused to carry out any of the killing orders of the Camp Commander Koch; the prisoners who were covered by these orders were put into the hospital or hidden in some other way by Dr. Hoven.
Dr. Hoven had not negligently adopted the conviction that their killing was essential for the salvation of huge numbers of prisoners.
This is proved first of all by the testimony of the witness Dorn, who gave many details as to the means and methods employed by Dr. Hoven and the illegal camp administration in becoming convinced of the necessity for the killings. Dr. Hoven supplemented those statements. Furthermore, they were corroborated by the testimony of the witnesses Hummell, Dr. Kogon, Seegers, Philipp Dirk, Baron von Pallandt, and van Eerde through their affidavits.
Actually, the prevention of the planned crimes, i.e., the mass murder of a multitude of German and foreign political prisoners, could be accomplished only through the killing of the spies and traitors. There was no other means. What should Dr. Hoven have done to prevent the crimes planned by the spies and traitors? Those spies collaborated with the SS camp commanders to carry out Himmler’s program to destroy the political prisoners. To whom should Dr. Hoven have turned? Perhaps to the SS camp commanders who worked with the spies and traitors? Or perhaps to the Gestapo or to the police who worked under Himmler’s orders?
There was no other way but the one which Dr. Hoven chose in order to prevent crimes. I showed that with details in my closing brief. There I assembled the testimony of the witnesses for the prosecution and defense who were heard on this point.
Here, I merely wish to stress the following statements by witnesses: