Military Tribunal I
Nuernberg.
| Concerning: | Confirmation of the sentence of Military Tribunal I, Nuernberg, of 19 August 1947. |
Karl Genzken, defendant in Case I, defended by Attorney-at-Law Dr. R. Merkel, Nuernberg, by verdict of Military Tribunal I of 19 August 1947 was found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and membership in the SS—counts two, three, and four of the indictment—and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
I request that the sentence may not be confirmed, since the defendant is innocent of the punishable participation in the typhus experiments in Buchenwald with which he is charged.
The verdict of Military Tribunal I, Nuernberg of 19-20 August 1947 decided that Genzken in his official position was responsible for, cooperated in, and promoted the typhus experiments which were carried out on non-Germans against their will, and in the course of which, and as a result of which, cases of death occurred.
On the basis of the verdict it is certain that the defendant himself did not actively participate in the typhus experiments; he never entered the Buchenwald concentration camp during the war and never saw the typhus experimental station in Block 46.
The verdict is based on the presupposition—
(1) that Genzken before 1 September 1943—as superior of Mrugowsky, the Chief of the Hygiene Institute, and of Ding in his capacity as an assistant in this Institute—has had the command and thus the official supervision over the experiments in the typhus experimental station in Block 46 of the Buchenwald concentration camp,
(2) that Genzken before 1 September 1943 was acquainted with the kind and scope of the activity of Mrugowsky and Ding, who were supposedly subordinated to him in the field of typhus research, and