The defendant Helmut Poppendick was acquitted of the charges of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity (counts two and three) in the sentence of the Military Tribunal I at Nuernberg in Case I, United States of America against Karl Brandt et al., on 19 August 1947, and found guilty only, as an SS member, of membership in an organization declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal (count four). On 20 August 1947, the defendant Helmut Poppendick was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment merely on account of membership in the SS.
I. The sentence exceeds the maximum penalty
According to the recommendations of the International Military Tribunal (The Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, Vol. I, p. 288), inserted into the sentence of the Medical Case, a maximum penalty is provided for the punishment of members of organizations declared criminal. The IMT recommendation provides in detail that “in no case is the penalty, imposed on the basis of Law No. 10 upon a member of an organization or group declared criminal by the Tribunal, to be more severe than the one provided in the Denazification Law”. The Denazification Law, dated 5 March 1946, valid for the U.S. Occupation Zone of Germany, referred to as a standard for comparison, provides the maximum penalty of 10 years in a labor camp. According to present penal regulations, 10 years’ imprisonment is, however, a more severe penalty than being sent to a labor camp for the same period. 10 years’ imprisonment exceeds, therefore, the penalty provided in the recommendation of the IMT. The sentence against Poppendick does not give any special reason for exceeding the maximum penalty.
II. More lenient evaluation of the group of persons within the
SS who only knew about crimes without, however,
being involved in them
The sentence of the International Military Tribunal declares punishable in the sense of the statute “the group composed of those persons who were officially admitted as members * * * in the SS, became or remained members of the organization knowing that use was made of them for committing acts declared punishable by Article 6 of the Statute, or who were involved in committing such crimes as members of the organization.” According to a reasonable interpretation of this provision, if mere membership is punished, one has to differentiate between those persons involved in committing such crimes and those persons only knowing about the commission of such crimes within the SS. According to a sound sense of justice, the provided maximum penalty for membership in the SS cannot possibly be valid for both groups of persons. On the contrary, the group having only knowledge has to be punished more lightly than the group involved in crimes. A penalty inferior to the provided maximum penalty has, therefore, to be imposed on the first mentioned persons among the SS members called to account. The Tribunal clearly stated that the defendant Helmut Poppendick was not involved in the crimes of the SS and, in this way, made it clear that not even on account of his rank or official position was he able to prevent crimes. The Tribunal only tried to impute knowledge on the part of the defendant Poppendick of definite experiments specified in the indictment. For this reason the maximum penalty should not be imposed in the case of the defendant Poppendick.
III. Knowledge of the defendant Poppendick
The Tribunal imputed to the defendant Poppendick, who was Oberfuehrer of the Waffen SS and Obersturmbannfuehrer of the General SS: (1) knowledge of freezing experiments; (2) sulfanilamide experiments; (3) sterilization experiments; (4) incendiary bomb experiments; (5) phlegmon experiments, without, however, being criminally involved in them.
(1) Knowledge of freezing experiments is imputed to the defendant Poppendick because he was subsequently invited to participate in a conference between Grawitz and Dr. Rascher in January 1943. As Rascher was at that time an officer in the Luftwaffe and all his collaborators were not members of the SS, this series of experiments (at least in January 1943) cannot be interpreted as a series of experiments within the SS and consequently as crimes of the SS. There is no proof of knowledge of such experiments after January 1943.
(2) The defendant Poppendick knew as much about Professor Gebhardt’s sulfanilamide experiments as Professor Rostock who was acquitted by the same Tribunal, i.e., that prisoners sentenced to death were used for these experiments.
(3) Knowledge of sterilization experiments is imputed to the defendant Poppendick by means of a simple assumption, although the Tribunal pointed out in several passages of the judgment that a mere assumption of guilt, in our case of knowledge, is insufficient. Poppendick only worked in the Race and Settlement Office as a doctor dealing with hereditary questions for members of the SS and their families; as medical superintendent he had to supervise this activity and the social welfare doctors. These matters were purely internal SS affairs. If the Race and Settlement Office occasionally dealt, amongst other measures, with one of racial policy through its field offices, the doctors were not involved in any case, and there is not the least indication that Poppendick knew or ought to have known about such measures. Even the judgment itself reveals to what extent the real sterilization experiments were kept secret.