1. The use of prisoners of war in manufacture or transportation of arms or munitions of any kind, and
2. The use of prisoners of war for transporting material intended for combat units.
The Hague Regulations contain comparable provisions.
The essence of the crime of the misuse of prisoners of war derives from the kind of work to which they are assigned—in other words, to work directly connected with the war effort. The prosecution would like to recall to the court the evidence which connects the defendant with both the illegal employment of prisoners of war and with their abusive treatment. The Tribunal will recall that the defendant ordered the murder of prisoners of war who attempted to escape. We will discuss this crime more fully later. It will be remembered that there never has been a substantial denial of the fact that prisoners of war were used to man German antiaircraft batteries. Nor is it subject to doubt that prisoners were used in air armament industries over which the defendant exercised supervisory control.
We now come to the consideration of the basic charges and the law governing the defendant’s complicity in, and responsibility for, the Medical Experiments Program. The fundamental crime with which the defendant is charged in this connection is murder. Also involved are various atrocities, tortures, offenses against the person, and other inhuman acts.
The applicable provisions of Control Council Law No. 10, Article II, are (b) war crimes, (c) crimes against humanity. In connection with the criminal Medical Experiments Program, the prosecution submits that the defendant is guilty of—
(a) War crimes, namely violations of the laws and customs of war, as the medical experiments performed upon involuntary persons, some of them nationals of countries at war with the German Reich, involved the commission of murders, tortures, and other inhuman acts.
(b) Crimes against humanity, namely medical experiments performed upon involuntary German nationals and nationals of other countries, in the course of which, brutalities, murders, and other inhuman acts were committed.
Before we pass from the law involved in this case to a consideration of the evidence, we wish to mention the legal basis for the prosecution’s contention that the defendant must share the guilt which attaches to the slave labor program and the conduct of medical experiments upon unconsenting human beings. Control Council Law No. 10 defines for us the theory upon which this trial proceeds in Article II, paragraph 2, when it says:
“Any person without regard to nationality or the capacity in which he acted, is deemed to have committed a crime as defined in paragraph 1 of this Article, if he was (a) a principal or (b) an accessory to the commission of any such crime, or ordered or abetted the same or (c) took a consenting part therein or (d) was connected with plans or enterprises involving its commission or (e) was a member of any organization or group connected with the commission of any such crime. * * *” [Emphasis added.]