Much of the evidence presented to the Tribunal on behalf of the prosecution was documentary evidence captured by the Allied armies in German army headquarters, government buildings, and elsewhere, and some of said documents were captured in the private files of the defendant himself. The case therefore against the defendant rests in a large measure on the documents thus obtained. The documents offered against the defendant on the part of the prosecution were in a large measure of his own making or those that were made in the organizations of which he was a member and largely under his control, and the authenticity of which has not been challenged except in a few cases and in those he challenged them mainly on the correctness of the transcript and not upon the subject matter as a whole. The evidence, oral and written, together with exhibits and documents contain approximately 3,000 pages which constitutes the record in this case.
The trial was conducted generally along the lines as are usually followed in trial courts of the United States except as to the rules of evidence, and as to those the Tribunal was not bound by technical rules of evidence and admitted any and all evidence which it deemed to have probative value and in strict compliance with the provisions of Article VII of Ordnance No. 7.
The Tribunal has kept in mind throughout the entire trial that this was a Tribunal established for the purpose of trying major war criminals and in this particular case a fallen military field marshal of a conquered nation, and that he was entitled to the Anglo-Saxon and English common law presumption that he was innocent until his guilt was established beyond a reasonable doubt.
Article II of Control Council No. 10 is as follows:
“ARTICLE II
“1. Each of the following acts is recognized as a crime:
“(a) Crimes against Peace. Initiation of invasions of other countries and wars of aggression in violation of international laws and treaties, including but not limited to planning, preparation, initiation or waging a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing.
“(b) War Crimes. Atrocities or offenses against persons or property constituting violations of the laws or customs of war, including but not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose, of civilian population from occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
“(c) Crimes against Humanity. Atrocities and offenses, including but not limited to murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, rape, or other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds whether or not in violation of the domestic laws of the country where perpetrated.
“(d) Membership in categories of a criminal group or organization declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal.