Reference is here made to the detailed description by the IMT judgment of the manner of operation of concentration camps and to the appalling cruelties and horrors found to have been committed therein. Such concentration camps were used extensively for the NN prisoners in the execution of the Night and Fog decree as will be later shown.
The IMT further found that the manner of arrest and imprisonment of Night and Fog prisoners before they were transferred to Germany was illegal, as follows:
“The local units of the Security Police and SD continued their work in the occupied territories after they had ceased to be an area of operations. The Security Police and SD engaged in widespread arrests of the civilian population of these occupied countries, imprisoned many of them under inhumane conditions, and subjected them to brutal third degree methods, and sent many of them to concentration camps. Local units of the Security Police and SD were also involved in the shooting of hostages, the imprisonment of relatives, the execution of persons charged as terrorists and saboteurs without a trial, and the enforcement of the Nacht und Nebel decree under which persons charged with a type of offenses believed to endanger the security of the occupying forces were either executed within a week or secretly removed to Germany without being permitted to communicate with their family and friends.”[655]
The foregoing quotations from the IMT judgment will suffice to show the illegality and cruelty of the entire NN plan or scheme. The transfer of NN prisoners to Germany and the enforcement of the plan or scheme did not cleanse it of its iniquity or render it legal in any respect.
The evidence herein adduced sustains the foregoing findings and conclusions of the IMT. In fact the same documents, or copies thereof, referred to and quoted from in the IMT judgment were introduced in evidence in this case. In addition, a large number of captured documents and oral testimony were introduced showing the origin and purpose of the Night and Fog plan or scheme, and showing without dispute that certain of the defendants with full knowledge of the illegality of the plan or scheme under international law of war and with full knowledge of the intended terrorism, cruelty, and other inhumane principles of the plan or scheme became either a principal, or aided and abetted, or took a consenting part in, or were connected with the execution of the illegal, cruel, and inhumane plan or scheme.
Hitler’s decree was signed by Keitel on 7 December 1941 and was enclosed in Keitel’s covering letter of 12 December 1941, which was referred to and quoted from in the IMT judgment. The Hitler decree states that since the opening of the Russian campaign Communist and anti-German elements have increased their assaults against the Reich and the occupation power in the occupied territories and that the most severe measures should be directed against these malefactors “to intimidate them”. The decree further declares in substance (1733-PS, Pros. Ex. 303):
“1. Criminal acts committed by non-German civilians directed against the Reich or occupation forces endangering their safety or striking power should require the application of the death penalty in principle.
“2. Such criminal acts will be tried in occupied territories only when it appears probable that the death sentence will be passed and carried out without delay. Otherwise the offenders will be carried to Germany.
“3. Offenders taken to Germany are subject to court martial procedures there only in case that particular military concern should require it. German and foreign agencies will declare upon inquiries of such offenders that the state of the proceedings would not allow further information.
“4. Commanders in chief in occupied territories and the justiciaries within their jurisdiction will be held personally responsible for the execution of this decree.