Rudolf Lehmann, lieutenant general of the legal department of the armed forces, stated under oath:
“These cases were, as I seem to remember, handled by von Ammon, also of that same division of the Reich Ministry of Justice. General Public Prosecutor Joel, who was in the Ministry of Justice until sometime in 1943, would be able to supply further details on this ‘Nacht und Nebel’ matter. Joel was general public prosecutor in Hamm, and a court handling ‘Nacht und Nebel’ cases was located at Hamm. Other courts handling ‘Nacht und Nebel’ cases were located at Cologne, Breslau, and at one or two other places unknown to me but which can be named by Joel.”
Joel became chief prosecutor of the court of appeals in Hamm, covering all of Westphalia and the district of Essen, on 17 August 1943, which office he continued to hold until the end of the war. In this position he was in charge of the Night and Fog program for the Special Courts in Hamm and Essen until 15 March 1944 when these courts were transferred farther east to Oppeln in the Katowice district. Reports of Joel show that he attended conferences both in Hamm and in Belgium on Night and Fog matters. The record also shows that the district of which he was the highest, and therefore the most responsible, prosecuting authority was, in area and population, one of the largest in Germany. He had under his supervision the senior public prosecutors and their staffs at the Special Courts at Hamm and in Essen. It was his task to supervise the work of all prosecutors assigned to his office. The Special Courts in Hamm and Essen tried more Night and Fog cases than the combined total of all other Special Courts and the People’s Court. In law, Joel must be held to have had the responsibility of these cases. The record further shows that Joel assumed this responsibility.
A letter addressed to Joel, dated 20 January 1944, stated that in the future all Night and Fog persons who were upon trial acquitted or who had served their sentences, must be turned over for custody to the Gestapo.
A letter dated 26 January 1944 from Joel to the Reich Minister of Justice complained about the delay which the defendant Lautz, chief prosecutor at the People’s Court, caused by his failure to return files in NN cases. Joel pointed out that 84 Night and Fog prisoners who had been held near Hamm since 1941 were still there.
In November 1943 defendants von Ammon and Mettgenberg came to Hamm enroute back to Berlin from the conferences they had attended in Holland. The purpose of their visit to Joel was to determine whether there was any available space in prison for the keeping of additional Night and Fog prisoners to be transported from the Netherlands. Joel assured them that more prisoners could be accommodated and even opposed the view of his Oberlandesgericht who stated they should not be sent to the Hamm area. They were sent to that area. In December 1943 Joel attended a conference in Brussels which he reported upon after his return to Hamm, pertaining to Night and Fog prisoners who were sent from Belgium.
The categorical denial of Joel of ever having transferred an NN prisoner or of ever having tried an NN prisoner or of ever having issued an order to transfer an NN prisoner who had been acquitted or who had served his sentence, to Gestapo custody is no defense of his activities in connection with the custody, trial, execution, or transfer of NN prisoners after they had served their sentences or had been acquitted to the Gestapo.
The high office which he held required him to supervise and properly handle Night and Fog cases filed in the courts where he was chief prosecutor. He had numerous assistants whom he necessarily had to entrust with the prosecution and carrying out of the Night and Fog program and cases arising thereunder. The fact that Joel did not actually try the Night and Fog cases himself has no significance. He did supervise the men who tried and had executed some of them and imprisoned others and transferred others who were not guilty of any crime or who had served their sentence, to the Gestapo and concentration camps.
The defendant Joel is chargeable with knowledge that the Night and Fog program from its inception to its final conclusion constituted a violation of the laws and customs of war.
We turn now to the other activities here under indictment of the defendant Joel.