3. Crimes against humanity; and
4. Membership in categories of a criminal group or organization declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal.
Control Council Law No. 10 recognizes as a crime, membership in any organization declared to be criminal by the International Military Tribunal.
Article 9 of the London Charter provides that the IMT may declare any group or organization of which an individual was a member to be a criminal organization. Article 10 provides that the IMT may also declare membership in an organization found by it to be criminal to be a crime. This the IMT did and further declared that its Charter makes the declaration of criminality against an accused organization final. The IMT then fixed the character of membership which would be regarded as criminal, and expressly limited its declaration of group criminality to persons who became or remained members of the organization with knowledge that it was being used for criminal acts or who were personally implicated as members of the organization in the commission of such crimes. These findings and conclusions of the IMT are binding upon this Tribunal.
The Control Council declared that this law or procedure was intended to reach the German war criminals to be tried by the occupying powers of Germany in their respective zones of occupation. The preamble stated that the law was enacted by the authority of and to give effect to the Moscow Declaration, the London Agreement, and the Charter of the International Military Tribunal. Thus, the avowed purpose of the Allied Powers to punish German war criminals was given quadripartite agreement and application under Control Council Law No. 10.
Military Government Ordinance No. 7 was issued on 26 October 1946 “pursuant to the powers of the Military Governor of the United States Zone of Occupation within Germany, and further pursuant to the power conferred upon the Zone Commander by Control Council Law No. 10, and articles 10 and 11 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal annexed to the London Agreement of 8 August 1945,” authorizing the establishment of certain “tribunals to be known as Military Tribunals”. Accordingly, Military Tribunal III was established on 13 February 1947, by virtue of the provisions of said Military Government Ordinance No. 7, “with powers to try and punish persons charged with offenses recognized as crimes in article II of Control Council Law No. 10, including conspiracies to commit such crimes.” And article X of Ordinance No. 7 provides that—
“The determinations of the International Military Tribunal in the judgments in Case No. 1 that invasions, aggressive acts, aggressive wars, crimes, atrocities or inhumane acts were planned or occurred, shall be binding on the tribunals established hereunder and shall not be questioned except insofar as the participation therein or knowledge thereof of any particular person may be concerned. Statements of the International Military Tribunal in the judgment in Case No. 1 shall constitute proof of the facts stated, in the absence of substantial new evidence to the contrary.”
As so created and established this and other similar military tribunals are international in character and jurisdiction. They are authorized and empowered to try and punish the “major war criminals of the European Axis”; to try and punish “those German officers and men and members of the Nazi Party who have been responsible for, and have taken a consenting part in,” and have aided, abetted, ordered, or have been connected with plans or enterprises involving the commission of any offense recognized in Control Council Law No. 10 as a crime.
The jurisdiction and power of this and similar tribunals to try and punish war criminals find full support in established international law relating to warfare. This law is that during hostilities and before their formal termination belligerents have concurrent jurisdiction over war crimes committed by the captured enemy persons in their territory or against their nationals in time of war. Accordingly, it has been generally recognized that belligerents during the war may legitimately try and punish enemy persons charged with infractions of the rules of war, if the accused is a prisoner of war and if the act charged has been made a penal offense by the generally accepted laws and customs of war. In such cases the accused usually is tried before the court, commission, or tribunal set up by and adjudged in accordance with the laws and procedure of the victor. After armistice or peace agreement the matter of punishment of war crimes is determined by the terms thereof.
The foregoing law was applied by the judgment of the International Military Tribunal, which after referring to the Charter creating it, declared that—