. NMT03-T0101
Volume III · Page 101
membership in organizations declared to be criminal in the judgment of the International Military Tribunal. Four of the defendants, Altstoetter, Cuhorst, Engert, and Joel are accused of membership in the SS. The defendant Joel is also accused of membership in the Sicherheitsdienst (commonly known as the SD). The defendant Cuhorst is also accused, together with three others, Oeschey, Nebehmg, and Rothaug, of membership in the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party. All three of these organizations were declared criminal in the judgment of the International Military Tribunal.
The legal basis of the charges in count four is quite distinct from that of the first three counts in the indictment. The charge derives from article 9 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, which authorized that Tribunal, under specified circumstances, to declare that certain "groups" or "organizations" were "criminal organizations." The prosecution before the International Military Tribunal sought such declarations in the case of each of the three organizations involved in count four of this indictment, and the International Military Tribunal rendered such declarations. In the meantime, it had been provided in article II of Control Council Law No. 10 that "membership in categories of a criminal group or organization declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal" should be "recognized as a crime." Paragraph 3 of article II of Control Council Law No. 10 specifies the punishments which may be imposed for membership in such organizations.
In its decision, the International Military Tribunal set forth certain limitations upon the scope of its declaration that these organizations were criminal.* Under these limitations, in order to render membership criminal, two things, in addition to membership, must be shown —
1. That the individual in question became or remained a member of the organization after 1 September 1939, and
2. That the individual in question either (a) became or remained a member with knowledge that it was being used for the commission of acts declared criminal by article VI of the London Agreement, or (b) was personally implicated as a member of the organization in the commission of such crimes.
The prosecution believes that, once it has established that a defendant was a member of one or more of the criminal organizations, it is incumbent upon the defendant to come forward with evidence that he neither knew of the criminal activities of the organization, nor participated in their commission, or that he
__________
* Trial of the Major War Criminals, op. cit. pp. 255-257
907802 — 51 — 9
