Trial of the Major War Criminals before International Military Tribunal ...

which can qnly end in a death sentence (or acquittal), the accused
is not represented by Counsel. The Ordinance of September 27th,
1941 does not provide for the employment of Counsel at a trial, and
in practice-according to the information we possess-trials were
regularly held, and sentences were passed, without the participation
of Counsel.
The Ordinance of September 27th, 1941 does not contain any
rules governing the procedure at a trial. It is left to the Judges to
lay them down. As already mentioned, the Judges, with a few
exceptions, had no knowledge of law and the majority of them no
experience whatever of the conduct of criminal proceedings. It is,
therefore, not astonishing that trials before a "Standgericht" had
no resemblance to what is called a trial in civilised systems of law.
In other words-trials before "Standgerichte" have been conducted
in a way which would not have enabled even learned and experienced
Judges to gain a clear picture of the facts.
Any control of the trial or of the sentence, either by the
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presence of the public or by a Court of Appeal, is excluded by the
Ordinance of September 27th, 1941.
"Standgerichte" have never sat in public. As there were-at least
in most of the cases-no serious reasons (certainly none in the
general view) for holding the trial in camera, we find here again, a
flagrant infringement of the principles maintained by the law of all
civilised nations. And this infringement of a generally recognised
principle, has obviously no other aim than to terrorise the inhab-
itants of-the occupied territory. They are threatened by a criminal
procedure which nobody has witnessed, which no one knows for
certain; and nobody can ascertain what actions in particular are
punishable. As the public was not admitted to the proceedings of the
"Standgerichte", the mere existence of these "tribunals" increased
the insecurity under the existing law.
There was no appeal against the sentences passed by the "Stand-
gerichte" (Sec. 4, § 3 of the Ordinance).
The records of a trial before the "Standgerichte" contain simply
the names of the Judges, the condemned; and the witnesses, as well
as the crime and the date of the sentence (Sec. 4, 5 2 of the
Ordinance). Provisions which allow of such incomplete records and
even prescribe them, can only have one object: to prevent all control,
by concealing what has taken place during the trial so as to efface
all traces of what has been done.
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