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

camps was extermination of human beings for no other reason than
their opposition to the Nazi way of thinking. There is no doubt
that MAUTHAUSEN was the basis for long term planning. It was
constructed as a gigantic stone fortress on top of a mountain flanked
by small barracks.
MAUTHAUSEN, in addition to its permanency of construction,
had facilities for a large garrison of officers and men, and
had large dining rooms and toilet facilities for the staff. It was
conducted with the sole purpose in mind of exterminating any so-
ca.lled prisoner who entered within its walls.
The so-called branches of MAUTHAUSEN were under direct
command of the SS officials located there. All records, orders, and
administrative facilities were handled for these branches through
MAUTHAUSEN. The other camps, including GUSEN and EBENSEE,
its two most notorious and largest branches, were not exclusively
used for extermination but prisoners were used as tools in construction
and production until they were beaten or starved into
uselessness, whereupon they were customarily sent to MAUT-
HAUSEN for final disposal.
The responsibility for the deaths of these victims Lies definitely
with the Nazi Party and with the SS men who executed its
commands. Men like HIMMLER, ZIERIES, (BACHMAYER, SCHULZ,
GIESLER, PELZER, and others names in Exhibit 2 are but the arch
criminals. However, although direct evidence is not established
against all the members of the SS Guards in this disreputable Chain,
the inescapable presumption is that all of them are prima facie
guilty of these mass murders and the burden of proof is upon them
individually to prove hir, innocence. In this connection the SS organi-
zation was purely a voluntary one and its purposes were obviously
criminal, in violation of the Hague and Geneva Conventions, and
the rights of humanity.
It is the belief of the Investigator-Examiner that the theory
of "Association des Malfaiteurs" should be employed most stringently
in a case as virulent and as atrocious as the MAUTHAUSEN
setup (See Certificate attached hereto).
Eugene S. Cohen
EUGENE S. COHEN, Major, QMC,
JA Section, Third US Army,
Investigator-Examiner.