Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael A. Mussmano, who was one of the American prosecutors during the Nuremberg war crimes trials, told the court here, trying 22 Auschwitz concentration camp personnel, that members of Hitler’s SS could have refused to participate in the mass murders of Jews if they really wanted to do so.
Judge Mussmano based his assertion on facts he had accumulated after World War II as a prosecutor and as an official who had interviewed at least 200 SS officers and other Nazis charged with mass murder. He testified that, in most instances, a Nazi refusing to take part in mass murder would be sent to the front but not punished in any other manner.
“The only reason so many others did not ask for duty at the front,” he said, “was because, if they shot at the front, someone would shoot back; but when they shot down helpless men, women and children, the only response was the moaning of the dying.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
