Event History
The U.S. Military Government for Germany created the Military Tribunal IV-A on December 11, 1947 in order to try the Ministries Case, the eleventh subsequent Nuremberg proceeding. The twenty-one defendants, including three Reich Ministers, as well as state secretaries and members of the Nazi Party hierarchy, were indicted on November 18 and arraigned two days later. The indictment listed eight counts: eighteen of the defendants were charged with committing crimes against peace by participating in the planning, preparation, initiation, and waging of wars of aggression and wars in violation of international treaties; seventeen of the defendants were charged with participating in a common plan or conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; eight were charged with committing war crimes by participating in atrocities and offenses, including murder, enslavement, and ill-treatment against POWs and those at war with Germany; thirteen were charged with committing crimes against humanity by participating in atrocities and offenses, including murder, extermination, and enslavement, against German nationals on political, religious, and racial grounds; nineteen were charged with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity by participating in the atrocities and offenses listed above against German nationals and civilians of territories under German occupation; sixteen were charged with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity by participating in the plunder of public and private property, exploitation, and spoliation of countries under German occupation; fourteen were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity by participating in the enslavement, deportation for slave labor, and ill-treatment of civilians of territories under German control, German nationals, and POWs; and finally, fourteen were charged with membership in the SS, one with membership in the SD, and four with membership in the leadership corps of the Nazi Party, all recently-declared criminal organizations. The trial ran from January 6, 1948 until November 18, making it the second longest Nuremberg proceeding after the main IMT Trial. The Tribunal returned its judgment on six of the eight counts between April 11th and 13th, 1949, having dismissed count four during the trial, ruling it was beyond their jurisdiction, and dismissing count two for lack of evidence. It acquitted two of the defendants, but found the rest guilty on at least one charge. Sentencing was announced on April 13, the convicted defendants receiving terms ranging from 4 to 25 years. One final defendant was sentenced to time served. The United States High Commissioner for Germany revised these sentences on January 31, 1951, however, reducing eight of the sentences to various shorter terms or to time served.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007069.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007070.
Biography
Philipp Auerbach, was born in Germany and had moved to Belgium where he became head of a chemical import-export company. After the German invasion of Belgium he was arrested and sent to Gurs and was later deported to Auschwitz. His wife, Martha, and daughter, Helen, managed to flee to Cuba and then come to the United States. In Asuchwitz he served as the chief chemist preparing medicines and pesticides. He attested to having been coerced into making soap from human remains. After liberation he served the first chairman of the State Federation of North Rhine and Westphalia and later as the chairman of the Association of Jewish Communities in Bavaria. In 1946 he was appointed state commissioner of the Bavarian provincial government for religious, political and racial victims of the Nazis, thereby becoming one of the first Jews to play a role in postwar German political life. He was among the first to work for the financial compensation of victims of Nazism. In January 1951 he became a member of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. One month later he was accused of financial misconduct and forgery in regard to reparations payments. His supporters insisted that he never personally benefited from the fraud, and that he gave all the money to the victims. On August 14, 1952 Auerbach was found guilty and sentenced to two and a half years in prison by a court of five judges, three of whom had had contacts with the Nazi party. Two days later, Auerbach committed suicide. Four years later he was posthumously cleared of all charges.
