The Milch Trial
Field Marshal Erhard Milch was a primary associate of Herman Goering, instrumental in building the German Luftwaffe during the 1930s as part of Germany’s secret rearming in the decade before World War II. During the war years, Milch was responsible for aircraft production. As the war progressed, his incompetence in that role became increasingly evident, the Luftwaffe could not re-equip itself following losses of aircraft on all fronts. In the spring of 1944, Milch became involved with Albert Speer, overseeing a group dedicated to moving aircraft production underground to escape Allied bombing, using slave labor.
Later in the war, Milch attempted to have Herman Goering fired as the commander of the Luftwaffe, and Goering retaliated by having Milch dismissed from the German Air Force. Milch then attempted to flee Germany to Spain, but was apprehended by the British near the Baltic in May 1945, just days before the German surrender. Milch was imprisoned and eventually indicted for war crimes by the Americans, on three charges, including the use of slave labor and participating in medical experiments, including on German citizens and citizens of other countries. Milch pleaded not guilty, and his trial began on January 2, 1947.
One of his defense lawyers was his brother, Werner. The defense was successful in winning an acquittal of the charge of participating in and supporting medical experiments, including experiments in which the results were fatal to the victim. On the other counts, the use of slave labor and the deportation of civilians to be used as slaves, as well as enslaving German nationals, he was convicted. He was also charged with and found guilty of using prisoners of war as slave labor in contravention of the Geneva Convention. Milch was sentenced to life imprisonment, to be served at Rebdorf Prison, though he was later transferred to Landsberg.
Milch’s case drew some interest in legal circles because it reinforced the fact that there was no route of appeal for those convicted of war crimes by the NMTs. The tribunals had written their own procedural rules, and following an indictment and the entry of a plea by the accused, there was no supervising authority to which the accused could turn in the event of procedural error or misinterpretation of the law on the part of the tribunal. Tribunals were reviewed by outside monitors, but only for the purposes of evaluation which did not apply to a decision to overturn findings or schedule new trials.
Milch’s counsel attempted to redress this lack of judicial oversight by filing a writ of habeas corpus with the United States Supreme Court, since he had been incarcerated under the authority of the United States government. The Supreme Court considered his argument, with Justice Jackson recusing himself based on his involvement with the first of the Nuremberg Trials. The remaining justices declined to hear arguments on Milch’s behalf, citing a lack of jurisdictional authority over the matter in a four to four split. Milch’s sentence was later reduced to fifteen years, and he was released on parole in the spring of 1954.