When the idea of an emergency is applied to the state and when the individual is authorized to commit acts for the purpose of eliminating such a national emergency, here, as in the case of the ordinary emergency determined by individual conditions, the objective values must be estimated. The necessary consequences of conceding such actions on the part of the individual must be that not only is he absolved from guilt, but moreover his acts are “justified”. In other words, the so-called national emergency, even though it is recognized only as an analogous application of the ordinary concept of emergency in criminal law, is a legal excuse. But what does “application” in principle to the cases of national emergency mean? Whether a national emergency is “unprovoked” or not, whether, for example, the war waged is a “war of aggression” can obviously be of no importance in this connection. The existence of the emergency only is decisive. The vital interests of the commonwealth and the state are substituted for the limitation of individual interests. Summarizing, we can define the so-called national emergency as an emergency involving the vital interests of the state and the general public which cannot be eliminated in any other way. As far as such emergency authorizes action, not only may a legal excuse be assumed but a true ground for justification exists. I shall examine later how far an erroneously assumed national emergency, a so-called putative emergency, is possible and is to be considered as a legal excuse. What consequences arise from this legal position in the case of the defendant Karl Gebhardt? 1. As proved by the evidence the general situation in the various theaters of war in the year 1942 was such that it brought about an “actual”, that is, an immediately imminent danger to the vital interests of the state as the belligerent power and to the individuals affected by the war. The conditions on the eastern front in the winter of 1941-42 as they have been repeatedly described during the submission of evidence created a situation which endangered the existence of the state, through the danger of wound infection and the threat to the survival of the wounded and the fighting strength of the troops arising therefrom. It must be added that the past World War was fought not only with man and material but also with propaganda. In this connection I refer to the statements of the defendant Gebhardt in the witness stand as far as they concern information given to him by the Chief of Office V of the Reich Security Main Office, SS Gruppenfuehrer Nebe. This information shows that at that particular time the enemy tried to undermine the fighting spirit of the German troops with pamphlets describing the organization and material of the German Wehrmacht Medical Service as backward, while on the other hand praising certain remedies of the Allied Forces, for instance penicillin, as “secret miracle weapons”.