 In these cases, the accused held position of authority within the hierarchy of the Nazi concentration camps and based on that were found guilty of the charges that they had acted in pursuance of a common plan to kill or mistreat prisoners.The Essen lynching case, conducted before a British military court, demonstrates the closest link to the joint criminal enterprise doctrine.In that case three British airmen prisoners of war had been lynched by a mob of Germans in the Essen on 13 December 1944.