The WVHA was also put in charge of numerous commercial ventures that the SS had been increasingly engaged in since the mid-1930s. SS commercial operations Some commercial ventures and assets owned or operated by the SS through its SS-WVHA units: Land and forests Brick factories Stone quarries Fine porcelain and pottery factories Building materials factories Cement factory Mineral water extraction and bottling Meat processing Bakeries Small arms manufacturing and repair Wooden furniture design and production Military clothing and accessories Herbal medicine Fish processing Publishing of books and magazines on Germanic culture and history Art acquisition and restoration Criminal entity within the SS Since the WVHA fell under the administrative jurisdiction of the SS, it was deemed part and parcel to the legal indictments levied against the greater organization. This included the formal declaration of the Nuremberg Tribunal, which stated: "The SS was utilised for the purposes which were criminal under the Charter involving the persecution and extermination of the Jews, brutalities and killings in concentration camps, excesses in the administration of occupied territories, the administration of the slave labour programme and the mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war." To that end, the SS and its subordinated entities were officially recognized as a criminal organization in 1946. See also Pohl trial August Frank memorandum References Notes Citations Bibliography Online External links The Building today (former WVHA) at Berlin Lichterfelde) and Informationsdesks (1999; R. Golz) Nazi SS Holocaust terminology Planning the Holocaust SS Main Economic and Administrative Office