Photograph

OMGUS MILITARY TRIBUNAL - CASE THREE, NURNBERG, GERMANY OMT-III-D-59

1946-1948

Imprisonment for life was pronounced by the Tribunal against the defendant OSWALD ROTHAUG, shown here flanked by two U.S. Army guards in the same dock where the twenty-one defendants of the International Military Tribunal were tried and sentenced. In 1933 Rothaug was Senior Public Prosecutor in Nurnberg, and in 1937 he became Director of the District Court in Nurnberg. Described by the Tribunal as a sadistic and evil man who would have been impeached from office under any civilized judicial system, Rothaug used his position as a presiding judge in trials to further Nazi persecution and extermination of Jews and Poles. In passing sentences that Tribunal stated that Rothaug "formed his opinions from dubious records submitted to him before trial, and by his manners and methods made his court an instrumentality of terror which won the fear and hatred of the population. From the evidence of his closest associates as well as his victims, we find that Oswald Rothaug represented in Germany the personification of the secret Nazi intrigue and cruelty. Frequently during the course of trials, Rothaug took the opportunity to five [sic] the audience a National Socialist lecture on the subject of the Jewish or Polish qustion. As cuch [sic] the witnesses found great difficulty in giving testimony beause tf [sic] the way in which the trial was conducted." Upon the evidence of the case the Tribunal found Rothaug guilty on count three of the indictment which charged him with crimes against humanity.

Inscription

OMGUS MILITARY TRIBUNAL - CASE THREE, NURNBERG, GERMANY OMT-III-D-59 / Imprisonment for life was pronounced by the Tribunal against the defendant OSWALD ROTHAUG, shown here flanked by two U.S. Army guards in the same dock where the twenty-one defendants of the International Military Tribunal were tried and sentenced. In 1933 Rothaug was Senior Public Prosecutor in Nurnberg, and in 1937 he became Director of the District Court in Nurnberg. Described by the Tribunal as a sadistic and evil man who would have been impeached from office under any civilized judicial system, Rothaug used his position as a presiding judge in trials to further Nazi persecution and extermination of Jews and Poles. In passing sentences that Tribunal stated that Rothaug "formed his opinions from dubious records submitted to him before trial, and by his manners and methods made his court an instrumentality of terror which won the fear and hatred of the population. From the evidence of his closest associates as well as his victims, we find that Oswald Rothaug represented in Germany the personification of the secret Nazi intrigue and cruelty. Frequently during the course of trials, Rothaug took the opportunity to five [sic] the audience a National Socialist lecture on the subject of the Jewish or Polish qustion. As cuch [sic] the witnesses found great difficulty in giving testimony beause tf [sic] the way in which the trial was conducted." Upon the evidence of the case the Tribunal found Rothaug guilty on count three of the indictment which charged him with crimes against humanity.

Archive ID: olvwork376085

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