For that reason, the Prosecution should not replace hatred by yet more hatred when they present their case. preached hatred, as the Prosecution will have it, nor have I closed my ears to pity. To the contrary, again and again, in the middle of the hardest struggle, I have raised the voice of humanity. The vast majority of my speeches prove it, which, after all, can be considered at any time when one considers the allegations of my adversaries. Such speeches, which evennow have not been submitted to the Tribunal, can not simply have disappeared from the surface of this earth. the hurricane of disgust which swept the world because of the atrocities which were committed might sweep away the borders of individual responsibility. If that happens, if collective responsibility is to be attached even to those who, in their good faith, were misused, then, Your Honors, you must hold me responsible. As my defense counsel has emphasized, I do not wish to hide behind the millions of these men and women acting in good faith who were misused. I will place myself before them, before those for whom my good faith had been an additional guarantee for the cleanliness of the system. And yet, this responsibility of mine is only valid for these who acted in good faith, not for the originators, collaborators, and those who knew if these atrocities beginning with murder and ending with the choice of living human beings for anatomical collections.
Between these criminals and myself there is only one tie; they merely misused me in a different manner than they misused those who become their physical victims.
It may be difficult to separate German crime from German idealism. It is not impossible, if you draw that dividing line, then you will save much suffering for Germany and far the whole world.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will carefully Consider the statements which the defendants have made. judgment. Before doing so, the Tribunal wishes the express its appreciation of the way in which counsel for the prosecution and counsel for the defense have performed their duties. been receiving letters from Germane improperly criticizing their conduct as counsel in these proceedings. The tribunal will protect counsel in so far as it is necessary so long as the Tribunal is in session, and it has no doubt that the Control Council will protect them thereafter against such at ticks. In the opinion of the Tribunal, defense counsel have performed an important public duty in accordance with the high traditions of the legal profession, and the Tribunal thanks 'them for their assistance. sider its judgment. On that date the judgment will be announced. If any postponement should be necessary due notice will be given.
(The Tribunal adjourned until the 23rd of September, 1946 at 1000 hours.)
THE PRESIDENT: The judgment of the International Military Tribunal will now be read. I shall not read the title and the formal parts.
On the 8th August 1945, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Government of the United States of America, the Provisional Government of the French Republic, and the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics entered into an agreement establishing this Tribunal for the trial of War Criminals whose offences have no particular geographical location.
In accordance with Article 5, the following Governments of the United Nations have expressed their adherence to the Agreement:
Greece. Denmark, Yugoslavia the Netherlands, jurisdiction end functions of the Tribunal were defined. had committed crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity as defined in the Charter. of any group or organization the Tribunal may declare (in connection with any act of which the individual may be convicted) that the group or organization of which the individual was a member was a criminal organist ion of the Charter, an indictment was lodged against the defendants named in the caption above, who had been designated by the Committee of the Chief Prosecutors of the signatory Powers as major war criminals.
each defendant in custody at least thirty days before the Trial opened. the planning, preparation, initiation and waging of wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements and assurances: with war crimes: and with crimes against humanity. The defendants are also charged with participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit all these crimes. The Tribunal was further asked by the Prosecution to declare all the named groups or organizations to be criminal within the meaning of the Charter. October 1945. On the 15th November 1945 the Tribunal decided that the defendant Gustav Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach could not then be tried because of his physical and mental condition, but that the charges against him in the indictment should be retained for trial thereafter, if the physical and mental condition of the defendant should permit. On the 17th November 1945 the Tribunal decided to try the defendant Bormann in his absence under the provisions of article 12 of the Charter. After argument, and consideration of full medical reports, and a statement from the defendant himself, the Tribunal decided on the 1st December 1945 that no grounds existed for a postponement of the trial against the defendant ion was made in the case of the defendant Stretcher.
Hess because of his mental condition. A similar decisCounsel were either chosen by the defendants in custody themselves, or at their request were appointed by the Tribunal. In his absence the Tribunal appointed Counsel for the defendant Bormann, and also assigned Counsel to represent the named groups or organizations. Russian, French and German - began on the 20th November 1945, and pleas of "Not Guilty" were made by all the defendants except Bormann. concluded on 31st August 1946.
403 open sessions of the Tribunal have been held. 33 witnesses gave evidence orally for the Prosecution against the individual defendants, and 61 witnesses, in addition to 19 of the defendants, gave evidence for the Defense. means of written answers to interrogatories. relating to the organizations, and 101 witnesses were heard for the Defense before the Commissioners, and 1,809 affidavits from other witnesses were submitted. Six reports were also submitted, summarizing the contents of a great number of further affidavits. mitted on behalf of the Political Leaders, 156,215 on behalf of the SS, 10,000 on behalf of the SA, 7,000 on behalf 2,000 on behalf of the Gestapo.
of the SD, 3,000 on behalf of the General Staff and OKW, and tions. The documents tendered in evidence for the prosecution of the individual defendants and the organizations numbered several thousands. A complete stenographic record of everything said in court has been made, as well as an electrical recording of all the proceeding. Prosecution have been supplied to the Defense in the German language. The applications made by the defendants for the production of witnesses and documents raised serious problems in some instances, on account of the unsettled state of the country. It was also necessary to limit the number of witnesses to be called, in order to have an expeditious hearing, in accordance with Article 18 (c) of the Charter. The Tribunal after examination, granted all those applications which in their opinion were relevant to the defense of any defendant or named group or organization, and were not cumulative. Facilities were provided for obtaining those witnesses and documents granted through the office of the General Secretary established by the Tribunal. of the Prosecution was documentary evidence, captured by the Allied armies in German army headquarters, Government buildings, and elsewhere. Some of the documents were found in salt mines, buried in the ground, hidden behind false walls and in other places though it to be secure from discovery. The case, therefore, against the defendants rests in a large measure on documents.
except in one or two cases.
of their own making, the authenticity of which has not been challenged Charter, which is as follows:
"Article 6. The Tribunal established by the Agreement any of the following crimes:
"The following acts, or my of them, are crimes coming shall be individual responsibility:
"(a) Crimes Against Peace: namely, planning, preparation, accomplishment of any of the foregoing:
"(b) War Crimes: namely, violations of the laws or customs of war.
Such violations shall include, but not be limited villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity:
"(c) Crimes Against Humanity: namely, murder, extermination, jurisdiction; of the Tribunal, Whether or not in violation of the "Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating acts performed by any persons in execution or such plan."
applied to the case. The Tribunal will later discuss them in more facts.
For the purpose of showing the background of the detail; but, before doing so, it is necessary to review the aggressive war end war crimes charged in the indictment, the Tribunal will begin by reviewing some of the events that followed the first world war, and in particular, by tracing the growth of the Nazi Party under Hitler's leadership to a position of supreme power from which it controlled the destiny of the whole German people, and paved the way for the alleged commission of all the crimes charged against the defendants.
THE ORIGIN AND A*---* OF THE NAZI PARTY.
THE NAZI R*---* IN GERMANY Armistice which ended the First World War, and six months before the signing of the Peace Treaties at Versailles, there came into being in Germany a on all political party called the German Labor Party. On the 12th September 1919 Adolf Hitler became a member of this party, and at the first public meeting held in Munich, on 24th February 1920, he announced the party's program. That program, Which remained unaltered until the party was dissolved in 1944, consisted of twenty-five points, of which the following five are of particular interest on account of the light they throw on the matters with which the Tribunal is concerned:
"Point 1. We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany, on the basis of the; right of self-determination Point 2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in respect to the other nations; abrogation of the peace treaties of Point 3. We demand land and territory for the sustenance of our Point 4. Only a member of the race can be a citizen.
A member consideration of creed.
Consequently no Jew can be a member of Point 22.
We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and form ation of a national army."
as the most important, and which figured in almost every public speech, was the removal of the "disgrace" of the Armistice, and the restrictions of the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint Germain.
In a typical speech at Munich on the 13th April 1923, for example, Hitler said with regard to the Treaty of Versailles:
"The treaty was made in order to bring twenty German nation.
..At its foundation our movement "1. Setting aside of the Peace Treaty.
2. Unification of all Germans.
3. Land and soil to feed our nation. Greater Germany was to play a large part in the events preceding the seizure of Austria and Czechoslovakia; the abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles was to become a decisive motive in attempting to justify the policy of the German Government; the demand for land was to be the justification for the acquisition of "living space" at the expense of other nations; the expulsion of the Jews from membership of the race of German blood was to lead to the atrocities against the Jewish people; and the demand for a national army was to result in measures of rearmament on the largest possible scale, and ultimately to war. name to National Sozialistische Deutsche Arbiter Partei (NSDAP) was reorganized, Hitler becoming the first "Chairman". It was in this year that the Sturmabteilung or SA was founded, with Hitler at its head, as a private protecting NSDAP leaders from attack by rival political parties, and para-military force, which allegedly was to be used for the purpose of preserving order at NSDAP meetings, but in reality was used for fighting political opponents on the streets.
In March 1923 the defendant Goering was appointed head of the SA. by the "leadership principle" (Fuehrerprinzip.) administer or decree, subject to no control of any kind and at his complete discretion, subject only to the orders be received from above. Leader of the party, and in a lesser degree to all other party officials. All members of the Party swore an oath of "eternal allegiance" to the Leader. main aims above-mentioned, by negotiation, or by force. The twenty-five points of the NSDAP programmed do not specifically mention the methods on which the leaders of the party proposed to rely, but the history of the Nazi regime shows that Hitler and his followers were only prepared to negotiate on the terms that their demands were conceded, and that force would be used if they were not. in Munich. Hitler and some of his followers burst into a meeting in the Buergerbraeu Cellar, which was being addressed by the Bavarian Prime Minister Kehr, with the intention of obtaining from him a decision to march forth no Bavarian support was forthcoming, and Hitler's demonstration with on Berlin.
On the morning of the 9th November, however, was not by the armed forces of the Reichswehr and the Police. Only a few volleys were fired and after a dozen of his followers had been killed, Hitler fled for his life, and the demonstration was over. The defendants Stretcher, Frisk and Hess all took part in the attempted rising. Hitler was later tried for high treason, and was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. The SA was outlawed. Hitler was released from prison in 1924 and in 1925 the Schutzstaffel, or SS, was created, nominally to act as his personal bodyguard, but in reality to terrorize political opponents. This was also the year of the publication of "Mein Kampf," containing the political views and aims of Hitler, which came to be regarded as the authentic source of Nazi doctrine. "Mein Kampf", the NSDAP greatly extended its activities throughout Germany, paying particular attention to the training of youth in the ideas of National Socialism. The first Nazi youth organization had come into existence in 1922, but it was in 1925 that the Hitler Jugend was officially recognized by the NSDAP. In 1931 Baldur von Schirach, who had joined the NSDAP in 1925, became Reich Youth Leader of the NSDAP. from the German people. Elections were contested both for the Reichstag and the Landtage. The NSDAP leaders did not make any serious attempt to hide the fact that their only purpose in entering German political life was in order to destroy the democratic structure of the Weimar Republic, and to substitute for it a to carry out their avowed policies without opposition.
In National Socialist totalitarian regime which would enable them preparation for the day when he would obtain power in Germany, Hitler in January 1929 appointed Heinrich Himmler as Reichsfuehrer SS with the special task of building the SS into a strong but elite group which would be dependable in all cirsubstances.
appointed Chancellor of the Reich by President von Hindenburg. The defendants Goering, Schacht and von Papen were active in enlisting support to bring this about. Von Papen had been appointed Reich Chancellor on the 1st June 1932. On the 14th June he rescinded the decree of the Burdening Cabinet of the 13th April 1932, which had dissolved the Nazi Para-military organizations, including the SA and the SS. This was done by agreement between Hitler and von Papen, although von Papen denies that it was agreed as early as the 28th May, as Dr. Hans Volz assorts in Dates from the History of the NSDAP"; but that it was the result of an agreement was admitted in evidence by von Papen. in a great accession of strength to the NSDAP, and von Papen offered Hitler the post of Vice Chancellor, which he refused, insisting upon the Chancellorship itself. in November 1952 a petition signed by leading industrialists and financiers was presented to President Hindenburg, calling upon him to entrust the Chancellorship to Hitler; and in the collection of signatures to the petition Schacht took a prominent part. defeat of the Government, reduced the number of NSDAP members, but von Papen made further efforts to gain Hitler's participation, without success. On the 12th November Schacht wrote to Hitler:
can only lead to your becoming Chancellor. It seems as "I have no doubt that the present development of things in vain . . ."After Hitler's refusal of the 16th November, von Papen resigned, and was succeeded by General von Schleicher; but von Papen still continued his activities.
He not Hitler at the house of the Cologne banker von Schroeder on the 4th January 1933, and attended a meting at the defendant Ribbentrop's house on the 22nd January, with the defendant Goering and others. He also had an interview with President Hindenburg on the 9th January, and from the 22nd January onwards he discussed officially with Hindenburg the formation of a Hitler Cabinet. ment as Chancellor, at which the defendants Goering, Frick, Funk, von Neurath and von Papen were present in their official capacities. On the 23th February 1933 the Reichstag building in Berlin was set on fire. This fire was used by Hitler and his Cabinet as a pretext for passing on the same day a decree suspending the constitutional guarantees of freedom. The decree was signed by President Hindenburg and countersigned by Hitler and the defendant Frick, who then occupied the post of Reich Minister of the Interior. On the 5th March elections were held, in Which the USDAP obtained 288 seats of the total of 647. The Hitler Cabinet was anxious to pass an "Enabling Act" that would give thou full legislative powers, including the power to deviate from the Constitution. They were without the necessary majority in the Reichstag to be able to do this constitutionally. They therefore made use of the decree suspending the guarantees of freedom and took into so-called "protective custody" a large number of Communist deputies and party officials. Having done this, Hitler introduced the "Enabling Act" into the Reichstag, and after he bad made it clear that if it was not parsed, further forceful measures would be taken, the act was passed on the 24th March 1933.
THE PRESIDENT: I will how ask Mr. Justice Birkett to continue reading the judgment. BY MR. JUSTICE BIRKETT:
The NSDAP, having achieved power in this way, now pro-
ceeded to extend its hold on every phase of German life. Other political parties were persecuted, their property and assets confiscated, and many of their members placed in concentration camps. On 26th April 1933 the defendant Goering founded in Prussia the Gestapo as a secret police, and confided to the deputy loader of the Gestapo that its main task was to eliminate political opponents of National Socialism and Hitler. On the 14th July 1933 a law was passed declaring the NSDAP to be the only political party, and making it criminal to maintain or from any other political party. of Government in the hands of the Nazi leaders, a series of laws and decrees were passed which reduced the powers of regional and local governments throughout Germany, transforming them into subordinate divisions of the Government of the Reich. Representative assemblies in the Laender were abolished, and with them all local elections. The Government then proceeded to secure control of the Civil Service, This was achieved by a process of centralization, and by a careful sifting of the whole Civil Service administration. By a law of the 7th April it was provided that officials "who were of non-Aryan descent" should be retired; and it was also decreed that "officials who because of their previous political activity do not security that they will exert be discharged."
The law of the 11th April 1953 provided themselves for the national state without reservation shall for the discharge of "all Civil Servants who belong to the Communist Party."
Similarly, the Judiciary was subjected to control. Judges were removed from the Bench for political or racial reasons. They were spied upon and made subject to the strongest pressure to Join the Nazi Party as an alternative to being dismissed. When the Supreme Court acquitted three of the four defendants charged with complicity in the Reichstag fire, its Jurisdiction in cases of treason was thereafter taken away and given to a newly established "People's Court", consisting of two Judges and five officials of the Party. Special courts were set up to try political crimes and only party members were appointed as judges. Persons were arrested by the SS for political reasons, and detained in prisons and concentration camps? and the judges were without power to intervene in any way. Pardons were granted to members of the Party who had been sentenced by the judges for proved offenses. In 1935 several officials of the Hohenstein concentration camp were convicted of inflicting brutal treatment upon the inmates. High Nazi officials tried to influence the Court, and after the officials had been convicted, Hitler pardoned them all. In 1942 "Judges' letters" were sent to all German judges by the Government, instructing them as to the "general lines" that they must follow. opposition, the NSDAP leaders turned their attention to the trade unions, the churches and the Jews. In April 1933 Hitler ordered the late defendant Ley, who was then staff director of the political organization of the NSDAP, "to take over the trade unions." Most of the trade unions of Germany were joined together in two Trade Unions."
Unions outside these two largo federations large federations, the "Free Trade Unions" and the "Christian contained only 15 percent of the total union membership.
On the 21st April 1933 Ley issued an NSDAP directive announcing a "coordination action" to be carried out on the 2nd May against the Free Trade Unions. The directive ordered that SA and SS men were to be employed in the planned "occupation of trade union properties and for the taking into protective custody of personalities who come into question." At the conclusion of theaction the official NSDAP press service reported that the National Socialist Factory Cells Organization had "eliminated the old leadership of Free Trade Unions" and taken over the Leadership themselves. Similarly, on the 3rd May 1933 the NSDAP press service announced that the Christian trade unions "have unconditionally subordinated themselves to the leadership of Adolf Hitler." In place of the trade unions the Nazi Government set up a German Labor Front (DAF), controlled by the NSDAP, and which, in practice, all workers in Germany were compelled to join. The chairmen of the unions were taken into custody and were subjected to ill-treatment, ranging from assault and battery to murder. churches, whose doctrines were fundamentally at variance with National Socialist philosophy and. practice, the Nazi Government proceeded more slowly. The extreme step of banning the practice of the Christian religion was not taken, but year by year efforts were made to limit the influence of Christianity on the German people, since, in the words used by the defendant Bormann to the defendant Rosenberg in an official letter, "the Christian religion and National Socialist doctrines are not compatible." In the month of June 1941 the defendant Bormann Issued a secret decree on the relation of Christianity and "For the first time in German history the Fuehrer National Socialism.
The decrees stated that:
his own hand. With the Party, its components Treaty ... More and more the people must be Pastor ... Never again must an influence on right to leadership of the people."
prominent place in national Socialist thought and propaganda. The Jews, who were considered to hove no right to German citizenship, were held to have been largely responsible for the troubles with which the nation was afflicted following on the war of 1914-1918. Furtheremore, the antipathy to the Jews was intensified by the insistence which was laid upon the superiority of the Germanic race and blood. The second chapter of Book 1 of "Mein Kampf" is dedicated to what may be called the "Master Race" theory, the doctrine of Aryan superiority over all other races, and the right of Germans in virtue of this superiority to dominate and use other peoples for their own ends. With the coming of the Nazis into power in 1933, persecution of the Jews became official state policy. On the 1st April 1933, a boycott of Jewish enterprises was approved by the Nazi Reich Cabinet, and during the following years a series of anti-Semitic laws were, passed, restricting the activities of Jews in the Civil Service, in the legal profession, in journalism and in the armed forces. In September 1933, the so-called Nuremberg Laws were passed, the most important effect of which was to deprive Jews of German citizenship. In this way the influence of Jewish elements on the affairs of opposition to Nazi policy was rendered powerless.
of Germany was extinguished, and one more potential source massacre of the 30th June 1934 must not be forgotten. It has become known as the "Roehm Purge" or "the blood bath", and revealed the methods which Hitler and his immediate associates, including the defendant Goering, were ready to employ to strike down all opposition and consolidate their power. On that day Roehm, the Chief of Staff of the SA since 1931, was murdered by Hitler's orders, and the "Old Guard" of the SA was massacred without trial and without warning. The opportunity was taken to murder a large number of people who at one time or another had opposed Hitler. he was plotting to overthrow Hitler, and the defendant Goering gave evidence that knowledge of such a plot had come to his ears. Whether this was so or not it is not necessary to determine.
On July 3rd the Cabinet approved Hitler's action and described it as "legitimate self-defense by the State." both Reich President and Chancellor. At the Nazi-dominated Plebiscite, which followed, 38 million Germans expressed their approval, and with the Reichswehr taking the oath of allegiance to the Fuehrer, full power was now in Hitler's hands. methods of terror, and its cynical and open denial of the rule of law.