CHARGE: Violation of German Assurances given on 28 April 1939 and 26 August 1939 to Respect the Neutrality and Territorial Inviolability of Luxembourg.
PARTICULARS: In that Germany, without warning, and without recourse to peaceful means of settling any considered differences, did, on or about 10 May 1940, with a military force and in violation of the solemn assurances, invade, occupy, and absorb into Germany the sovereign territory of Luxembourg.
CHARGE: Violation of the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and Denmark signed at Berlin 31 May 1939.
PARTICULARS: In that Germany without prior warning, did, on or about 9 April 1940, with its military forces, attack, invade and commit other acts of aggression against the Kingdom of Denmark.
CHARGE: Violation of Treaty of Non-Aggression entered into between Germany and U.S.S.R. on 23 August 1939.
PARTICULARS: (1) In that Germany did, on or about 22 June 1941, employ military forces to attack and commit acts of aggression against the U.S.S.R.
(2) In that Germany without warning or recourse to a friendly exchange of views or arbitration did, on or about 22 June 1941, employ military forces to attack and commit acts of aggression against the U.S.S.R.
CHARGE: Violation of German Assurance given on 6 October 1939 to Respect the Neutrality and Territorial Integrity of Yugoslavia.
PARTICULARS: In that Germany without prior warning did, on or about 6 April 1941, with its military forces "(B") Deportation for Slave Labour and for Other Purposes of the Civilian Populations of and in Occupied Territories.
"During the whole period of the occupation by Germany of both the Western and the Eastern Countries, it was the policy of the German Government and of the German High Command to deport ablebodied citizens from such occupied countries to Germany and to other occupied countries for the purpose of slave labour upon defense works, in factories, and in other tasks connected with the German War effort.
"In pursuance of such policy there were mass deportations from all the Western and Eastern countries for such purposes during the whole period of the occupation.
"Such deportations were contrary to international Conventions, in particular to Article 46 of the Hague Regulations, 1907, the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilized nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed, and to Article 6 (b) of the Charter.
"Particulars of deportations, by way of example only and without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases are as follows:
"1. From the Western Countries:
"From France the following deportations of persons for political and racial reasons took place -- each of which consisted of from 1,5002,500 deportees:
"Such deportees were subjected to the most barbarous conditions of overcrowding; they were provided with wholly insufficient clothing and were given little or no food for several days.
"The conditions of transport were such that many deportees died in the course of the voyage, for example:
"In one of the wagons of the train which left Campiegne for Buchenwald, on the 17th of September, 1943, 80 men died out of 130;
"On 4th June, 1944, 484 bodies were taken out of the train at Sarrebourg;"In a train which left Compiegne on the 2nd July, 1944, for Dachau, more than 600 dead were found on arrival, i.e., one-third of the total number;"In a train which left Compiegne on the 16th of January, 1944, for Buchenwald, more than 100 men were confined in each wagon, the dead and the wounded being heaped in the last wagon during the voyage;"In April, 1945, of 12,000 internees evacuated from Buchenwald, 4,000 only were still alive when the marching column arrived near Regensburg.
"During the German occupation of Denmark, 5,200 Danish subjects were deported to Germany and there imprisoned in concentration camps and other places.
"In 1942 and thereafter, 6,000 nationals of Luxembourg were deported from their country under deplorable conditions as a result of which many of them perished.
"From Belgium between 1940 and 1944, at least 190,000 civilians were deported to Germany and used as slave labour. Such deportees were subjected to ill treatment and many of them were compelled to work in armament factories.
"From Holland, between 1940 and 1944 nearly half a million civilians were deported to Germany and to other occupied countries.
"(C) MURDER AND ILL-TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR, AND OF OTHER MEMBERS "The Defendants murdered and ill-treated prisoners of war by denying them adequate food, shelter, clothing and medical care and attention; by forcing them to labor in inhumane conditions; by torturing them and subjecting than to inhuman indignities and by killing them.
The German Government and the German High Command imprisoned prisoners of war in various concentration camps, where they were killed and subjected to inhuman treatment by the various methods set forth in paragraph VIII (A). Members of the armed forces of the countries with whom Germany was at war were frequently murdered while in the act of surrendering. These murders and ill-treatment were contrary to International Conventions, particularly Articles 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the Hague Regulations, 1907, and to Articles 2, 3, 4 and 6 of the Prisoners of War Convention (Geneva 1929) the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilized nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed and to Article 6 (b) of the Charter.
"Particulars by way of example and without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases, are as follows:
"I. In the Western Countries:
"French officers who escaped from Oflag X C were handed over to the Gestapo and disappeared; others were murdered by their guards; others sent to concentration camps and exterminated. Among others, the men of Stalag VI C were sent to Buchenwald.
"Frequently prisoners captured on the Western Front were obliged to march to the camps until they completely collapsed. Some of them walked more than 600 kilometers with hardly any food; they marched on for 48 hours running, without being fed; among them a certain number died of exhaustion or of hunger; stragglers were systematically murdered.
"The same crimes have been committed in 1943, 1944 and 1945 when the occupants of the camps were withdrawn before the Allied advance; particularly during the withdrawal of the prisoners of Sagan on February 8th, 1945.
"Bodily punishments were inflicted upon non-commissioned officers and cadets who refused to work. On December 24th, 1943, three French N.C.O.'s were murdered for that motive in Stalag IV A. Many ill treatments were inflicted without motive on other ranks; stabbing with bayonets, striking with rifle-butts and whipping; in Stalag XX B the sick themselves were beaten many times by sentries; in Stalag III B and Stalag III C, worn-out prisoners were murdered or grievously wounded. In military gaols in Graudenz for instance, in reprisal camps as in Rava-Ruska, the food was so insufficient that the men lost more than 15 kilograms in a few weeks. In May, 1942, 1 loaf of bread only was distributed in Rava-Ruska to each group of 35 men.
"Orders were given to transfer French officers in chains to the camp of Mauthausen after they had tried to escape. At their arrival in camp they were murdered, either by shooting, or by gas and their bodies destroyed in the crematorium.
"American prisoners, officers and men, were murdered in Normandy during the summer of 1944 and in the Ardennes in December, 1944. American prisoners were starved, beaten and otherwise mistreated in numerous Stalags in Germany and in the occupied countries, particularly in 1943, 1944 and 1945.
"M. JERTHOFFER: (E) PLUNDER OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PROPERTY "The defendants ruthlessly exploited the people and the material resources of the countries they occupied, in order to strengthen the Nazi war machine, to depopulate and impoverish the rest of Europe, to enrich themselves and, their adherents, and to promote German economic supremacy over Europe.
"The Defendants engaged in the following acts and practices, among others:
"1. They degraded the standard of Life of the people of occupied countries "2. They seized raw materials and industrial machinery in all of the "3. In all the occupied countries, in varying degrees, they confiscated "4. In an attempt to give color of legality to illegal acquisitions of "voluntary" and "legal" transfers.
"5. They established comprehensive controls over the economies of all of "6. By a variety of financial mechanisms, they despoiled all of the occupied local currency systems and disrupted the local economies.
They financed by which they exacted loans from the occupied countries.
They imposed exacted financial contributions, and issued occupation currency, far in excess of occupation costs.
They used these excess funds to finance the purchase of business properties and supplies in the occupied countries.
"7. They abrogated the rights of the local populations in the occupied portions of the USSR and in Poland and in other countries to develop or manage agricultural and industrial properties, and reserved this area for exclusive settlement, development, and ownership by Germans and their so-called racial brethern.
"8. In further development of their plan of criminal exploitation, they destroyed industrial cities, cultural monuments, scientific institutions, and property of all types in the occupied territories to eliminate the possibility of competition with Germany.
"9. From their program of terror, slavery, spoilation and organized outrage, the Nazi conspirators created an instrument for the personal profit and aggrandizement of themselves and their adherents. They secured for themselves and their adherents (a) Positions in administration of business involving power, influence, and lucrative prerequisites.
(b) The use of cheap forced labor.
(c) The acquisition on advantageous terms of foreign properties, business interests, and raw materials.
(d) The basis for the industrial supremacy of Germany.
"These acts were contrary to International Conventions; particularly Articles 46 to 56 inclusive of the Hague Regulations, 1907, the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilized nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed and to Article 6 (b) of the Charter.
"Particulars (by way of example and without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases) are as follows:
"1. Western Countries:
"There was plundered from the Western Countries from 1940 to 1944, works of art, artistic objects, pictures, plastics, furniture, textiles, antique pieces and similar articles of enormous value to the number of 21,903.
"In France statistics show the following:
"Removal of Raw Materials. Coal................................................... 63,000,000 tons Electric Energy........................................ 20,976 Mkwh Petrol and fuel........................................ 1,943,750 tons Iron ore............................................... 74,848,000 tons Siderurigcal products.................................. 3,822,000 tons Bauxite................................................ 1,211,800 tons Cement................................................. 5,984,000 tons Lime................................................... 1,888,000 tons Quarry Products........................................ 25,872,000 tons and various other products to a total value of 79,961,423,000 francs.
"Removal of Industrial Equipment. Total: 9,759,861,000 francs, of which 2,626,479,000 francs of Machine Tools.
"Removal of Agricultural Produce. Total: 126,655,352,000 francs. i.e., for the principal, products - Wheat.............. 2,947,337 tons Oats.
.............. 2,354,080 tons Milk.
............ 790,000 heololitres Milk (concentrated and in powder) . . . 460,000 hectolitres Butter . . . 76,000 tons Cheese . . . 49,000 tons Potatoes . . 725,975 tons Various vegetables . . . 575,000 tons Wine . . . 7,647,000 hectolitres Champagne . . . 87,000,000 bottles Beer . . . 3,821,520 hectolitres Various kinds of alcohol 1,830,000 " "Removal of Manufactured Products to a total of 184,640,000,000 francs "Plundering Francs:
257,020,074,000 from private enterprise Francs: 55,000,100,000 from the state "Financial Exploitation "From June 1940 to September 1944 the French Treasury was compelled to pay to Germany 631,866,000,000 francs.
"Looting and Destruction of Works of Art "The museums of Nantes, Nancy, Old-Marseiles were looted.
"Private collections of great value were stolen. In this way, Raphaels, Vermeers, Van Dycks and works of Rubens, Holbein, Rembrandt, Watteau, Boucher disappeared. Germany compelled France to deliver up 'The Mystic Lamb' by Van Eyck, which Belgium had entrusted to her.
"In Norway and other occupied countries decrees were made by which the property of many civilians, societies, etc., was confiscated. An immense amount of property of every kind was plundered from France, Belgium, Norway, Holland and Luxemburg.
"As a result of the economic plundering of Belgium between 1940 and 1944 the damage suffered amounted to 175 billions of Belgian francs.
" (F) THE EXACTION OF COLLECTIVE PENALTIES "The Germans pursued a systematic policy of inflicting, in all the occupied countries, collective penalties, pecuniary and otherwise, upon the population for acts of individuals for which it could not be regarded as collectively responsible; this was done at many places, including Oslo, Stavanger, Trondheim and Rogaland.
"Similar instances occurred in France, among others in Dijon, Nantes and as regards the Jewish population in the occupied territories. The total amount of fines imposed on French communities add up to 1,157,179,484 francs made up as follows:
A fine on the Jewish population ....... 1,000,000,000 Various fines ......................... 157,179,484 "These acts violated Article 50, Hague Regulations, 1907, the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilized nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed and Article 6 (b) of the Charter.
" (G) WANTON DESTRUCTION OF CITIES, TOWNS AND
MILITARY NECESSITY."
"The Defendants wantonly destroyed cities, towns, and villages and committed other acts of devastation without military justification or necessity. These acts violated Articles 46 and 50 of the Hague Regulations, 1907, the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilized nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed and Article 6 (b) of the Charter.
"Particulars by way of example only and without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases, are as follows:
"In March, 1941, part of Lofoten in Norway was destroyed.
"In April, 1942, the town of Telerag in Norway was destroyed.
"Entire villages were destroyed in France, among others, Oradoursur-Glane, Saint-Nizier and, in the Vercors, La Mure, Vassieuz, La Chappelle en Vercors. The town of Saint Die was burnt down and destroyed. The Old Port District of Marseilles was dynamited in the beginning of 1943 and resorts along the Atlantic and the Mediterranean coasts, particularly the town of Sanary, were demolished.
"In Holland there was most widespread and extensive destruction, not justified by military necessity, including the destruction of harbours, locks, dykes and bridges: immense devastation was also caused by inundations which equally were not justified by military necessity.
"(H) CONSCRIPTION OF CIVILIAN LABOUR "Throughout the occupied territories the defendants conscripted and forced the inhabitants to labour and requisitioned their services for purposes other than meeting the needs of the armies of occupation and to an extent far out of proportion to the resources of the countries involved.
All the civilians so conscripted were forced to work for the German war effort. Civilians were required to register and many of those who registered were forced to join the Todt Organization and the Speer Legion, both of which were semi-military organizations involving some military training. These acts violated Articles 46 and 32 of the Hague Regulations, 1907, the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws or all civilized nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed and Article 6 (b) of the Charter.
"Particulars, by way of example only and without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases, are as follows:
"1. Western Countries:
"In France, from 1942 to 1944, 964,813 persons were compelled to work in Germany and 747,000 to work in France for the German Army.
"In Luxembourg in 1944 alone, 2,500 men and 300 girls were conscripted for forced labor."
THE PRESIDENT: The Court will now adjourn until 2 o'clock.
(Whereupon, at 12:30 o'clock p.m. the Court recessed until 2 o'clock p.m. of the same day) attack, invade and commit other acts of aggression against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now adjourn until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.
(Whereupon, at 1705 hours the hearing of the Tribunal adjourned to reconvene on 21 November 1945, at 1000 hours.)
Official transcript of the International Military Tribunal, in the matter of:
The United States of THE PRESIDENT: A motion has been filed with the Tribunal and the Tribunal has given it consideration. Insofar as it may be a plea to the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, it conflicts the Article 3 of the Charter and will not be entertained. Insofar as it may contain other arguments, which may be opened to the Defendents, they may be heard at a later stage. provides that after the indictment has been read in court, the Defendants shall be called upon to plead guilty or not guilty; I now direct the Defendants to plead either guilty or not guilty.
MR. RUDOLF DIX (Defense Counsel): May I speak to Your Lordship for just a moment?
THE PRESIDENT: You may not speak to me in support of the motion with which I have just dealt on behalf of the Tribunal. So far as that motion is a plea to the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, it conflicts with Article 3 and will not be entertained. Insofar as it containes or may contain arguments, which may be open to the Defendants, those arguments may be heard later.
MR. RUDOLF DIX: As a speaker for the defense as a whole, I have another question I would like to ask. The defense counsel was forbidden to talk with the Defendants this morning. It is an absolute necessity that before the session the defence Counsel should speack with the Defentants. It sometimes happens that in the evening after the session one cannot reach one's Defentant, and it is also possible that one has to prepare things over night and one wants to talk with hime about the next morning. It is usually always possible that the defense counsel should speack to his client before the session. I, therefore, make the request in the name of the entire defense, that we be allowed to consult with our clients in the courtroom itself; otherwise we are not able to arrange our defense as we wish.
THE PRESIDENT: I am afraid that you cannot consult with your clients in the courtroom except by written communication. When you are out of the courtroom, security regulations can be carried out and you have, so far as those security regulations go, full opportunity to consult with your clients.
In the courtroom we must confine you to written communications to your clients. At the end of each day's sitting, you will have full opportunity to consult with them in private.
MR. RUDOLF DIX: I shall discuss this with my colleagues of the defense and we should like perhaps to return to this question.
DR. RALPH THOMA (Defense Counsel): May I have the floor?
THE PRESIDENT: Will you state your name please.
DR. RALPH THOMA: Dr.Ralph Thoma. I represent the Defendant Rosenberg. Yesterday my client gave me a statement as regards the question of guilt or innocence. I took this statement and promised him to talk with him about it. Neither last night nor this morning have I had an opportunity to talk with him; and, consequently, I am not in a position, nor is my client In a position to make a statement as to whether he is quilty or not guilty. I consequently request an interruption of the trial so that I may speack with my client.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Thoma, the Tribunal will be prepared to adjourn for fiteen minutesin order that you may have an opportunity of consulting with your clients.
DR. RALPH THOMA: Thank you. I should like to make a statement. A number of my colleagues have just told me that they are in the same position as I am.
THE PRESIDENT: I meant that all defense counsel should have an opportunity of consulting with their clients; but I would point out to the defense counsel that they have had several weeks preparation for this trial, and that they must have anticipated that the provisions of Article 24 would be follwed, but now we will adjourn for fifteen minutes in which all of you may consult with your clients.
DR. RALPH THOMA: May I say something further in that respect, your Honor?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
DR. RALPH THOMA: We only found out a day before yesterday that statements should be made as regards innocence or guilt. Can this question be answered at greater length or only with the answer "yes" or "no". We have had no time to talk at great length about it.
THE PRESIDENT: One moment. The question will have to be answered in the words of Article 24 of the Charter, and those words are printed in italics: "The Tribunal shall ask each defendant whether he pleads guilty or not guilty." That is what they have to do at that stage. Of course the Defendants will have a full opportunity themselves, if they are called as witnesses, and through their counsel to make their defense fully at a later stage.
(A recess was taken.)
(The member of the Bench returned to the court room.)
THE PRESIDENT: I will now call upon the defendants to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges against them. They will proceed in turn to a point in the dock opposite to the microphone.
HERMANN GOERING: Before I answer the question of the high
THE PRESIDENT: I informed the Court that defendants were
HERMANN GOERING: I declare myself in the sense of the
THE PRESIDENT: Rudolf Hess.
RUDOLF HESS: No.
THE PRESIDENT: That will be entered as a plea of not guilty (Laughter).
THE PRESIDENT: If there is any disturbance in court, those Joachim von Ribbentrop:
JOACHIM von RIBBENTROP: I declare myself in the sense of
THE PRESIDENT: Wilhelm Keitel.
WILHELM KEITEL: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: In the absence of Ernest Kaltonbrunner,
ALFRED ROSENBERG: I declare myself in the sense ofnthe
THE PRESIDENT: Hans Frank.
HANS FRANK: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Wilhelm Frick.
WILHELM FRICK: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Julius Streicher.
JULIUS STREICHER: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Walter Funk.
WALTER FUNK: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Hjalmar Schacht!
HJALMAR SCHACHT: I am guilty in no respect.
THE PRESIDENT: Karl Doenitz.
KARL DOENITZ: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Erich Raeder!
ERICH RAEDER: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Baldur von Schirach!
BALDUR von SCHIRACH: I declare myself in the sense of the
THE PRESIDENT: Fritz Sauckel!
FRITZ SAUCKEL: I declare myself in the sense of the
THE PRESIDENT: Alfred Jodl!
ALFRED JODL: Not guilty. What I have done or had to do, I
THE PRESIDENT: Franz von Papen!
FRANZ von PAPEN: I declare myself guilty not at all,
THE PRESIDENT: Arthur Seyss-Inquart!
ARTHUT SEYSS-INQUART: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Albert Speer!
ALBERT SPEER: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Konstantin von Neurath!
KONSTANTIN von NEURATH: I answer the question in the
THE PRESIDENT: Hans Fritzche!
HANS FRITZCHE: As regards this indictment, not guilty.
(At this point Hermann Goering arose in the prisoner's box.
THE PRESIDENT: You are not entitled to address the tribunal
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: May it please Your Honors, for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hands of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power ever has paid to Reason. not the product of abstract speculations nor is it created to vindicate legalistic theories. This inquest represents the practical effort of four of the most mighty of nations, with the support of fifteen more, to utilize International Law to meet the greatest menace of our times -- aggressive war. The common sense of mankind demands that law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people. It must also reach men who possess themselves of great power and make deliberate and concerted use of it to set in motion evils which leave no home in the world untouched. It is a cause of this magnitude that the United Nations will lay before Your Honors.
In the prisoners' dock sit twenty-odd broken men. Reproached by the humiliation of those they have led almost as bitterly as by the desolation of those they have attacked, their personal capacity for evil is forever past. It is hard now to perceive in these miserable men as captives the power by which as Nazi leaders they once dominated much of the world and terrified most of it. Merely as individuals, their fate is of little consequence to the world.
prisoners represent sinister influences that will lurk in the world long after their bodies have returned to dust. We will show than to be living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence, and of the arrogance and cruelty of power. They are symbols of fierce nationalisms and of militarism, of intrigue and war-making which have embroiled Europe generation after generation, crushing its manhood, destroying its homos, and impoverishing its life. They have so identified themselves with the philosophies they conceived and with the forces they directed that any tenderness to then is a victory and an encouragement to all the evils which are attached to their names. Civilization can afford no compromise with the social forces which would gain renewed strength if we deal ambiguously or indecisively with the men in whom those forces now precariously survive. temperately disclose. We will give you undeniable proofs of incredible events. The catalogue of crimes will omit nothing that could be conceived by a pathological pride, cruelty, and lust for power. Those men created in Germany, under the "Fuhrerprinzip", a National Socialist depotism equalled only by the dynasties of the ancient East. They took from the German people all those dignities and freedoms that we hold natural and inalienable rights in every human being. The people were compensated by inflaming and gratifying hatreds toward those who were marked as "scapegoats." Against their opponents, including Jews, Catholics, and free labor the Nazis directed such a campaign of arrogance, brutality, and annihilation as the world has not witnessed since the pro-Christian ages.