Transcript document

War Trials
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the
process he does not become a monster; and when you
look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
The Holocaust
• The Nazis killed over
6 million Jews during
World War II, which
became known as the
Holocaust
• The Nazis also killed
approximately 6
million Poles, Slavs,
and Gypsies as well
during the Holocaust.
The Allies and the Trials
• Winston Churchill did not want a trial
– Thought all should be hung
• Americans and Russians wanted a trial
• Many people were convinced that the individuals
responsible had to be tried before an international
court and they wanted each person to take personal
responsibility for their actions
The Lieber Code
• Compiled by Frances Lieber and given to American
soldiers during the Civil War
– It detailed how civilians, prisoners of war, and spies were
to be treated
– Other nations, including Britain, France, and Germany
prepared similar manuals
The Hague/ Geneva Accord
• Held in 1907 in Hague, Netherlands
– Focused on the rights of civilians and soldiers who
have surrendered
– The Geneva Accord established how prisoners of
war were to be treated and called for the protection
of the wounded.
Nuremberg Trial
• In November 1945, the
victors of World War II
began the first
international war crimes
trial.
• This was a trial set up to
punish those guilty for a
wide range of criminal
activity carried out in
the lead up to, and
during the war.
“By the judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal,
October 1, 1946, it was established that the
highest officials of a government are
answerable before the bar of international
courts for committing war crimes, crimes
against peace, and—in connection with either
of these—crimes against humanity.”
Harry S. Truman
Address at the Laying of the Cornerstone of the New U.S. Courts
Building for the District of Columbia June 27, 1950 #147 Truman
Library
The Crimes
• Crime of conspiracy
– Leaders, organizers, instigators, and accomplices
in the formulation or execution of a common plan,
or a conspiracy to commit any of the following
crimes are responsible for all acts performed by
any persons in executing such a plan.
The Crimes
• Crimes against peace
– Planning, preparing or initiating a war of
aggression.
• War Crimes
– This meant breaking the rules of war. It included
killing prisoners or war and destroying homes and
property
The Crimes
• Crimes against humanity
– The murder, extermination, enslavement,
deportation, and other inhumane acts committed
against any civilian population before or during the
war.
Why
Nuremberg?
• The location chosen for
the trials, Nuremburg in
Germany, was significant
for it was here that the
National Socialist Party,
i.e. the Nazi Party, held
its annual rallies.
• Adolf Hitler had foreseen
Nuremburg as the 'party
city'. Now many of the
leaders of the party were
on trial for their lives, just
a short distance from the
grand arena where they
had their rallies.
Nuremberg Jail
How the trials were set up
• Allies formed the International Military
Tribunal (IMT) to bring the Nazi leaders to
trial
– Tribunal is a court of justice
• The defendants were made aware of all
charges, each was entitled to a lawyer and had
the right to plead his own case, offering
witnesses and evidence on his behalf.
The Nuremberg Trials
• Began Nov. 20, 1945
and lasted 10 months
• Chief prosecutor was
Robert H. Jackson,
justice on United
States Supreme Court
– Opening Statement by
Jackson
Nuremberg Trials (Major Defendants)
• Karl Doentiz- German Admiral (Chosen by Hitler to succeed him as
Fuhrer
• Hans Frank- Governor-General of Occupied Poland (Jew butcher of
Kracow)
• Wilhelm Frick- Minister of the Interior
• Hans Fritzsche- Head of Radio Division (Propaganda Ministry)
• Walther Funk- Minister of Economics
• Hermann Goering- Luftwaffe Chief, Director of 4-Year Plan
• Rudolf Hoess- Deputy to the Fuhrer and the Nazi Party Leader
• Alfred Jodl- Chief of Operations
• Ernst Kaltenbrunner- Chief of RSHA and Chief of Security Police
• Wilhelm Keitel- Chief of Staff of the German High Command
• Konstantin von Neurath- Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Franz von Papen- Reich Chancellor prior to Hitler, Vice Chancellor
under Hitler, Ambassador to Turkey
Nuremberg Trials (Major Defendants 2)
• Erich Raeder- Commander in Chief of the German Navy
• Joachim von Ribbentrop- Foreign Minister
• Alfred Rosenberg- Chief Nazi Philosopher and Reichminister of
the Eastern Occupied Territories
• Fritz Sauckel- Chief of Slave Labor Recruitment
• Hjalmar Schacht- Reichsbank President and Minister of
Economics before the War
• Baldur von Schirach- Hitler Youth Leader
• Arthur Seyss-Inquart- Austrian Chancellor, the Reich
Commissioner for the Netherlands
• Albert Speer- Reichmaster of Armaments and Munitions
• Julius Streicher- Anti-Semitic Editor of Der Sturmer
• The 21 defendants came
from very different
backgrounds. Some, like
Hitler's chosen successor
Hermann Goering, were
senior politicians - their
responsibility in the
Holocaust was clear.
• Most of them were
regarded by the western
public as key playmakers in
a system that had brought
war to Europe and cost the
lives of 50 million people.
Defendants
• .
The Prosecution
• Used the Nazi’s own records
• Tried to show the Nazis planned a war and
planned to conquer the world if they could
– A crime against peace
• A minor part of the prosecution was
documents and witnesses of the Holocaust
• American chief prosecutor Robert Jackson decided to argue his case
primarily on the basis of mounds of documents written by the Nazis
themselves rather than eyewitness testimony so that the trial could not
be accused of relying on biased or tainted testimony. Testimony
presented at Nuremberg revealed much of what we know about the
Holocaust including the details of the Auschwitz death machinery, the
destruction of the Warsaw ghetto, and the estimate of six million
Jewish victims.
The Defense
• Too much evidence to claim the Holocaust
didn’t happen
– Had to make case on other issues
• Said tribunal had no legal authority
• Said they were just following orders
Goering, Hess, von Ribbentrop,
and Keitel in front row
• Two prisoners in particular came to represent opposite poles
in their reaction to the trials and the accusation of massive
crimes.
• Hermann Goering, the man Hitler chose as his successor in
the 1930s and the most flamboyant and ambitious of the
party hierarchy, prepared to defend Hitler and the Reich's
war policy rather than admit that what had been done was
criminal.
• From the start he was determined
to dominate the other prisoners
and make them follow his line of
defence insisting that everything
that they had done was the result
of their German patriotism. He
told them that to defy the court
was to protect Germany's
reputation and to maintain their
loyalty to their dead leader.
• With the start of the trial, Goering
assumed at once the informal role
as leader and spokesman for the
whole cohort of prisoners. He was
given the most prominent position
in the dock.
Lunch for a Prisoner
• In mid-February 1946, on the
recommendation of the
psychologist who monitored
prisoner behaviour, Goering
was forced to exercise and
take his meals on his own.
• This led to a decrease in the
problems Goering was causing
for the prosecution; with his
isolation allowing the other
prisoners to talk freely to each
other and in the courtroom, the
united front that Goering
wanted soon collapsed.
• On the other hand Albert Speer, the
architect who ran Germany's
armaments effort during the war,
accepted from the start the collective
responsibility of the defendants for the
crimes of which they were accused and
tried to distance himself from Hitler's
presence at the tribunal. Speer freely
admitted Hitler had once held him in
thrall like all the rest.
• At the same time in his interrogations
and cross-examinations, he seldom
expressed his individual guilt. He
succeeded in presenting himself as part
of the system, but not a driving force.
• Speer revealed early in the trial that at the very end of the war he
had tried to find a way to assassinate Hitler by pouring poison
gas into his underground bunker. The plot was abortive, but it
again presented Speer to the prosecution as someone different
from the rest of the defendants.
• At the end of the trial, even though he had been responsible for
the mass exploitation of forced foreign labor, he was given a 20year sentence.
• No doubt Speer benefited from his pose as a technical manager
(whose social background was not very different from those who
were trying him) and from his willingness to confess
responsibility. The extent to which he manipulated his story to
win sympathy or genuinely believed that the regime he served
was criminal is still open to speculation.
• The others did not all share Speer’s frankness, any more
than they shared Goering's deviance, but for the rest of the
trial period the cohort of prisoners divided into small
groups rather than presenting a united front.
Nuremberg Bench
• This is a photo of
the Nuremberg
judges..
Press
Room
• The defendants were entitled to a legal counsel of their choosing.
Over 400 visitors attended the proceedings each day, as well as 325
correspondents representing 23 different countries.
• The judges delivered their verdict on October 1,
1946. Three of four judges were needed for
conviction. Twelve defendants were sentenced to
death, among them Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hans
Frank, Alfred Rosenberg, and Julius Steicher. They
were hanged, cremated in Dachau, and their ashes
dropped in the Isar River. Hermann Goering escaped
the hangman's noose by committing suicide the
night before. The IMT sentenced three defendants to
life imprisonment and four to prison terms ranging
from 10 to 20 years. It acquitted three of the
defendants.
Results
• Many criminals involved in the Nuremberg Trials were hanged on October
16, 1946, some were sent to prison, or life in prison
• Frank Hans was hanged wearing a beatific smile
• Hans Fritzsche was acquitted but was later convicted by a German court,
then freed
• Walther Funk was sentenced to life in prison but was released due to poor
health
• Hermann Goering committed suicide the day before his scheduled hanging
by taking a cyanide pill
• Rudolf Hess was sentenced to life in prison but killed himself in 1987
• Konstantin von Neurath was sentenced to 15 years in prison but was
released due to poor health in 1954 and died 2 years later
• Franz von Papen was acquitted
• Erich Raeder was sentenced to life in prison but was released 9 years later
• Hjalmar Schacht was found not guilty but was later convicted by a German
court and sentenced to eight years
• Baldur von Schirach was sentenced to 20 years
• Albert Speer served a 20-year sentence and later wrote 2 books about his life
Results of the Nuremberg Trials
• Told the world in great detail about the
Holocaust
• Established the principle that individuals can’t
escape responsibility for their actions by
saying they were following orders
• Set the standards for judging the actions of
nations in the future
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsOpc
MFkrFs
• Write a paragraph on whether or not you
think the punishment was just.