Transcript Wartime Conference + Post WWII Tribunals File

Wartime Conferences
and Post-WWII
Tribunals
Allied Discussions of Strategy, War
and Postwar Aims, and Justice
Wartime Conferences

Unlike WWI, there was
no Peace of Paris to
reshape Europe.

During the war Allied
leaders met all over
the world to discuss
strategy and war
aims.

The conferences that
included the Big
Three were the most
important.

The following is a list
and description of
these conferences.
Newfoundland, August, 1941

Roosevelt and Churchill met on a battleship off
the coast of Newfoundland to discuss common war
aims in August 1941.

The statement of common aims issued at the end of
the conference is known as the Atlantic Charter,
which would later become the model for the UN.
 Is the Fourteen Points of WWII – a statement of
war aims

This is the beginning of the Grand Alliance
between the USA and GB.
Casablanca, January, 1943

Roosevelt and Churchill met at Casablanca (city
in Western Morocco) in January, 1943 and agreed
that Germany should be forced to surrender
unconditionally.

Churchill was adamant that this be done so as not
to repeat the mistakes of 1918-1919.

Roosevelt insisted on the Casablanca Declaration
that dealt with the surrender of Germany.
Quebec, August, 1943
Cairo, November, 1943

Churchill and Roosevelt met to discuss the
secret progress on the A-bomb in August,
1943 in Quebec City.

Churchill, Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-shek
(Chinese Leader) met for talks on eastern war
from November 22-26, 1943 in Cairo, Egypt.
Tehran, November-December, 1943

This was the first of the Big Three conference
(Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) in Tehran, Iran.

Its first accomplishment was to establish
reasonably cordial relations between the Soviet
dictator and the western leaders.

It left some major decisions about Germany to a
future conference.
Decisions: Germany’s Future

They did decide the following:

The Polish frontiers would be formed by:

The Curzon Line (border between Poland and
USSR) in the East.
Decisions: Germany’s Future

In the West the frontiers would be moved
westward to compensate for losses to the USSR.

The Oder-Neisse Line (border between
Germany and Poland) was to be the western
frontier.
 The USSR was taking back land lost to
Poland in 1921.
Decisions: Fronts + The Pacific

The Second Front:
 The USA and GB agreed to open a Second
Front.
 This would one day become the Normandy
Invasion.

The Pacific War:
 The Soviets agreed to participate in the War in
the Pacific.
Yalta, February, 1945

Yalta in in the southern
USSR.

The Big Three met
from February 4-11,
1945.

This was probably the
most important
conference of the war.

Many decisions were
made that influenced
post-war Europe.

Roosevelt has taken
much criticism for some
of his positions
expressed at this
conference.
Yalta Decisions - Europe

The decisions fall into two categories:

Europe-related decisions


Formalized the zones approach to dividing
Germany.
Dropped the Morgenthau Plan (1944 –
planned occupation of Germany after WWII)
that proposed to divide Germany into small
states.
Yalta Europe Decisions (Continued)

Agreed to War Criminal Trials at Nuremberg
after the war was over.

Stalin promised to enter the Pacific War.

Approved the principle of disarming
Germany – how was to be determined at
Potsdam.
Yalta Europe Decisions (Continued)

Stalin promised free elections after the war in
Soviet liberated Europe.

The decisions regarding Poland were
finalized.
Yalta Decisions – UN Issues

United Nations Issues at Yalta

Approved the Dumbarton Oaks
organizational plan for the UN.
 August-October 1944 - representatives of
China, Great Britain, the USSR and the United
States met for a business-like conference at
Dumbarton Oaks, a private mansion in
Washington, D. C.
Yalta Decisions – UN Issues
(continued)


Four principal bodies were to constitute the
organization to be known as the United
Nations (General Assembly, Security Council,
International Court of Justice, Secretariat)
Agreed to San Francisco meeting for April,
to draft a United Nations Charter.
Potsdam, July-August, 1945

Potsdam is located in Germany (suburban
Berlin).

The conference was different than the others in
that Roosevelt had died and was replaced by
Harry S. Truman.
Potsdam, July-August, 1945

In Britain's case, Churchill was attending the
conference during a British election in which he
lost.

He was replaced part way through the conference
by Clement Attlee, the newly elected PM.
Potsdam Accomplishments

The conference accomplished the following:

Approved steps to disarm Germany and deprive
her of her ability to make war via:




Dismantle her war industries
Talk of war reparations
Denazification
Trial of War Criminals
Potsdam Accomplishments

Defined the Allied Control Council that was to
govern Germany.

Potsdam was to lead to a Peace Conference
that never happened so Potsdam became the
framework for peace.
Postwar Reality:
Soviet Control of Eastern Europe (1)

Europe was politically cut in half.

Soviet troops had overrun eastern Europe
and penetrated into the heart of Germany.

During 1944-1945, Stalin started shaping the
post-war world by occupying SE Europe with
Soviet troops that should have been on the
Polish front pushing toward Berlin.
Postwar Reality:
Soviet Control of Eastern Europe (2)

Roosevelt did not have postwar aims because
he still had to fight Japan.

Stalin did have postwar aims = world
communism, gain territory.
Postwar Efforts at Peace

The United Nations

There was some hope when, in 1945, the
United Nations was created.

The UN was an organization established to
promote international stability.
Postwar Efforts at Peace

UN Structure:

A General Assembly where representatives from all
countries could debate international issues.

The Security Council had 5 permanent members –
U.S., Soviet Union, Britain, France, and China could
veto any question of substance.
There were also 6 elected members.


Key: the U.S. joined in contrast to League of Nations.
Nuremburg Trials
The War Times Tribunal for Crimes
Against Humanity (Post-WWII)
Postwar Efforts
at Revenge

Never before in the history of warfare had leaders
legally charged other leaders for their immoral
acts during the war (war crimes).

After, WWII the Allied powers decided to place on
trial the highest-ranking Nazi officers for
“crimes against humanity”

Allied forces had attempted to do this after WWI,
but had released them on the grounds that they
“were just following orders”.
Nuremberg Trials

The Nuremberg Trials (1945-46) were a series
of military tribunals, held by the main
victorious Allied Forces of WWII.


Most notable for the prosecution of prominent
members of the political, military, and economic
leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany.
The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg,
Bavaria, Germany at the Palace of Justice.
Why Nuremberg? (1)

Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the
trials for specific reasons:

The Palace of Justice was spacious and largely
undamaged (one of the few that had remained
largely intact through extensive Allied bombing of
Germany).

A large prison was also part of the complex.
Why Nuremberg? (2)

Nuremberg was considered the ceremonial
birthplace of the Nazi Party, and hosted
annual propaganda rallies.

It was thus a fitting place to mark the party's
symbolic demise.
War Crimes

The International Military Tribunal (IMT) (aka
the Nuremberg Trials) opened on October 18,
1945.

Great care was taken to give the accused
access to due process of Western law.

Each of the four countries (USSR, GB, FR.,
USA) provided one judge and an alternate, as
well as the prosecutors.
Indictments

The prosecution entered indictments against 24
major war criminals and six criminal
organizations:

The leadership of the Nazi party, the Schutzsaffel
(SS) and Sicherheitsdienst (SD – Security
Service, branch of SS), the Gestapo, the
Strumabteilung (SA) and the "General Staff and
High Command," comprising several categories
of senior military officers.
Indictments

The indictments were for:

Participation in a common plan or conspiracy
for the accomplishment of a crime against
peace.

Planning, initiating and waging wars of
aggression and other crimes against peace.

War crimes.

Crimes against humanity.
Sentences (1)

One hundred and seventy seven Nazis were
indicted for crimes related to the war, but
more importantly for crimes committed during
the Holocaust.

Many of the masterminds of the Holocaust
committed suicide at the end of the war (i.e.
Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler etc.)
Sentences (2)

Note that Goering committed suicide the night
before his execution; Himmler was scheduled to
stand trial but committed suicide before it could
begin.

Of the one hundred and seventy seven who
were brought to trial, only three were
acquitted.
Sentences (3)

Several expressed repentance, others
continued to believe in and stand by their
actions during the war.

Several of the guilty (12) were sentenced to
death (hanged) while others were given
lengthy prison sentences.
The Legacy (1)

The Nuremberg trials had a great influence on
the development of international criminal
law.

The conclusions of the Nuremberg trials served
as models for:

The Genocide Convention, 1948.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
1948.
The Legacy (2)

The Nuremberg
Principles, 1950.

The Convention on the
Abolition of the Statute of
Limitations on War
Crimes and Crimes
Against Humanity, 1968.

The Geneva Convention on
the Laws and Customs of
War, 1949; its
supplementary protocols,
1977.

The Nuremberg trials
initiated a movement for
the prompt
establishment of a
permanent international
criminal court,
eventually leading over
fifty years later to the
adoption of the Statute
of the International
Criminal Court.
Other War Crime Trials

Similar trials occurred in the east and
throughout the world.

The Tokyo Trial (1946-48):

The International Military Tribunal for the Far
East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trials,
the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal or simply as
the Tribunal, was convened on May 5, 1946 to
try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three
types of crimes.
Tokyo Trial (1)

Crimes: "Class A" (crimes against peace), "Class
B" (war crimes), and "Class C" (crimes against
humanity), committed during WWII.

The first refers to their joint conspiracy to start
and wage the war, and the latter two refer to
atrocities, one of the most notorious of these
being the Nanking Massacre.
Tokyo Trial (2)

The Tokyo trials were not the only forum for the
punishment of Japanese war criminals, merely
the most visible.
China’s Tribunals

In fact, the Asian countries victimized by the
Japanese war machine (i.e. China) tried far
more Japanese.

An estimated five thousand, executing as many
as 900 and sentencing more than half to life in
prison.
China’s Tribunals: Charges

Twenty-eight Japanese military and political
leaders were charged with Class A crimes, and
more than 5,700 Japanese nationals were
charged with Class B and C crimes, mostly
entailing prisoner abuse.

China held 13 tribunals of its own, resulting in
504 convictions and 149 executions.
The Emperor

The Japanese Emperor
Hirohito, and all members of
the imperial family, were not
prosecuted for any
involvement in any of the
three categories of crimes.
The End of the China’s Tribunals

As many as 50 suspects were charged but
released without ever being brought to trial in
1947 and 1948.

The tribunal was adjourned on November 12,
1948.
Postwar Reality

Consequences of World War II:




Soviet Union with agenda.
Unlike the isolation after WWI, the U.S.A. was
engaged in world affairs.
The triumph of Communists in China.
Decolonization.

The independence of nations from European (+
U.S. & Japan) colonial powers.