The Nuremberg Trials

1. The Nuremberg Trials

2. Nuremberg Trials • The International Military Tribunal of 1946, convened by the U.S., British, French and Soviets, which convicted the major Nazi leaders who survived World War II AND • Twelve cases tried by U.S. military tribunals at Nuremberg from1946-9 of groups of doctors, lawyers, industrialists, Einsatzgruppen and more.

3. Legacy • International Law • Human Rights & Genocide Conventions • Code of Medical Ethics • Enforcement Mechanisms & Tribunals • Models of Bringing Individual Perpetrators to Justice • Deportations to Home Countries for Justice • Vocabulary: War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide, Truth and Reconciliation Commission

4. Timeline • 11/30/43: Moscow Declaration signed by U.S., U.K., Soviet Union and China. • 2/4-11/45: Yalta agreement signed by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin • 4/12/45: Truman becomes President • 4/12/45: Dachau liberated by U.S. • http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/displayimage.php?pointer=3855

5. Timeline continued • 4/30/45: Adolf Hitler commits suicide. • 5/2/45: Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson appointed as chief U,S, prosecutor in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/displayimage.php?pointer=11270

6. Timeline continued • 5/8/45: Germany surrenders unconditionally to Allies. • 7/7/45: Jackson visits Nuremberg & recommends it as trial site. • 8/2/45: Potsdam Protocol • 8/8/45: London Agreement • 10/6/45: 4 powers issue joint statement of indictment http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/displayimage.php?pointer=2693

7. Timeline continued • 10/14/45: Sir Geoffrey Lawrence (UK) elected President of the IMT • 10/18-19/45: 24 men and 7 organizations are indicted, charged with the systematic murder of millions of people • 11/20/45: Nuremberg Trials begin. All defendants plead “not guilty.” • http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/displayimage.php?pointer=11274

8. Nuremberg Charges • The Common Plan or Conspiracy • Crimes Against Peace • War Crimes • Crimes Against Humanity http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/display image.php?pointer=3918 Bergen Belsen

9. 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. … Justice Jackson from his opening statement

10. Why Trials? The Trial which is now about to begin is unique in the history of the jurisprudence of the world and it is of supreme importance to millions of people all over the globe. Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, President, Opening Remarks • Create precedents in international law • Create moral precedents • Collate historical record

11. Procedural Innovations • International Tribunal • Individuals Tried States do not commit crimes; individuals do • No Immunity for Heads of State, etc.

12. Substantive Innovations • Established Crimes Against Humanity as a charge: mass crimes – murder, torture, (rape) • Established Crime of Genocide

13. In the spring of 1945, as the war finally came to an end, the world confronted the atrocities the Nazis had committed. • Who was responsible for the Holocaust?

14. Should those who participated in the atrocities committed during the war be punished, and if so, who was accountable? • Should those individuals be tried in a court of law? What is the purpose of a trial? Is it to punish evil doing or is it to set a precedent for the future?

15. Who should be tried? Are individuals responsible for their crimes if they have obey the laws of their nation? Are there higher laws and if so, what are they?

16. How does one determine punishment? Is everyone equally guilty or do some bear more responsibility than others? Can an entire nation be guilty?

17. Between 1945 and 1950, the fate of 199 individuals was decided in thirteen separate trials in Nuremberg. Those trials established important precedents that have become part of the unwritten laws of nations in the years since.

18. The Allies and the Trials • Winston Churchill did not want a trial • Thought all should be hung • Americans and Russians wanted a trial • How do you try people for the murder of millions of people that had been made “legal” under Hitler?

19. 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.

20. Winston Churchill argued that the Nazis should be summarily hung. Only after considerable pressure from the Russians and the Americans, did the British change their stand.

21. Ironic Stalin wanted a trial. In the early 1930’s, Stalin held many “trials” when he was trying to consolidate his power. Most of these people were considered guilty and had to prove their innocence. Most were killed, including some of Russia’s top Generals.

22. Trials decide questions of law, but what laws had the German’s broken? Some would insist that “all is fair in love and war”

23. The Lieber Code • Compiled by Frances Lieber and given to American soldiers during the Civil War • It detailed how civilians, prisoners of war, and spied were to be treated • Other nations, including Britain, France, and Germany prepared similar manuals • View the code • See important parts of the code

24. Before Nuremberg, the most famous war crimes trial was at the end of the Civil War. Captain Henry Wirts, a Confederate officer who commanded the prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia. This camp had a reputation for starvation and cruelty that was not equaled until Hitler’s time.

25. Wirts was accused of the deaths of several thousand Yankee prisoners of war. He was tried in a military court, convicted, and hanged. • Wirtz argued he was only obeying the orders of his commander. The evidence supported Wirz’s claims, but the judges convicted him because he followed orders willingly rather than under duress. What is the difference?

26. The Hague • Held in 1907 in Hague, Netherlands • Focused on the rights of civilians and soldiers who have surrendered

27. Geneva Accord • Established how prisoners of war were to be treated and called for the protection of the wounded.

28. Previous Violations • World War I- Germany while unprovoked, invaded Belgium • Treaty of Versailles said Kaiser Wilhelm was to be tried for aggression, but those trials never took place • 1915- Turks massacred the Armenians in genocide- no trials took place

29. As Hitler prepared for the “final solution of the Jewish question,” he asked, “Who after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians? What was he saying about international law? What was he saying about the “rules of war”

30. Professor Richard Hovannisian maintains that had the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide been more vigorously prosecuted and punished for their crimes, the case might have served as a deterrent for the Holocaust. Do you agree?

31. 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.

32. The Allies were going to punish anyone who violated international law. They were going to hold accountable not only those who ordered the crimes, but also those who participated in them. This included businessmen, doctors, lawyers, and a number of other people.

33. 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

34. Aggression is an attack on someone • War crimes- violations of the laws or customs or war. Such violations shall include, but not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor for any other purposes of civilian population of or in an occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.

35. The Crimes • Crimes against humanity • The murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population before or during the war.

36. Who should be tried? • The first job facing the court at Nuremberg was to decide who should be tried. • 24 Nazi’s were indicted • 22 stood trial • The rest were turned over to local trials

37. The first job facing the court at Nuremberg was to decide who should be tried. • Though Hitler and a few others had taken their own lives, most of the top Nazi leaders had been captured by the Allies. Hundreds of names of accused Nazis were brought before the court. The International Military Tribunal decided to try only 24 of the central leaders of the Nazi Party.

38. Only 24 Nazis were indicted and two of them never stood trial. Robert Ley, the head of the Nazi labor movement committed suicide before the trial began. • The court ruled that Gustav Krupp, an industrialist, was too ill to be tried. Many other top Nazi leaders, including Hitler and Goebbels, killed themselves in the final days of the war. Others like Adolf Eichmann, managed to disappear during the confusion that marked Germany’s defeat.

39. 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.

40. In the 1200’s St. Thomas Aquinas defined a “just war” as one fought by a legitimate government for a just cause and with the intention of bringing about good. Was the battle raged by the Allies a “just war”

41. In 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Research the bombings and decide if they were “war crimes” • How important is it to establish rules of warfare? Does the knowledge that those rules cannot always be implemented affect your response?

42. 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

43. Statement by Jackson • “We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips as well.”

44. When this was said, many looked at the two Soviet judges. The Russians had invaded Poland in 1939 and Finland in 1940and were widely believed to be responsible for the massacre of thousands of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. They were also responsible for the murder of thousands of their own citizens in the 1930s as part of Stalin’s efforts to consolidate his control over the nation.

45. By 1970, Telford Taylor could sadly write that, “now the wheel has spun full circle, and the fingers of accusation are pointed not at others… but at ourselves. Worse yet, many of the pointing fingers are our own. Voices of the rich and poor and black and white, strident voices and scholarly voices, all speaking our own tongue, raise questions of the legality under the Nuremberg principles of our military actions in Vietnam and Cambodia.

46. 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

47. Throughout the trial, the prosecution used the Nazis own records as evidence. Jackson himself was amazed not only at the quantity of records available, but also at the incredible detail in those records. He did not think “men would ever be so foolish as to put in writing some of the things the Germans did.”

48. 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

49. Defense said that the trial was just a way for the Allies to take revenge and that it was a “show trial” to justify the execution of individual Nazis.

50. A big part of the defense was that it was the government of Nazi Germany that was at fault. These Nazi leaders had only been following orders. But the judges declared: