Joined: Oct 14, 2007 Messages: 2,804 [106] Although these aspects had already been covered by the American prosecution, Soviet prosecutors introduced new evidence from Extraordinary State Commission reports and interrogations of senior enemy officers. [227] The main legal criticisms of the trial focused on questions of retroactivity, selectivity, and jurisdiction. The indictment lodged against them contained four counts: (1) crimes against peace (i.e., the planning, initiating, and waging of wars of aggression in violation of international treaties and agreements), (2) crimes against humanity (i.e., exterminations, deportations, and genocide), (3) war crimes (i.e., violations of the laws of war), and (4) a common plan or conspiracy to commit the criminal acts listed in the first three counts. Convicted and hanged, Rosenbergs ideology led to an appointment as minister of the occupied eastern territories in 1941. Prestianni said that during his guard duties he tried to adhere to his fathers advice. The Palace of Justice was relatively intact but needed to be renovated for the trial due to bomb damage; it had an attached prison where the defendants could be held. [144] Most defendants argued their own insignificance within the Nazi system, but Gring took the opposite approach, presenting himself as Hitler's loyalist and expecting that while he would be executed, the German people would eventually appreciate his loyalty. The Russians always were a problem and only cooperated with the other countries about 10 percent of the time. [111][112] The British case covered invasions, from that of Poland to that of the Soviet Union, which Shawcross covered in the second part of his speech;[113] these charges took three days to present, with Maxwell Fyfe detailing 15 treaties broken by Germany. [222] By the late 1950s, the West German consensus on release began to erode, due to greater openness in political culture and new revelations of Nazi criminality, including the first trials of Nazi perpetrators in West German courts. [61], The problem of translating the indictment and evidence into the three official languages of the tribunal, as well as German, was severe due to the scale of the task and difficulty in recruiting interpreters, especially in the Soviet Union. In some cases, this arrogance lingered into their years of incarceration. [34][35] Located in the American occupation zone, Nuremberg was a symbolic location as the site of Nazi rallies. [133], Inspired by the films shown by the American prosecution, the Soviet Union commissioned three films for the trial: The German Fascist Destruction of the Cultural Treasures of the Peoples of the USSR, Atrocities Committed by the German Fascist Invaders in the USSR, and The German Fascist Destruction of Soviet Cities, using footage from Soviet filmmakers as well as shots from German newsreels. Dnitz, who was named successor to Hitler during the waning days of the war and served 10 years in prison, remained aloof. Frick, one of Hitlers closest advisers during the early years of the Nazi regime, was one of those hanged. End of the trial: Guardian report on the executions, 16 October 1946 Hermann Gring last night died by his own hand. The intentionally weakened table and chair, Prestianni said, prevented possible suicide attempts by hanging. I had no idea of the magnitude of what they had done. The guards at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials The guards at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials Accession Number 72-850 7.25x9.5 inches Black & White Printer-Friendly Version Order This Image Keywords Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946 Soldiers HST Keywords Nurnberg Trials; Germany - Nurnberg [207][208] In a 1946 poll, 78 percent of Germans assessed the trial as fair, but four years later that had fallen to 38 percent, with 30 percent considering it unfair. [12] The United States insisted on a fair trial as a means of reforming Germany. He was largely overlooked in prison, Prestianni said of von Papen. Thank you so much for your time and I am looking forward to getting into many discussions. Nuremberg, Germany, November 1945. Popular radio commentator; head of the news division of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry. My final wish is that Germany should recover her unity and that, for the sake of peace, there should be an understanding between East and West. Again, without a word being spoken, the door was slammed shut. A defendant was entitled to receive a copy of the indictment, to offer any relevant explanation to the charges brought against him, and to be represented by counsel and confront and cross-examine the witnesses. The Nuremberg Trials ended on October 1, 1946. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. On that date, representatives from the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the provisional government of France signed an agreement that included a charter for an international military tribunal to conduct trials of major Axis war criminals whose offenses had no particular geographic location. Alfred Rosenberg was considered by Hitler the philosopher of National Socialism. Ten of those men would be hung 16 days later. In mid-1945, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed to convene a joint tribunal in Nuremberg, with the Nuremberg Charter as its legal instrument. Updates? She kept a scrapbook which had photos of her group and many signatures of court officials and army officers commending them for their service. Join historians and history buffs alike with our Unlimited Digital Access pass to every military history article ever published (over 3,000 articles) in Sovereigns military history magazines. God have mercy on my soul. 3 Feb 1946. By early 1946, Western prosecutors were uneasy about the Katyn charge, although they never publicly rejected it for fear of casting the entire proceedings into question. [76] Of the 24 men indicted, Martin Bormann was tried in absentia, as the Allies were unaware of his death; Krupp was too ill to stand trial; and Robert Ley committed suicide. [68] Most of the defendants had surrendered to the United States or United Kingdom. [121], On 8 February, the Soviet prosecution opened its case with a speech by Rudenko that covered all four prosecution charges, highlighting both aggressive war and the devastation of Eastern Europe[122] and listing many crimes committed by the German occupiers against the Soviet people. Had I known just who these prisoners were at the time and what they had been accused and convicted of having done, I probably would not have had such a close relationship with them. [58], The charge of conspiracy was spearheaded by the United States prosecution and was less popular with the other Allies. Usually these are prosecution chargeslike crimes against humanityor a defense response. Three were sentenced to life imprisonment: Rudolf Hess, Walther Funk, and Erich Raeder. [208][209] Many Germans lumped criminal trials with denazification, internment, and confrontation with the concentration camps, as illegitimate victor's justice and the imposition of collective guilt. Second, it rejected the argument that the trial and adjudication were ex post facto. Raeder kept to himself, voraciously reading and writing his memoirs, but when he interacted with the others, it was often to lash out in anger. In the prison cellblock, each single-occupant cell had two parallel heating pipes beneath a single, heavily scratched, plastic-covered window, the top half of which could be tilted open for limited ventilation. By special arrangement with a guard or prison official, he gave his handwritten notes to be mimeographed and returned to him. Jackson. Cell doors were never opened when food was distributed. [92], The International Military Tribunal began trial on 20 November 1945,[93] after postponement requests from the Soviet prosecution, who wanted more time to prepare its case, were rejected. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Johann Georg Richert was found guilty and was executed in Minsk, Byelorussia. Streicher had published Der Sturmer, a widely read newspaper filled with pornography, ethnic hate, and anti-Jewish cartoons to enflame the German population. After one of those accused, Robert Ley, former director of the nations Labor Front, hanged himself from a drain pipe with a torn towel, prisoners were kept under constant visual surveillance by guards, and while sleeping were forced to do so with their faces and hands exposed above their blankets at all times. This page was last edited on 8 October 2022, at 21:33. Alfred Rosenberg, Joachim von Ribbentrop and others were condemned on 16th October, 1946. [228][24] The charge of crimes against humanity, the charge of conspiracy, and imposing criminal penalties on individuals for breaches of international law were also novel but attracted little criticism. [189], One set of trials focused on the actions of German professionals: the Doctors' trial focused on human experimentation and euthanasia murders, the Judges' trial on the role of the judiciary in Nazi crimes, and the Ministries trial on the culpability of bureaucrats of German government ministries, especially the Foreign Office. Emilio DiPalma (right) stands on guard at the Nuremberg Trials in 1945. He looked like a gaunt corpse, like a ghost. At the time, I saw these men only as individual prisoners, guilty of unknown crimes. They [the prisoners] were to always be considered innocent until proven guilty. Ribbentrop was held in low esteem by others close to Hitler due to his perceived ineptness in many areas. One can only imagine the effect the pounding had on the condemned prisoners, now with only one more day to live. Nuremberg was chosen as the location for the trials because of its symbolic value. [6] The Soviet Union wanted to hold a show trial similar to the 1930s Moscow trials, in order to demonstrate the Nazi leaders' guilt and build a case for war reparations to rebuild the Soviet economy, which had been devastated by the war. They merely brushed the guilt away with self-serving claims that they were following orders from superiors or perhaps even from Hitler himself in an atmosphere where failure to do so often meant banishment to a concentration camp, Gestapo torture, or even a summary execution. All sessions of the tribunal were held in Nrnberg, Germany, under the presidency of Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence. When I once asked him why he had done what he was convicted of doing, he replied that he only did what the Fatherland [Germany] instructed him to do. Others were deemed "unfit" for Nazi society: Jews, lesbians, sex workers or homeless women. One was sentenced in absentia. The Nuremberg trials were a series of 13 trials carried out in Nuremberg, Germany, between 1945 and 1949 to try those accused of Nazi war crimes. Dads birthday. The Nrnberg trials began on November 20, 1945. Nikitchenko, the Soviet member, took place on October 18, 1945, in Berlin. He died 21 months later on August 15, 1956. He was another of Prestiannis favorite checker-playing opponents. The first attempt to punish the perpetrators was conducted by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in the German city of Nuremberg, beginning on November . Trial issues are criminal activities or subjects at issue in a trial that are addressed by a document. [161][162], The International Military Tribunal agreed with the prosecution that aggression was the gravest charge against the accused, stating in its judgement that because war in general is evil, "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole. [157] Over the course of the trial, crimes against humanity and especially against Jews (who were mentioned as victims of Nazi atrocities far more than any other group) came to upstage the aggressive war charge. Jodl, one of 10 prisoners hanged, was another who never admitted to any personal guilt. star wars fanfiction terran alliance; when a girl says i'll keep that in mind; hillsborough disaster who was to blame; how to get into stanford with a low gpa William L Shierer "the Rise and Fall of the third Reich", part IV, Nuremberg-chapter, the United States committed the same breach, Last and Near-Last Words of the Famous, Infamous and Those In-Between, "The International Military Tribunal for Germany", The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_defendants_at_the_International_Military_Tribunal&oldid=1114903079, Successor to Hess as Nazi Party Secretary. Soldiers in tank stand guard in front of the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg where the International Military Tribunal . [99] According to historian Kim Christian Priemel, the conspiracy charge "invited apologetic interpretations: narratives of absolute, totalitarian dictatorship, run by society's lunatic fringe, of which the Germans had been the first victims rather than agents, collaborators, and fellow travellers". Nuremberg Trials Nuremberg Trials after WWII Nuremberg Trials post Second World War Categories: General news, War and unrest, Government and politics, Military and defense, Social affairs; Location: Germany Display: All Displaying 1 - 124 of 124 Results < Prev | 1 | Next > 4508300110 4508301118 4508310176 4508310168 451007142 490414058 490414049 [130] The defense presented evidence of Soviet responsibility,[131] and Katyn was not mentioned in the verdict. While they walked, the prisoners were separated by a prescribed number of yards. Did guards favor some prisoners over others? Goehring gave my Dad a notebook that he had drawn in. It was the last thing Streicher was known to have written. Master Sgt. [52][46] The Soviet personnel's lack of knowledge of English, lack of interpreters, and unfamiliarity with diplomacy and international institutions also limited their influence. (November 1945) Sources: All photos copyright and courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Afterwards, during the Berlin Blockade, they took part in securing Allied facilities involved in the Berlin Airlift and later also were guarding USA Army headquarters. The authority of the International Military Tribunal to conduct these trials stemmed from the London Agreement of August 8, 1945. [169][170] The judges did not agree that the conspiracy extended to anyone who participated in the affairs of the Nazi government, only taking being present at the high-level meetings discussing war plans in 1937 and 1939 as evidence of belonging to the conspiracy. [24][25] Although a novel construct, "crimes against humanity" covered acts that were already prohibited by the laws of most countries. [83] The American and British prosecutors focused on documentary evidence and affidavits rather than testimony from survivors, as the latter was considered less reliable and more liable to accusations of bias, but at the expense of reducing public interest in the proceedings. [46], The French prosecutor, Franois de Menthon, had just overseen trials of the leaders of Vichy France;[37] he resigned in January 1946 and was replaced by Auguste Champetier de Ribes. Home; Services; New Patient Center. The Nuremberg Trials After the war, the top surviving German leaders were tried for Nazi Germany's crimes, including the crimes of the Holocaust. we went to Germany with and my younger brother was born there, dad remained un the Army until 1960, when he retired after 32 years service. These visits usually were brief, and participants were separated by a screen. . I tried to treat each prisoner without rancor.. The same routine was followed for each of the condemned prisoners. By far the most attention--not surprisingly, given the figures involved--has focused on the first Nuremberg trial of twenty-one major war criminals. [55], The work of drafting the indictment was divided up by the national delegations. It was an appointment that, when coupled with his Baltic origin, brought him into sharp conflict with most of those in Hitlers entourage. [6][7] Trainin's ideas were reprinted in the West and widely adopted. The seventh series of Ravensbrck trials was held between July 2nd and July 21st, 1948 to hear the cases of Aufseherin accused of maltreatment of prisoners and making selections for the gas chambers. Another favorite was Alfred Jodl, former chief of the operations staff of the Army high command, who was found guilty and executed. He was physically one tough guy, Prestianni offered. Twelve paid with their lives. It was always a battle of authority. I never treated him differently than I did the others I guarded.. He died about five years ago and I wished I would have asked questions. He held the rank of seargent when he was discharged in 1945. The night Gring pulled that off on October 16, 1946, now that was quite a night, he recalled. [235] In the 1990s, a revival of international criminal law included the establishment of ad hoc international criminal tribunals for Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR), which were widely seen as part of the legacy of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials. We used to argue democracy versus dictatorship, the free versus the suppressed. Examine some of the collection's most-accessed trial topics. After trial, incarcerated at. [117] The French prosecutors, more than their British or American counterparts, emphasized the guilt of the German people;[118] they barely mentioned the charge of aggressive war and instead focused on forced labor, economic plunder, massacres, and Germanization. (Robert Ley committed suicide while in prison, and Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbachs mental and physical condition prevented his being tried.) The SA, the Reich Cabinet, and the General Staff and High Command were not ruled to be criminal organizations. After his release from prison in Nuremberg, a Stuttgart court sentenced him to eight years in a work camp. This wasnt authorized, but it was done on occasion, Prestianni smiled. Institutional rivalries hampered the search. These were 60 year old Emma Zimmer, nee Mezel, and 36 year old . After encountering a you tube video by accident I have a different answer. His face had an animal look to it, Prestianni stated. An anti-Semite to the end, and proclaiming that his death was a victory for world Jewry, Streichers final shouted words as he dropped through the trap door to his death were, This is the Purim Festival for 1946. After the first trial ended in October 1946, the United States held 12 other trials at Nuremberg under the authority of the International Military Tribunal. What were the verdicts of Nrnberg trials? But, he gave us no problem and I found him engaging to talk to and an excellent checkers player.. These once powerful leaders of Nazi Germany were the accused of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. This is a good documentary on the Nuremberg Trials that occurred after the end of the war. Posted September 22, 2014. New Patient Forms; In the Hostages case, several generals were tried for executing thousands of hostages and prisoners of war, looting, using forced labor, and deporting civilians in the Balkans. It was a very old, ancient, almost primitive prison, Prestianni recalls. [136][137] The Soviet prosecution case was generally well received and presented compelling evidence about the suffering of the Soviet people and the Soviet contribution to victory. [86] Overall, the prosecution called 37 witnesses compared to the defense's 83, not including 19 defendants who testified on their own behalf. During watch on one bitter cold night, Prestianni contracted pneumonia and collapsed, unconscious. He was the popular picture court room scene the second on the left of the door. In addition to this brass pot I have three skeleton keys to the cells that held the Nazi war criminals, as well as a pair of wooden spoons used by them. Gifts, usually clothing, soap, tobacco, and family photos, could be given to prisoners after inspection by a guard. [1] The defendants included some of the most famous Nazis, including Hermann Gring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Wilhelm Keitel. Hitler's friend, favorite architect, and Minister of Armaments from 1942 until the end of the war. [74], Although the list of defendants was finalized on 29 August,[75] as late as October, Jackson demanded changes and expansion of the defendants list, but this was rejected. Those incarcerated at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg were allowed very limited and sporadic visitation rights with lawyers and family members. Eighteen-inch rectangular holes were cut from the heavy, oaken cell doors, slightly below eye level. [134] The second film included footage of the liberation of Majdanek and the liberation of Auschwitz and was considered even more disturbing than the American concentration camp film. jkeller, Aug 11, 2010 #16. macrusk Proud Daughter of a Canadian WWII Veteran. [5] Soviet jurist Aron Trainin developed the concept of crimes against peace (waging aggressive war) which would later be central to the proceedings at Nuremberg. While he was held at Nuremberg, he portrayed himself in a quiet, unassuming demeanor. Three of the defendants were acquitted: Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen, and Hans Fritzsche. Prestianni and another guard handcuffed Streicher and walked him silently to the gallows chamber, where they rapped on the door with their truncheons. One passing recollection I have of Schirach, said Prestianni, was teasing him about how much the prison guards were enjoying his former girls and how pretty we considered them. I rather liked him for the way he acted toward us. [233] In 1950, the International Law Commission drafted the Nuremberg principles to codify international criminal law, although the Cold War prevented the adoption of these principles until the 1990s. When the needling did not abate and became somewhat annoying, Prestianni said he used to give the former World War I ace his own version of a little dig in return. Many of the worst offenders were not prosecuted, for logistical or financial reasons. [87][149] United States admiral Chester Nimitz testified that the United States had used the same methods of submarine warfare that the German admirals were accused of; Dnitz's counsel successfully argued that this meant that such actions could not be crimes. It was only sometime later that I realized in retrospect that I had become part of history, Prestianni said. All female prisoners were segregated on a third tier. During numerous argumentative discussions, Neurath referred to the Polish population and others that were slaughtered by German troops as untermenschen, the German expression for inferior beings. Boy I wish I asked more questions of the trials. [66][67] The prosecutors wanted to try representative leaders of German politics, economy, and military; and the Americans had a list of 70 names at the London Conference. If an organization was found to be criminal, the prosecution could bring individuals to trial for having been members, and the criminal nature of the group or organization could no longer be questioned. Only Speer stood in the courtroom showing some remorse and, in an act of contrition, admitted his guilt and knowledge of the camps. [27] Especially the United States wanted to avoid countenancing any rule that would give an international court jurisdiction over a government's treatment of its own citizens. I have a brass pot, called an aspersorium, obtained by my father. After two years he was released and promptly reestablished himself in a successful career as a financial consultant for developing nations. During our conversations, he often asked questions about the United States, a subject in which he appeared to be quite interested, Prestianni added. BAY CITY . Epidemic jaundice experiments High . Outside the cellblock complex, a small courtyard with a few scraggly pear trees allowed each prisoner the opportunity to walk for 20 minutes each day. Bragging of his ability to mass murder millions of Jews, Frank never admitted to his brutal inhumanity during the war crimes trial but was sentenced nonetheless to hang. Prestiannis assignment was over, and he was transferred to guard duty at a POW compound at Bamberg, Germany. The crew (left to right) Private (1st Class) Carl E McCray (Salem, Va.) and Sergeant E Wilson (Texas.)'. An excerpt from The Post of Oct. 16, 1946: Nuernberg (Wednesday), Oct. 16 (AP). [45] At Jackson's recommendation, the United States appointed judges Francis Biddle and John Parker. The tribunal responded that such acts had been regarded as criminal prior to World War II. National Archives Collection of World War II War Crimes Records (Record Groups 153, 238 and 549) The United States conducted war crimes trials in Europe under three jurisdictions: the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuernberg (RG 238), U.S. military tribunals at Nuernberg (RG 238) and U.S. Army courts (RG 153 & RG 549). The Ugly Truth About the Nuremberg Tribunals. [99] Nevertheless, defense lawyers (although not most of the defendants) often argued that the prosecution was trying to promote German collective guilt and forcefully countered this as a strawman argument. Prestianni does not recall Raeder maintaining even a limited friendship with the other prisoners. [150] The judges barred most evidence on Allied misdeeds from being heard in court. Strict attention was always paid to the prisoners.
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