(_Charter, Article 6, especially 6 (c)_)
X. Statement of the Offense
All the defendants committed Crimes against Humanity during a period of
years preceding 8 May 1945 in Germany and in all those countries and
territories occupied by the German armed forces since 1 September 1939
and in Austria and Czechoslovakia and in Italy and on the High Seas.
All the defendants, acting in concert with others, formulated and
executed a common plan or conspiracy to commit Crimes against Humanity
as defined in Article 6 (_c_) of the Charter. This plan involved, among
other things, the murder and persecution of all who were or who were
suspected of being hostile to the Nazi Party and all who were or who
were suspected of being opposed to the common plan alleged in Count One.
The said Crimes against Humanity were committed by the defendants and by
other persons for whose acts the defendants are responsible (under
Article 6 of the Charter) as such other persons, when committing the
said War Crimes, performed their acts in execution of a common plan and
conspiracy to commit the said War Crimes, in the formulation and
execution of which plan and conspiracy all the defendants participated
as leaders, organizers, instigators, and accomplices.
These methods and crimes constituted violations of international
conventions, of internal penal laws, of the general principles of
criminal law as derived from the criminal law of all civilized nations
and were involved in and part of a systematic course of conduct. The
said acts were contrary to Article 6 of the Charter.
The Prosecution will rely upon the facts pleaded under Count Three as
also constituting Crimes against Humanity.
(A) MURDER, EXTERMINATION, ENSLAVEMENT, DEPORTATION,
AND OTHER INHUMANE ACTS COMMITTED
AGAINST CIVILIAN POPULATIONS BEFORE AND DURING
THE WAR
For the purposes set out above, the defendants adopted a policy of
persecution, repression, and extermination of all civilians in Germany
who were, or who were believed to be, or who were believed likely to
become, hostile to the Nazi Government and the common plan or conspiracy
described in Count One. They imprisoned such persons without judicial
process, holding them in “protective custody” and concentration camps,
and subjected them to persecution, degradation, despoilment,
enslavement, torture, and murder.
Special courts were established to carry out the will of the
conspirators; favored branches or agencies of the State and Party were
permitted to operate outside the range even of nazified law and to crush
all tendencies and elements which were considered “undesirable”. The
various concentration camps included Buchenwald, which was established
in 1933, and Dachau, which was established in 1934. At these and other
camps the civilians were put to slave labor, and murdered and
ill-treated by divers means, including those set out in Count Three
above, and these acts and policies were continued and extended to the
occupied countries after 1 September 1939, and until 8 May 1945.
(B) PERSECUTION ON POLITICAL, RACIAL, AND RELIGIOUS
GROUNDS IN EXECUTION OF AND IN CONNECTION WITH THE
COMMON PLAN MENTIONED IN COUNT ONE
As above stated, in execution of and in connection with the common plan
mentioned in Count One, opponents of the German Government were
exterminated and persecuted. These persecutions were directed against
Jews. They were also directed against persons whose political belief or
spiritual aspirations were deemed to be in conflict with the aims of the
Nazis.
Jews were systematically persecuted since 1933; they were deprived of
their liberty, thrown into concentration camps where they were murdered
and ill-treated. Their property was confiscated. Hundreds of thousands
of Jews were so treated before 1 September 1939.
Since 1 September 1939, the persecution of the Jews was redoubled:
millions of Jews from Germany and from the occupied Western Countries
were sent to the Eastern Countries for extermination.
Particulars by way of example and without prejudice to the production of
evidence of other cases are as follows:
The Nazis murdered amongst others Chancellor Dollfuss, the Social
Democrat Breitscheid, and the Communist Thälmann. They imprisoned in
concentration camps numerous political and religious personages, for
example Chancellor Schuschnigg and Pastor Niemöller.
In November 1938, by orders of the Chief of the Gestapo, anti-Jewish
demonstrations all over Germany took place. Jewish property was
destroyed, 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps and
their property confiscated.
Under paragraph VIII (A), above, millions of the persons there mentioned
as having been murdered and ill-treated were Jews.
Among other mass murders of Jews were the following:
At Kislovdosk all Jews were made to give up their property: 2,000 were
shot in an anti-tank ditch at Mineraliye Vodi: 4,300 other Jews were
shot in the same ditch.
60,000 Jews were shot on an island on the Dvina near Riga.
20,000 Jews were shot at Lutsk.
32,000 Jews were shot at Sarny.
60,000 Jews were shot at Kiev and Dniepropetrovsk.
Thousands of Jews were gassed weekly by means of gas-wagons which broke
down from overwork.
As the Germans retreated before the Soviet Army they exterminated Jews
rather than allow them to be liberated. Many concentration camps and
ghettos were set up in which Jews were incarcerated and tortured,
starved, subjected to merciless atrocities, and finally exterminated.
About 70,000 Jews were exterminated in Yugoslavia.
XI. Individual, Group and Organization Responsibility for the Offense
Stated in Count Four
Reference is hereby made to Appendix A of this Indictment for a
statement of the responsibility of the individual defendants for the
offense set forth in this Count Four of the Indictment. Reference is
hereby made to Appendix B of this Indictment for a statement of the
responsibility of the groups and organizations named herein as criminal
groups and organizations for the offense set forth in this Count Four of
the Indictment.
Wherefore, this Indictment is lodged with the Tribunal in English,
French, and Russian, each text having equal authenticity, and the
charges herein made against the above named defendants are hereby
presented to the Tribunal.
/s/ ROBERT H. JACKSON.
_Acting on Behalf of the United
States of America._
/s/ FRANÇOIS DE MENTHON.
_Acting on Behalf of the French
Republic._
/s/ HARTLEY SHAWCROSS.
_Acting on Behalf of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland._
/s/ R. RUDENKO.
_Acting on Behalf of the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics._
Berlin, 6 October 1945.
APPENDIX A
_Statement of Individual Responsibility for Crimes Set Out in
Counts One, Two, Three, and Four_
The statements hereinafter set forth following the name of each
individual defendant constitute matters upon which the prosecution will
rely _inter alia_ as establishing the individual responsibility of the
defendant according to Article 6 of the Charter of the Tribunal.