On 8 August 1945, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland, the Government of the United States of America,
the Provisional Government of the French Republic, and the Government of
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics entered into an Agreement
establishing this Tribunal for the Trial of War Criminals whose offenses
have no particular geographical location. In accordance with Article 5,
the following Governments of the United Nations have expressed their
adherence to the Agreement:
Greece, Denmark, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Poland,
Belgium, Ethiopia, Australia, Honduras, Norway, Panama, Luxembourg,
Haiti, New Zealand, India, Venezuela, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
By the Charter annexed to the Agreement, the constitution, jurisdiction,
and functions of the Tribunal were defined.
The Tribunal was invested with power to try and punish persons who had
committed Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity
as defined in the Charter.
The Charter also provided that at the Trial of any individual member of
any group or organization the Tribunal may declare (in connection with
any act of which the individual may be convicted) that the group or
organization of which the individual was a member was a criminal
organization.
In Berlin, on 18 October 1945, in accordance with Article 14 of the
Charter, an Indictment was lodged against the defendants named in the
caption above, who had been designated by the Committee of the Chief
Prosecutors of the signatory Powers as major war criminals.
A copy of the Indictment in the German language was served upon each
defendant in custody, at least 30 days before the Trial opened.
This Indictment charges the defendants with Crimes against Peace by the
planning, preparation, initiation, and waging of wars of aggression,
which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements,
and assurances; with War Crimes; and with Crimes against Humanity. The
defendants are also charged with participating in the formulation or
execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit all these crimes. The
Tribunal was further asked by the Prosecution to declare all the named
groups or organizations to be criminal within the meaning of the
Charter.
The Defendant Robert Ley committed suicide in prison on 25 October 1945.
On 15 November 1945 the Tribunal decided that the Defendant Gustav Krupp
von Bohlen und Halbach could not then be tried because of his physical
and mental condition, but that the charges against him in the Indictment
should be retained for trial thereafter, if the physical and mental
condition of the defendant should permit. On 17 November 1945 the
Tribunal decided to try the Defendant Bormann in his absence under, the
provisions of Article 12 of the Charter. After argument, and
consideration of full medical reports, and a statement from the
defendant himself, the Tribunal decided on 1 December 1945 that no
grounds existed for a postponement of the Trial against the Defendant
Hess because of his mental condition. A similar decision was made in the
case of the Defendant Streicher.
In accordance with Articles 16 and 23 of the Charter, Counsel were
either chosen by the defendants in custody themselves, or at their
request were appointed by the Tribunal. In his absence the Tribunal
appointed Counsel for the Defendant Bormann, and also assigned Counsel
to represent the named groups or organizations.
The Trial, which was conducted in four languages—English, Russian,
French, and German—began on 20 November 1945, and pleas of “Not Guilty”
were made by all the defendants except Bormann.
The hearing of evidence and the speeches of Counsel concluded on 31
August 1946.
Four hundred and three open sessions of the Tribunal have been held.
Thirty-three witnesses gave evidence orally for the Prosecution against
the individual defendants and 61 witnesses, in addition to 19 of the
defendants, gave evidence for the Defense.
A further 143 witnesses gave evidence for the Defense by means of
written answers to interrogatories.
The Tribunal appointed Commissioners to hear evidence relating to the
organizations, and 101 witnesses were heard for the Defense before the
Commissioners, and 1,809 affidavits from other witnesses were submitted.
Six reports were also submitted, summarizing the contents of a great
number of further affidavits.
Thirty-eight thousand affidavits, signed by 155,000 people, were
submitted on behalf of the Political Leaders, 136,213 on behalf of the
SS, 10,000 on behalf of the SA, 7,000 on behalf of the SD, 3,000 on
behalf of the General Staff and OKW, and 2,000 on behalf of the Gestapo.
The Tribunal itself heard 22 witnesses for the organizations. The
documents tendered in evidence for the Prosecution of the individual
defendants and the organizations numbered several thousands. A complete
stenographic record of everything said in Court has been made, as well
as an electrical recording of all the proceedings.
Copies of all the documents put in evidence by the Prosecution have been
supplied to the Defense in the German language. The applications made by
the defendants for the production of witnesses and documents raised
serious problems in some instances, on account of the unsettled state of
the Country. It was also necessary to limit the number of witnesses to
be called, in order to have an expeditious hearing, in accordance with
Article 18 (c) of the Charter. The Tribunal, after examination, granted
all those applications which in its opinion were relevant to the defense
of any defendant or named group or organization, and were not
cumulative. Facilities were provided for obtaining those witnesses and
documents granted through the office of the General Secretary
established by the Tribunal.
Much of the evidence presented to the Tribunal on behalf of the
Prosecution was documentary evidence, captured by the Allied armies in
German army headquarters, Government buildings, and elsewhere. Some of
the documents were found in salt mines, buried in the ground, hidden
behind false walls and in other places thought to be secure from
discovery. The case, therefore, against the defendants rests in a large
measure on documents of their own making, the authenticity of which has
not been challenged except in one or two cases.
_The Charter Provisions_
The individual defendants are indicted under Article 6 of the Charter,
which is as follows:
“Article 6. The Tribunal established by the Agreement referred
to in Article 1 hereof for the trial and punishment of the major
war criminals of the European Axis countries shall have the
power to try and punish persons who, acting in the interests of
the European Axis countries, whether as individuals or as
members of organizations, committed any of the following crimes:
“The following acts, or any of them, are crimes coming within
the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for which there shall be
individual responsibility:
“(a) Crimes Against Peace: namely, planning, preparation,
initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in
violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances,
or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the
accomplishment of any of the foregoing:
“(b) War Crimes: namely, violations of the laws or customs of
war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to,
murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any
other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied
territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or
persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public of
private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or
villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity:
“(c) Crimes Against Humanity: namely, murder, extermination,
enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed
against any civilian population, before or during the war, or
persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds in
execution of or in connection with any crime within the
jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the
domestic law of the country where perpetrated.
“Leaders, organizers, instigators, and accomplices,
participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan
or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are
responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution
of such plan.”
These provisions are binding upon the Tribunal as the law to be applied
to the case. The Tribunal will later discuss them in more detail; but,
before doing so, it is necessary to review the facts. For the purpose of
showing the background of the aggressive war and war crimes charged in
the Indictment, the Tribunal will begin by reviewing some of the events
that followed the first World War, and in particular, by tracing the
growth of the Nazi Party under Hitler’s leadership to a position of
supreme power from which it controlled the destiny of the whole German
People, and paved the way for the alleged commission of all the crimes
charged against the defendants.
_The Nazi Regime in Germany
the Origin and Aims of the Nazi Party_
On 5 January 1919, not two months after the conclusion of the Armistice
which ended the first World War, and six months before the signing of
the peace treaties at Versailles, there came into being in Germany a
small political party called the German Labor Party. On 12 September
1919 Adolf Hitler became a member of this Party, and at the first public
meeting held in Munich, on 24 February 1920, he announced the Party’s
program. That program, which remained unaltered until the Party was
dissolved in 1945, consisted of 25 points, of which the following five
are of particular interest on account of the light they throw on the
matters with which the Tribunal is concerned:
“_Point 1._ We demand the unification of all Germans in the
Greater Germany, on the basis of the right of self-determination
of peoples.
_Point 2._ We demand equality of rights for the German People in
respect to the other nations; abrogation of the peace treaties
of Versailles and Saint Germain.
_Point 3._ We demand land and territory for the sustenance of
our people, and the colonization of our surplus population.
_Point 4._ Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member
of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without
consideration of creed. Consequently no Jew can be a member of
the race . . . .
_Point 22._ We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and
formation of a national army.”
Of these aims, the one which seems to have been regarded as the most
important, and which figured in almost every public speech, was the
removal of the “disgrace” of the Armistice, and the restrictions of the
peace treaties of Versailles and Saint Germain. In a typical speech at
Munich on 13 April 1923, for example, Hitler said with regard to the
Treaty of Versailles:
“The Treaty was made in order to bring 20 million Germans to
their deaths, and to ruin the German Nation . . . . At its
foundation our movement formulated three demands: