Reporters

November 17th 1945

November 17, 1945, our reporters are ready to go to Nuremberg to attend the first trial of Nazi leaders at the International Criminal Tribunal for war crimes in Nuremberg.

Our reporters will return to Nuremberg for the second part of the process, which will take place in February. in the special edition of "the watcher" will report the information gathered on the road. good read

Nuremberg court

The first of the thirteen Nuremberg trials began at 10 am on 20 novembre1945 in the city of Nuremberg under the aegis of the International Military Tribunal II.

It was the first case of an international process, with trappings of law applied to members of the defeated nations at war, already decided by the Allied powers in 1943 after the Moscow Declaration of the 30th October 1943. German atrocities in Occupied Europe stated that those German Officers and men and members of the Nazi Party who have been responsible for or have taken a consenting part in atrocities and crimes they have been sent back to the countries in which their abominable deeds were done in order that they may be judged and punished according to the laws of the liberated countries and of the free Governments.

Then, in pursuance of the Agreement signed on the 8th day of August 1945, the Government of the United States of America, the Provisional Government of the French Republic, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, decided to establish an International Military Tribunal for the trial and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis.

The constitution, jurisdiction and functions of the International Military Tribunal is contained in the Charter annexed to the Agreement.

The choice of Nuremberg was symbolic and logistics: the American prosecutor Robert H. Jackson saw the opportunity to judge the most important Nazi leaders in the city symbol of the Nazi Party rallies and the development of the racial laws of 1935 and the city was controlled by the U.S. and the district court with adjoining prison remained intact after the bombing.

On the application of Article 2 of the Charter, the Tribunal consisted of four members, each with an alternate, before any trial begins, they selected among themselves a President, that had to hold the office during the trial (Article 4b)

The President of the first process was Lord Geoffrey Lawrence.

The Tribunal established the trial and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis countries and persons who acted in the interests of the European Axis countries. The Tribunal Charter, on Article 6, defines as punishable crimes:

(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 or 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

In the first process, the Defendants were 24 and they were indicted for the following accusations:

Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, a Common Plan or Conspiracy to commit those Crimes.

In the first part of the process were shown in court the footage of Nazi concentration camps immediately after the liberation of the camps.

The faces of the Devil

At the trial were sent the Nazi leaders living (albeit in absentia), and six organizations and structures of the defeated regime: the Nazi party, the Schutzstaffel (SS) and Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the Gestapo, the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the High Army Command.

The charges were grouped into four groups:

1. Conspiracy to commit crimes against peace.

2. Have planned, initiated and started wars of aggression.

3. War crimes.

4. Crimes against humanity.

The defendants were:

- Martin Bormann, secretary of the Nazi Party and Hitler's personal secretary, a former member of the Supreme Command of the SA.

Defendant of the charges 1, 3 and 4.

He was convicted of the charges 3 and 4 to death in absentia.

- Karl Doenitz, Grand Admiral, he was Hitler's successor, his death set up a government that signed the surrender (May 7, 1945).

Defendant of the charges 1, 2 and 3.

He was convicted of the charges 2 and 3 to 10 years in prison.

- Hans Frank, a lawyer, governor of Poland controlled by the Nazis in 1939.

Defendant of the charges 1, 3 and 4.

He was convicted of the charges 3:04 to death.

- Wilhelm Frick, former Minister of Interior of the Reich, responsible for the racial laws.
Accused of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4
He was convicted of the charges 2, 3 and 4 to death.
- Hans Fritzsche, a journalist and, since 1933, director of information at the press service of the ministry of propaganda.
Defendant of the charges 1, 3 and 4.
He was acquitted (especially because defendant as a "replacement" Goebbels).
- Walter Funk, Reich Minister of Economics and President of the Reichsbank in 1939 (Central Bank of the Reich).
Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4.
He was convicted of the charges 2, 3 and 4 to life imprisonment.
- Hermann Goering, the "number two" of Nazi Germany, the most important character of Nazism in the process. As interior minister of Prussia, instituted the "Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt" which later became the Gestapo, powerful regime's secret police, was Field Marshal, commander of the Luftwaffe, and one of the main architects of the German military power and reset. He participated in the planning of the wars of aggression in violation of the Versailles Treaty and other international agreements and treaties.
Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4.
He was convicted of all the charges to death.
- Rudolf Hess, in 1933 and was the deputy secretary of Hitler in the Nazi party until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland in search of an improbable separate peace.
Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4.
He was convicted of the charges 1 and 2 to life imprisonment.
- Alfred Jodl, General of the Army Corps. Head of military operations and advisor to Hitler.
Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4.
He was convicted of all the charges to death.
- Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the Reich Security, SS and party official in charge of the concentration camps.
Defendant of the charges 1, 3 and 4.
He was convicted of the charges 3:04 to death.
- Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces.
Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4.
He was convicted of all the charges to death.
- Gustav Krupp von und Bolhen Halback, a leading German industrialists. 

Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

It was not on trial for health reasons. 

- Robert Ley, head of the Front of German workers 

Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

He was never prosecuted because he hanged himself in his cell before the trial. 

- Konstantin von Neurath, Hitler's first foreign minister and then to the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. In 1943 he resigned his posts as opposed to Hitler. 

Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

Convicted of all the charges to 15 years in prison (later released in 1954 for health reasons). 

- Franz Von Papen, Vice-Chancellor in Hitler's first cabinet in 1933, then ambassador to Vienna and Ankara. 

Defendant of the charges 1 and 2. 

He was acquitted. 

- Erich Raeder, Commander in Chief of the Navy until 1943. 

Defendant of the charges 1, 2 and 3. 

He was convicted of the charges 1, 2 and 3 to life imprisonment (released in 1955 for health reasons). 

- Joachim Von Ribbentrop, from 1938 to 1945 Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Reich, was the star of the Nazi-Soviet Pact Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, whose protocols were fixed on the partition of Central and Eastern Europe between Germany and the Soviet Union. 

Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

He was convicted of all the charges to death. 

- Alfred Rosenberg, Reich Minister for the occupation zones in Eastern Europe, the ideologist of the Nazi Party. 

Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

He was convicted of all the charges to death. 

- Fritz Sauckel, Attorney General of Hitler as responsible for forced labor in Germany of foreign labor. 

Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

He was convicted of the charges 3:04 to death. 

- Hjalmar Schacht, banker, President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economy. Since 1944 in the concentration camp of Flossenbürg. 

Defendant of the charges 1 and 2. 

He was acquitted. 

- Baldur von Schirach, the former head of the Hitler Youth and the governor of the district of Vienna. 

Defendant of the charges 1 and 4. 

He was convicted of the indictment 4 to 20 years in prison. 

- Arthur Seyss-Inquart, lawyer, governor of the Reich for the occupied territories in the Netherlands. 

Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

He was convicted of the charges 2, 3 and 4 to death. 

- Albert Speer, architect, Reich Minister for armaments and ammunition. 

Defendant of the charges 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

He was convicted of the charges 3:04 to 20 years in prison. 

- Julius Streicher, an elementary school teacher, propagandist of the persecution of the Jews. He founded in 1923 the weekly "Der Stürmer" which remained the owner and director until 1945. 

Defendant of the charges 1 and 4. 

He was convicted of the indictment 4 to death. 

All these men were accused both individually and as members of groups and organizations mentioned above. 

The Nuremberg trials, however, was an orphan of the major protagonists of that gruesome period: Hitler, Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, had committed suicide, Martin Bormann, as reported had disappeared into thin air. Same thing for the general Heinrich Muller, head of the Gestapo, while Adolf Eichmann, one of the leaders of the "Final Solution", was arrested in Argentina and executed in Israel in 1962. 

All those sentenced to death were hanged, except that Goring was able to commit suicide with cyanide before execution.

Nuremberg Trials

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        October 2nd 1946 

The Nuremberg trial proceedings have finally come to an end yesterday, almost one year after the beginning of the lawsuit.

Divided in three different phases, the proceedings started on the 20^th of November 1945.

During the first part of the trial the prosecutors presented several documents to prove the Nazi conspiracy, the acquiring of totalitarian control in Germany, the foreign aggression (despite the decisions made with the Treaty of Versailles ), war crimes and crimes against humanity (among them, deportation for slave labor and for other purposes of the civilian populations of and in occupied territories, killing of hostages), crimes against peace.

The second part of the proceedings started on the 13^th of March, with the testimony of Herman Goering, one of the most important Defendant since he is considered to be the second most relevant personality of the Third Reich, after Adolf Hitler and together with Josef Goebbels.

                         

Herman Goering   

Josef Goebbels

                                                                                                       

The testimonies of all the Defendants (except for Rudolf Hess, who refused to testify) ended on the 28^th of June, with the deposition of Hans Fritzsche.

All the defendants claimed they were not to be held responsible for all the 
crimes listed above because they were just executing general orders and that the only responsible was in fact Adolf Hitler. They maintained the absolute not guilty of the Army, but this claim has not been accepted from the prosecutors.

Hans Fritzsche  in Nuremberg

                       

Rudolf Hess

                                                         

The third phase of the trial was that of the closing speech for the prosecution. Really impressive was the prosecutor Jackson’s address by counsel, whose last sentence was “if you were to say of these men that they are not guilty, it would be as true to say that there has been no war, there are no slain, there has been no crime”.

Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson

   

Finally, yesterday at 2.50 pm the pronunciation of the sentences:

Defendant Hermann Wilhelm Goering:  death by hanging.

Defendant Rudolf Hess:  imprisonment for life.

Defendant Joachim von Ribbentrop: death by hanging.

Defendant Wilhelm Keitel:  death by hanging.

Defendant Ernst Kaltenbrunner:  death by hanging.

Defendant Alfred Rosenberg: death by hanging.

Defendant Hans Frank:  death by hanging.

Defendant Wilhelm Frick:  death by hanging.

Defendant Julius Streicher: death by hanging.

Defendant Walther Funk: imprisonment for life

Defendant Karl Doenitz: ten years imprisonment.

Defendant Erich Raeder: imprisonment for life.

Defendant Baldur von Schirach: twenty years imprisonment.

Defendant Fritz Sauckel:  death by hanging.

Defendant Alfred Jodl: death by hanging.

Defendant Arthur Seyss-Inquart: death by hanging.

Defendant Albert Speer: twenty years imprisonment.

Defendant Konstantin von Neurath:  fifteen years imprisonment.

Defendant Martin Bormann: death by hanging.

Defendants Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen and Hans Fritzsche: acquittal.

It is important to underline that that the Soviet member of theTribunal dissented from the decisions in the cases of the Defendants Schacht, von Papen and Fritsche. He believes they were to be convicted and not aquitted. He also dissented from the decision in the case of the Defendant Hess (he wanted for him a death sentence) and from the decisions in respect of the Reichs Cabinet, the General Staff and High Command: in his opinion, they were to be declared to be criminal organization.

Left to right: Alexander Volchkov, Iona Nikitchenko (Soviet judges), Norman Birkett (British judge)

Justice is finally made. But, is this real justice? Is it correct that we only proceed against the Nazi criminals, or should we proceed against all those who committed atrocities during the war, even if they are among the winners of this war? This sentences will be long discussed.

We went out in the city to ask some German what they think about this sentences. Do they agree with the decisions of the Court? Are they in favor of the Tribunal? Do they think that justice is made?

Well, we really wanted to ask all this questions but no one accepted to talk to us, even to listen to us. They all seemed too busy, or too afraid, to stop. Why? As we noticed in the past few months, German people are not too willing to speak of World War II, Nazi crimes and human rights violation. Are they trying to forget? Is it too hard for them to analyze this situation?

Maybe in the future, when the attention will not be on Germany any longer, they will help us understand how they feel. But for now, they want to be left alone.