https://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/transcripts/7?seq=1
The Pittsburgh Press (November 20, 1945)
‘HITLER GANG’ ON TRIAL
Four-power tribunal sits at Nuernberg
Two of defendants tried in absentia
By Frederick C. Oechsner, United Press staff writer
NUERNBERG (UP) – Twenty-four fallen leaders of the Nazi regime went on trial before a United Nations tribunal today and listened uneasily to a shocking indictment holding them directly responsible for the death and misery of World War II.
The trial that for the first time in history sought to prove aggressive warfare a crime against all mankind opened in an atmosphere of grim, cold legality in Nuernberg’s ancient Palace of Justice.
Twenty-two men were on trial, all top figures in the Nazi hierarchy that overawed Europe for a decade. But two were being judged in absentia – the ailing Ernst Kaltenbrunner and the missing Martin Bormann.
Reads indictment
Sidney S. Alderman of Washington, of the American prosecuting staff, began the reading of the 25,000-word indictment shortly after the hearings opened at 10:03 a.m. (4:03 a.m. ET).
He spoke slowly and deliberately as he read off the first of the four principal accounts in the indictment – that charging the accused men of plunging the world into war.
He was followed to the dais by members of the British, French and Russian prosecution staffs, who intoned the succeeding passages of the indictment for the benefit of the four presiding justices and the jittery defendants.
Prepare motion
After the reading of the lengthy indictment and three appendices detailing the charges, the court adjourned.
Defense lawyers for the accused Nazis, acting as a committee, prepared a motion for presentation today, protesting the charge of violation of international law.
The defense motion charges that international law did not exist at the time of the alleged crimes.
The defendants themselves appeared to be the most interested men in the courtroom. They followed the reading of the indictment with rapt attention over their earphones attached to their bench.
Hermann Goering, the No. 1 defendant, twisted uneasily in his front row seat. From time to time, he leaned over to whisper something to his bench mate, Rudolf Hess, and occasionally an inane grin twitched across his fat face.
Sit near Goering
He nodded several times as Mr. Alderman traced the illegal development of the German Air Force under his direction in the pre-Munich days when Nazi Germany was secretly arming for war against the world.
The Russian prosecutors sat almost within arms’ reach of Goering, but they ignored him studiously.
The yellow-faced Hess beside him was more impassive throughout, clinging stubbornly to his claim that he remembered nothing of the Hitler era in which he played so large a part.
He spoke occasionally to Goering and Joachim von Ribbentrop. But for the most part he maintained an air of cold aloofness from his fellow Nazis and his judges alike.
Hess stared grimly at the wall when the indictment enumerated the mass murders carried out by the Nazis in their bid for mastery of Europe. Goering’s eyes dropped to the floor, and Franx von Papen merely cupped his chin in his hand in an academic manner as if he personally were not involved.
Laughs derisively
Hjalmar Schacht, branded as the financial brains behind the Hitler facade, laughed derisively when the French prosecutor read off that section of the indictment dealing with the murders and mass deportations.
Julius Streicher leaned forward in his seat one hand on his hip and surveyed the courtroom arrogantly.
The accused men took a lively interest in the proceedings, craning their necks to inspect each new arrival, fiddling with the translating devices on their chairs, and conferring animatedly with their counsel.
Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Col. Gen. Alfred Gustav Jodl and Ribbentrop engaged in heated conversation as the afternoon session got underway. They appeared to be angry about something. Schacht listened to them with a detached air and Hess stared vacantly into space.
The trial was opened formally by the four presiding justices: Francis J. Biddle, American; Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, British; Maj. Gen. Iona T. Nikitchenko, Russian, and Henri Donnedieu de Vabres, French.
Outlines purposes
Mr. Lawrence outlined the purposes of the tribunal and recited the history of this precedent-making case that for the first time in human annals establishes aggressive war as a crime against humanity.
“The tribunal has heard with satisfaction the steps taken by the prosecution to aid defense counsel make possible a just defense,” Mr. Lawrence said.
“This trial is unique in the judicial history of the world. It is a solemn responsibility of all involved to discharge their duties without fear or favor.”
He reminded the crowded room that he would insist on order at all times.
Then the British justice ordered the indictment to be read.
Three of the original 24 defendants were missing from the trial through suicide or sickness.
A fourth, former deputy Nazi Party Leader Bormann, was being tried in absentia, despite the partially confirmed belief that he died with his master, Adolf Hitler, in the ruins of Berlin.
To plead madness
Two others, the beetle-browed Hess and the viciously anti-Semitic Streicher, apparently hoped to escape the scaffold by pleading madness. Their plea was expected to be ruled on immediately after the court opening.
The accused were hustled under heavy guard from their cells in the Nuernberg prison across the street and up into the flood-lit trial room in a specially built private elevator.
Each man bore a prominent identifying number across his chest.
The indictment demanded death for all of the accused on four principal counts:
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That they took part in a general conspiracy which involved crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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That the defendants and many other Nazi leaders now dead or hiding led the German nation into a war of aggression in violation of Germany’s treaty obligations.
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That they committed war crimes directly or indirectly.
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That they directly committed crimes against humanity.
To rule on pleas
The judges were to rule on Hess’ insanity plea; a motion for a mental examination of Streicher: the Franco-Russian request for trial of Alfried Krupp in place of his aged and ailing father Gustav, and the status of Kaltenbrunner, who suffered a hemorrhage in his cell Sunday night.
Physicians believed it would be at least three weeks before Kaltenbrunner could appear in court, and it was expected that the trial would go ahead without him until that time.
Gustav Krupp was regarded as too sick ever to stand trial for his role in the building of Nazi Germany’s war machine. But all four prosecutors appeared to be in agreement on trying his son, Alfried, at a later date, along with a group of other German industrialists.
Who’s who among defendants
NUERNBERG (UP) – Here is the list of defendants in the Nuernberg war guilt trial:
- Martin Bormann, one-time No. 2 Nazi, in absentia (may be dead)
- Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz
- Dr. Hans Frank, Nazi ruler of Poland
- Dr. Wilhelm Frick, “protector” of Bohemia and Moravia
- Hans Fritzsche, editor and propagandist
- Dr. Walther Funk, economics specialist and Reichsbank head
- Reichsmarshal Herman Goering
- Rudolf Hess, once Hitler’s heir-apparent
- Col. Gen. Alfred Gustav Jodl, chief of staff of the German Army
- Lt. Gen. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the Nazi Security Police (who suffered a slight brain hemorrhage on the eve of the trial)
- Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel
- Constantin von Neurath, former foreign minister
- Franz von Papen, top Nazi diplomat and World War I spy
- Grand Adm. Erich Raeder
- Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi foreign minister
- Dr. Alfred Rosenberg, ideological leader
- Fritz Sauckel, SS and SA general
- Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, Nazi fiscal wizard
- Baldur von Schirach, Nazi youth leader
- Dr. Albert Speer, Nazi armaments director
- Julius Streicher, Jew-baiter
The Evening Star (November 20, 1945)
War trial opens at Nuernberg with 22 Nazis as defendants; indictment reading takes day
Arraignment is due tomorrow; Hess is present in court
By Daniel De Luce, Associated Press foreign correspondent
NUERNBERG (AP) – A score of gloomy Nazis sat dejectedly today before the International War Crimes Tribunal and heard themselves formally accused of Nazi war crimes, the murder of 10,000,000 Europeans, plunder, horror and torture.
Throughout the opening session of the trial for their lives, 20 Hitlerian followers, such as corpulent Hermann Goering, vague Rudolf Hess and defiant Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, listened through earphones while spokesmen of the nations which crushed their hierarchy recited crimes the world had never before witnessed. An impish grin played around Hess’ sunken mouth.
By turns prosecutors of the United States, Great Britain, France and Russia droned through the four counts of the 35,000-word indictment accusing the last of the leading Nazis of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, actual commission of crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Although only 20 Nazis were present, two others – Martin Bormann, Hitler’s deputy, who is being tried in absentia, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who suffered a brain hemorrhage Sunday night – are defendants.
The only ones of the original 24 Nazis now missing from the list of defendants are Robert Ley, Labor Front boss, who committed suicide, and Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, former head of the great German armaments firm, who is suffering from softening of the brain and whom the court has removed from the indictment.
Charges against Kaltenbrunner were read despite his absence in the hospital. He was nearing the end of the critical period of his illness tonight, and doctors said he would be hospitalized for a month. The court must decide whether Kaltenbrunner will be tried in absentia or reindicted for later trial.
Arraignment tomorrow
Even the appendices containing individual charges against the 22 defendants were read, meaning that the men who terrorized Europe only a year ago could not be arraigned until tomorrow. Opening statements by the prosecution will follow.
The Nazis sometimes sat with earphones clasped on to hear translations in German piped to them as the prosecutors read in English, French and Russian. Robed attorneys sat beside them.
What disposition the tribunal would make of the reports of alienists on Hess’ mental condition had yet to be announced. But the former Hitler deputy seemed at moments almost frivolous as the proceedings got underway.
The black-gowned defense attorneys listened intently to every word that was spoken, but their clients, as strangely garbed as a cast of beggars in an opera, exhibited varying emotions.
Deeds of Reich recounted
The Nazi defendants were dressed in simple uniforms without medals or insignia of rank or in simple civilian suits donated from charity stores.
The defendants listened as lurid deed after lurid deed of the Third Reich was reconstructed in English.
British Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence, presiding, told the defendants that Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and France had been entrusted with the punishment of war criminals, adding: “This trial which is about to begin is unique in the history of jurisprudence and in importance to people all over the world.”
Justice Lawrence then ordered the reading of the indictment.
Sidney S. Alderman, assistant to the chief American prosecutor, Justice Robert H. Jackson, opened the proceedings by reading a condensed version. His voice trembled with nervousness.
The defendants stared during the lengthy reading. Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Keitel and Alfred Rosenberg listened without using the translators’ earphones provided for each man on trial.
Goering, his fat countenance exhibiting bored composure, soon removed his headphones. Grand Adm. Erich Raeder and Walther Funk, former Reichsbank president, continued to use the American translating device.
The prosecution tables were crowded. Justice Jackson sat at the head of the United States delegation. Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe headed Britain’s delegation while Col. Yuri Pokrovsky and Charles Dubost were sitting as temporary chief prosecutors for Russia and France.
At Mr. Alderman’s mention of anti-Jewish fulminations during the pre-war period by Rosenberg, that defendant hurriedly replaced his earphones. Julius Streicher, No. 1 Nazi Jew baiter, sat bolt upright when he was named in the indictment.
Goering nodded with emphasis when the prosecutor recalled his announcement of 10 years ago that Germany was building a military air force.
Finish of first count
Mr. Alderman concluded the reading of the first count of the indictment with these words:
“The defendants with divers other persons are guilty of a common plan of conspiracy for accomplishment of crimes against peace – against humanity – war crimes not only against armed forces of their enemies but also against nonbelligerent civilian populations.”
After the British prosecutor read the five paragraphs of count 2 – titled “Crimes Against Peace” – the court recessed for 15 minutes.
Through the reading of the counts Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Hitler’s trigger man in the 1938 seizure of Austria, stared blankly through thick lensed spectacles as his role in the Nazi pre-war scheming for power was unfolded.
A German attorney disclosed that Goering’s counsel, on behalf of the entire defense group, intended to offer a joint declaration challenging the jurisdiction of the international court. This was expected after the indictment reading was completed and the defendants had entered pleas.
Goering persisted in outgesturing his Nazi cronies and in retaining the courtroom’s interest. He leaned forward to kibitz over the shoulder of a German lawyer.
When Dubost started reading the third count of the marathon indictment, the former reichsmarshal was having trouble with his earphones. Finally he took them off and leaned forward, hand in chin, while the Frenchman droned on, reading the long atrocity count.
The rest of the defendants merely looked bored.
Hess, toward the end of the morning session, started a long and animated conversation with Ribbentrop. Goering, sitting next to them, ignored both.
The defendants exhibited their greatest solemnity while a portion of the indictment was read describing the murder of millions of Nazi victims in Europe.
Even Hans Frank, whom the Poles called “the Butcher” while he was ruling their land, sat with his chin resting on his chest and with his earphones clasped to his ears. Earlier, he had smiled frequently while gazing around the courtroom.
Among those attending the opening session were Lt. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott, commander of the Third Army, and Sen. Claude Pepper (D-Florida).
Goering’s appetite keen
During the recess for lunch, the defendants remained in the court and ate heartily from American Army mess kits. Goering’s appetite was particularly keen.
When the court was cleared, the Nazis leaped up and began shaking hands with each other enthusiastic ally. Though many had occupied adjoining cells for months, solitary confinement had restricted their conversations and many were able io exchange words for the first time since reaching Nuernberg.
Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, former Reichsbank president, engaged Albert Speer, Reichsminister for Production in lively banter, commenting: “I have read the indictment so many times myself that if they read it in court just once more. I’ll have it memorized.”
The Nazis talked animatedly with their lawyers just before court resumed.
Keitel and Col. Gen. Gustav Jodl, formed chief of the general staff and Hitler’s military adviser, stood in neatly pressed uniforms. Dr. Franz Exner of Munich University, Jodl’s counsel, wore a purple robe.
Third count completed
Early in the afternoon session the French completed reading the third count of the indictment, recounting Nazi conscription of foreign labor, brutal Germanization of occupied territories, the killing of hostages and the plunder of public and private properties.
The deputy Soviet prosecutor then started reading the fourth count – “crimes against humanity.”
The Red Army colonel, in khaki tunic and blue trousers, spoke with a classroom singsong into the microphone.
Doenitz, his craggy face impassive, was the only Nazi who seemed to remain entirely oblivious to the Russian prosecutor. The charges in his case concern activities on the high seas against the Western Allies.
After the fourth count had been read, Mr. Alderman then read Appendix A, stipulating individual crimes charged to the defendants.
Goering shook his head negatively and smiled wanly when Mr. Alderman described him as an SS general. But he nodded at allegations: “He promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators and the consolidation of their control over Germany.”
Hess, when named, sucked in his thin lips, turned to Ribbentrop and muttered. Afterward he seemed to be almost smiling. His deep-socketed eyes glittered under black shaggy brows.
Bormann’s misdeeds were read out, although he has been missing since the battle of Berlin.
The American prosecutor also read charges against Robert Ley, the Nazi labor chief, who hanged himself in the Palace of Justice jail after writing a treatise saying Germany had blundered by persecuting the Jews.
Despite the removal of Gustav Krupp from the indictment list last week, Mr. Alderman also read the allegations of his transgressions. The aged munitions and steel magnate was excused from trial because of senile softening of the brain.
Mr. Alderman finished Appendix A, and without pause read Appendix B, which in general terms sought to establish the criminality of the Nazi governmental, political, police and quasi-military organizations together with the German general staff.
The court session ended officially for the day at 5:05 p.m. (11:05 a.m. EST).
Schacht glares defiantly
Hitler’s henchmen had been brought into the small, oak-paneled courtroom about 20 minutes before the opening of the trial.
Guards formed a solid phalanx for nearly a quarter of a mile around the Palace of Justice in the bomb battered city that once was the shrine of Hitlerism and now is the scene of the unprecedented trial to convict for all eternity the 12-year scourge of German aggression that sought to rule the world for a thousand years.
Before the proceedings opened, Justice Lawrence and his associate judges from the three other powers, first had to dispose of several preliminaries.
An inter-Allied psychiatric report, prepared at Soviet request, awaited the high tribunal’s acceptance. It found Streicher sane.
Recommendations on Hess
Independent reports by psychiatric commissions from each of the four powers were made before the tribunal, with recommendations concerning the ability of Hess to defend himself.
The American psychiatrists were reported to have found Hess incapable of defense and would so advise the tribunal. British alienists also were believed to have advised the tribunal that Hess’ purported amnesia rendered him incompetent at the present time. Soviet and French psychiatrists were said to have stressed that Hess’ loss of memory was a refuge sought in order to escape punishment.
Military authorities have taken every precaution to prevent any weapons or firearms from being smuggled into the courthouse.
Col. B. C. Andrus, commander of the security guard, told correspondents their typewriter cases would be subject to examination by American troops stationed inside and outside the court building. Women were told their handbags would be subject to scrutiny.
Soldiers are posted even on the roof of the court, and an American tank is stationed near the building.
High Nazis’ tension decreases on eve of beginning of trial
NUERNBERG (AP) – Relief was evident in the criminal wing at the Nuernberg jail last night as word reached the Nazi arch-criminals that the time had come for them to explain to humanity, if they could, how and why they acted that way.
Hermann Wilhelm Goering, No. 2 Nazi and former Luftwaffe chief, sat happily on the side of his bunk. He had just received word that his five-year-old daughter, Etta, had been reunited with his wife who has been under technical house arrest in Bavaria for the last seven weeks.
“That takes care of my last worry,” said the big Nazi. “I go into this trial as I always went into battle – eagerly.”
A few steps away Rudolf Hess, who has been an enigma since he flew to Scotland in a borrowed Messerschmitt four years ago, smiled wanly and commented, “I’m glad for the others. As for me, I’m different from most people in not taking life so seriously.”
Erich Raeder, grand admiral and former navy chief, who spent the first part of his captivity in Russian hands and reached Nuernberg singing the praises of his captors, turned at once to practical matters. "If my laundry doesn’t come, I’ll have to stand trial in my under wear.”
Conscience clear
A nervous Fritz Sauckel, “SS” and “SA” general, put it this way, “I didn’t kill anybody. My conscience is clear.”
Arthur Seyss-Inquart, former Nazi chancellor of Austria and later commissar for the Netherlands, sat hunched over his trial defense notes. He glances up with a wolfish grin.
“After the catastrophe and the defeat, we’ve been through I can’t think of a single thing that could possibly be less interesting or more unimportant than what happens to me,” he said.
Hans Frank, former Nazi governor of Polish territories, seemed clumsily grateful for the visit. He was very near hysteria, but held himself, “It’s all in God’s hands and I’m calmer than I’ve ever been.”
Hans Fritzsche, one-time Nazi editor and propagandist, said “after the last six months of uncertainty it’s a pleasure to get down to cases.”
Statement promised
Baldur von Schirach, who molded the Reich’s children into a sort of unholy crusade in the name οf the Fuehrer, promised a startling statement, “Their eyes will bulge.”
Then there was Julius Streicher, Nazi editor of the anti-Jewish paper Der Sturmer. He was already in bed. He climbed to his feet and bowed. “If everybody had a conscience as clear as mine, they’d sleep well, too.”
Franz von Papen, former Nazi diplomat and wartime ambassador to Turkey, tall and gaunt in his underwear, also said his conscience was clear.
Not so with Joachim von Ribbentrop, architect of Hitler’s foreign policy. “I’m unconcerned about tomorrow – but I ought to have more time to prepare my defense.”
Two who said they were relaxed and ready to face anything the prosecution might care to throw at them were Wilhelm Keitel, chief of the German high command who signed the unconditional surrender at Berlin, and Alfred Jodl, colonel-general and chief of staff of the German Army.
Rosenberg nervous
Alfred Rosenberg, director of the ideological training of the Nazi Party, justified the anxiety and strain that caused him to shift excitedly about his narrow cell saying, “It’s only human to be nervous.”
Karl Doenitz, grand admiral of the German Navy, accepted the situation complacently. He said, “I’m reconciled to the worst.”
Walther Funk, former Nazi press chief, who is ill, protested weakly against the scheduled lengthy two-and-a-half-hour morning and afternoon sessions.
Hjalmar Schacht, former Nazi economics minister, said, “I have always believed a man with a clear conscience had nothing to fear.”
The last was Constantin von Neurath, the man Ribbentrop replaced as foreign minister. “There are some hard words in the indictment. We’ll see.”
Countess sends love notes to Kaltenbrunner
NUERNBERG (AP) – An ardent love letter from a blond Prussian countess was in the hands of American authorities today for delivery to Ernst Kaltenbrunner, former Nazi chief of criminal police, who lies stricken with a brain hemorrhage.
Maj. Robert Matteson of St. Paul, Minnesota, American expert on Kaltenbrunner’s tangled marital affairs, described her as “24 years old, honey haired and with blue eyes.”
He said she was with Kaltenbrunner in a little Austrian love nest when he was arrested, and described herself as a “180 percent Nazi.”
Maj. Matteson said her love notes to Kaltenbrunner were forwarded with an appeal to Allied authorities for the right to testify in his defense.
Maj. Matteson described the young woman as being particularly scornful of Frau Kaltenbrunner, legal wife of the war crimes defendant.