The Nuremberg Trial

21

Hitler’s gang waking up as death stalks courtroom

Trial provides break in boring prison life, stimulates Nazi war criminals
By Edward P. Morgan

NUREMBERG – The 20 survivors of Hitler’s gang, staring death in the face as major Nazi war criminals, have suddenly taken a new lease on life – if only a temporary one.

“They are standing up to the rigors of the trial so far much better than we expected,” one American Army psychiatrist, who examines the prisoners daily, said.

The faces and behavior of the defendants in the courtroom today, from Hermann Goering on down, clearly reflected their stimulated interest in the proceedings. This change seems to be due largely to two things:

  • The trial provided a break in their boring prison routine. It added something new to their drab lives – new faces, new surroundings, new circumstances.

  • As the prosecution’s ponderous case is unfolded, and along with it, some of its defects, these 20 men are becoming keener on the perfection of their defense. They are seeing, to their surprise, perhaps, that the International Military Tribunal is actually giving them an ear to the objections of their counsel – a novelty which Nazi jurisprudence rarely bothered with.

The reactions of Rudolf Hess, once one of the Nazis’ most brilliant minds, have been fascinating. The day the trial opened, he sat there between Goering and Joachim von Ribbentrop, doing nothing except occasionally turning his grotesque, sunken face to gaze vacantly around the room.

Looks at chart

But yesterday when the prosecution introduced a complicated chart of the German governmental structure, he rose from the wooden bench and leaned far over the barrier of the prisoners’ dock, to look at the copy his counsel had, with the avid interest a child would have over a new toy.

More than once, he spoke to both Goering and Von Ribbentrop. Supposedly suffering from “self-induced” amnesia, he has repeatedly told interrogators that he does not know who these two former companions of his are. But Goering said later that his remarks were both lucid and relevant.

“He knew who they were, all right,” one doctor said. “He would hardly be discussing the trial or anything else with strangers.”

Not getting copies

The defense made the prosecution somewhat uncomfortable by complaining that it was not getting copies of documents which United States Chief Counsel Robert H. Jackson is introducing, virtually by the wheelbarrow-load, as evidence.

The prosecution pleaded that the job of processing was colossal and took time, but this sounded a little weak. The fact is that the prosecution’s photostatic department, even by working 24 hours a day, hasn’t got out from under.

Justice Lawrence cancelled the regular Saturday session to allow the defense to get caught up on reading and presumably this will also give the prosecution an opportunity to get its material in better shape over the weekend.

Prisoners smirk

Even when somebody mispronounces German words, there are silent smirks of satisfaction from several of the defendants.

When the court accepted the medical report that Julius Streicher was sane, the Jew-baiter beamed with smug pleasure. Afterwards he remarked that his counsel’s motion to have him examined, “was not my idea in the first place.”

Hans Fritzsche, former propagandist, told the doctors that it was particularly refreshing to see new faces and be allowed to talk to the counsel. For months, many of the defendants had talked to nobody but interrogators and jailers.

Tuesday was the first time many of them had seen each other since Germany fell, even though they live in the same jail.

22

The Evening Star (November 24, 1945)

Keitel to ask Churchill nephew to aid defense at Nuernberg

Majority of Nazi defendants plan to testify for selves; trial in recess
By Daniel De Luce, Associated Press foreign correspondent

NUERNBERG (AP) – Defense counsel announced today that a majority of the 20 Nazi leaders on trial before the International Military Tribunal would testify in their own behalf and that witnesses would be sought from Britain and the United States.

The outline of plans to combat the war crimes charges developed at a press conference of the defense attorneys. The trial was recessed over the week end after a presentation by the prosecution of documentary evidence topped by the words of Hitler ordering a war of extermination against the Poles.

Attorneys for Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, who was chief of the German high command, said a nephew of Winston Churchill and a cousin of British Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander who were once prisoners of the Germans would be asked to testify in his behalf.

Mr. Churchill’s nephew was identified as Giles Romilly, a correspondent of the London Daily Express who was captured at Narvik. Field Marshal Alexander’s cousin was identified as Capt. Michael Alexander, who was made a prisoner in Italy.

It was indicated that Keitel wished the two to swear to his interest in the welfare of Allied prisoners. Both Romilly and the captain were liberated by the Allies. Romilly broke out of Dachau a few days before American troops reached that horror camp.

Rudolf Hess’ attorney is seeking “on his own responsibility” to subpoena the Duke of Hamilton, whose estate the No. 2 deputy Fuehrer said he was seeking when he bailed out of his Messerschmitt on a mysterious flight to Scotland May 10, 1941. The attorney added that Hess, who claims amnesia, “doesn’t know anything about the Duke of Hamilton, because he can’t remember.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop, who was Hitler’s foreign minister, wishes to call the Virginia-born Lady Astor and other notables in England, including Lords Londonderry, Beaverbrook and Derby.

Schacht may call banker

Attorneys said that among the defendants who definitely would take the stand were Hans Frank, who was governor general of Poland; Hjalmar Schacht, former economics minister; Hans Fritzsche, radio propaganda chief; Wilhelm Frick, who headed the Bohemia-Moravia protectorate; Julius Streicher, No. 1 Nazi Jew-baiter; Alfred Rosenberg, party philosopher; Konstantin von Neurath, former foreign minister, and Keitel.

Schacht’s attorney said he was considering subpoenaing a former Berlin banker named Jeidels from the United States to testify that Schacht “was very helpful when he emigrated to New York.”

Frank’s counsel said he wished to summon two Polish witnesses to testify: “Frank was not responsible for the things he is charged with in the indictment, and he personally was very much interested in the Poles. The SS was responsible, not him.”

The attorney for Martin Bormann, Hitler’s missing aide who is being tried in absentia, was asked whether he was in contact with his client.

“I’m no spiritualist,” he responded, “I can’t conduct a seance.”

Court in two-day recess

Thus far the defendants, who sat today in the grim Nuernberg jail, have seen the American prosecutors produce nothing but official German documents in an effort to convict them of plotting and conducting a war of aggression.

More than 100,000 words of evidence were presented yesterday – many of them the words of Hitler telling of his plans to attack the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Britain, Poland and Russia months and in some cases years before the attacks actually took place. The court took a two-day recess to give the defense time to study the portion of the prosecution case which has been submitted since the trial opened last Tuesday.

The American prosecutors disclosed that Hitler told his generals 10 days before the invasion of Poland that he had given orders “to kill without mercy all the men, women and children of the Polish race or language.”

Hitler made this statement in a speech at Obersalzberg on August 22, 1939. A stenographic record of the address showed that the Fuehrer’s words caused the delighted Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering to leap on a table and dance “like a savage.” Pompous, heavy-jowled Goering is one of the defendants.

Promise made to Japs

Evidence also was introduced telling of a promise by Hitler to the Japanese eight months before Pearl Harbor that Germany would accept the consequences “if Japan would get involved with the United States.”

Ten captured documents were submitted by the staff of Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief American prosecutor, shortly before the close of yesterday’s session.

One of them disclosed that Hitler in May 1939 had told his general staff that Britain was the “driving force against Germany” and that he planned to slice Britain off from the remainder of Europe by cutting her food supplies. He demanded the immediate destruction of the British fleet after the outbreak of war.

Three months before the war began Hitler bluntly told his military commanders: “Declarations of neutrality must be ignored. If Holland and Belgium are successfully occupied and held, and if France is also defeated the fundamental conditions for a successful war against England will have been secured.”

Hitler’s speech on Poland, the documents revealed, was made the day before the announcement that Russia and Germany had concluded a non-aggression pact. That Hitler regarded that pact as only a temporary device was indicated in these words of his: “And besides, gentlemen, in Russia will happen just what I have practiced with Poland. After Stalin’s death – he is seriously ill – we shall crush the Soviet Union.”

Story of Matsuoka

Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka told Hitler at their meeting in April 1941 that Japan wanted to attack Singapore, but feared war with the United States, minutes of the conference disclosed.

The secret document told this story:

Matsuoka begged the Germans to share their secret weapons and told Hitler he personally favored a surprise attack on the United States. He said Japanese official circles were more cautious, but recognized that war with the United States was “inevitable.”

The foreign minister told Hitler that he had “endeavored to convince the Pope that the United States, and particularly the American president, prolonged the war in Europe and China.”

Matsuoka then was on his “peace mission” in which he signed a non-aggression treaty with Russia, called on Pope Pius and saw Hitler.

Prepared for sub war

Matsuoka told him the Japanese Army and Navy estimated that if the United States entered the war in the Pacific, the conflict would last “five years or longer and a form of guerrilla warfare” would be fought in the South Pacific.

Hitler said that if the United States came into the war, Germany was prepared “to conduct a most energetic fight against America with her U-boats and her Luftwaffe.”

Hitler agreed that war with the United States was inevitable, but said Germany and Japan should “try to eliminate one country at a time.”

23

Hitler hid attack plan by trading with Reds, trial document shows

NUERNBERG (AP) – A document submitted at the trial of 20 Nazi leaders yesterday disclosed that Hitler disguised German plans for the 1941 attack on Russia by insisting that Soviet orders for German arms be filled promptly.

The compilation written by Maj. Gen. George Thomas said that on August 14, 1940, Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering informed the Office of War Economy:

“The Fuehrer desires punctual delivery to the Russians only until the spring of 1941. Later on, we will have no further interest in completely satisfying Russian demands.”

Gen. Thomas wrote that the subterfuge worked well because “the Russians carried out their deliveries, as planned, right up to the start of the attack. Even during the last few days, transports of India rubber from the Far East were completed by express transit trains.”

The document said because the Russians were keeping up prompt deliveries of essential foods and raw materials to Germany during 1940, the Nazi high command decided to offer Russia war materials already made for the German Army.

The Germans even offered the Soviets the heavy cruiser Luetzow and patterns for artillery, tanks and other important weapons.

Gen. Thomas said Hitler confided his plans for invading Russia to the Office of War Economy in November 1940, seven months before the attack.

The office immediately prepared a vast program for seizing the Caucasian oil fields, power plants and industrial establishments intact and putting them to work swiftly for the Reich.

The ambitious program envisaged the establishment throughout Russia of communications with the Far East which would insure ample supplies of rubber, tungsten, copper, tin, asbestos and hemp.

24

Hitler intuition wasn’t working so well in 1939

NUERNBERG (AP) – Adolf Hitler, ever a claimant to prophetic and intuitional powers, made this appraisal of Russia’s strength and his own future to his generals in 1939, documents introduced before the International War Crimes Tribunal disclosed:

“Russia has the far-reaching goal, above all, of the strengthening of her position in the Baltic. Further, Russia is striving to increase her influence in the Balkans and is striving toward the Persian Gulf.

“Russia will do that which she considers to be to her benefit. At the present moment Russia has retired from internationalism. In case she renounces this, she will proceed to Pan-Slavism. It is a fact that at the present time the Russian Army is of little worth.”

Of himself, Hitler said: “I shall shrink from nothing and shall destroy everyone who is opposed to me. In the past few years, I have experienced many examples of intuition I shall stand or fall in the struggle I shall never survive the defeat of my people.”

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The Pittsburgh Press (November 25, 1945)

Nazis claim secret dealings

NUERNBERG (UP, Nov. 24) – Nazi Germany’s indicted war leaders may stake their lives on a sensational claim that they had secret dealings with Lady Nancy Astor’s British Cliveden Set in the Munich appeasement era, counsel for the accused men indicated today.

The Virginia-born Lady Astor was named as one of scores of prominent British political figures who “probably” will be summoned to Nuernberg by the defense to testify for Hermann Goering and his 19 fellow prisoners.

From their testimony, the defendants obviously hoped to extract a story of Anglo-German intrigue and whitewash their own actions in the final tense months before World War II.

Lady Astor, who retired from Commons last summer after 25 years in British politics, repeatedly has dented that she and the small group of Conservatives who met at her Cliveden country home before the war were working for appeasement of Nazi Germany.

Mentioned with her as a possible involuntary defense witness was Lord Beaverbrook, one of ex-Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s closest political advisers.

Spokesmen for the American prosecution staff said, when they learned of the defense plans, that the four-power court at Nuernberg is empowered to subpoena witnesses from any of the 20 nations that signed the United Nations Charter establishing this tribunal.

Authorized spokesmen for the British and French prosecutors, however, flatly challenged the American position. They contend that the court has no authority to summon witnesses from outside the borders of occupied Germany.

The British insisted that witnesses living in the United Kingdom could testify by affidavit instead of making a personal appearance in court.

The defense lawyers took advantage of the weekend trial recess to call a press conference at which they outlined their tentative plans for defending the accused Nazi war criminals.

Seek to call physician

They revealed that most, if not all, of the defendants would testify in their own behalf.

In addition to Lord Beaverbrook and the Cliveden Set, they said they were trying to summon the Duke of Hamilton and the British physician who examined Rudolf Hess alter he parachuted down into a Scottish moor in 1940.

Hess’ counsel, Dr. Guenther von Rohrscheidt, said, however, that his client had no knowledge of his defense plans and was taking no part in them.

“Hess doesn’t know anything because he is unable to remember anything,” said Rohrscheidt.

Seeks Churchill’s kin

Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel’s attorney said he intended calling Mr. Churchill’s nephew, Giles Romilly, and the son of Field Marshal Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander, both of whom spent some time in German prison camps.

Another prospective witness was a refugee Jewish banker identified only as a Herr Jeidel, a former director of the Berliner Handelsgesellschaft. Jeidel, now reported living in New York, was wanted to testify for Hjalmar Schacht, who claimed he helped the banker escape from Germany.

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The Evening Star (November 25, 1945)

Nuernberg Nazis’ call for British and U.S. witnesses faces bars

Tribunal’s restrictions so numerous ‘Cliveden Set’ may not appear

NUERNBERG, Germany (AP, Nov. 24) – Defense attorneys said today they would call titled members of the “Cliveden Set” and other prominent Britons as witnesses in the historic war crimes trial, but it appeared they would be blocked by legal restrictions.

The lawyers for the accused Nazi leaders disclosed their plans at a press conference. It was learned authoritatively later that restrictions on bringing in foreigners as defense witnesses before the International Military Tribunal are so numerous that “big names” are almost excluded at the outset.

The defendants who planned to call British witnesses were former Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and former Deputy Fuehrer Rudolf Hess.

Von Ribbentrop’s attorney said the one-time German ambassador to London would call Lady Astor and others who used to meet in the 1930s at the Cliveden estate of Lord and Lady Astor, including Lords Beaverbrook, Londonderry and Derby.

Keitel’s attorney announced that his client would call Giles Rommily, a nephew of Winston Churchill who was captured by the Germans at Narvik, Norway, in 1940, and Capt. Michael Alexander, a cousin of Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, also a prisoner of war.

Hess’ attorney indicated he would call the Duke of Hamilton, on whose estate the former No. 3 Nazi landed when he parachuted upon Scotland in 1941, and the British physician who first examined Hess after he landed.

The procedure for bringing in foreign witnesses, an authoritative source said, entails a written request by the defense which stipulates clearly what evidence the witness is expected to give, approval of the request by Allied prosecutors and then approval by the tribunal.

Afterwards the tribunal must make a request to the government of the country where the witness is a resident. The government may either approve or deny the request. In Britain the cabinet has full power, for example, to rule that any witness shall not appear because it would “not be in the public interest.”

This objection alone would block the calling of Britons now active in public life and might block requests for former officials acquainted with British operations still classed as official secrets.

Other defendants who wish to bring in witnesses from abroad include high-collared Hjalmar Schacht, former minister of economics and president of the Reichsbank, whose attorney said he was considering subpoenaing a former Berlin banker named Jeidels, who is now in New York.

Hans Frank, former governor general of Poland, wishes to call in two Polish witnesses.

The attorneys pointed out that at present there is no means available of compelling witnesses to come to Germany, and that the tribunal has not made known how far it will go in using pressure to get witnesses to appear.

The British, it was learned, have already approved about 60 percent of the German witnesses called by the defense, the majority of them former subordinate officials. No British subjects are included.

Most will take stand

The defense attorneys said a majority of the 20 Nazi leaders who are on trial in person would testify in their own defense. Several of them replied with an emphatic “yes” when asked whether they would again challenge the tribunal’s jurisdiction.

A group defense challenge on the first day of the trial was overruled by the presiding judge, Lord Justice Sir Geoffrey Lawrence. The attorneys said their arguments to be presented in the new challenge were not yet completely formulated.

The staff of the American prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson, is exacted to complete its case next week, with the British prosecutors taking over the following week for three or four days to deal with crimes against peace. The French and Russian cases, consisting almost entirely of atrocities, will require an additional two weeks, it was estimated.

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‘Cliveden Set’ call to trial ‘absurd,’ Lady Astor says

LONDON (Nov. 24) – Lady Astor said tonight the idea that she and other members of the so-called “Cliveden Set” be called as defense witnesses at the Nuremberg war crimes trial was absurd.

The suggestion was made by former Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, one of the defendants.

Lady Astor was quoted by the British Press Association as saying Ribbentrop “has never been to Cliveden,” her country home 30 miles from London.

He was at her London home only once, she added, and then “he gave me the Nazi ‘Heil Hitler’ salute and I said ‘Stop that nonsense with me.’”

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Day 5

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The Pittsburgh Press (November 26, 1945)

1937 war plan of Hitler told

Program of conquest outlined to aides

NUERNBERG (UP) – Adolf Hitler told his military advisors in 1937 that use of force was the only way for Germany to solve her problems, and laid plans for seizing Czechoslovakia and Austria, according to evidence introduced in the war crimes trial today.

At a secret meeting in the Reich Chancellery on November 10 that year, the American prosecution said, Hitler delivered to his aides what he called his “last will and testament.” In it he outlined his plans for military conquest, basing everything on a propaganda claim for “living space.”

Goering present

At the conference the groundwork was laid for preparation of plans to seize Austria and Czechoslovakia. This led to preparation of what was called “Plan Green” for a lightning blitz of Czechoslovakia which was to be touched off by an incident. The assassination of the Nazi ambassador at Prague was suggested as the incident, but finally was rejected.

Present at the meeting in 1937, according to the minutes introduced as evidence, were Hermann Goering, Adm. Erich Raeder, Gen. Werner von Fritsch, Constantin von Neurath and Gen. Werner von Blomberg.

The transcription of their discussion, considered by the Americans as a particularly damning piece of evidence, is known as the Hossbach note, named for the colonel who took the notes.

Sidney Alderman, assistant U.S. prosecutor, charged that Germany and her leaders were responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor. He based his charge on the minutes of Hitler’s conference with Jap Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka in April 1940 at which Hitler promised full German support in event of a Jap-U.S. war.

Encouraged Japan

Mr. Alderman said that Hitler’s promise to declare war on the United States the moment hostilities opened in the Pacific had encouraged Japan to make the Pearl Harbor attack.

M: Alderman presented minutes of a secret conference at the Reich Chancellery on May 23, 1939, attended by Goering and top military commanders, at which Hitler warned that war with Britain “would be a life and death struggle.”

The war crimes tribunal gave Hjalmar Schacht, Nazi financial wizard, permission to call witnesses in an attempt to prove that he tried to overthrow Hitler in July 1944.

Grant requests

Most of the 20 war crimes defendants were granted requests for witnesses and documents to be produced in their behalf.

Schacht was given permission to call two witnesses to testify to his 1938 efforts to overthrow Hitler and to call a Nazi Air Force colonel, named Gronav to tell of the part Schacht allegedly played in the abortive July 1944 conspiracy. The Nazi financial expert also was allowed to call Reichsbank Director Kietz Schmann to tell of his opposition to the persecution of Jews and other witnesses to tell how he opposed Nazi rearmament.

Counsel for Joachim von Ribbentrop said that they were considering asking the tribunal to cull Foreign Commissar V. M. Molotov and “a certain Russian general” to testify in Ribbentrop’s defense.

They said they wanted Molotov to testify concerning Russo-German relations in the period between the signing of the non-aggression pact in August 1939, and the German attack on Russia, June 22, 1941.

Counsel for Rudolf Hess was given permission to produce the letter Hess left behind for Hitler before he made his famous flight to Britain. He also was given permission to present the report on Hess submitted to the House of Commons by former Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and to call Herman Goering to testify regarding his behavior before he flew to Britain.

This testimony apparently would be designed to show that Hess’ mental condition has not been normal for some years.

Hess was seized by a severe case of stomach cramps during the testimony and had to be led, groaning, from the courtroom. His attorney said he would ask later today for the medical committee’s report on Hess’ condition.

Won’t call Lindbergh

Russian representation on the prosecution staff was strengthened greatly by the arrival of Vice Commissar of Foreign Affairs Andrei Y. Vishinsky and the chief prosecutor, Gen. Roman A. Rudenko.

Rudenko, who has been ill in Moscow, appeared in good health and chatted with Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief American prosecutor.

Reports that Col. Charles A. Lindbergh would be called as a defense witness for Goering were denied today by Goering’s attorney, Otto Stahmer.

The American prosecution of the first count of the four-part indictment will be concluded this week. The British will begin presenting their part of the case, charging the defendants with violating treaty obligations, on December 3.

31

Plot or desperation seen in Nazi request for Allied witnesses

War criminals can’t gain much but could sow disunity with claims about Russia
By Carl D. Groat, Scripps-Howard staff writer

NUERNBERG, Germany (SHS) – Is it a Nazi plot, or is it simply desperation that prompts the request of Joachim von Ribbentrop and Rudolf Hess that prominent Britons and Americans be summoned as defense witnesses in their trial here?

Failure of the move as a help to the defendants is foreseen.

If the request for foreign witnesses is a plot, its purpose could be to sow differences or embarrassment among the Allies.

For instance, should testimony indicate that some Britons and Americans welcomes Germany’s role as a barrier or destroyer of Russia, that might abrade Russian feelings. A mere launching of the idea already has stirred Britons to resist the summonses as incompatible to British interests.

Must prove relevancy

Before the tribunal agrees to such a program, however, the defendants must prove the relevancy of their anticipated testimony.

Dinner-table gossip of the Cliveden Set in England is scarcely ground for Germany’s aggressive warfare.

Some persons’ advocacy of Germany as a barrier to Russia wouldn’t condone the atrocities and inhumanities the Nazis perpetrated. One German counsel told the writer that the claim of self-defense is scarcely foreseeable. Any attempt by Ribbentrop to clear his skirts by claiming he wanted Anglo-American rapprochement likewise offers no excuse for Germany’s deeds.

Weakest cases

Meanwhile, it was learned that perhaps the weakest cases are against Adm. Karl Doenitz and Jew-baiter Julius Streicher.

Streicher obviously is an extremely foul person with his pornographic anti-Semitic paper, Der Stuermer, but compared with the others he is described as small potatoes.

Doenitz is seen as conceivably able to prove that he was not a top conspirator but largely an administrator of strictly naval policies.

General’s defense

The lawyer for Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel told this writer that he will claim that at least prior to 1938 Keitel was merely executing an expansion program that envisaged an armed force even smaller than the then existing neighboring forces.

He contends obedience is ingrained in Germans, hence top commanders necessarily must heed state orders and shouldn’t be held accountable for misdeeds far down in ranks.

Incidentally, lay observers might be surprised at the sympathy Allied military officials have for the theme that commanders shouldn’t be held responsible for military acts which they perforce are pledged to perform.

Forestalls claims

Defense lawyers also plan to reiterate the earlier claim that the court lacks jurisdiction. The speech of the American prosecutor, Justice Robert H. Jackson, took pains to forestall such claims.

It is understood that Justice Jackson will rely considerably on the thesis that Germany pledged in the Kellogg and other pacts to avoid war. Justice Jackson and his colleagues seem anxious to satisfy the world of the fairness of their procedure, without legalistic pinpricking.

If the world approves what is done here, they’ll think the grueling job has been worthwhile particularly if it sets a yardstick to scare off aggressors from a future war.

The Evening Star (November 26, 1945)

d.thompson

ON THE RECORD —
The opening of the War Crimes Tribunal

By Dorothy Thompson

Justice Jackson’s opening of the prosecution, before the War Crimes Tribunal, is on a high level of pleading. He is aware that “unfortunately” the “nature of the crimes is such that prosecution and judgment must be by victors over vanquished.” The prosecution is ex post facto – the accused being tried for what was dubiously illegal in international law when committed.

But Justice Jackson bases his case on natural law, and the state of public consciousness and conscience. Much law has been judge-made. The conscience of mankind is against aggressive war. This universal sense that aggressive war is a crime must, he argues, become law by establishing the precedent that individuals who conspire and assist to make it shall be held personally responsible.

“Only persons commit crimes.” Justice Jackson elevates his case by saying, “While this law is first applied against German aggressors, the law includes, and… must condemn aggression by any other nation, including those who sit in judgment.”

I am not impressed in this case by arguments against ex post facto law. Sometime, somewhere, a supreme tribunal must fix responsibility for acts committed in the name of states that were they private would send any man to the gallows. It is precisely because these trials should create a new law for the conduct of nations that it is of supreme importance that they be conducted with the most exact justice. There is, therefore, a dismaying paragraph in Justice Jackson’s indictment:

“If these defendants should succeed for any reason in escaping the condemnation of this tribunal… those who are American-held prisoners will be delivered up to our continental Allies.”

This is judgment in advance of the hearing. It throws doubt on the jurisdiction of the tribunal itself. In the dock sit heterogeneous individuals, separately charged, and with various degrees of innocence or guilt. Anglo-Saxon justice is based on the assumption that every man is innocent until proved guilty, and no state based on law condemns the accused in advance of trial. Revolutionary “people’s tribunals” do, but civilized men recognize this as “lynch law.”

What Justice Jackson says in effect is: If this jury, which is also prosecutor, fails to support its own case we will deliver these men to others who will condemn them. In that single paragraph, Justice Jackson undoes his argument, “That four great nations flushed with victory and stung with injury… voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of law is one of the most magnificent tributes that power ever has paid to reason.”

One of the most impressive parts of Justice Jackson’s indictment deals with crimes against humanity – forced labor, systematic extermination of races, and subjection of established human and legal rights to the single criterion of the Nazi program. Justice Jackson includes among the victims the German people themselves.

But the weakness in this part of the indictment is that the crimes are indicated only as a feature of aggressive war.

Actually, they were not committed for the purposes of war, but as part of the German “revolution.” Had the Nazis never gone to war, they would have exterminated the Jews. And had they successfully spread the Nazi revolution outside their borders, they would not have needed war.

These persons stand accused of the attack on Austria. But the Austrian government was overthrown by fifth columnists who established a “friendly government” which invited in the German troops. This “friendly government” then put into practice the Nazi program of extermination of dissenters.

If these trials condemn only crimes against humanity committed in the prosecution of aggressive war between nations, they will offer no future guarantee against such crimes. If the ears of the judges are sensitively attuned, they may hear the cries of suffering humanity from all quarters of the globe, and from countless graves into which men have been shoveled, not only because they were racial inferiors, but because they were bourgeois, or Trotskyists, or ideological deviationists or – at present – merely German.

The worst crimes against humanity, exactly those of which the accused are indicted, have been committed in civil wars and revolutions, domestically or externally fomented, that is how this war began – and in the future aggression in the usual sense may never occur, but only armed interventionism for or against revolutions within nations.

Thus, even if aggressive international war is established as criminal, revolutions which “make their own law” in the bloodbaths of their opponents, will still commit atrocious crimes against humanity.

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Day 6

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The Pittsburgh Press (November 27, 1945)

Poison gas ordered in 1938 by Goering

Farben made chemical, trial of Nazis told

NUERNBERG (UP) – Germany began manufacture of poison gas on a mass basis more than a year before the outbreak of war, evidence at the war crimes trial revealed today.

Orders to start turning out poison gas on a massive scale were issued by Hermann Goering on July 12, 1938, the evidence disclosed.

Production was to be started at a rate of 4,000 tons a month and to rise to a rate of 8,000 tons a month by October 1, 1940.

The evidence was in the form of a memorandum on basic facts about the German war effort written by Gen. George Thomas, former chief of the Nazi Military Economy Staff.

Given to Farben

The poison gas project was turned over to the huge I.G. Farben-Industrie chemical trust to be carried out. Thomas’ memoranda disclosed that actual production fell somewhat behind the rate ordered by Goering due to shortages of workers, machines and raw materials.

The notes did not explain why Germany failed to use poison gas during the war.

The evidence was placed before the war trials court by Sidney Alderman, assistant U.S. prosecutor.

Mr. Alderman also read into the record a speech by Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl made in late 1943 which revealed that Adolf Hitler was refusing a growing demand by many influential Germans that he try to negotiate peace with the United States, Russia and Britain.

Tells of war plans

Jodl was speaking to a special meeting of Munich party leaders in an attempt to combat the wave of defeatism in Germany.

Jodl revealed that Hitler had hoped to attack in the west in 1939 after the end of the Polish campaign, but bad weather and shortage of armaments delayed the attack.

Jodl said a German plan for an attack on Britain and occupation of the Azores and Iceland was rejected because the Germans lacked naval and air strength.

He said that Germany had counted on bringing Spain into the war and seizing Gibraltar, but that this objective “was wrecked by the resistance of the Spanish, or better say Jesuit, Foreign Minister Serrano Suner.”

Rearmed secretly

Mr. Alderman also presented from German records the story of German naval rearmament.

German naval records revealed that this effort began immediately after World War I when secret instructions were issued to sabotage the demilitarization of coastal defenses and Heligoland.

The Naval Command began to rebuild its submarine fleet under the Weimar Republic in violation of the Versailles Treaty. During this period, it was disclosed, the naval staff acted entirely independent of the central government and frequently contrary to government instructions and directives.

Mr. Alderman asserted that Jodl’s speech identified him completely with the Nazi conspirators.

The prosecution introduced a memorandum written by Hjalmar Schacht to Hitler in 1935 revealing that Germany had spent $44 million on secret armaments that year.

It also showed that Germany had built up a deficit of $240 billion between 1923 and 1935. This debt, largely due to rearmament, was being financed by using the money market for short term credits.

“All Germany’s resources must be concentrated to finance armaments.” Schacht said. He urged reduction of all other expenditures.

Medical experts have decided almost unanimously that Rudolf Hess is temporarily insane. The tribunal is expected to hand down a ruling Friday dismissing him from trial until he is cured, reliable informants said.

French, Russian and American medical reports show “complete accord” about Hess, it was understood, while the British disagree slightly on minor points.

The tribunal is expected to order Hess to submit to a narcotic treatment used in neuropsychiatric cases, combined with shock treatment. Experts believe his nervous amnesia condition can be cured in 15 to 30 days.

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nuremberg.tribunal

Day 7

35

The Pittsburgh Press (November 28, 1945)

Nazi to get testimony of high Britons

Ribbentrop wins right to obtain evidence

NUERNBERG (UP) – The War Crimes Tribunal granted today the request of Joachim von Ribbentrop for permission to obtain testimony from Lords Beaverbrook, Kemsley and Londonderry and Vansittart for use in Ribbentrop’s defense.

The court ruled that evidence would be taken from the four witnesses by deposition, but that they would be permitted to appear and testify in person if they desired.

Ribbentrop had requested that the British witnesses be subpoenaed to give testimony on his actions and policies during the years leading up to the war.

Rejects Schacht plea

The court also ruled in favor of the defense which had objected to the introduction of an affidavit given by former Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg.

The court held that either the prosecution or the defense could call Schuschnigg as a witness if they so desired.

The court rejected the plea of Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, Nazi fiscal wizard, that a former German banker named Jeidels, now in New York, be brought to Nuernberg as a witness for him.

The court acted on the requests after hearing testimony that Franz von Papen, Nazi diplomat, had boasted long before the war that the Nazis were bent on seizing all Southeast Europe and that nothing would stop them.

Affidavit presented

Allied war crimes prosecutors struck a telling blow for their conspiracy charge against Nazi leaders with presentation of an affidavit by George Messersmith, U.S. diplomat formerly stationed in Berlin and Vienna.

The Austrian seizure was presented as the first move by the Nazis to engulf the entire Balkan area.

Mr. Messersmith said Nazi leaders had maintained openly for years that they would seize Austria by “whatever means necessary.”

Von Papen, one of the Nazi defendants, grimaced wryly, his face reddened, and he wagged his head as Prosecutor Sidney Alderman read the affidavit by Mr. Messersmith, now U.S. ambassador in Mexico City.

Austria first step

Mr. Messersmith’s affidavit said regarding a meeting with von Papen: “He blandly and directly said that getting control of Austria was to be the first step. He definitely stated he was in Austria to weaken and undermine the Austrian government and to work from Vienna toward weakening the governments of other states in the south and southeast.

“He said he intended to use his reputation as a good Catholic to gain influence with certain Austrians such as Cardinal Innitzer toward that end.

“He said he was telling me this because the German government was bound to this objective of getting control of Southeastern Europe and there was nothing which could stop it, and that our own policy as well as that of France and England was not realistic.”

Saw preparations

The Germans seized Austria on March 11, 1938, after forcing Schuschnigg from office and installing the Austrian Nazi, Arthur Seyss-Inquart. Seyss-Inquart immediately requested German troops to come and “preserve order.”

As consul in Berlin from 1930 to 1934 and minister to Austria until 1937, Mr. Messersmith saw at first hand Nazi preparations to seize the country in which Hitler was born.

Medical reports submitted to the international war crimes tribunal said that Rudolf Hess has resisted all efforts to cure his amnesia and refused to undergo voluntary treatment until the trial is finished.

The reports, submitted by experts from four nations, said that Hess was suffering from hysterical amnesia but was not insane in the strict sense of the word. The report recommended treatment and said he could be cured.

36

Editorial: Keep Hermann dancing

goering.editorial

The eminent screwball, Hermann Goering, “jumped on a table in glee and danced around like a savage” one day in the middle 1930s, according to testimony before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Hermann played dervish because Hitler had just unfolded plans for war and outlined an order to “kill without mercy all men, women and children of the Polish race or language.”

Well, our G.I.’s cut in on Hermann’s dance. Now Hermann is contemplating another dance – the one at the end of a hangman’s noose. The rest of us will have to pay for that dance. Buy a Victory Bond and keep it.

37

The Evening Star (November 28, 1945)

Hess is not insane, but suffers hysteria, doctors tell court

By Daniel De Luce, Associated Press foreign correspondent

NUERNBERG (AP) – Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s onetime deputy, was described by psychiatrists today as “not insane at the present time in the strict sense of the word” and the International Military Tribunal announced that arguments would be heard Friday on the Nazi leader’s plea to escape the war crimes trial on grounds of amnesia.

The British psychiatrists’ report revealed that Hess had tried to commit suicide on several occasions since his sensational and mysterious flight to Scotland in May 1941.

Declaring that Hess was not insane, the psychiatrists conceded that his loss of memory would “interfere with his ability to make his defense.” Hess went on trial on war crime charges last week with 19 other top Nazi leaders, but has paid scant attention to proceedings, reading a novel much of the time and giggling occasionally.

Austrian fifth column

As the day’s proceedings unfolded, Franz von Papen and Arthur Seyss-Inquart were described by American prosecutors as leaders of the fifth column which paved the way for Hitler’s invasion of Austria in 1938.

American prosecutors met their first setback of the trial when the court ruled against their move to introduce an affidavit from Kurt Schuschnigg, deposed as chancellor and jailed for seven years by Hitler, in which he told of Nazi plotting against Austria.

Schuschnigg, the first of many European leaders to be called to Berchtesgaden for the Hitler treatment of intimidation and terror, may get his revenge in person, however, by appearing to testify against the Nazi leaders.

Defense contention upheld

The Austrian leader’s affidavit was made only last November 19 in Nuernberg and the tribunal upheld a defense contention that Schuschnigg should testify personally instead of by affidavit. Lord Justice Sir Geoffrey Lawrence ruled that either side could summon Schuschnigg to testify.

In a mass of government documents, letters and affidavits, the prosecution showed that Von Papen, known as Germany’s wiliest diplomat, was sent by Hitler as minister to Austria in 1934 to bring, in the diplomat’s own words, “slowly increasing pressure” against Germany’s neighbor.

Seyss-Inquart, who succeeded Schuschnigg as chancellor in the coup just before the German invasion, was described by Assistant American Prosecutor Sidney S. Alderman as “the original Quisling.” Correspondence between Austrian and German Nazi leaders was introduced to show Seyss-Inquart’s role in fomenting unrest that was evidenced in 1934 when Nazi plotters assassinated Austrian Chancellor Englebert Dollfuss.

Report on examination

Reporting on results of mental examinations. British, Russian and American psychiatrists agreed that Hess’ loss of memory was self-induced.

Hess, the medical board reported, is suffering from “hysteria” and “in addition, there is conscious exaggeration of his loss of memory and a tendency to exploit it to protect himself against examination.”

The Russian psychiatric report followed the other reports in describing Hess as hysterical, but flatly stated that his present behavior “does not exonerate him from the responsibility under the indictment.”

The Russian report revealed that Hess tried to stab himself in the heart while under detention in England.

Refused treatment

The British report recommended that “if the court decides to proceed with the trial, the question [of Hess’ sanity] should afterward be reviewed on psychiatric grounds.” The report added that Hess’ “loss of memory would not entirely interfere with his comprehension of the proceedings.”

The Russian report stated that Hess refused to undergo treatment for his amnesia and told a doctor on November 15 that he would “take all measures to cure his amnesia only upon completion of the trial.”

Referring to Hess’ flight to the British Isles to offer peace proposals to Britain, the British report said: “Partly as a reaction to the failure of his mission these abnormalities [delusions he was being poisoned] got worse and led to suicidal attempts.”

Early schemes on Austria

As today’s session opened, the prosecution presented evidence from an American diplomat that the Nazis schemed from their earliest days of power to absorb Austria.

The charge that Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering and others of the 20 now in court openly spoke of annexing Austria to the Reich was made in an affidavit by George S. Messersmith, former American minister to Austria and now ambassador to Mexico.

Hitler’s lightning invasion of Austria in March 1938 represented the “flowering of the fifth column,” declared Mr. Alderman, who declared that the Fuehrer’s plans for acquisition of the country were shown on the first page of “Mein Kampf.”

“From the beginning of the Nazi government, I was told by high and secondary government officials in Germany that incorporation of Austria into Germany was a political and economic necessity and that this incorporation was going to be accomplished by ‘whatever means were necessary,’’ Mr. Messersmith stated in his affidavit.

Affidavit challenged

The introduction of Mr. Messersmith’s affidavit was challenged by German defense counsel, who contended the diplomat should appear in person to testify, rather than file a statement. Lord Justice Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, presiding, ruled that the affidavit would be accepted and that Mr. Messersmith could be called personally later if the court decided his presence was needed.

Justice Lawrence declared that the four-power tribunal should conduct the trial with the most expeditious procedure and should not be bound by ordinary rules of evidence.

Mr. Messersmith said in his affidavit that Germany kept several thousand troops on the Austro-German border as a constant threat and asserted that high Nazis had admitted that they instigated “waves of terroristic acts” in Austria in mid-1933 and early 1934.

At Mr. Messersmith’s mention of Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz as one of the German leaders who had talked with him of Austrian Anschluss, the former German Navy chief’s counsel rose and declared that Doenitz had not been acquainted with Mr. Messersmith. The counsel, Capt. Otto Kranzbuehler, was ordered by the court to make his objection later.

38

Donovan quits post at Nuernberg trial

NUERNBERG (AP) – Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief American prosecutor at the war crimes trial, announced today that Maj. Gen. William J. Donovan, his associate in preparation for the trial of 20 Nazi leaders, was leaving the prosecution staff to return to law practice in New York.

Justice Jackson said Gen. Donovan, former chief of the Office of Strategic Services, had advised him “some time ago” of intentions to rejoin the legal firm of Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Lumbard in New York before Christmas.

Gen. Donovan planned a 10-day tour of European countries before his return.

39

nuremberg.tribunal

Day 8

40

The Evening Star (November 29, 1945)

Nuernberg defendants sobered by films of concentration camps

By Wes Gallagher, Associated Press foreign correspondent

NUERNBERG (AP) – Ghastly scenes of Nazi concentration camps were shown in motion pictures today to the International Military Tribunal, but some of the Hitlerite leaders on trial sat with averted eyes during the showing of the grim film record of German cruelty.

The grisly pictures of mass murder sobered Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering and others of the score of defendants who had grinned and laughed earlier as an American prosecutor disclosed the threats, bluffs and deceit with which Hitler softened up Austria for an unopposed invasion.

Schacht refuses to look

Hjalmar Schacht, Hitler’s “financial wizard,” sat with his back to the screen, refusing to look at the official American Army film. Franz von Papen, once Germany’s wiliest diplomat, refused to glance at the screen, but could not shut out the sound of the narrator’s voice describing the deaths of thousands of Nazi victims.

On the other hand, Rudolf Hess showed an interest in the trial for the first time. Hitler’s one-time deputy, who is trying to escape from the trial on a plea of lost memory, followed the uncensored film closely, on a plea of lost memory, followed the uncensored film closely.

Goering also watched the screen intently.

Aloof, Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz, German Navy commander in chief, glanced at the screen only occasionally.

Austrian war plotted

The earlier part of the day was taken up with German Army plans for a “surprise war” against Austria and Nazi fifth-column plots leading to German invasion of the little country in 1938.

Not-too-happy Goering was described as the man who directed by telephone the blitz invasion of Austria after Austrian Nazis paved the way by deposing Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg.

Goering became serious as Assistant American Prosecutor Sidney S. Alderman read in detail transcripts of telephone conversations between Goering and Austrian Nazis on the days before and on the days of the unopposed invasion.

The records were found in the ruins of the Berlin Air Ministry Building by Associated Press correspondent Dan de Luce and given to the prosecution for evidence.

Many of the telephone conversations were with Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian Nazi leader and one of Goering’s fellow defendants. The prosecution said the records clearly disclosed Nazi plotting to absorb Austria into the Reich.

Transcriptions of the telephone conversations disclosed Goering succeeded in having Seyss-Inquart installed as Austria’s chancellor by threats and dictated the telegram in which German troops were invited by Seyss-Inquart into Austria in the Anschluss coup.

The reichsmarshal laughed and most of the other top Nazis in the prisoners’ box seemed amused as the prosecution read off in Goering’s words the threats, bluffs, cajoleries and lies that resulted in the down fall of Austria.

At the height of the pre-Anschluss scheming, Goering gave Austrian President Wilhelm Miklas just two hours in which to appoint Seyss-Inquart as chancellor, threatening to send 240,000 German troops pouring over the border if he refused. The troops marched anyway, after Seyss-Inquart – described by Mr. Alderman as “the original Quisling” – invited them in “to prevent bloodshed.”

Quoting Goering’s threat to court-martial Austrians who opposed the invading German troops, Mr. Alderman added: “It is interesting to note that Goering, on planning to invade a peaceful power, planned to try what he called war criminals before a German court-martial.”

Goering shook his head in disagreement when Mr. Alderman said the German government was worried about Italy’s reaction.

The prosecutor pointed out to the court the cynical discrepancies and “international double talk” between Goering’s open threats to the Austrian government and his telephoned statement the day after the Anschluss to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, who at the time was in London, that “This story we had given an ultimatum is just foolish gossip.”

The last statement was for the benefit of English agents tapping the telephone wire, Mr. Alderman said.