Defendant Fritz Sauckel, on the Counts of the Indictment on which you have been convicted, the Tribunal sentences you to DEATH BY HANGING.
Defendant Alfred Jodl, on the Counts of the Indictment on which you have been convicted, the Tribunal sentences you to DEATH BY HANGING.
Defendant Arthur Seyss-Inquart, on the Counts of the Indictment on which you have been convicted, the Tribunal sentences you to DEATH BY HANGING.
Defendant Albert Speer, on the Counts of the Indictment on which you have been convicted, the Tribunal sentences you to TWENTY YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT.
Defendant Konstantin von Neurath, on the Counts of the Indictment on which you have been convicted, the Tribunal sentences you to FIFTEEN YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT.
The Tribunal sentences the Defendant Martin Bormann, on the Counts of the Indictment on which he has been convicted, to DEATH BY HANGING.
Wiener Kurier (October 1, 1946)
DRITTE AUSGABE
Tod durch Erhängen: Göring, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Streicher, Seyss-Inquart Jodl, Frank, Kaltenbrunner und 4 andere
Lebenslänglich: Heß, Funk und Raeder
Nürnberg (WK.) - Zu Beginn der Nachmittagssitzung verkündete der Vorsitzende, Lord-Richter Lawrence, das Strafausmaß für die einzelnen Angeklagten.
Die Angeklagten wurden einzeln in den Saal geführt und nahmen den Urteilsspruch stehend entgegen. Es wurden verurteilt:
Göring: Tod durch Erhängen.
Heß: Lebenslängliches Gefängnis.
Ribbentrop: Tod durch Erhängen.
Rosenberg: Tod durch Erhängen.
Frank: Tod durch Erhängen.
Keitel: Tod durch Erhängen.
Kaltenbrunner: Tod durch Erhängen.
Frick: Tod durch Erhängen.
Streicher: Tod durch Erhängen.
Funk: Lebenslängliches Gefängnis.
Dönitz: Zehn Jahre Gefängnis.
Raeder: Lebenslängliches Gefängnis.
Schirach: 20 Jahre Gefängnis.
Sauckel: Tod durch Erhängen.
Jodl: Tod durch Erhängen.
Seyß-Inquart: Tod durch Erhängen.
Speer: 20 Jahre Gefängnis.
Neurath: 13 Jahre Gefängnis.
Bormann: Tod durch Erhängen. Das Urteil gegen Bormann wurde in dessen Abwesenheit ausgesprochen.
Wie nahmen die Angeklagten die Urteile auf?
Allgemeine Bestürzung überwog
Nürnberg (INS.) - Nach den bisher aus Nürnberg vorliegenden Meldungen haben die Angeklagten überwiegend mit allen Anzeichen der Bestürzung die bisherigen Urteile aufgenommen. Es war offensichtlich, daß fast alle Angeklagten mit milderen Urteilen gerechnet hatten. Dies trifft vor allem für die angeklagten früheren Oberbefehlshaber der deutschen Wehrmacht zu.
Hermann Göring: Er folgte der Urteilsverlesung mit gespannter Aufmerksamkeit, wurde jedoch gegen Ende sichtlich nervös, bewegte sich unruhig auf seinem Sitz und blickte schließlich starr geradeaus. Als er nach allen vier Punkten’ der Anklage für schuldig gesprochen wurde, sank er tief in sich zusammen. Manche Beobachter glauben, ein verhaltenes Schluchzen festgestellt zu haben.
Rudolf Heß: Zunächst veränderte er bei Verlesung des Urteilsspruches keine Miene, verließ jedoch mehrmals seinen Sitz, ging bis zur Ausgangstür und kehrte, völlig geistesabwesend vor sich hinblickend, zu seinem Sitz zurück. Der Urteilsspruch machte auf ihn kaum Eindruck.
Joachim Ribbentrop: Mit zitternden, fahrigen Bewegungen umklammerte Ribbentrop das vor ihm befindliche Geländer und versuchte Haltung zu bewahren. Nach übereinstimmender Aussage der Beobachter war Ribbentrop bei Verlesung des Urteils auffallend blaß und schien völlig verfallen.
Wilhelm Keitel: In auffallend gerader Haltung verfolgte er zunächst die Urteilsverkündung. Er versuchte durch eifriges Herumblicken im Saal Gleichgültigkeit zu heucheln, wurde jedoch von Satz zu Satz des Urteilsspruches unruhiger. Als der Gerichtshof seine vorgebrachten Rechtfertigungsgründe als unzutreffend bezeichnete, verfärbte sich plötzlich sein Gesicht und er begann merklich am ganzen Körper zu zittern. Bei der Schlußverkündung, die ihn in allen vier Punkten der Anklage schuldig sprach, war Keitel ein gebrochener Mann.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner: Er verfolgte mit der bekannt starren, unbeweglichen Miene die Verlesung des Urteilsspruches.
Göring war der Hauptschuldige an Österreichs Besetzung
Die Begründung der Urteile:
Nürnberg (WK.) - Der Hauptangeklagte Göring wurde in allen vier Punkten der Anklage für schuldig befunden.
In der Urteilsbegründung heißt es: „Goring war neben Hitler der bedeutendste Mann des nazistischen Regimes. Et hat sich ohne Vorbehalt zur Partei und zu ihren Zielen bekannt. Göring war der Leiter des Vierjahresplanes und hat dadurch die nazistische Kriegsmaschine für die Kriegsaufgabe vorbereitet. Die engen Beziehungen zu Hitler bestanden bis 1943 und verschlechterten sich erst später, um schließlich im Jahre 1945 zu seiner Verhaftung zu führen.
Beim „Anschluß“ Österreichs war Göring die zentrale Gestalt der politischen Handlungen. Er hat sich dieser Handlung vor dem Gerichtshof hundertprozentig schuldig bekannt. Er hat bei der erfolgten Besetzung des Sudetenlandes und der Rest-Tschechoslowakei als Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe teilgenommen und gedroht, Prag mit Bomben zu vernichten.
Der Angeklagte Göring war die treibende Kraft und die leitende Persönlichkeit bei den Angriffskriegen. Er war militärischer und politischer Führer und Leiter des Versklavungsprogramms. Er war der Urheber der Unterdrückungsmaßnahmen gegen Juden und andere Rassen im In- und Ausland.“
Heß für seine Taten verantwortlich
In der Begründung des Urteiles gegen Rudolf Heß erklärte der Gerichtshof, daß der Angeklagte bis zu seinem Fluge nach England Hitlers persönlichster Vertrauter gewesen sei. Diese Beziehungen machen es gewiß, daß Heß über alle Angriffspläne Hitlers informiert gewesen sein muß. Es mag sein, daß Heß während der Zeit des Prozesses geistig nicht ganz zurechnungsfähig war, es besteht aber kein Anlaß, anzunehmen, daß er die Art der Beschuldigungen, die gegen ihn erhoben wurden, nicht verstanden hat.
Kaltenbrunner hat Hinrichtungen angeordnet
Ernst Kaltenbrunner, der Führer der SS in Österreich, nahm aktiv an den Naziintrigen gegen dieses Land teil. Ihm waren die Zustände in den Konzentrationslagern bekannt, denn er hat unzweifelhaft Mauthausen besucht, hat Hinrichtungen beigewohnt und diese selbst angeordnet.
Rosenberg und Ribbentrop an Judenpogromen beteiligt
Alfred Rosenberg, der „Philosoph“ der Nazipartei, hatte weitgehenden Anteil an der Deportierung und Ausbeutung ausländischer Arbeiter, sowie an der Ausrottung der Juden und anderer Widersacher des Naziregimes. Er besaß restlose Kenntnis der brutalen Praktiken der Deutschen in den besetzten Gebieten Osteuropas und war in zahlreichen Fällen der persönliche Organisator von Juden-Massenhinrichtungen.
In der Begründung seines Schuldspruches gegen den Angeklagten Ribbentrop erklärte der Gerichtshof, daß dieser bei der Lösung der jüdischen Frage eine bedeutende Rolle gespielt habe.
Frank für Terrorherrschaft in Polen voll verantwortlich
Während der Gerichtshof feststellte, daß Frank, an der Verschwörung zur Führung eines Angriffskrieges nichtschuldig ist, erklärte er, daß Frank als willfähriger Teilnehmer an der Terrorherrschaft in Polen und an der wirtschaftlichen Ausbeutung, die zum Hungertode einer großen Anzahl von Menschen führte, schuldig sei. Auch die Deportation von Zwangsarbeitern nach Deutschland und das Vernichtungsprogramm gegen die Juden falle zu Lasten dieses Angeklagten.
Frick war Mitautor der Nürnberger Rassengesetze
Wilhelm Frick wurde vom Gericht als fanatischer Nazi und wütender Antisemit, der maßgebend an der Abfassung der berüchtigten Nürnberger Rassengesetze beteiligt war, bezeichnet Ferner war Frick verantwortlich für die Behandlung der besetzten Tschechoslowakei und für den Versuch, die Germanisierung anderer Gebiete durchzuführen.
Das Urteil schildert den militärischen Werdegang Keitels. Er ist schuldig befunden, mit zwei weiteren Generalen der Unterredung Hitlers mit Schuschnigg am 12. Februar 1938 bei Berchtesgaden beigewohnt zu haben. Er Unterzeichnete die Befehle zur Vorbereitung der Zerschlagung der Tschechoslowakei.
Durch das Urteil wurde der Angeklagte schuldig befunden, an allen weiteren Angriffskriegen Deutschlands an maßgebender Stelle mitgewirkt und die erforderlichen Beföhle mitgezeichnet zu haben.
The Evening Star (October 1, 1946)
GOERING, 11 OTHER NAZIS DOOMED TO HANG
Ribbentrop, Jodl, Keitel to die; Hess, 6 get prison; 3 acquitted
4 days for appeal; Russia dissents on some judgments
NUERNBERG TRIAL BOX SCORE
NUERNBERG (AP) – Here is the list of the defendants in the Nuernberg trials and the counts on which they were convicted or found innocent: (G–guilty; I–innocent)
Count 1 Count 2 Count 3 Count 4 Fate Hermann Goering G G G G Hanging Rudolf Hess G G I I Life Martin Bormann I G G Hanging Joachim von Ribbentrop G G G G Hanging Wilhelm Keitel G G G G Hanging Ernst Kaltenbrunner I G G Hanging Alfred Rosenberg G G G G Hanging Hans Frank I G G Hanging Wilhelm Frick I G G G Hanging Julius Streicher I G Hanging Walther Funk I G G G Life Hjalmar Schacht I I … Karl Doenitz I G G 10 years Erich Raeder G G G Life Baldur von Schirach I G 20 years Fritz Sauckel I I G G Hanging Alfred Jodl G G G G Hanging Franz von Papen I I … Arthur Seyss-Inquart I G G G Hanging Albert Speer I I G G 20 years Constantin von Neurath G G G G 15 years Hans Fritzsche I I I … Where there is no symbol, the defendant was not charged.
The numbered counts refer to the following indictments:
Count 1: Conspiracy to commit acts named in the other three counts.
Count 2: Crimes against the peace, namely, planning, preparing, initiating or waging aggressive war.
Count 3: War crimes, namely, violations of the laws or customs of war.
Count 4: Crimes against humanity, namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or other inhumane acts against any civilian population, before or during the war, or persecutions, political, racial or religious.
NUERNBERG (AP) – The International War Crimes Tribunal today decreed death on the gallows for 12 of Adolf Hitler’s gang, sentenced seven to prison, and – with Russia dissenting – acquitted three defendants.
Sentenced to death were Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering, former Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, chief of Hitler’s high command; Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Gestapo chief; Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi Party philosopher; Hans Frank, governor-general of occupied Poland; Wilhelm Frick, former Nazi minister of interior; Julius Streicher, notorious Jew baiter; Fritz Sauckel, Nazi slave labor chief; Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl, chief of the German general staff; Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Nazi occupation in the Netherlands, and Martin Bormann, Hitler’s last deputy Fuehrer, tried in absentia.
Sentenced to life imprisonment were Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s former deputy Fuehrer; Walther Funk, former Reichsbank head, and Grand Adm. Erich Raeder, former German naval chief.
Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz, who surrendered Germany and was Fuehrer in the last few days of the war, received a 10-year sentence. Baldur von Schirach, Hitler Youth leader, and Albert Speer, German munitions minister, both were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Constantin von Neurath, German foreign minister and later “protector of Bohemia and Moravia,” was given 15 years.
Acquitted were Franz von Papen, former Nazi ambassador to Austria; Hjalmar Schacht, Nazi financial wizard, and Hans Fritzsche, Nazi deputy propaganda minister.
Russia makes protest
The court, after pronouncing the sentences, announced that Russia had protested against the tribunal’s acquittal of Von Papen, Schacht and Fritzsche.
The Soviet judge, Maj. Gen. I. T. Nikitchenko, also protested that Hess should have been hanged instead of receiving life imprisonment and objected to yesterday’s acquittal of the general staff and high command.
Judges of Britain, the United States and France joined in the majority opinion, which now will be carried out by the Allied Control Council, representing all four Allies.
Russia still may carry to the Control Council her objections to the acquittals and the prison sentence for Hess. This Council is made up of the ranking representatives in Germany of the four occupying powers and has the final say over all the defendants.
Even as the Hitler gangsters were shuffling back to their Nuernberg courthouse cells, Lt. Gen. Lucius D. Clay, representing the Control Council, was in the courthouse making execution arrangements.
Four days for appeal
The defendants have four days in which to appeal to the Allied Control Council, their court of last resort. This council, representing the United States, Britain, Russia and France in the government of Germany, has authority over the executions, which are expected October 16 unless an appeal for clemency is granted, and there seemed little chance of that. All defense attorneys had announced they would appeal in the event of death sentences against their clients.
Legal officials of the American Military Government said that if any of the three Nazi leaders acquitted were returned to the American zone of occupation they probably would be tried by Germans under the zone’s denazification law.
The officials said because Schacht and Von Papen owned property in more than one zone it was conjectural to which they might be returned. Legal experts in Berlin expressed belief the Russians might get custody of Fritsche, whom they arrested in Berlin and delivered to Nuernberg for trial.
Goering and Ribbentrop were convicted on all four counts in the indictment against them, while Hess was convicted of two counts, conspiracy and crimes against the peace, and acquitted of the last two, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Eight defendants were convicted on count one of the indictment – conspiracy to commit the other three acts charged – the only one common to all 22 defendants.
They were, in addition to Goering, Hess and Ribbentrop, Keitel, Rosenberg, Raeder, Jodl and Von Neurath.
In addition to Goering and Ribbentrop, four others – Keitel, Rosenberg, Jodl and Von Neurath – were convicted on all four counts in the indictment.
12 convicted on second count
Twelve of the 16 defendants charged with the second count – crimes against the peace – were convicted. They were Goering, Hess, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Rosenberg, Raeder, Jodl, Neurath, Frick, Funk, Doenitz and Seyss-Inquart. Those acquitted on this count, in addition to Schacht and Von Papen, were Sauckel and Speer.
On the third count – war crimes – 18 defendants were charged and 16 were convicted: Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Rosenberg, Frick, Funk, Doenitz, Raeder, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss-Inquart, Speer, Neurath, Bormann (Adolf Hitler’s deputy, tried in absentia), Kaltenbrunner and Frank. Acquitted on this count were Hess and Fritsche.
Sixteen of the 18 charged with crimes against humanity – the fourth count – also were convicted: Goering, Bormann, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Funk, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss-Inquart, Speer, Neurath, Streicher and Von Schirach. Acquitted on this count were Hess and Fritsche.
‘No excuse’ for Goering
The tribunal struck hard at Goering in its conclusions, declaring the former Reichsmarshal’s guilt “is unique in its enormity.”
“The record discloses no excuse for this man,” the tribunal said.
Of Hess, the tribunal had this to say: “That Hess acts in an abnormal manner, suffers from loss of memory and has mentally deteriorated during this trial may be true. But there is nothing to show that he does not realize the nature of the charges against him or is incapable of defending himself. There is no suggestion that Hess was not completely sane when the acts charged against him were committed.”
Ribbentrop was styled by the tribunal as the willing tool of Hitler, but the opinion convicting him of all four counts added: “It was because Hitler’s policies and plans coincided with his own ideas that Ribbentrop served him so willingly to the end.”
The court brushed aside as “untrue” Ribbentrop’s defense that Hitler made all the important decisions.
The tribunal consumed almost a thousand words in dooming Keitel, who gulped, lowered his sharp Prussian chin a moment as he listened and then stared blankly ahead.
The court said Keitel never denied his connection with various acts of Hitler’s regime, and then added: “His defense relies on the fact that he is a soldier and on the doctrine of ‘superior orders,’ prohibited by Article Eight (of the tribunal’s charter) as a defense.
“There is nothing in mitigation, where crimes as shocking and extensive have been committed consciously, ruthlessly and without military excuse of justification.”
As commander of U-boats, the tribunal said, Doenitz was more than an ordinary figure in war planning.
“Doenitz was consulted almost continuously by Hitler,” the judgment said.
In two instances, the court listed mitigating circumstances for the admiral, saying that in view of all the circumstances of naval warfare, he could not be held guilty for his conduct of submarine warfare and that British naval prisoners of war were treated according to the Geneva Convention.
The judgment indicated that Adm. Raeder convicted himself by admitting breaches of the Versailles Treaty. He was blamed for rebuilding the German Navy for war, for carrying out orders to shoot commandos, but was absolved, as was Doenitz, of guilt in unrestricted U-boat warfare.
The evidence also showed, the court went on, that Raeder instigated the Norwegian invasion and the justices refused to believe his story that he was only trying to forestall the British.
Orders were Keitel defense
In Jodl’s conviction on all counts the tribunal ruled as it had in that of Keitel, commenting: “His defense is the doctrine of superior orders – there is nothing in mitigation. Participation in such crimes as these has never been required of any soldier and he cannot now shield himself behind a mythical requirement of soldierly obedience at all costs as his excuse.”
Schacht resignation cited
The tribunal said of Schacht: “He helped set up the early stage of the armament in Germany, but he was opposed to aggressive war and resigned in 1937 when it became evident Hitler was headed toward war.
“Schacht was not involved in the planning of any of the specific wars of aggression. He was clearly not one of the inner circle around Hitler. He was regarded by this group with undisguised hostility. The testimony of Speer showed that Schacht’s arrest on July 23, 1944, was based as much on Hitler’s enmity toward Schacht, growing out of his attitude before the war, as it was on suspicion of his complicity in the bomb plot.”
In acquitting Von Papen, accused of engineering Hitler’s rise to power, the eventual Austrian Anschluss and other diplomatic coups, the tribunal declared:
“The evidence leaves no doubt that Von Papen’s primary purpose as minister to Austria was to undermine the Schuschnigg regime and strengthen the Austrian Nazis for the purpose of bringing about the Anschluss.
“To carry out this plan he engaged in both intrigue and bullying. But the charter does not make criminal such offenses against political morality.”
Justice tempered with mercy in trial climax
By Newbold Noyes Jr., Star staff correspondent
NUERNBERG – Justice was strongly tempered with mercy in this afternoon’s 40-minute climax to the unprecedented international trial which has been in progress here since last November 20. The proceedings were packed with drama, as much for what did not happen as for what did.
One by one 18 of Hitler’s henchmen were brought to face the judgment the world imposed on them. Not one gave evidence of the terrible tension which each must have felt in his 32nd appearance.
Each entered the prisoner’s dock through elevator doors at the rear and stood quietly to listen to Justice Lawrence’s words through earphones. Most did not realize that they would hear only one brief sentence and therefore failed to remove the headset when the judgment had been pronounced. Military guards then signaled that the ordeal was finished and the condemned men took off the earphones and went quietly back into the elevator.
Significance in proceedings
What happened here today had a significance in comparison to which the actual defendants meant little. In this courtroom the conscience of a world sick of tyranny and the war it breeds asserted its right to judge and to punish duly constituted rulers who have done it violence.
The spectators who packed into the courtroom at the Palace of Justice witnessed a parade of men who stood for all the things the world must overcome if it is to succeed in its quest for peace. They were all there, the big ones and the less big, the gentlemen and the thugs, the smart ones and the stupid. Each had his function in the system that was Nazism. Each in his way was an indispensable ingredient of Hitler’s terrible view.
Goering enters
Just before three o’clock the doors at the rear of the prisoners’ dock opened to admit two American military police who took up positions on either side of the entrance. A moment later Hermann Goering walked into the room.
The former Reichsmarshal successor-designate to Hitler, Luftwaffe chieftain and president of the Reichstag, whose fabulous ambitions, acquisitions, failures and crimes have made his name infamous in the earth’s farthest corners – hesitates for a moment, standing alone.
This was the man who in 1938 spurred on the workers in German aircraft factories by telling them he wanted bombers big enough to stop those “arrogant mouths” in New York and Washington.
Thought he was strong
That he failed to get them is not the point. The point is that Goering elected, while the rest of the world sought peace, to argue with bombs and tanks instead of with words and ideas – not because he was stupid, but because he thought he was strong.
This man was Hitler’s right hand. He has been singing psalms in his cell of late, but much of the old arrogance, the swaggering misguided courage, is still with him at this moment. As soon as he has put on his earphones, Justice Lawrence starts reading the sentence, Goering stops him with a wave of the hand. His headset is not working.
Apparently perfectly calm he stands by for a full two minutes while soldiers tinker with the apparatus. At last the difficulty is straightened out and Justice Lawrence’s words, in German translation, come through to Goering:
“On the counts of the indictment on which you have been convicted, the International Military Tribunal sentences you to death by hanging.’’
Rudolf Hess next
Next to be brought to the dock was Rudolf Hess, the man who, in his day, followed Hitler more closely and blindly than all the rest. Two months ago, he told this court “if I were once more at the beginning I should act once more as I did act, even though I knew that at the end I should meet death on a bonfire.”
If Hess is not crazy, he is a great actor. He could be either – or both. This heavy-browed, frizzle haired man of 47, with his sickly pallor and permanent 5 o’clock shadow condition, gave the war one of its most dramatic episodes in his 1941 flight to Britain.
He gave this trial its most dramatic episode when he told a shocked courtroom last December 30 that his “hysterical amnesia,” attested to by some of the world’s foremost physicians, had been faked for “tactical” reasons. Whatever his present condition – officially, he is adjudged sane – Europe is where it is today, among other reasons, because men like Hess could be swayed to put blind trust in other men forsaking all thought of principle.
Hess has a fanatic’s faith. He also has a highly developed sense of drama which is still functioning.
Hess steps to the front of the dock and assumes a stance looking at the visitors’ gallery. Twice the guards try to get him to put on earphones – twice he brushes them angrily aside. He does not hear when the president announces his sentence: Life imprisonment. He walks casually out of the box without having bothered to find out what is to become of him.
Joachim von Ribbentrop, as they bring him in, still looks more like a champagne salesman, which he used to be, than like a foreign minister, which he became. There is no distinction to this man – it is hard to picture him dealing in destiny. Now he is pale as milk and there are black circles under his eyes. This man was the direct agent of Hitler’s designs against the outside world. Death, says Justice Lawrence.
Kaltenbrunner’s turn
It is the turn of Ernst Kaltenbrunner, deputy to the suicided Himmler as boss of the Security Police and sadistic brain behind Nazi concentration camps and death factories. He looks the part. At 43, he stands 6 feet 4 inches in height. The angular, ugly head, with its long nose and hollow eyes, is seamed with scars.
This is the man who, according to testimony, laughed heartily at executions in the Nazi murder mills. He did not join the other defendants in the dock until December 10 – he suffered a stroke on the eve of the trial, after having wept hysterically for several weeks. A capillary let go in the lining of his brain, causing blood to seep into his spinal fluid. He recovered, but still does not look his jovial best as he stands stiffly bowing to the court. Now the slouching triggerman who did Hitler’s dirtiest work hears the world judgment, spoken by Justice Lawrence – death. He makes another deeper bow before leaving.
Goering preserves fierce reserve in hearing sentence
Kaltenbrunner bows ironically to court after pronouncement
NUERNBERG (AP) – Rudolf Hess, to the end the posturing crackpot of the war crimes trial, brushed aside earphones that would have told him whether he was to live or die and stared blankly ahead of him as a stern judge sentenced him to life imprisonment.
One by one, 21 once haughty Nazi leaders were marched before the bar of the International Military Tribunal to hear their fate.
Goering retained his fierce reserve. Gone were his flamboyant trappings – his medals, his glittering uniform, his field marshal’s baton – as he strode into the courtroom between two stalwart military policemen. His shabby gray suit hung limply about him.
Presiding Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence, cold and impersonal, gazed sternly at the No. 2 Nazi chieftain and sentenced him to die on the gallows. Under the pitiless glare of the klieg lights not a muscle of Goering’s face moved.
Ribbentrop is stunned
Joachim von Ribbentrop, the dandy of the Nazi cabinet who as foreign minister once strutted proudly across Europe’s diplomatic stage, was stunned when he heard his death sentence. Gray and sickly, he had to be helped from the room by military police.
Aging Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Hitler’s military yes-man, heard his doom silently. When the court pronounced the death sentence, he turned silently and went back through the small door in the dock.
Tall, hulking Ernst Kaltenbrunner, once chief of the dread Gestapo, still looked easily the fiercest of the defendants. He bowed ironically when the court sentenced him to hang.
The man who scourged occupied Russia, Nazi philosopher Alfred Rosenberg, straightened his coat, folded his hands and waited impassively until his sentence of death was read.
Stocky Hans Frank, killer of thousands of Jews, nodded curtly when the judge sentenced him to the gallows.
The most hated man in the dock – hated by the defendants themselves – was Jew baiter Julius Streicher, the screaming fanatic of the Nazi press. He was immobile when he was condemned. Because he had been found guilty on only one count, it was thought for a time he might escape death.
Wilhelm Frick, one-time Nazi street fighter who became the “protector of Bohemia and Moravia” under Hitler, looked haggard as sentence of death was pronounced. But, like Kaltenbrunner, he bowed to the court.
Grand Adm. Erich Raeder, who planned the Nazi domination of the sea and the attacks on Norway and Denmark, remained as impassive as he had been throughout the trial as the court doomed him.
His successor, Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz, who became Fuehrer of Germany in the last days of the war, without emotion heard himself sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. The lightness of the sentence imposed on the Nazi submarine chief surprised many spectators.
Shabby Walther Funk, one-time economics minister, looked more like a comic strip character than a once-powerful cog in a grim war machine. He shot a disgusted look at the court as he heard himself sentenced to life in prison.
Baldur von Schirach, chief of the Hitler Youth, was hustled off quickly by his two military police guards when the tribunal sentenced him to 20 years. He looked away.
Next into the hot courtroom came the tough Nazi labor boss and enslaver of millions, Fritz Sauckel. He greeted his death sentence with an ostentatious sneer.
Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl, whose ample diary of his association with Hitler helped convict himself and his co-conspirators, stared languidly as Justice Lawrence sent him to the gallows in the same dispassionate monotone. The presiding judge, as he did with all the others, looked the prisoner squarely in the eye.
Arthur Seyss-Inquart clung tensely with both hands to the railing of the dock as he heard his death sentence. With a palpable effort the former gauleiter of the Netherlands and Austria controlled his emotions.
Old and worn, former Foreign Minister Constantin von Neurath looked limp in his dark clothing, as he heard himself sentenced to 15 years – virtually life imprisonment, considering his age.
When the last pair of military policemen departed, Von Neurath between them, Justice Lawrence passed the sentence of death on the absent deputy fuehrer, Martin Bormann, and ended the historic 10-month session by announcing the dissenting Russian opinion, which will have no effect on the present judgments.
Germans surprised at three acquittals
BERLIN (AP) – The immediate reaction of the first dozen Germans interviewed here as the Nuernberg verdicts were announced was surprise that any of the defendants had been wholly acquitted.
“That’s really something,” said four of the persons questioned when told that Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen and Hans Fritzsche had been found innocent.
These Germans said they had expected the trio “would receive some degree of punishment.”
Among the German staff of the Associated Press bureau here, the greatest surprise was expressed over the acquittal of Von Papen and Fritzsche.
Jackson voices regret at court’s acquittal of Schacht, Von Papen
U.S. prosecutor doubtful of decision’s effect on future trials
NUERNBERG (AP) – Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief American prosecutor, said today he regretted the International Military Tribunal had acquitted Hjalmar Schacht and Franz von Papen, and expressed doubt how the acquittal would affect future trials of German militarists and industrialists.
Justice Jackson also expressed regret that the four-power tribunal had refused “to declare the criminality of the general staff.” He praised, however, the general terms of the tribunal’s history-making judgment.
The text of Justice Jackson’s statement:
“On behalf of all the nations we prosecutors asked the conscientious and independent judgment of the members of the tribunal as to the guilt of these men and organizations. This we have now received.
“In sustaining and applying the principle that aggressive war is a crime for which statesmen may be individually punished the judgment is highly gratifying.
“It is a hopeful sign for the peace of the world that representatives of the great powers all agree on this principle of law and are committed to that position by this judgment. Other aspects of the opinion are too intricate to be appraised without study of the text, for which there has been no time.
“I regret that the tribunal has felt constrained to acquit Schacht and Von Papen and to decline to declare the criminality of the general staff.
‘Arguments seemed convincing’
“Our arguments for their conviction, which seemed so convincing to all of us prosecutors, seem not to have made a similar impression on the tribunal. The effect of these acquittals on the further prosecution of industrialists and militarists which have been planned will have to be studied from the text of the opinion.
“However, I personally regard the conviction and sentence of individuals as of secondary importance compared with the significance of the commitments by the four nations to the proposition that wars of aggression are criminal and that persecution of conquered minorities on racial, religious or political grounds is likewise criminal.
“These principles of law will influence future events long after the fate of particular individuals is forgotten.”
Court refuses to lift ban on photographers
NUERNBERG (AP) – Despite protests which poured in from American and British newspapers, the International Military Tribunal refused to relent today in its decision to bar photographers from the Nuernberg courtroom during the reading of sentences.
The tribunal’s attitude was that it wanted nothing to impair the dignity of the court during the historic session. A committee representing the international press contended without avail there had been no complaint during the 10 months of the trial against the photographers.
Von Papen faces trial before German board, Bavaria chief says
NUERNBERG, Germany (AP) – Dr. Wilhelm Hoegner, minister-president of Bavaria, told the German people tonight that Franz von Papen faces trial by a denazification board if he remains in the American zone.
Hoegner, broadcasting soon after Von Papen was acquitted by the International Military Tribunal, said the former diplomat would be brought before German authorities and “that means he will be condemned for several years at hard labor.”
Hoegner later told reporters that he gave order to German authorities that similar denazification action would be taken against Hjalmar Schacht, former president of the Reichsbank, and Hans Fritzsche, ex-Nazi propagandist, if they remained within his jurisdiction. They also were acquitted by the military tribunal.
Acquittal held ‘astonishing’
Dr. Hoegner continued: “I consider the acquittal of Von Papen a most astonishing thing. I consider him thereal instigator of the Third Reich.”
Von Papen was German chancellor before Adolf Hitler and urged old President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler his successor.
Dr. Hoegner said he “supposed” the British, Russian and French zones also would institute denazification action against the three acquitted defendants, depending on where they decide to establish residence.
Fritzsche was a prisoner of war in the Russian zone before being taken to Nuernberg. Austrian authorities have asked custody of von Papen, who was German ambassador to that country at the time Hitler absorbed it in Anschluss.
Reich lawless, Schacht says
Schacht told reporters tonight that there appeared to be “neither laws nor free opinion” in occupied Germany today.
He appeared with the other two acquitted German leaders at a turbulent news conference, and was asked whether he now expected to be tried by a German court.
The belligerent Nazi finance wizard replied that in the days before Hitler “there were laws and free opinion,” but that “there appeared to be neither laws nor free opinion now.”
Conference breaks up
At this point the conference broke into an uproar. French and Belgian correspondents shouted and yelled and climbed about in the pressroom.
The conference broke up a few minutes later, with Schacht offering to sell his autograph, which some French correspondents were asking, in return for chocolate “for my children.”
At one point Schacht was asked whether he feared being attacked by Germans on his release. He shouted his reply: “I hope someone will attack me!”
Before the conference became pandemonium, Schacht said he hoped to go to his family and disappear, “where the press would never find me again.”
Once the smoothest talker of Nazi diplomacy, Von Papen was outshone in the conference by Fritzsche. Both Von Papen and Fritzsche said they had been confident of acquittal, but Fritzsche admitted he was surprised.
Wants another trial
Fritzsche touched off another uproar when he announced he hoped to go before a German court now and vindicate himself in the eyes of the German people.
Von Papen said he did not see why he should be tried again under occupation denazification laws, because he had been acquitted by “the highest international court.”
Col. B. C. Andrus, Nuernberg prison commandant, said the three acquitted men were “completely free” and were given letters explaining that they had been acquitted by the tribunal. The letters asked military authorities to help them get identity cards and other necessary papers.
None of the three knew what he would do tonight. Andrus said no transportation yet had been arranged to take them to their homes.
None of the three yet knew that Minister-President Wilhelm Hoegner of Bavaria had announced they would be arrested and tried in denazification courts.
Editorial: Judgment at Nuernberg
Cynics may scoff at it and some lawyers may raise technical objections to it, but still the judgment handed down by the International Military Tribunal at Nuernberg now passes into history as a precedent whose potentialities are such that future generations may come to celebrate it as a shining landmark in the moral development of mankind and in mankind’s desperate striving for a good and enduring peace.
In a narrow sense, of course, it is true that this is a judgment passed by the victors upon the vanquished – a fact that has given rise to the shallow flippancy that Nuernberg’s chief lesson is that it is best not to lose wars. It is true, too, that the members of the court – notably Russia – are open to at least the suspicion of being guilty themselves of some of the very acts for which the Nazis have been condemned, and this has the appearance of moral inconsistency. Similarly, although believing that Goering and his group merit the most drastic punishment, more than a few observers have been disturbed by the ex post facto character of the proceedings – proceedings based upon a four-power decision to try these men for a crime (the crime of aggression) for which no specific punishment existed in international law until the four powers themselves called it into being after the evil had been done.
It would be superficial, however, to let considerations of this sort obscure the historic meaning of the judgment at Nuernberg. As was made clear long ago by Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief American prosecutor at the trial, the fact that the victors have done the judging has had, at most, only an inconsequential and incidental bearing on the proceedings, and much the same may be said of whatever inconsistencies may exist between the past acts of the nation-judges and the principle they have espoused. As for the legalistic aspects of the case, the Nuernberg tribunal has fully affirmed Mr. Jackson’s thesis that international law is not a static and immutable thing, that it must adapt itself to the needs of a changing world, that peoples and governments must periodically enlarge upon it, and that “our own day has its right to institute customs and to conclude agreements that will themselves become sources of a newer and strengthened international law.”
By the simple device of a summary trial and swift execution after V-E Day, the victors could have avoided the immense labors of Nuernberg. Instead, bending over backwards to be just to the accused, studying mountains of documents and hearing millions and millions of words of testimony, they deliberately set out to break new ground and contribute to the law of nations by placing on trial the remnants of a government and by establishing, through that trial, the principle that the plotting and waging of aggressive war is an enormous crime – “the supreme crime” – against humanity and that the guilty must be made to pay for it.
The evidence brought out against Goering and his group is overwhelmingly convincing proof of the heinousness of their deeds. But the tribunal has done more than pass judgment against men broken by their own wickedness; it has passed judgment against the old idea that war, any kind of war, can be waged and its wagers enjoy personal immunity. The nation-judges have addressed themselves primarily to history. They have said to history that “the supreme crime,” encompassing all crimes, can no longer be tolerated by mankind and that the leadership of governments guilty of it must be dealt with as criminals – as thieves and murderers.
To establish this as a principle, to act upon it as it has now been acted upon, does not put an end to the evil at issue. But it does this much: It presents to the world a fresh concept, and as time goes on that concept may well acquire enough positive force, moral and otherwise, to give pause to would-be aggressors. At very least, it strengthens international law, and it thus significantly serves the cause of peace, for the greater the rule of law, the better the chance of averting future wars. If the victors themselves live up to it, the precedent set at Nuernberg will in fact be one of the great landmarks of history.
The Pittsburgh Press (October 1, 1946)
Goering, 11 top Nazi war criminals to hang; 7 get prison; 3 freed
NUERNBERG (UP) – The International Military Tribunal today sentenced Hermann Goering and 11 of Adolf Hitler’s top leaders to death by hanging within 15 days.
The tribunal imposed life sentences on three and terms of 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment on four in the world trial of the Nazi regime.
Three were acquitted.
Those sentenced to hang were:
- Hermann Goering, former chief of the German Air Force and once designated as successor to Hitler.
- Joachim von Ribbentrop, former foreign minister.
- Wilhelm Keitel, former chief of the High Command.
- Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of Nazi secret police under Himmler.
- Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi Party philosopher.
- Hans Frank, former governor of Poland.
- Wilhelm Frick, “protector” of Bohemia and Moravia.
- Julius Streicher, leader of the anti-Semitic drive.
- Fritz Sauckel, former commissioner for slave labor.
- Alfred Jodl, former chief of the General Staff.
- Arthur Seyss-Inquart, former administrator of Austria and Holland.
- Martin Bormann (tried in absentia), Hitler’s personal aide.
Those sentenced to life in prison were:
- Rudolf Hess, former deputy to Hitler who flew to treat Britain in 1941.
- Walther Funk, former minister of economics.
- Erich Raeder, former grand admiral of the fleet.
Those sentenced to prison were:
- Baldur von Schirach, 20 years, former Hitler Youth leader.
- Albert Speer, 20 years, former minister of armaments.
- Konstantin von Neurath, 15 years, former foreign minister and onetime protector of Bohemia and Moravia.
- Karl Doenitz, 10 years, former grand admiral and successor to Hitler.
Those acquitted were:
- Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, former minister of finance.
- Franz von Papen, former diplomat and ambassador of Turkey.
- Hans Fritzsche, assistant propaganda minister under Goebbels.
The defendants will appeal within four days to the Allied Military Council in Berlin.
The court announced that the Soviet judge, I. T. Nikitchenko, dissented from the acquittal of Schacht, von Papen and Fritzsche. He also dissented from the life sentence imposed upon Hess, believing the sentence should have been death by hanging.
A third Soviet dissent was entered to the acquittal of the Reich Cabinet and German General Staff and High Command from the general charge of conspiracy against the peace of the world and aggression.
Jackson disappointed
A statement by the American prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson, expressed disappointed at the acquittal of Schacht, von Papen and the high command organization and said that the acquittals would have a definite effect on plans for further prosecution of German industrialists and military figures. However, he declined to elaborate pending full study of the court’s opinion.
Schacht, von Papen and Fritzsche were freed an hour after their acquittal.
The condemned Nazi leaders will be executed in the Nuernberg prison, a spokesman for the Allied Control Council announced late today. Highly reliable sources reported that the Nazis would be hanged October 16 – the last day of the 15-day period in which the execution was ordered – unless the Control Council ordered otherwise.
Chief Justice Geoffrey Lawrence of Britain read the sentences to the 21 Nazi leaders. Each entered the solemn court room singly, escorted by a guard. Each stood stiffly before the justices of France, Britain, Russia and the United States and heard his fate.
Few of the Nazis displayed any emotion as they were led in through a small door at the courtroom rear, stood a moment or two at the bar of world justice, heard their sentences and then were led silently back to their cells.
Hanging is surprise
Less than an hour after Mr. Lawrence read the first verdict to Goering the ceremony was completed at 3:41 p.m. (8:41 a.m. ET) with the announcement by Mr. Lawrence of Russia’s dissent from three of the verdicts.
The nature of the sentences had been foreshadowed clearly by the court in its morning session when it found 19 of the 22 defendants guilty and reviewed the charges against each. There was one surprise – the order that the death sentences against all 12 men be carried out by hanging. The Nazi military leaders had hoped that this indignity would be spared them and that they might face a military firing squad rather than the hangman’s noose.
Goering was the first to stand before the tribunal. There was a moment of trouble when the earphones over which he was to hear the German translation of Mr. Lawrence’s words failed. A guard fussed futilely with the headset, then Mr. Lawrence impatiently motioned him away. Goering heard the verdict – in the Russian translation – but he was obviously certain what his fate was to be.
Hess emotionless
Hess, the No. 2 Nazi whose conduct throughout the trial has been erratic, brushed off the earphones and declined to listen to the translation. He was led away with no show of emotion.
Grand Adm. Eric Raeder gave the court a stiff military salute after hearing himself condemned to spend the rest of his days in prison.
The tribunal ruled in convicting Goering, “there is nothing to be said in mitigation.
“Goering often, indeed almost always, was a moving force second only to his leader. He was a leading war aggressor both as a political and as a military leader. He was director of the slave labor program and creator of the oppressive program against Jews and other races at home and abroad.
Crimes admitted
“All these crimes he frankly admitted.
“His guilt is unique in its enormity. The record disclosed no excuses for this man.”
The four-power tribunal showed moderation in its convictions. In addition to acquitting three men entirely, it found only seven of the 22 defendants guilty of all charges placed against them.
The four counts of the indictment were: (1) Conspiracy, or a common plan of aggression, (2) crimes against peace, (3) war crimes and (4) crimes against humanity.
Raeder was found guilty on the first three counts. He had not been charged on the fourth count. He and the six guilty on all four counts stand as the cream of Nazi monsters.
Plot charge fails
The prosecution took its first defeat on the first count, that of a common plan of conspiracy, which had been prosecuted primarily by the United States. All 22 defendants were charged with it, but only eight were convicted. The eighth man was Hess.
The tribunal’s finding on Goering was extremely bitter. From the time he joined the Nazi Party in 1932 as commander of the S.A. stormtroopers, it said, he was “adviser and active agent of Hitler and one of the prime leaders of the Nazi movement…
“He developed the Gestapo and created the first concentration camps, relinquishing them (Heinrich) Himmler in 1934. He conducted the Roehm purge that year and engineered the sordid proceedings which resulted in the removal of (Werner) von Blomberg and (Werner) von Fritsch from the army.
Bormann absent
Borman, although convicted, was tried in absentia. He never has been found, and probably died from a Russian shell in Berlin. American intelligence officers in Berlin yesterday denied a rumor printed in a French-licensed German paper that he was alive.
The tribunal acquitted Schacht because it recognized the grim financial wizard never was in Hitler’s inner circle and was regarded by the circle with “undisguised hostility.”
Papen was credited by the tribunal with a speech at Marburg June 6, 1934, in which he “denounced the Nazi reign of terror.” This resulted in his dismissal as vice chancellor after his arrest during the Roehm purge.
Fritzsche, most inconspicuous of the defendants, was found to be “merely a conduit” for dissemination of orders handed down from Joseph Goebbels, his propaganda boss.
Ribbentrop guilty
Ribbentrop was held responsible as a diplomat since “his diplomatic efforts were so closely connected with the war that he could not have remained unaware of the aggressive nature of Hitler’s actions.”
The tribunal said there was nothing in mitigation of Keitel, as chief of the High Command.
“Superior orders even to a soldier cannot be considered in mitigation here. Crimes as shocking and extensive have been committed consciously, ruthlessly and without military excuse or justification.”
The tribunal threw out pleas that Hess was insane.
There is no suggestion that Hess was not completely sane when the acts charged against him were committed.”
Words fired back
In finding Frank guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the tribunal fired back Frank’s own words, “The Poles shall be slaves of the greater German world empire… we must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them and wherever it is possible in order to maintain there the structure of the Reich as a whole.”
Kaltenbrunner was held fully responsible for the murder of war prisoners and political opponents, and ordering police not to interfere with attacks on parachuting Allied fliers.
Rosenberg was described as “ideologist of the Nazi Party.” The tribunal said he “helped formulate the policies of German annexation and exploitation, forced labor, extermination of Jews and opponents of the Nazi rule, and set up administration which carried them out.”
The tribunal held Streicher guilty as publisher of the violent anti-Jewish newspaper Der Stuermer.
Streicher incited
“His incitement to murder and extermination at the time when Jews in the East were being killed under the most horrible conditions clearly constitutes persecution on political and racial grounds in connection with war crimes and constitutes crime against humanity.”
Funk’s claims that he was an innocent dupe were overruled. It said he as Reichsbank president made an agreement with Hitler by which the bank was to receive gold, jewelry and currency from the S.S.
The tribunal held Doenitz responsible for violating the rules of submarine warfare laid down by the London agreement and protocol of 1936 “by sinking neutral merchant ships in the proclamation zones declared by the German government.”
It said, however, that Doenitz was not convicted on these breaches of international law. This exception was granted “in view of the order of the British Admiralty that all vessels should be sunk at night in the Skagerrak and the answers to interrogatories by Adm. (Chester) Nimitz that unrestricted warfare was carried on in the Pacific Ocean by the United States.”
Guilty of war crimes
He was found guilty of crimes against peace and war crimes.
The tribunal said Von Schirach “subject the Hitler youth to an intense program of Nazi propaganda.” It spoke mostly, however, of his participation in the forced labor program in Vienna.
Sauckel was credited with “overall responsibility for the slave labor program.”
Jodl’s defense that he acted under “superior orders” was blasted by the tribunal.
The tribunal said evidence of Bormann’s death was not conclusive.
The tribunal said in convicting Seyss-Inquart, “he assumed responsibility for governing territory which had been occupied by aggressive war. He supported harsh occupation policies, exploited resources of Poland for the benefit of Germany and persecuted Jews.”
Von Neurath was found guilty on all four counts, but the tribunal credited him with seeking the release of many Czechs who had been arrested.
Frick was condemned as “the chief Nazi administrative specialist and bureaucrat. … He had knowledge that insane, sick and aged people as ‘useless eaters’ were being systematically put to death but did nothing to stop it.”
Raeder asks court to find his wife
NUERNBERG (UP) – Grand Adm. Erich Raeder, former chief of the Nazi navy, has asked the War Crimes Tribunal to intensify efforts to find his wife, it was learned today.
Frau Raeder supposedly arrived in Nuernberg Saturday from the Soviet zone of Germany. She did not appear for her scheduled visit with Raeder and Soviet representatives said they had no knowledge of her whereabouts.