Nuremberg Trial (Court TV, part 1)

Germany on November 20th 1945 the defendants were 22 of Adolf Hitler's top Nazi leaders described by international prosecutors as living symbols of racial hatred terrorism violence and the arrogance of cruelty and power the International Military Tribunal or simply Nuremberg as it has come to be known was convened not just a condemned and punished but to establish the idea that from that point on the world would hold those who committed such acts accountable those who brought the charges said our civilization could not survive if such horrors were repeated today as we hear and read about the terran bosnia and other parts of the world we can't help but hope that the lesson of Nuremberg has not been forgotten court TV's presentation of the Nuremberg trial should remind us that history can be and should be our greatest teacher [Music] welcome back to core TV I'm Ricky Clemens as we approach the final period of the 20th century we can look back some 50 years and truly see its greatest trial from the crimes committed by the Nazis under the messianic leadership of Adolf Hitler after the Second World War Nuremberg became the site of a ten month trial against 22 men one of them in absentia in an effort to expose the horrors of the Nazi regime and to attempt to deter such unspeakable conduct in a civilized society in the future four nations cooperated in this historic occurrence there were prosecutors and judges from the United States Great Britain France and the Soviet Union the United States prosecution wanted to use this forum to create a new international law Terry Moran takes us back to the end of the war and the beginning of the International Military Tribunal this time it's the German army that surrenders no civilians are involved as in World War one this time the bear market takes its full share of blame for years of ruin and brutality the end of the Second World War in Europe marked a military triumph purchased at a harrowing cost all Nazi government buildings have been destroyed burying the infamous Hitler and Goebbels in their rubble a continent lay in ruins the great cities of the old world had been pounded into rubble this was the Belgian Cathedral City Luverne night after night London was left see you fire this was 130 million refugees wandered through a nightmare landscape famine disease and desperation stalked the land but more than just the physical and economic infrastructure of Europe needed to be rebuilt the victorious Allies decided that to make a true peace justice must be sought justice for an almost unimaginable today Dachau is a museum its horrors safely interred in history but what happened here just 12 miles outside of cheerful Bari Munich and what happened at the hundreds of other death camps throughout nazi-occupied Europe shocked the world into action this time however no shots were fired in retaliation no bombs dropped instead law was the chosen weapon of the triumphant powers a court an international military tribunal was established to investigate prosecute try and punish the surviving leaders responsible for the atrocities of the Nazi regime the idea of trying the top Nazis grew out of the culture and history of the Allied powers sir Hartley Shawcross was the chief British prosecutor at the Nuremberg trial I thought the prosecution was very fairly conducted really according to what one might say without posting the distinguished tradition and the in distribution and criminal work is very high the case was controversial revenge was the only kind of justice many people wanted Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain supported summary executions of the Nazis responsible for making the war and running the camps [Music] [Applause] everyone connected with it Churchill wired his foreign secretary in July 1944 will be hunted down and put to death but the British were overruled and the court was established at a German city full of symbolic meaning Nuremberg largely for psychological reasons but it had been the leading establishment of the Nazi party's they were based essentially on Nuremberg there was a courthouse there and all the facilities for a major trial [Music] Nuremberg in the 1930s was the showplace of Nazi grandeur the setting for enormous garish displays of party discipline and determination but the war brought ruin to Nuremberg the city was destroyed out of the ashes Rose the ideal of the Nuremberg trial war must come under law opening the first trial in history for crimes against the Peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility a special Charter laid out the ground rules for the new court located here in courtrooms 600 of Nuremberg Palace of Justice and it was here five months after the German surrender that the International prosecutors issued their indictments their charges were broad bold and uncompromising the swastika will no longer flood it's crooked arms above the Nazi shrine 24 Nazi leaders military officials and industrialists were accused under four broad headings count 1 covered the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to wage aggressive war count 2 crimes against the peace dealt with the actual making of war in violation of treaties count 3 covered war crimes and count for crimes against humanity to the defendants these charges and the entire prosecution were bogus nothing more than Victor's justice Otto crowns Bueller represented Nuremberg defendant Grand Admiral Karl dönitz whole business was aggressive war was fabricated did you have vengeance in your heart because of that well I think I'm too experienced a criminal lawyer and prosecutor to be affected by feelings of vengeance I don't think I had any such feeling at all I'm male well of thought when I was sentenced well they deserved it but beyond the courtroom drama and political debates the silent testimony of Nazi Germany's millions of innocent victims overshadowed every day's proceedings their suffering cried out for justice in November 1945 and it haunts us still joining us for this 3-hour segment this evening is Alan Dershowitz Alan is here for his first visit at Court TV you are someone that most of the country knows for a variety of reasons but I think I'd like to tell our viewers some things they may not know about you you graduated from the Yale Law School in 1962 magna [ __ ] laude you went on in parts of your work to become a professor at the Harvard Law School is I recall you were the youngest full time professor ever appointed there you have written countless articles both in legal publications magazines newspapers but some interesting facts about you that even I didn't know and I have known you myself personally many years you've been on the advisory board of the International Parliament group for human rights in the Soviet Union and you formerly were on the national board of directors of the Civil Liberties Union you've served three times on presidents that is the United States presidents various commissions including civil disorders drug abuse you've been a member all the way back some 20 or so years ago of the u.s. debate team where 1977 going over to debate the Soviet Union on human rights and in terms of Nuremberg your presence here is especially appreciated by all of us at Court TV because you have a special affinity for Nuremberg you have assisted in a book in writing prosecution of Nazi war criminals co-authored a book with prosecutor Telford Taylor and used the Nuremberg principles in the defense of certain defendants and we're gonna get to talk about all these things as this three hour segment goes on I give you a sincere welcome from all thank you so much Ricky this is really an important public service that core TV is doing by presenting these trials thank you well during our coverage we will bring you the reflections of some of the people who were at the Nuremberg trial and as you'll see the trial evoked many different and powerful reactions we picked those whom we thought had played the leading part in leading to the doubts a party along the path it took it nearly seems impossible that some people didn't know you mentioned growing carton porn I should say but it's just kissing there hasn't been has been no proof I felt that I would gladly shoot them myself you've had an opportunity if I could get close enough I'd garrote them or cut their throats or something [Music] as I saw them coming in there I could hardly really believe it's finally happening and I must say tears came to my eyes that was Drexel Sprecher a US prosecutor at Nuremberg displaying emotion shared by many who had fought the Germans at war and then tried to fight them fairly in a court of law those accused of war crimes were chosen as representatives of the major administrative branches of the Third Reich and included prisoners held by each of the four prosecuting nation's attention was paid to how well-known they were and how much power they exercised but sometimes the most notorious were dead or missing and a player far lower in the hierarchy was substituted looking at them in court made one wonder how these men wield such extraordinary power over so many at times they look puzzled even confused as they sat in the left front area of the courtroom known as the dock with military police standing guard behind them and the bright lights for the film cameras shining into their eyes the Nuremberg defendants look too insignificant to have committed the crimes for which they were on trial yes they were some of Germany's top Nazi leaders but what were their jobs under Adolf Hitler German national guard rises again on the strong foundation of the national socialistic ideology some of the defendants like the rotund Herman Goering and the intense rudolf hess were especially familiar to the public at large thanks to Hitler's propaganda machine and the international newsreels of the time earing was the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe Germany's Air Force and chief of war economy until he changed his mind at the end of his reign Hitler proclaimed goring as his successor yes the deputy to Hitler for Nazi Party matters had been the third ranking Nazi in Germany one of a handful of old party fighters has flew to Scotland in 1941 with a secret handwritten peace proposal for the British when he learned of his flight hitler denounced his old friend as having a mental disorder has spent the war in a British jail another defendant the polished Albert Speer was viewed by some as Hitler's most trusted confidant the men shared a love of art and both viewed themselves as creative spirits Speer first served as the Fury's chief architect and then headed up German munitions production during the war to produce those weapons fear needed workers to get them he turned to defendant fritz alkyl the Nazi responsible for slave labor during the war sow coal often said he just rounded up the workers and was not responsible for their treatment the scar faced and menacing Ernst Kaltenbrunner was accused of implementing the Jewish death campaign as head of the Gestapo an overseer of the concentration camps Kaltenbrunner a lawyer was said to have bragged about his quota to kill a thousand Jews a day among Hitler's top military men indicted at Nuremberg Karl dönitz commander of the German Navy and successor to Hitler William keidel head of the German High Command who signed Germany's surrender in 1945 and Alfred Jodl operations chief of the German armed forces not all of the defendants gave orders of speeches some were instrumental in raising money for the hit Loraine banker homer horace greeley shocked spent his youth in america with german immigrant parents after the family moved back to germany shocked became president the rice Bank Germany's state bank then Minister of the German economy shop successor at the rush Bank Walther funk was also in the dock folk was accused of knowing the source of Nazi loot including heaps of jewelry and gold teeth that had been recovered from the vaults of the rice bunk it was a horrifying treasure trove from the Jewish concentration camps that would hover over film and the rest of the men on trial at Nuremberg how much each man knew about the killings of millions of military and civilian prisoners would become the question that haunted the trial I'm here with Alan Dershowitz and Alan if I may call you that the process a legal trial that is based in law was it a show trial little of both for the United States and for Britain it was really a legal trial it was an attempt to bring the common law which is the great heritage of the United States and Britain into international law to try to develop a common law of human rights a common law of crimes against humanity for the Soviet Union it was a show trial it was simply one of many show trials that were going on at the same time that will show trials in Czechoslovakia that will show trials in the Soviet Union itself it was an attempt to blame for example the Germans for what they themselves had done in the cotton forest by killing many of the leaders of the Polish army and intelligentsia so it served many many purposes and its legacy is primarily a legacy of the United States and Britain we succeeded we established principles of international law not always abided by but widely recognised among the nations as currently applicable and lawyers have used the nürnberg principles both to prosecute and to defend so it was very much a worthwhile though somewhat flawed endeavor it couldn't be perfect because it was political in nature as well we're gonna talk more about some of those issues as we go on through this evening on November 20th 1945 the president of the court Sir Geoffrey Lawrence begins with a statement listing the four counts of the indictment number one crimes against peace or waging aggressive war war crimes three crimes against humanity and for the conspiracy to commit these crimes he requests one of the United States prosecutors Cindy alderman to begin reading the indictment a reading which actually took 1 and 1/2 days the indictment arose from a London agreement of August 8th 1945 which created the London Charter that created the court its rules of law and procedure the trial as it begins and as it airs this week from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time was filmed in short sections by the US Army Signal Corps we've edited the film together with sections of the audio tape record where only the audio exists we're using freeze frames of the film shot in the courtroom the court was called to order before the defendants in this case are called upon to make their pleas to the indictment which has been lodged against them and in which they are charged with crimes against peace war crimes and crimes against humanity and of a common plan or conspiracy to commit those crimes it is the wish of the tribunal that I should make a very brief statement on behalf of the tribunal all the defendants are represented by counsel in almost all cases the counsel appearing for the defendants have been chosen by the defendants themselves but in cases where counsel could not be obtained the tribunal has itself selected suitable counsel agreeable to the defendants the Tribunal has heard with great satisfaction of the steps which have been taken by the chief prosecutors to make available to defending counsel the numerous documents upon which the prosecution relies with the aim of giving to the defendants every possibility for a just defense the trial which is now about to begin is unique in the history of the jurisprudence of the world entities of supreme importance to millions of people all over the globe for these reasons there is laid upon everybody who takes any part in this trial a solemn responsibility to discharge their duties without fear or favour in accordance with the sacred principles of law and justice it only remains for me to direct in accordance with the provisions of the Charter that the indictment shall now be read may it please the tribunal the United States of America the French Republic the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics by the undersigned robert h jackson francois de Montcalm Hartley Shawcross and RA root n Co duly appointed to represent their respective governments in the investigation of the charges against and the prosecution of the major of war criminals pursuant to the agreement of London dated 8 August 1945 and the charter of this Tribunal and next step to hereby accuse as guilty in the respects hereinafter set forth of crimes against peace war crimes and crimes against humanity and are they common plan or conspiracy to commit those crimes all as defined in the charter of the tribunal and accordingly named as defendants in this cause and as indicted on the counts hereinafter set out come on Phil Hill during Rudolf Hess Joaquim from Ribbentrop Robert lie till he'll title against cousin Bruna Alfred Rosenberg unsprung William Frick illustration water pump how my shot Gustav Krupp from Bolin and Hull box Karl dönitz Eric trader I'll do fancy rocks fritz circle Alfred Jodl Martin Bormann France from poppin Archer assassin Fat Albert Speer Konstantin von Neurath and Hans stretchy individually and as members of any group of the groups or organizations next hereinafter name up NEX the indictments against the Nazi organizations here British prosecutors so heartless Shawcross gives his reaction to the Nazis charged with war crimes I think I thought they looked very ordinary people Goering stood out as obviously a man of ability who would stand out in any crowd the others I think aroused no interest to that kind they were just ordinary people in addition to people the indictment charge six Nazi organizations these bodies were named to cast a net over there many members if the organization were found criminal then a hearing could be held to determine the degree of guilt of a particular member in American jurisprudence a fundamental question is raised about the legitimacy of guilt by association dear isurugi room right cabinet the scar their politician letter their national socialist station touchin about the party leadership core of the national Nazi Party he should stop there as you now socialist issue talking about a part time commonly known as the SS and including these thoughts bollocks I thank you for and including these issue Hanks teams commonly known as the SD bigger hammer starts bullets I secret state police commonly known as the Gestapo DeStorm ops are looming there NS they are paid commonly known as the SA and the general staff and the high command of the German armed forces organizations Alan Dershowitz what about that it was an interesting theory I mean now that we're familiar with Rico and conspiracy laws it makes sense an American lawyer came up with this essentially and tried to do a wholesale indictment of organizations so that later buy retail they could go after individuals in the organization and either prosecute them or Dean ossify them in some way it failed it failed terribly because the one major moral failure of nürnberg is by focusing so much attention on 22 litres and then a few hundred later it the German people most of whom were deeply involved in Nazism and most of whom supported the programs of Nazism and out they were able to say the Germans weren't at fault only a few Nazis really were at fault so among the great gains of the Nuremberg trial that was one very significant failure and it played into the Cold War beautifully because it allowed us to say they have done ossified those 22 most of them are now dead the others have been punished a little bit now let's get on with business as usual making peace with Germany because we're warring with the Soviet Union and in the end politics control of the day well British prosecutor Sir David Maxwell Fyfe reads now from count two which is going to be handled by his country's prosecution team the defendants are charged with crimes against peace or waging aggressive war in violation of law and treaties it's worthy to note that the United States and its push for this trial primarily wanted to create new international law that would outlaw such behavior this count was the primary thrust of the trial though not the one that was remembered all the defendants with diverse other persons during a period of years preceding 8 May 1945 participated in the planning preparation initiation and waging of wars of aggression which were also wars in violation of international treaties agreements and assurances section 6 particulars of the Wars plan prepared initiated and waged a the war was referred to in the statement of offense in this count two of the indictment and the dates of their initiation were the following against Poland first September 1939 against the United Kingdom and France third September 1939 against Denmark and Norway ninth April 1940 against Belgium the Netherlands and Luxembourg tents made 1940 against Yugoslavia and Greece 6 April 1941 against the USS our 22nd June 1941 and against the United States of America 11th December 1941 be reference is hereby made to count one of the indictment for the allegations charging that these wars were wars of aggression on the part of the defendants up next the French and the Russians list their charges against the defendants Walter Cronkite had some interesting observations on the Russians during the Nuremberg trial the Russians at the press camp where we all live together were very mostly very friendly there was some standoffish nasai some of them but we got along others very well there was a consciousness certainly that that the Russians were different that they weren't wholeheartedly in our camp that they were holding off them again [Music] count three of the indictment was handled by France in the Soviet Union it charged the defendants with war crimes these were acts which violated traditional concepts of the law of war such as the use of slave labor the bombing of civilian populations the infamous reprisal order saying that 50 Soviet hostages should be shot for every German killed by the enemy these violations of international law were more clearly rooted in precedent and the crimes charged in the other counts since they stemmed in part from the Hague and the Geneva Conventions the prosecutor that we're going to see is Pierre Mooney and he begins after tribunal president Sir Geoffrey Laurence notes that ernst kaltenbrunner was ill and that the trial should proceed without him Carlton Berliner whose responsibilities included the Gestapo and the death camps was hospitalized three days before the trial began from a minor cerebral hemorrhage he returned to the dock all of the defendants committed war crimes between September 1 1939 and May 8 1945 in Germany and in all those countries and territories occupied by the German armed forces since September 1 1939 and in Austria Czechoslovakia and Italy and on the defendants acting in concert with others formulated and executed a common plan or conspiracy to commit war crimes as defined in article 6b of the Charter this plan involved among other things the practice of total war including methods of combat and of military occupation in direct conflict with the laws and customs of war and the perpetration of crimes committed on the field of battle during encounters with enemy armies against prisoners of war and in occupied territories against the civilian population of such territories throughout the period of their occupation of territories overrun by their armed forces the defendants for the purpose of systematically terrorizing the inhabitants ill-treated civilians imprisoned them without legal process tortured and murdered them the murders and ill-treatment were carried out by diverse means such as shooting hanging gassing starvation gross overcrowding systematic undernutrition systematic imposition of labor tasks beyond the strength of those ordered to carry them out inadequate provision of surgical and medical services kickings beatings brutality and torture of all kinds including the use of hot irons and pulling out of fingernails and the performance of experiments by means of operations and otherwise on living human subjects such crimes and ill-treatment are contrary to international conventions in particular to article 46 of The Hague regulations 1907 the laws and customs of war the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilized nations the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed and to article 6b of the Charter Soviet prosecutor Jaso then moved to count for crimes against humanity this dealt with the death camps concentration camps and the killing rampages in the east this count like count three was assigned to the French and the Soviets who divided the responsibility along east-west lines the legacy of the Nuremberg trial is viewed as emanating from this charge which revealed unspeakable acts of persecution suppression and eventual extermination of millions of people for the Jews this is the evidence of the Holocaust the genocide of some six million all the defendants acting in concert with others formulated and executed a common plan or conspiracy to commit war crimes as defined in article 6b of the Charter this plan involved among other things the practice of total war including methods of combat and of military occupation in direct conflict with the laws and customs of war and the commission of crimes perpetrated on the field of battle during encounters with enemy armies and against prisoners of war and in occupied territories against the civilian population of such territories a Benigni a budget-ass knowit's and a factor the prosecution will rely upon the fact it's pleaded under count three as also constituting crimes against humanity a murder extermination enslavement deportation and other inhumane acts committed against civilian populations before and during the war for the purposes set out above the defendants adopted a policy of persecution repression and extermination of all civilians in Germany who were or who were believed to or who were believed likely to become hostile to the Nazi government and the common plan or conspiracy described in count one they imprisoned such persons without judicial process holding them in protective custody and concentration camps and subjected them to persecution degradation despoil meant enslavement torture and murder Alan Dershowitz war crimes crimes against humanity are they different are they the same they're different the line isn't absolutely sharp but crimes against humanity is what is really unique about this trial an attempt to commit genocide against an entire people bringing people in from Greece from Italy from other places to kill them in central execution camps was what was so unique crimes against humanity war crimes had been committed for generations and war crimes of course the Nazis thought we committed some against them the bombing of Dresden some people think the bombing of least Nagasaki if not Hiroshima may have constituted a war crime there's there's a crimes growing out of war but in violation of the rules of war now when you get civilian victims the line between crimes against humanity and war crimes is not always a struck one but it ought to be kept in mind because what was so unique about what the Nazis did were the crimes against humanity and that's the real legacy of Nuremberg and what Alan Dershowitz points out is perhaps a defense you did it so we did it that defense was not permitted at the Nuremberg trials when we return the differen and speak know as they answer the charges against them the men in the dock were called upon to plead guilty or not guilty Hermann Goering attempts to make a statement which is in keeping with his conduct during the trial as he tries to continue his role as a wartime leader second only to Hitler his words translated in three other languages are the same as those used by out of Eichmann when he pleaded not guilty in Jerusalem in 1961 I will now call upon the defendants to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges against him they will proceed in turn to the Patrol point in the duct opposite to the microphone come on Wilhelm goody foresty firaga before i answer the question of the tribunal whether or not i am guilty I informed the court the court that defendants were not entitled to make a statement you must plead guilty or not guilty I declare myself in the sense of the indictment not guilty No that will be injured as a plea of not guilty if there is any disturbance in court those who make it will have to leave the court Joachim von Ribbentrop I declare myself in the sense of the indictment not guilty Wilhelm title economy I declare myself not guilty in the absence of ernst kaltenbrunner the trial will proceed against him but he will have an opportunity of pleading when he is sufficiently well be brought back into court Alfred Rosenberg I declare myself in the sense of the indictment not guilty I declare myself not guilty Wilhelm Frick not guilty Julius Streicher miss Cheerilee not guilty Walter we can we missed out slowly I declare myself not guilty Yama shocked in kind of I am NOT GUILTY in any respect not guilty myself not guilty I defend myself in the sense of the indictment not guilty I declare myself in the sense of the indictment before God and the world and particularly before my people not guilty not guilty for what I have done or had to do I have a pure conscience before God before history and my people I declare myself in no way guilty Arthur auto-size Impa I declare myself not guilty district not guilty Konstantin von Neurath I answer the question in the negative and picture design as regards this indictment not guilty alan dershowitz they all say in one form or another not guilty they were looking many at four counts including waging aggressive war as well as crimes against humanity what affected that house well it was a terrible decision to charge both with aggressive war and crimes against humanity because aggressive warfare has been waged from the beginning of time every one of the judging countries had waged aggressive war at one point in its history particularly the Soviet Union which invaded Poland essentially when the Germans did as well the Bible sanctions aggressive war we've had aggressive war from the beginning of time there was nothing unique about aggressive war and so it allowed some of the Nazis to assume the moral high ground saying this was just Victor's justice had they limited it to the unique aspects of what the Nazis did namely the crimes against humanity it would have had a much stronger moral basis but the four nations would not have agreed and I think the Soviets were insistent on making this into much more of a political trial than the United States was in tradition also American public opinion wasn't as interested in the Holocaust as they were in the aggressive war which had been waged against it as the result of which it lost its own soldiers so it was very much of a compromise in fact justice Jackson being the lead prosecutor winds up saying that this is his thing this waging aggressive war was the thing he wanted most to deal with him fascinating well we're going to take a break we'll be right back with more of the Nuremberg trial the opening statements after this coming up common sense of mankind demands that law shall not stop with the punishment of crimes Justice Robert Jackson delivers his historic opening statement to the tribunal and we'll take our first look at the evidence that shocked the court and the world concentration camp film all that and more in our coverage of the Nuremberg trial Robert Jackson was on leave from his job as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court he was appointed as the lead United States prosecutor in Nuremberg by Harry Truman Jackson didn't attend college and completed only one year of law school he became an attorney by serving an apprenticeship he served as both Solicitor General and Attorney General before going to the High Court while other World War two allies originally wanted summary execution of Nazi war criminals the United States pushed for a trial Jackson hoped that the proceedings at Nuremberg would create new international law outlawing aggressive warfare his opening statement ran for the better part of a day and is considered by many to be one of the great pieces of oratory the excerpts were showing you were taken from the ten month-long trial all of the trial was audio taped a portion was filmed for those sections not filmed we've used freeze frames of the film now justice Jackson's opening statement the privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the Peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility the wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated so malignant and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated that four great nations flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason this Tribunal file it is novel and experimental is not the product of abstract speculation nor is it created to vindicate legalistic theories this inquest represents the practical effort of four of the most mighty of Nations with the support of 15 more to utilize international law to meet the greatest menace of our times aggressive war the common sense of mankind demands that law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people it must also reach men who possess themselves of great power and make deliberate and concerted use of it to set in motion evils which leave no home in the world untouched it is a cause of that magnitude that the United Nations will lay before your honors in the prisoner's dock sip 20-odd broken man reproached by The humiliation of those they have led to almost as bitterly as by the desolation of those they have attacked their personal capacity for evil is forever passed it is hard now to perceive in these manners captives the power which as Nazi leaders they once dominated most of the world and terrified most of it merely as individuals their fate is of little consequence to the world what makes this inquest significant is that these prisoners represent sinister influences that will lurk in the world long after their bodies have returned to dust we will show them to be the living symbols of racial hatreds terrorism and the violence and of the arrogance and cruelty of power this is merely a beginning of Justice Jackson and he is eloquent in his presentation and Alan Dershowitz he talks about the idea of these four powers coming together to go and seek really the truth of what happened in Nazi Germany do you think it serves that purpose to seek the truth I think it did I think this will make Holocaust denial impossible for any rational human beings for remainder of time we have documented proof that has been preserved through a court trial courts are usually not very good at being at searching for truth though they always have to balance other values with a search for truth but in this case I think it preserved a documentary record that will be unique in history when all of the participants along gone we will still have the Nuremberg tribunals and it's interesting and the Holocaust deniers must D legitimate the Nuremberg tribunals and they always try to but they stand on their own as a very powerful historical account as well as legal account of the horrors of what occurred these four powers had to get together do a lot of give-and-take to finally arrive at a system of judging these 22 odd men in the dark really 21 because of Martin Bormann being tried in absentia and in that give-and-take there was a mixture between the Continental law and the anglo-american law and some of it pulled one way some were pulled the other you're a student of that how did that work compromise what it was was we had to deal with the Soviet Union that was primarily the compromise that had to be struck France never should have been in this trial some of france's leaders should have been in the dock they had no right to be judging germany so many Frenchmen were complicitous they didn't fight they surrendered and turned over their Jews for transport so it was really the English who certainly deserved to be there and the Russians who by dint of their military victory had to be there but of course Russia being there the Soviet Union being there created a terrible dilemma for the United States the Soviet Union had engaged in aggressive warfare it had committed crimes against humanity in the Ukraine it was plotting as they were sitting at Nuremberg discriminatory measures against Jews which came into fruition only a year or two after the Nuremberg trials and Stalin was planning to learn from Hitler and deport all of his Jews when he fortuitously died at the right time so there was a large mix of hypocrisy of realpolitik it's both the end of the Second World War in the beginning of the Cold War and you know you can't separate law from politics even typical cases imagine when the world is watching Nations putting another nation essentially on trial politics has to play but you know Jackson did a marvelous job in acting as a lawyer and in trying to distill the legal principles from continental law from anglo-american law and from international law into that he deserves a great phrase we're going to watch much more of justice Jackson's and after this break more of his eloquent passionate opening an opinion shared by United States prosecutor Telford Taylor nobody nobody and what we were doing had ever in my ability seen anything as good as his [Music] [Applause] the crowd of excited Nazis was present at the opening of the official anti-semitic campaign of April 1st 1933 the fervour of many of the German people who supported Adolf Hitler coupled with his absolute authority which had to be obeyed permitted an atmosphere where incredible crimes could be committed by the Nazis the Nazis in their belief of being the master race and in their plan to dominate the world invaded other countries and enslaved millions of people Robert Jackson continues his opening statement on this subject these men stand for we will patiently and temperately disclose we will give you undeniable proofs of incredible events the catalogue of crimes will omit nothing that could be conceived by a pathological pride cruelty and lust for power these men created in Germany under the Fuehrer Princip a National Socialist despotism equalled only in the dynasties of the ancient East they took from the German people all those dignities and freedoms that we hold natural and inalienable rights in every human being people were compensated by inflaming and gratifying hatred towards those who were marked as scapegoats against their opponents including Jews Catholics and free labor the Nazis directed such a campaign of arrogance and brutality and annihilation as the world has not witnessed since the pre-christian era they excited the German ambition to be a master race which of course implies serfdom for others they led their people on a mad gamble for domination they diverted social energies and resources to the creation of what they thought to be an invincible war machine they over around their neighbors to sustain the master race of their war making they enslaved millions of human beings and pop them into Germany why are these hapless creatures now wander as displaced persons at length bestiality and bad faith reached such access that they aroused the sleeping forces of imperiled civilization its United efforts have found the German war machine to fragments but the struggle has left Europe a liberated yet frustrate land by are demoralized society struggles to survive these are the fruits of the sinister forces that sit with these defendants and the prisoners done injustice to the men and to the nations associated in this prosecution I must remind you of certain difficulties which may leave their mark on this case never before in legal history has an effort been made to bring within the scope of a single litigation the developments of a decade covering a whole continent involving a score of nations countless individuals and innumerable events despite the magnitude of the task the world has demanded immediate action this demand has had to be met so perhaps that the cost of finished craftsmanship justice Jackson was assisted by many talented people including Telford Taylor Alan Dershowitz who know him well tell us about him Telford is one of the great great people of the 20th century a man who replaced justice Jackson is the chief prosecutor for the next level of trials and devoted his life he's still alive and who remains alive and well for a long time has devoted all of his life to the defense of human rights he wrote a book on Vietnam and Nurenberg he and I traveled to the Soviet Union twice and to Israel twice using Nurenberg principles to try to free Soviet dissidents and refuseniks and using telford x' close relationship with roman rudenko was one of the russian prosecutors who was then the procurator general of the soviet union and a man named Smirnoff who was one of the people involved in Nuremberg who when we went to the Soviet Union together had become a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union Telford has just been tireless and trying to use the nürnberg principles in a sensible and productive way and just on a personal note he was my teacher and you know my role model I've never been able to come close to what what he's done but I still aspire well thank you for that personal touch after this break we continue with justice Jackson's opening statement and remarkably enough he intends to prove his case by the Germans own documents after the war the Nuremberg trial began with all deliberate speed a speed that was actually quite amazing and as a result justice Jackson and his Poco prosecutors the people working for him were gathering up documents one by one batch by batch in order to be ready justice Jackson had strong feelings that the documentary evidence that had been captured often by some amazing detective work the documents concerning the Luftwaffe were found in salt mines in Salzburg well these documents came almost why the tongue justice Jackson felt that documents were far more worthwhile than witnesses in this prosecution as we returned to his opening statement we are at a segment where he is talking about some of the problems of rushing so fast to trial after a second world war and how that might affect the legacy of Nuremberg in my country established courts following familiar procedures applying well-thumbed precedents dealing with the consequences of local and limited events seldom commence a trial within a year of the event and litigation yet less than eight months ago today the courtroom in which you sit was an enemy fortress in the hands of the SS troops less than eight months ago nearly all of our witnesses and documents were in enemy hands the law had not been codified no procedures had been established no Tribunal was in existence no usable courthouse stood here none of the hundreds of tons of official German documents had been examined no prosecuting staff had been assembled nearly all of the present defendants were at large and the for prosecuting powers had met not yet joined in the common cause to try them I should be the last to deny that this Court this case may very well suffer from incomplete researches and fight likely will not be the example of professional work which any of the prosecuting nations would normally wish to sponsor it is however a completely adequate case to the judgment we shall ask you to render and it's fuller development we shall be obliged to leave to historians because we have not had the time to examine all of the sources of evidence that might be available before I discuss particulars of the evidence we shall offer some general considerations which may affect the credit of this trial in the eyes of the world should be candidly faced there is a dramatic disparity between the circumstances of the accusers and of the accused it might discredit our work if we should for her in even minor matters in being fair and temperate unfortunately the nature of these crimes is such that both prosecution and judgment must be by Victoire nations / vanquished foes the worldwide scope of the aggressions carried out by these men has left but few real neutrals either the victors must judge the vanquished armies we must leave the defeated to judge themselves after the first world war we learned the futility of the latter course the former high station of these defendants the notoriety of their acts and the adaptability of their conduct to provoke retaliation make it hard to distinguish between the demand for a just and measured retribution and the unthinking cry for vengeance which arises from the anguish of war it is our task so far as humanly possible to draw the line between the two we must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today as the record on which history will judge us tomorrow we must summon such detachments and intellectual integrity to our task that this trial will commend itself to posterity as fulfilling humanity's aspirations to do justice and much of that trial as we said was based on documentary evidence compiled with real precision by the Germans Alan Dershowitz a decision was made particularly by Justice Jackson as the chief prosecutor he said I want documents not witnesses that decision was opposed by some of his stuff what do you think of that call it was a brilliant decision witnesses are selective in their memories can be self-serving can be disputed 20-30 years later for history and this trial was for history documentation was crucial the difference between the role of the historian and the role of the judge was blended together in a case like this and the Germans was such precise record keepers they didn't think they were doing anything wrong the way in which they kept precise records of the railroad cars and the shipments of Jews and the numbers of teeth and the numbers of you name it they had records of it the Zyklon gassed the canisters made it impossible to deny what witnesses could have denied even today 50 years later the testimony of the few witnesses that did testify at the various nürnberg trusts are now disputed people say oh well they had it they were hoping for leniency they were trying to get something out of it you can't dispute these documents it was a brilliant decision may not have played well with the press because reading document after document Kanwar even a judge to death this wasn't a jury trial these were professional judges and for professional judges it was the right decision it's interesting there's always an old adage in criminal trials that defense lawyers have used in talking to jurors where they talk about the fact that real evidence that is things you can touch see in this case read real evidence doesn't lie only people do and is so said by Alan Dershowitz in another way just now we're going to take a break and as we go to the break the question is why Nuremberg as a selection for the site we're going to hear from the chief British prosecutor I think largely for psychological reasons that it had been the leading establishment of the Nazi parties they were based essentially on Nuremberg there was a courthouse there and all the facilities for a major town [Music] the Nuremberg was a very attractive City the houses is probably still true in that part of Europe typically six storey multiple dwellings not any higher than that the build of good materials had me not Ward not brick but nicely cut masonry a wealthy City and the bombing had been so heavy that nothing was left standing but the shelves of these six storey buildings that was the clerk to judge Frances fiddled at Herbert Wexler reflecting on the selection of Nuremberg as the trial venue back during the proceedings Jackson advises the court in his opening statement about more of this meticulous record-keeping of the Germans which will prove the case against the men in the dock in addition to documents there's captured German film and there are films of the United States and the Soviet Union as well which reveal horrors that boggle the mind the question who should be held accountable if these men are the first war leaders of a defeated nation to be prosecuted in the name of the law they are also the first to be given a chance to plead for their lives in the name of the law realistically the Charter of this Tribunal which gives them a hearing is also the source of their only hope it may be that these men of troubled conscience whose only wish is that the world forget them do not regard a trial as a favor but they do have a fair opportunity to defend themselves represented here by able counsel who have shown their capacity to handle their case with credit and who've acted with courage and these men now enjoy a favor which when in power they rarely extended even to their fellow countrymen despite the fact that public opinion may already condemn their acts we agree here that they must be given a presumption of innocence and we accept the burden of proving criminal acts and the responsibility of each of these defendants or their commission we will not ask you to convict these men on the testimony of their faults there is no count in the indictment that cannot be proved by books and records the Germans were always meticulous record keepers and these defendants had their share of the teutonic passion for thoroughness in putting things on paper nor were they without vanity they arranged frequently to be photographed in action we will show you their own films you will see their own conduct and hear their own voices as these defendants reenact for you some of the events in the course of the conspiracy the German people should know by now that the people of the United States hold them in no fear and in no hate the Nazi nightmare has given the German name a new and senators sinister significance throughout the world which will retire to Germany essentially the German no less than the non German world has accounts to settle with these defendants it is my purpose to open the case particularly under count one of the indictment and to deal with the common plan or conspiracy to achieve ends possible only by resort to crimes against peace war crimes and crimes against humanity the case is presented by the United States will be concerned with the brains and the authority back of all the crimes these defendants were men of a station and the rank which does not soil its hands with flood they were men who know how to use lesser folk as tools we want to reach the planners and designers the inciters and leaders without whose evil architecture of the world would not have been for so long skirts with the violence and lawlessness and wrecked with the Agony's and convulsions of this terrible war a question that is often come up out of this tribunal Alan Dershowitz is the whole issue of wasn't this all ex post facto loitering and why don't you define what that is as you give us a your answer well the United States Constitution has a provision actually it's not even in the Bill of Rights it's in the body of the Constitution against punishing somebody for a crime that was not on the books at the time the person committed that crime interestingly enough right now in Israel when they're thinking about bringing to trial perhaps some of the conspirators or rabbis who may have been cited they're facing a similar problem of ex post facto I don't want to make any analogies obviously but here in this case if it had been judged by domestic American law by the United States Constitution it probably would not have passed the test it would have been exposed back to but we're dealing with international common law which by its very nature evolves and what the lawyers and judges tried to do is pick out of the domestic laws of the various countries the various international common law that had developed over time a series of principles and announced that they really were in effect they may not have been written down in any one place but they were in effect at the time and these people were on not that they would be prosecuted but that what they did was against the law it's interesting because as you say that's one of the reasons that they didn't call what they were using to create the tribunal and go forward they didn't call it a statute they called it a Charter and part of the reason is as Alan Dershowitz explains to avoid this whole issue of ex post facto we're taking a break when we return more of the nuremberg trial including photographs of the Warsaw Ghetto [Music] judge Lawrence was one of the most amazing people I ever hope to see on the bench or off the bench he had a firmness about him and yet a he didn't sound nor did he behave in an arbitrary fashion and he seemed to listen and remember great amounts of detail as to what had going on before and what had been said and when he was wrong he didn't hesitate to admit it I think that between him and Sir David Maxwell Fyfe and justice Jackson you have the three big characters of the trial that was us prosecutor Drexel Sprecher commenting on those that carried these proceedings one of those men Robert Jackson uses his opening statement to persuade the court to his point of view before the formal introduction of evidence during the trial he looks to the evidence which is remembered so well from Nuremberg the crimes perpetrated against the Jews he uses documents which call for a final solution to the Jewish Question the ultimate extermination of an entire race of people he shows pictures which by now have become all too familiar to those who have studied the Holocaust but it was all true evidence of the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto shocked the world the most savage and numerous crimes committed by the Nazis were those against the Jews is our purpose to show a plan and a design to which all Nazis were fanatically committed to annihilate all Jewish people these crimes were organized and promoted by the party leadership executed and protected by the Nazi officials as we shall convince you by written orders of the secret state police itself persecution of the Jews was a continuous and deliberate policy it was a policy directed against other nations as well as against the Jews themselves anti-semitism was promoted to divide and embittered the democratic peoples and to soften their resistance to Nazi a great the conspiracy or common plan to exterminate the Jew was so methodically and thoroughly pursued that despite German defeat and Nazi frustration this Nazi aim largely has succeeded only remnants of the European Jewish population remain in Germany in the countries which Germany occupied and in those which were her satellites or collaborators of the nine million 600,000 Jews who lived in Nazi dominated Europe sixty percent are authoritative Lee estimated to have carried 5 million 700 thousand Jews are missing from the countries in which they formerly live and over four and a half million cannot be accounted for by the normal death rate nor by emigration nor are they included among displaced persons history does not record a crime ever perpetrated against so many victims or carried out with such calculated cruelty you will have difficulty as I have to look into the faces of these defendants and believe that in this twentieth century human beings could inflict such sufferings as will be proved here on their own countrymen as well as upon so-called inferior enemies defendant Hans Frank a lawyer by profession I wish to say summarized in his diary in 1944 the Nazi policy thus and I quote the Jews as a race are a race which has to be eliminated whenever we catch one it is his end I shall not dwell on this subject longer than to quote one more sickening document which evidence is the planned and systematic character of these Jewish persecutions I hold an original report written with Teutonic thoroughness as to detail illustrated with photographs to authenticate it's almost incredible text and beautifully bound in leather with loving care they stood on a proud work it is the original report of the SS Brigade general Stroupe in charge of the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and Hans Frank was governor-general opponent its title page carries this inscription the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw no longer exists I shall ask your honors to examine with care the photographs with which this document Homs showing the destruction of this gate Oh showing the people driven before the flames with the title Jews and bandits women and children and old men not a man of fighting age in the picture except the German soldiers the masses lined up against the wall for execution the picture to illustrate the texts showing that they jump from the windows during the flames to escape now let us read what general Stroupe says he did the resistance put up by the Jews and bandits could only be suppressed by energetic action of our troops day and night the reichsfuhrer SS ordered therefore on the 23rd of April 1943 the cleanin out of the ghetto with utter ruthlessness and merciless tenacity I therefore decided to destroy and burn down the entire ghetto without regard to the armament factories these factories were systematically dismantled and then burned the Jews usually left their hideouts but frequently remained in the burning buildings and jumped out of the windows only when the heat became unbearable this actually eliminated says the SS commander I quote a proof total of fifty 6065 Jews to that here says we have to add the number of those killed through plastic fire and so forth which cannot be counted we charge that all of the atrocities against Jews were the manifestation and culmination of the Nazi plan to which every defendant in this box was a party chilling to say the least Alan Dershowitz that picture of the young boy with his hands up really one of the most famous pictures I'm sorry it's the most amazing thing is it's it's it's a story of such redemption and survival that young man was one of the very very few people who managed to survive the Holocaust because you know the reason why was resistance obviously at the Warsaw Ghetto it was by that time the Jews knew that their fate had been sealed that they were being shipped directly from Warsaw mostly to Treblinka Treblinka was not a work camp it was just a place where the train would come and people will put right from the train into the killing chambers the gas chambers and then the crematorium and when you think about Warsaw you have to think of it like New York City Warsaw was like New York one third of its population was Jewish professors intellectuals ordinary folks and that one-third the population was rounded up but into a very small ghetto many died just as a result of the horrors some managed to sneak out through cemetery I've been there I've seen the sewer system that they use but the vast vast majority 95% ended up ended up being murdered one way or another in this particular case where people are being punished for their acts as war criminals one of the one of the defendants is someone who has not been punished for these acts and acts of sending people to camps and acts of violence by his own hand but lluvia Stryker was being tried and potentially punished for using his words his mouth what was that about and and why does that not sit so well with many people well it was the most extreme form of hate speech imaginable he was the megaphone of the Nazi Party he ran the newspapers dish derma he was the one who created those pictures of the Jews with the hook noses and the anti-semitic stereotypes he dehumanized the Jews he made it possible for others to kill Jews without thinking that they were killing human beings he used the analogies over and over again with vermin and insects and if there was ever a case where speech killed this was that nonetheless we do sit uncomfortably with the idea of executing somebody for quote mere speech this is an issue that goes back from the beginning of time we will be with us to the end of time we will never resolve where to draw that line when does speech become a trigger for action although Wendell Holmes talked about shouting fire the theater this is a more compelling case than that even because this was as justice Jackson eventually put it the cheerleader looping up the crowd and making them do the things that eventually they did yet there is no some more uncomfortable with trying a man like that along with the hands on perpetrators of the Holocaust and so the perpetrators of the Holocaust and as Alan Dershowitz says the man with the figurative megaphone and you wind up with the pictures of the Warsaw Ghetto we're taking a commercial break when we return more of the Nuremberg trial the prosecution begins its case including the concentration camps stay with us [Music] still ahead they proposed to accomplish these objectives by any means found opportune the Americans begin their case and the court witnesses vivid evidence of Nazi atrocities coming up and I'd look at the Nuremberg trial you

Channel: RobertHJacksonCenter

Views: 224,866

Rating: 4.5740905 out of 5

Keywords: Nuremberg Trial, Court TV, Documentary, Part 1, Opening Statement, Robert H. Jackson, Drexel Sprecher, ere, Herbert Wechsler, Alan Dershowitz, Hartley Shawcross, David Maxwell-Fyfe, Ozol, Geoffrey Lawrence, Hess

Id: zHR5rHE7wDg

Length: 110min 0sec (6600 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 10 2018