Nuremberg Trial (Court TV, part 10)

if the crimes committed in the names of these organizations must go unpunished and so it was indictments of the organization's a question of guilt by association we're going to take a commercial break when we return more on the historic trial at nuremburg including the defendants own statements [Music] still to come I never approved or tolerated the biological extermination of Jewry the defendants make their final statements to the court and during is indicted on all four counts there is nothing to be said in mitigation we'll bring you the tribunals verdicts their sentences for those convicted and the aftermath coming up on a look at the Nuremberg trial [Music] justice cannot be done partly that's it can be done only with the whole system and the whole system was but unfortunately was not justice I would agree welcome justice concentration of real and acknowledged crimes but that was mixed up this foreign policy that was defense attorney Otto Krantz Bueller who felt that justice was not done at Nuremberg and yet the defendants had been accorded many rights and protections consistent with due process of law and August 31st a Saturday session each defendant was permitted the privilege of making a final statement to the multinational court they spoke in the order in which they were indicted the comments varied widely from belligerents to remorse Rudolf has seemed to sound so truly mad to some and others thought he was a master manipulator we begin with the man who was to be Hitler's successor Hermann Goering a man who remained unrepentant to the end you shall in the final speeches has treated the defendants and their testimony as completely worthless the statements made under oath by the defendants were accepted as absolutely true when they could serve to support the indictment but conversely the statements were characterized as perjury when they refuted the indictment the prosecution uses the fact that I was the second man of the state as proof that I must have known everything that happened but it does not present any documentary or other convincing proof in cases why I have denied under oath that I knew about certain things much less desired them therefore it's only an allegation and a conjecture when the prosecution says we should have known that if not girly who was the successor of the Fuhrer no state ever gave notice to the hike at the proper time pointing out that any activity for National Socialism would be made subject to punishment and persecution on the other hand if we the leaders as individuals are to account and condemn very well but you cannot punish the German people at the same time the German people placed their trust in the fula and under his authoritarian government they have no influence on events without knowledge of the grave crimes which have become known today the people loyal self-sacrificing and courageous fought and suffered through the life-and-death struggle which had broken out against their will the German people are free of guilt I did not want to war nor did I bring it about I did everything to prevent it by negotiations after it had broken out I did everything to assure a victory since the three greatest powers on earth together with many other nations were fighting against us we finally succumbed to their tremendous superiority I stand up for the things that I have done but I deny most emphatically that my actions were dictated by the desire to subjugate foreign peoples by Wars to murder them to rob them or to enslave them or to commit atrocities or crimes the only motive which guided me was my ardent love for my people it's happiness its freedom and it's life and for this I call on the Almighty and my German people to witness but we intended was to look after our elementary necessities of life and in the same way that England looked after her own interests in order to make one-fifth of the world subject to her and in the same way that United States brought an entire continent and Russia brought the largest inland territory of the world under their hegemony the only difference between the policies of these countries as compared with ours is that we demanded parcels of land such as tanzic and the corridor which were taken from us against all rights whereas the other powers are accustomed to thinking only in terms of continents after this break we return with more of the defendants final statements including Kaito Kaltenbrunner and spear the defendants filed before the court and used their privilege of allocution this would be their last act before the judges retired to deliberate and decide their future what each be found guilty or not guilty with their sentences be life or death these would be the last words heard from the parties in room 600 of the Palace of Justice the next to speak is william Kaito chief of staff of the German armed forces now at the end of this trial I want to present equally frankly the avowal and confession I have to make today in the course of the trial my defense counsel submitted two fundamental questions to me the first one already some month ago it was in case of a victory what you have refused to participate in any part of the success I answered no I should certainly have been proud of it the second question was how would you act if you were in the same position again my answer then I would rather choose death than to let myself be drawn into the net of such pernicious methods from these two answers the High Tribunal may see my viewpoint I believed but I erred and I was not in a position to prevent what ought to have been prevented that's my guilt it's tragic to have to realize that the best I had to give as a soldier obedience and loyalty was exploited for purposes which could not be recognized at the time and that I did not see that there is a limits that even for a soldier's performance of his duty that's my fate from the clear recognition of the causes the pernicious methods and the terrible consequences of this war may there arise the hope for a new future in the community of nations for the German people mock me unworthy difficulty that young flag of the prosecution holds me responsible for the concentration camps or the struction of jewish life for Einsatzgruppe meant other things all of this is neither in accord with the evidence nor with the truth the accusers as well as the accused are exposed to the dangers of a summary proceeding and the Jewish Question I was just as much deceived as other high officials I never approved or tolerated the biological extermination of Jewry the anti-semitism found in party and state laws was still to be considered in time of war as an emergency defense measure the anti-semitism of Hitler as we understand it today or barbarism I did not participate in either of these forms and maintained as I shall show that the discontinuance of the extermination of the Jews is to be traced to my influence on Hitler I know only that in my belief in our of Hitler I put all my strength at the disposal of my people as a German soldier I could only put myself at the service of the defense against those destructive forces which had once brought Germany close to the abyss and which today after the collapse of the high are still threatening the world if I have made mistakes in my work through a false conception of obedience if I carried out orders all of which insofar as they are alleged to be cardinal orders were issued before my time of office then they are part of a faith which is stronger than myself and which is carrying me along with it mr. president may it please the tribunal Hitler and the collapse of his system have brought a time of tremendous suffering upon the German people the useless continuation of this war and the unnecessary destruction that makes the work of reconstruction and more difficult privation and misery have come to the German people after this trial the German people will despise and condemn Hitler as the proven author of its misfortune but the world will learn from these happenings not only to hate dictatorship as a form of government but to fear it there's a former minister of a highly developed armament system it is my last duty to say the following a new large-scale war will end with the destruction of human culture and civilization therefore this trial must contribute towards preventing such degenerate Wars in the future and towards establishing rules whereby human beings can live together it is not the battles of war alone but shapes a history of humanity but also in a higher sense the cultural achievements which one day we becomes a common property of all humanity a nation which believes in its future will never perish may God protect Germany and a culture of the West Albert Speer as usual very smooth very charismatic says exactly what the judges need to hear from him I'm here with sharif aussi uni and Sharif if I may call you that there is the whole question that was raised by the people from the Armed Forces about saying again while I just obeyed my orders now at Nuremberg it was said I and our commentators have said that there was no defense obeying superior orders but it's not quite true is it well it's important to know that until the Charter was adopted the idea of obedience to superior orders was a valid defense the Charter sought to eliminate the defence though giving people are the opportunity of using it in mitigation the court realized that this would have a dramatic ex post facto effect so what they did is they carved a little exception out of it and said well if the person did not have a moral choice in other words if the person was was under the gun and had to do it otherwise the person would risk death then they would allow it as a defense because they would say that it would negate the intent to commit the crime so in fact even though the rule appeared to be a very strict rule it wasn't but what's also behind it which is very important is that that Hitler requested all of the officers to swear personal allegiance to him and so in effect they took a direct Earth to him and that was an important factor because in 1935 they started changing the laws but also Hitler and the Nazi Party was very dubious of the high command and and the officers and were very much afraid that they would maybe start a coup against Hitler so when in the first segment you mentioned that they were issuing cards for the soldiers not to obey an unlawful order it was not in the humanistic sense that we think of it it was to make sure that the officers would not tell the soldiers to rebel against the Nazis it's really wonderful that's a great story from someone who really has studied this it's not always what it seems to be we're going to take a comeback we're going to take a break and when we come back the all-important verdicts stay with us and now we turn to the verdicts they were pronounced after the first international war crimes trial of ten months ninety-four witnesses in over 4,000 documents came before the four judges in their alternates the most powerful exhibits were the films that actually recorded the Nazi atrocities committed during World War two on October 1st 1946 after a month of deliberations the international tribunal reconvened and the judges delivered their verdicts for the twenty-one defendants it was their day of reckoning Sir Geoffrey Lawrence the presiding judge began the proceeding article 26 of the Charter provides that the judgment of the tribunal as the guilt or innocence of any defendant to give the reasons on which it is based the tribunal will now state those reasons in declaring its judgement on such as the highest-ranking Nazi on trial Hermann göring's verdict was read first Goering is indicted on all four counts there is nothing to be said in mitigation the Goering was often indeed almost always the moving force second only to his leader the tribunal finds the defendant Goering Goering was convicted of all four charges conspiracy waging aggressive war war crimes and crimes against humanity the Russian judge Ian Niki chenko delivered the verdict for Rudolf Hess has helped carry out Hitler's plan for war but actually spent most of the war in a foreign prison this is indicted under all four counties until his flight to England Hess was Hitler's closest personal confidant the tribunal finds the defendant has guilty on counts one and two and not guilty on counts three and four Hess was acquitted of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity but he was convicted of conspiracy and waging aggressive war Ernst Kaltenbrunner was the number two man in the SS he was accused of overseeing the execution of millions of Jews the international tribunal found Kaltenbrunner not guilty of conspiring to wage war but guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed under his leadership at the SS and Gestapo Walther funk was on trial because he was Germany's chief economic planner during the war happiness funk is indicted under all four accounts he took office as Minister of economics and plenipotentiary general of the war economy in early 1938 and as president of the Reichsbank in January 1939 the tribunal finds that funk is not guilty on count one but is guilty under account two three and four folk was acquitted of the conspiracy charge but convicted of waging aggressive war and of war crimes and crimes against humanity Hjalmar Schacht preceded funk in leading Germany's economy but by war's end he opposed Hitler and finally was arrested and imprisoned in a concentration camp shox verdict was delivered by the American judge Francis Biddle shot is indicted on two counts one and two of the indictment he was clearly not one of the inner circle around Hitler which was most closely involved with this common plan he was regarded by this group with undisguised hostility shocked charged with only two counts was found not guilty he was one of only three defendants acquitted the French judge only Donna do devout way delivered the verdict for Grand Admiral Karl dönitz Gounod's a military man was Hitler's chosen successor at the end of the war dönitz is anti Taylor on accounts one two and three on January 30th 1933 he became commander and chief of the German Navy on May 1st 1945 he became the head of state succeeding Hitler the tribunal finds a donuts is not guilty on the count one of the indictment and is guilty on counts two and three units was acquitted of conspiring to wage war but convicted of waging aggressive war and of war crimes [Music] Fritz Sauckel was accused of supplying Germany's war economy with millions of slave laborers indicted on all four counts the evidence shows that sample was in charge of a program which involved deportation for slave labor have more than five million human beings [Music] he is guilty count free Soquel was acquitted of conspiring and waging aggressive war but was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity Albert Speer was one of Hitler's closest advisors and he oversaw Germany's arms production from 1940 to now was acquitted of conspiracy and of waging aggressive war but convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in all six defendants were convicted of all four of the charges thirteen including Martin Bormann who was tried in absentia were convicted of some of the charges and three were acquitted the complete picture of the verdicts looks like this count one conspiracy to wage aggressive war guilty eight not guilty 14 count two waging aggressive war or crimes against peace guilty 12 not guilty four count three war crimes guilty 16 not guilty to count for crimes against humanity guilty 16 not guilty to the three acquitted Franz von Papen Hammar shocked and hans free che talked with journalist shortly after they were acquitted on all counts what we see sharif a sunni is some disparity I must say let's look at Zeljko and Speer we know as we will see that Zuko is going to be hanged Pierre gets 20 years disparity equal justice not equal justice at all Sal Cole is a terrible individual who rounded up people for slave labor but spears the one who used them he knew what he was using he also was the one who set up the numbers that he wanted so-called to bring to him there is no doubt that Speer was an opportunist a manipulator that's why he was able to ingratiate himself with Hitler he realized the opportunity to ingratiate himself with the tribunal and to say exactly the things that people wanted him to say that is why at the end of his statement he referred to the West he knew that already there was a wedge that was going to be driven between the East and the West he used that very ably and I think there was a shocking disparity in terms of the way he was able to to receive such a light sentence Julius Streicher we're going to see so his death sentence for words for writings albeit in a rabid anti-semitic newspaper should someone be hung for their speech I have mixed feelings about that I realize of course that we have a strong tradition of freedom of speech and that some of us consider that the notion of freedom of speech should go to its absolute extreme and that there should be no limit but we do recognize that you know as Justice Holmes once said you can't go into a crowded theatre and-and-and scream fire and let people just fall over each other and and trample each other and cause each other injuries I think the same is true here I think this was just more than the exercise of free speech I think this was not only a form of in citation but it was almost a form of brainwashing - a repetition it fit in very very tightly with Goebbels propaganda and so I think that that we do recognize that there is such a thing as a crime of solicitation and what he was doing is was soliciting a crime and so I I'm really not very sympathetic to the view that because he just expressed the positions that he should get away with it it was much more than that what about the people from the armed services the people the Navy the army weren't they just fighting warlike people on our side dude well the the army situation has to be examined in context the German army was an army with a great deal of military tradition and a tradition of honor a tradition of Honor which in the first world wars started to dwindle when the German u-boat for example would surface and shoot at hospital ships and then surface again and shoot at the rafts and this is a little bit the type of defense during its tried to bring out by getting a document from from Admiral Nimitz showing that well the United States did a little bit the same thing but there is no doubt there the German honor and military tradition would have rejected all of the things that were done what happened is that very gradually Hitler was able to manipulate out of positions of command the very traditional aristocratic German officers replace them with officers that were more likely to be sympathetic to him and also putting title and yodel above everybody else and in direct communication with him and and what he did is is he really allowed these officers conditioned them into committing war crimes and crimes against humanity this goes against the German military tradition and one of the interesting things I should point out is Germany also had a war crime section during the time they were doing what they were doing they had a section in which they recorded violations which they said were committed against them by allies it was called the their mock war crimes Bureau and so if they were sufficiently conscious to record let's say mistreatment of prisoners of war or torture or beating or killing of POWs etc if they were sufficiently conscious to record that as a crime when committed against them they certainly had to be conscious that it was a crime when they committed it it's very good to have all of your basis of knowledge on these issues we're going to take a break and after the break the sentences for those found guilty and the way to our break Walter Cronkite offers his assessment of what the Nuremberg trial achieved I think the legacy at Nuremberg is twofold one establishes that some precedent for trials of those who plot against humanity as it were and second of all it stands as a a full testament of the horrors of Nazism as established in a court of law with presentation of evidence under a set of rules that make it clear that these things [Music] I think everybody had the sense that what would the documents we had and what was the drama of the trial we were helping make history and that we were doing it in a way which would call attention to many more people than could possibly be done if there had been no trial that was prosecutor Drexel Sprecher there can be no doubt that the trial at Nuremberg served as a form of historical documentation but we must remember that a trial is not conducted for the purpose of making history itself it's conducted to achieve justice and as we turn to the sentences for those found guilty we can see why there's been a great debate for 50 years over the notion of justice particularly equal justice the judgments were pronounced on the same day as the verdicts following a lunch break which must have been agonizing from any of the men in the dock the judges returned to pronounce death by rope life imprisonment or imprisonment for a term of years the final judgment at Nuremberg to hang Herman Goering Joachim von Ribbentrop Wilhelm Keitel to hang Ernst Kaltenbrunner Alfred Rosenberg Hans Frank to hang will him Frick new year's striker Alfred Jodl to hang Arthur's Eisen part pretzel Co Martin Bormann tried in absentia life imprisonment rudolf hess Walter Funke Erich Raeder imprisonment Albert Speer 20 years Baldur von Schirach 20 years Konstantin von Neurath 15 years and Admiral Karl dönitz with the lightest sentence ten years and those acquitted Hjalmar Schacht Franz von Papen and hans freak occurence preacher where we are is as we look at these verdicts we see that after the pronouncement of the judgments at Nuremberg what really remained was fulfilment the judges decisions had to be followed through in addition there was another type of fulfillment that of the reasons for the tribunal itself what have we learned from those proceedings a half a century ago Terry Moran looks at the aftermath of the Nuremberg trial death British prosecutor Hartley Shawcross declared in his summation was the only fit punishment for all the Nuremberg defendants but when the tribunal spoke the defendants discovered their fates were varied after the verdicts the twenty-one men were led back to their cells the condemned were not told when the moment of their deaths would come fifteen days later at one o'clock in the morning the hangings commenced the grisly work took just an hour and a half before their executions each of the condemned Nazis was asked for his last words Sacco who ran the forced labor program cried out I'm dying an innocent man keidel Hitler's chief of staff proclaimed more than two million soldiers died for their fatherland I now join my son's and stretcher the unrepentant anti-semite proclaimed Heil Hitler all eleven bodies were cremated and their ashes thrown into the azar River here just outside of Munich hanging as a method of punishment some of the officers who were hanged would have not a different shot execution of a military man a special team has always been hanging for professional criminals as you see Otto Krantz Bueller who represented Grand Admiral Karl dönitz at Nuremberg articulates the disdain many Germans of his generation hold for the Nuremberg trial was there at all justice done at nerve in my opinion no justice cannot be done partly Otto Krantz brother went on from Nuremberg to a successful career as the personal lawyer for the major German industrialist families of Krupp and Flik he lives in southern Bavaria his client Admiral donitz served his full 10 year sentence he died in 1981 at the age of 89 sinister influences that will lurk in the world chief American prosecutor Robert Jackson returned to the US Supreme Court where he served until his death in 1954 at age 62 Jackson's high hopes for Nuremberg have never been fulfilled no permanent International Criminal Court has ever been established do you think one day that such a Court will be established I ought to say of course I hope not because I have to assess he will never arise with such a court to exist but I'm afraid that could be too optimistic but I don't think tribunal will be established they'll be talking it off till the next time such a minute arises nothing will be done sir Hartley Shawcross went on from Nuremberg to continue his career in politics in the House of Lords and in corporate law he lives in Sussex what were your impressions of the Justice done to Albert Speer I thought he was Johnny lucky Peter Calvo per se was a British intelligence officer at the time was the remorse that he displayed on the witness stand in your estimation genuine could well have been but is it relevant I mean not to people feel remorse I was talk Albert Speer served his 20 year sentence in Spandau prison in Berlin released in 1966 he wrote two books on his life and died in 1981 at age 76 Rudolf Hess is sentence of life imprisonment was never commuted in 1986 at the age of 93 he committed suicide Hess was nuttier fruitcake no doubt about it he sat there staring straight ahead the other Nuremberg defendant served all or portions of their prison sentences and slipped into obscurity their executed comrades slipped into history and infamy this is where it ended this is where the ashes of the executed Nazis and Goering sashes were scattered into the azure River in Munich in a final act of retribution by the Allied powers the Germans were not told of this place the Americans forgot it but 50 years later a question lingers in the air was what happened here an end or a beginning for the millions of victims of war crimes and atrocities around the world since Nuremberg that question cries out for an answer ashes and dust are the remains and thoughtfully so those who prevailed at Nuremberg didn't want to provide an opportunity for revisionist history there would be no chance of a monument or a shrine to the war criminals who had fallen after this break we'll share our reflection on Terry Moran's question as well was Nuremberg an end or a beginning [Music] coming up this weekend of opening the first file in history for crimes against the Peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility from the opening statements to the sentences for TV will re-air our 15 hour presentation of the Nuremberg trial this weekend and on Monday watch for TVs three-hour special on the Nuremberg trial hosted by Terry Moran coming up on court TV's coverage of the Nuremberg trial we've now watched the beginning through World War two and the end through the lives and deaths of the defendants but the potential meaning of the legacy of Nuremberg is so much more the effort behind the International Military Tribunal was to restore the mantle of law order and the very principles of a civilized society to a world that seemed to have gone mad it was to restore pride and humanity itself over the demons that had risen during the shameful period of the Third Reich it also provided something more a reconciliation of Germans in the West which could be accomplished because of the punishment of those who needed to be separated from society because of their evil it's also a record of world history and unspeakable German atrocities but was it a deterrent to war crimes during the last 50 years our guest commentator someone who probably knows as much as anyone in the world about Nuremberg Sharif I see unis Sharif what is the legacy of durin burg for you I think it's a symbolic legacy more than anything else the word itself had come has come to symbolize the rejection of the rule of force the rule of barbarism and the acceptance of the rule of law it is a beginning it's an opening the opening of a new chapter which unfortunately still has to be written and still has to be completed and we're not really quite certain about what the symbolism means we get wrapped up in Independence and what cases word was it really just and was it fair not to prosecute allies troops who may have committed crimes all of that really recedes in the background today what we have is the single word Nuremberg which in itself has this uplifting symbolic meaning which says that we as human beings reject the rule of force we want the rule of law we want justice we want law we want justice as part of foreign policy as part as relations between governments and this is where our governments have really failed us the most Jackson in in one of his statements has said I think at the opening statement that that crimes are not committed by abstract entities they're committed by individuals by human beings there was no such demon of organizations that created these crimes these were individuals who did it and they were individuals who followed it and unless we develop in people the sense of conscience of being able to say no when they should say no we are not going to be able to resist the type of climate that brought about what the Nazis did and that very climate existed in the war in the former Yugoslavia it existed in Rwanda it existed in Cambodia with Pol Pot it existed in in in the war of independence of of Bangladesh it existed in El Salvador it existed in so many contexts and I think this is what's important for us to establish leaders should not be given the opportunity to have impunity and yet all governments ever since World War two have always bartered away justice have always granted impunity for a quick political settlement when you look as you say government's acting with impunity and you cite the examples that you cite can we look at Nuremberg and say was there any deterrent effect or really has it been impotence because of the time that has elapsed and there has been no court to try this case no berg has done a great deal and and as I said it has done a great deal symbolically it above all what it has done is it has heightened the expectations of people people on the question of justice are far more ahead than governments are if you ask people in the street all over the world should leaders who have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity be given impunity the people on the street will tell you no the leaders will say yes they will bargain it away at peace tables at negotiations we will have situations where one day the United States forces are ready to invade Haiti and then the day before the president former president of the United States goes and gives impunity to the commanding general who was the basis for our intervention and who was going to be prosecuted and he is out and then we find people even in the present negotiations going on in Dayton with with with the leadership in the former Yugoslavia where it is taken for granted that those very leaders who are being negotiated with are going to be laundered white-washed be given a pass what happened in in Cambodia with 40% of the population killed over two million people Pol Pot is still alive and well and the examples are plentiful look at what happened in El Salvador with the truth Commission and a list of people who were supposed to be prosecuted and removed where are they now so so what is the answer is the answer that you must have this court functioning that it must be a true deterrent we must we must have a permanent International Criminal Court we cannot go on establishing ad hoc courts and reinventing the wheel for each case we had Nuremberg we have Tokyo we had subsequent proceedings after that we now have a Tribunal for Yugoslavia we have a Tribunal for Rwanda that will probably function in a couple of months but these are all very frail institutions they're created on an ad hoc basis for a short period of time their resources are limited there's a lot of bureaucracy that goes into it they have to reinvent the wheel every time they come into place there's no ongoing machinery for investigation and and when the politicians want to play game as they did with our Commission in the former Yugoslavia and they saw that we were accumulating the evidence that now is in the hands of prosecutor Goldstone who is doing the terrific job in prosecuting these violators they close the Commission well you know it will continue to continue and when we do do our trials of the Bosnian war crimes that we hope will happen and that we will be able to cover at the Hague I hope that you will return with us I cannot thank you enough for coming you are really the scholar thank you thank all of you for joining us during this week of coverage of the Nuremberg trial of Nazi war criminals on behalf of court TV I want to thank the National Archives at College Park Maryland for their invaluable assistance in this project if you missed any of our Nuremberg coverage this week we're airing our complete 15 hour program this weekend Saturday November 18 from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and continuing on Sunday November 19 from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. also next Monday from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. joined Terry Moran a date for a three-hour special report on the Nuremberg trial in closing I hope that the Nuremberg trial has left you with a sense of history and purpose we can only learn from our past to act in the present to create our future sometimes we do better than others the task for all of us is to assure the conduct that shocks the conscience of civilization is punished so that it cannot happen again and again I'm Ricky Clayman goodnight [Music] [Music] you

Channel: RobertHJacksonCenter

Views: 23,031

Rating: 4.7894735 out of 5

Keywords: Nuremberg Trial, Verdicts, Sentencings, Goering, Speer, Kaltenbrunner, Keitel, Ribbnetrop, Jackson, Drexel Sprecher, Hartley Shawcross, Cheerif Bassiouni, Thomas Dodd, Walter Cronkite, Robert H. Jackson Center

Id: -Yii_oli1EM

Length: 54min 58sec (3298 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 11 2018