Nuremberg Trials

“ Purpose of the original document After World War II the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was created to prosecute the major Japanese war criminals. After its location it is also referred to as the "Tokyo Trials", like the Nuremberg Trials in post-war Germany. Evidence on war crimes committed in de Dutch East Indies was collected by the Dutch military intelligence. ”

“ In consequence of the fiasco of the collective methods the conception of basing security in the future upon holding responsible those individual persons accountable for breaking the peace was evolved by the enemies of Germany in the last war. And this finally led to the Nuremberg Trial. Taking one’s starting point from this fact, today one might say: During this second World War revolutionary developments have taken place; it has driven humanity beyond the bounds of what was the modern age until a short time ago. The first but essential steps to create a world state have been made. ”

“ Every tribunal is different and I realize it's very difficult to make comparisons sort of across decades. But people accused in the international corridor, people accused at Nuremberg who were acquitted, were set free. ”

“ The German people look to Nuremberg, disunited in themselves. Some are skeptical and partly hostile toward the Defense because they believe the Defense is favoring those whom they consider as war criminals and believe that the Defense wishes to prevent that just punishment be meted out to the defendants. Others say the Trial is just a show, at which the Defense Counsel act as dummies to give the Trial the appearance of a judicial procedure. ”

“ At any rate much evidence has already been submitted by the defense in the medical trial, proving that, also in democratic states of the world, experiments have been carried out and are being carried out on volunteering criminals, experiments which constitute a danger to the life and health of the experimental subject.
The prosecutor has submitted in evidence his last exhibit, Document 1971-PS, Prosecution Exhibit 161, showing irrefutably that Himmler too had ordered that only men sentenced to death are to be used for these experiments. Hippke did not even misinform Milch. ”

“ It is to be supposed that each defendant thought there was some necessity to what he was doing. This is no defense. Rascher thought the same thing. It was deemed necessary to incarcerate hundreds of thousands of persons in concentration camps. It was deemed necessary to murder millions of Jews. The slave labor policy was bottomed on necessity. If that is a defense, then these trials lose all meaning. But, on the other hand if it is proved that these experiments were not necessary, not of scientific value, then it makes the guilty even more guilty. ”

“ AGAINST HUMANITY Judged by any standard of proof the record clearly shows the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity substantially as alleged in counts two and three of the indictment. Beginning with the outbreak of World War II criminal medical experiments on non-German nationals, both prisoners of war and civilians, including Jews and “asocial” persons, were carried out on a large scale in Germany and the occupied countries. ”

“ In connection with the charge of crimes against humanity, it is also anticipated that an argument will be made by the defense to the effect that crimes committed by German nationals against other German nationals cannot constitute crimes against humanity as defined by Article II of Control Council Law No. 10 and hence are not within the jurisdiction of this Tribunal. The evidence of the prosecution has proved that in substantially all of the experiments prisoners of war or civilians from German-occupied territories were used as subjects. ”

“ The fact on which this trial is based, that defenseless human beings were used by doctors of my country for experiments and in part died after suffering tortures, cannot be denied. I, myself, would doubt the clarity of my judgment as a German jurist if I did not realize that general human rights, such as the fundamental standards anchored in all civilized nations, have been violated thereby. Medical science should bring help and healing to suffering humanity. ”

“ This became such a nuisance that they warned the clergy not to talk to the{163} condemned too much about temporal matters! After sentence had been passed by the Council a public trial of an entirely formal character was held, very wearisome to the condemned wretch, who probably knew that it was so empty a form that it was held even if the prisoner had already succumbed to the torture or committed suicide in the cells.
In Nuremberg, as elsewhere, various methods of punishment were employed. Much ingenuity and some humour were displayed in making “the punishment fit the crime.” ”

“ I believe that this is a very optimistic estimate, as our German courts will not be able to participate; it is well known that they are completely overworked since they have now only a small portion of their former personnel. Of these millions of cases, the courts will probably have to deal first with those of the most criminal nature. The accused, whose existence is at stake, will defend themselves during the subsequent trials with all legal means at their disposal. ”

“ Besides the exploitation and the pauperization of the Government General, the accusation of the enslaving of the native population as well as deporting it to the Reich, and many atrocities of various kinds which have appeared in the newspaper reports on the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial, were interpreted as serious evidence against Dr. Frank. As far as atrocities are concerned, the guilt lies not with Dr. Frank but in some measure with the numerous non-German agitators and provocateurs who, with the growing pressure on the fighting German fronts, increased their underground activity ”

“ About a week or 10 days ago there appeared in a newspaper circulated in Nuremberg, an account of a visit by that paper’s correspondent to a camp in which SS prisoners of war were confined. The thing which particularly struck the correspondent was the one question asked by the SS prisoners. Why are we charged as war criminals? What have we done except our normal duty?
The evidence now to be presented to the Tribunal will, we expect, answer that question. It will show that just as the Nazi Party was the very heart—the core—of the conspiracy, so the SS was the very essence of Nazism. ”

“ Is this Tribunal to ignore the proof that tens of thousands of Germans were exterminated pursuant to a secret decree, because a group of criminals in control of a police state thought them “useless eaters” and an unnecessary burden, or that German prisoners were murdered and mistreated by thousands in concentration camps, in part by medical experimentation? Military Tribunal II in the Milch case held that crimes against nationals of Hungary and Romania were crimes against humanity. ”

“ Kevin Conley Ruffner
↑ The Charter and Judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal, adopted by the United Nations in 1950 as General Assembly Resolution 95, defined crimes under international law as crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The Nuremberg International Military Tribunal also charged German defendants with conspiracy. Those who served in the Schutzstaffeln, or SS, were accused of membership in a criminal organization. ”

“ The German criminal laws, through a series of expansions and perversions by the Ministry of Justice, finally embraced passive defeatism, petty misdemeanors and trivial private utterances as treasonable for the purpose of exterminating Jews or other nationals of the occupied countries. Indictments, trials and convictions were transparent devices for a system of murderous extermination, and death became the routine penalty. Jurisdiction of the German criminal code was extended to the entire world, to cover acts of non-Germans as well as Germans living outside the Reich. ”

“ We Germans have our own opinion about our physicians, we know their conscientiousness and willingness to render help; especially during the war we have been able to observe and appreciate their readiness to sacrifice themselves; we know that the good qualities that made the German physicians and researchers a model in former decades were not lost during Hitler’s time, and it would be a pity if the abuses, which have been revealed and proved by this trial, should serve to undermine the confidence of the German people in their physicians and expose them to the contempt of all civilized nations. ”

“ The defense is convinced that the Tribunal, when deciding this problem without prejudice, will first study the many experiments performed all over the world on healthy and sick persons, on prisoners and free people, on criminals and on the poor, even on children and mentally ill persons, in order to see how the medical profession in its international totality answers the question of the admissibility of human experiments, not only in theory but also in practice. ”

“ I hate nothing more than lies. I feel secure only under the protection of truth, for truth is the sister of justice. But justice on the part of the prosecution must be claimed by me even if here we are only experimental objects of international law as it is aspired to, and of an embryonic international justice.
Furthermore, I feel obliged to refer to the following, let the proceedings result as they may. There is the enormous danger that German justice was shown here in a picture which, even referring to the time between 1933 and 1945, is not identical with actual facts. ”

“ When answering the question whether the experiments could inflict torture and death on the experimental subjects, one has to distinguish between the experiments which according to the detailed instructions of Dr. Ruff were carried out by Dr. Rascher and Dr. Romberg in the Dachau concentration camp, and the experiments which Rascher carried out either with the knowledge and permission of Himmler, or without his permission on his own responsibility. ”

“ This proof stands uncontradicted save by general statements of the defendants that they were told by Himmler or some unidentified person that the experimental subjects were all German criminals or that the subjects all spoke fluent German. Thus, for the most part, the acts here in issue constitute war crimes and hence, at the same time, crimes against humanity. Certainly there has been no proof whatever that an order was ever issued restricting the experimental subjects to German criminals as distinguished from non-German nationals. ”

“ When guilt is established, the penalty imposed is to serve as a deterrent to all others who might be similarly minded. Albert Speer, convicted in the first trial, stated here in this courtroom that had trials such as these followed the First World War, the Second World War might have been averted. Erhard Milch may obtain some comfort from the realization that by the publication of the evidence of this trial he is definitely contributing to the education and well-being of Germany’s future, as indeed a precise contribution is being made to the cause of world justice itself. ”

“ In connection with Handloser’s responsibility for unlawful experiments upon human beings, the evidence is conclusive that with knowledge of the frequent use of non-German nationals as human experimental subjects, he failed to exercise any proper degree of control over those subordinated to him who were implicated in medical experiments coming within his official sphere of competence. ”

“ In view of the fact that a criminal offense is not likely to be a permanent psychological fact but a standard computed fact in the sense of a personal reproach, the Court for this reason also will not overlook the fact that particularly during the last years, even outside Germany, medical experiments were performed on human beings who undoubtedly did not volunteer for these experiments. ”

“ The prosecution points out, in connection with this alleged defense, that the proof shows that the experimental subjects who testified before this Tribunal were never so much as accorded a trial; they had no opportunity to defend themselves against whatever crimes they were said to have committed. They were simply arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo in Poland and sent to a concentration camp. ”

“ Although this Tribunal is internationally constituted, it is an American court. The obligations which derive from these proceedings are, therefore, particularly binding on the United States. True it is that two wrongs do not make a right, and equally true that the crimes charged against these defendants and the other leaders of the Third Reich were “so calculating, so malignant, and so devastating” that they find no modern parallel. But, underlying these crimes, there are myths, superstitions, and more sophisticated distortions of philosophy which do not know national boundaries. ”

“ The defense has in the present situation only very limited literature at its disposal for the comprehension and explanation of these legally important facts of the case. However, the little that is available is already so revealing that one must come to the conclusion that medical experiments on human beings are not only admissible on principle, but in addition, that it also does not violate the basic principles of criminal law of civilized nations to carry out experiments on convicts. ”

“ We were guided by the practice of the Reich Supreme Court and went the same way which was taken by the remaining 60 to 80 Special Courts in the Reich. We were no specialists in crimes against humanity, and no proof has been furnished in any single case that, in any connection, we had applied an illegal method. ”