War crime

“ What we are discussing here is the crime of planning and waging aggressive war. It stands to reason that that crime is committed most consciously and culpably by a nation’s leaders—the leaders in all the major fields of activity which are necessary to and closely involved in the waging of war. It is committed by propagandists and publicists. It is committed by political leaders, by diplomats, by the chief ministers, by the principal industrial and financial leaders. It is no less committed by the military leaders. ”

“ International law therefore intervenes in the definition of a war crime, not in order to give it essential qualification but in order to fix its outer limits. In other words, every infraction committed on the occasion or under the pretext of hostilities is criminal unless justified by the laws and customs of war. International law here applies the national theory of legitimate defense which is common to all codes of criminal law. ”

“ Evil masters came who awakened its primitive passions and made possible the atrocities which I have described to you. In truth, the crime of these men is that they caused the German people to retrogress more than 12 centuries.
Their crime is that they conceived and achieved, as an instrument of government, a policy of terrorism toward the whole of the subjugated nations and toward their own people; their crime is that they pursued, as an end in itself, a policy of extermination of entire categories of innocent citizens. ”

“ The first and second Counts of the Indictment add to these crimes the crime of plotting and waging wars of aggression and wars in violation of nine treaties to which Germany was a party. There was a time, in fact, I think the time of the first World War, when it could not have been said that war-inciting or war making was a crime in law, however reprehensible in morals.
Of course, it was, under the law of all civilized peoples, a crime for one man with his bare knuckles to assault another. ”

“ We close today the trial of a major war criminal—a leader in a slaving operation, the enormity of which is without historical parallel; a principal in a crime of murder in the ironic masquerade of scientific progress which has shocked alike the world of medicine and the world of laymen. ”

“ Our conclusion is that the same unlawful acts of violence which constituted war crimes under count one of the indictment also constitute crimes against humanity as alleged in count three of the indictment. Having determined the defendant to be guilty of war crimes under count one, it follows, of necessity, that he is also guilty of the separate offense of crime against humanity, as alleged in count three, and this Tribunal so determines. ”

“ We now come to the consideration of the basic charges and the law governing the defendant’s complicity in, and responsibility for, the Medical Experiments Program. The fundamental crime with which the defendant is charged in this connection is murder. Also involved are various atrocities, tortures, offenses against the person, and other inhuman acts.
The applicable provisions of Control Council Law No. 10, Article II, are (b) war crimes, (c) crimes against humanity. ”

“ It must be particularly noted that merchantmen of belligerents, which attack enemy vessels without previously having been attacked by them, commit a war crime, [483] and that the captains, officers, and members of the crews may, therefore, be punished as war criminals to the same extent as private individuals who commit hostilities in land warfare. ”

“ In the affairs of the individual and the state, we hear a lot about "crime" and "criminals"; but it is an idiotic fact that the greatest of all crimes, those committed by nations on a vast scale, rarely are spoken of as crimes, and easily are condoned after the fighting stops. The world calls them either "wars" or "atrocities"; and the men who instigate them never are spoken of as criminals, and never are punished as such. Is it not curious?
Still less is the author of an inexcusable war, or a series of brutal atrocities, hanged, or shot, or even permanently imprisoned for his crimes. ”

“ But I think—and I will revert later separately to Crimes against Peace and War Crimes—that this body of Crimes against Humanity constitutes, in the last analysis, nothing less than the perpetration for political ends and in a systematic manner, of common law crimes such as theft, looting, ill treatment, enslavement, murders, and assassinations, crimes that are provided for and punishable under the penal laws of all civilized states. ”

“ The Defendant Keitel made a note on this memorandum:
“The objections arise from the military concept of chivalrous warfare. This is the destruction of an ideology. Therefore I approve and back the measures.”
Murder and Ill-treatment of Civilian Population Article 6 (b) of the Charter provides that “ill-treatment . . . of civilian population of or in occupied territory . . . killing of hostages . . . wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages” shall be a war crime. ”

“ When we wish to speak about criminality during war we certainly must consider the special social phenomena of the war which lead to crime! Justice is indeed not only the concern of the employees of the Department of Justice, but the affair of the entire people. ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.) It is generally recognized to-day that crime is to be considered a social disease. That war psychology is responsible for preliminaries for the increase of crime is clear. ”

“ Crimes Against Humanity: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated. ”

“ Another aspect of this policy of terror and extermination appears when one studies the war crimes committed by Germany on the persons of prisoners of war. These crimes, as I shall prove to you, had two motives, among others: To debase the captives as much as possible in order to sap their energy; to demoralize them; to cause them to lose faith in themselves and in the cause for which they fought, and to despair of the future of their country. ”

“ Let the defendants not be astonished at the charges brought against them and let them not dispute at all this principle of retroactivity, the permanence of which was guaranteed, against their wishes, by democratic legislation. War Crimes are defined by international law and by the national law of all modern civilizations. The defendants knew that acts of violence against the persons and property and human status of enemy nationals were crimes for which they would have to answer before international justice. ”

“ That is why the Commission of Fifteen set up a list of War Crimes. This list includes 32 infractions. These are particularly:
1. Murders, massacres, systematic terrorism; 2. killing of hostages; 3. torture of civilians; 8. confinement of civilians in inhuman conditions; 9. forced labor of civilians in connection with military operations of the enemy; 10. usurpation of sovereignty during the occupation of occupied territories; 11. forced conscription of soldiers among the inhabitants of the occupied territories; 12. attempts to denationalize the inhabitants of occupied territories; 13. looting ”

“ Even the aspects of the case involving War Crimes in the strict sense are aspects which are merely the inevitable, proximate result of the wars of aggression launched and waged by these conspirators, and of the kind of warfare they waged—that is—total war, the natural result of the totalitarian party-dominated state that waged it, and atrocious war, the natural result of the atrocious doctrines, designs, and purposes of these war-makers. ”

“ The predatory incursions to which I have alluded have been attended in one instance with the breaking up of the courts of justice, by the seizing upon the persons of the judges, jury, and officers of the court and dragging them along with unarmed, and therefore noncombatant, citizens into a cruel and oppressive bondage, thus leaving crime to go unpunished and immorality to pass unreproved. A border warfare is evermore to be deprecated, and over such a war as has existed for so many years between these two States humanity has had great cause to lament. ”