And he said, "Can you do this in addition to your other work?" [222] By the late 1950s, the West German consensus on release began to erode, due to greater openness in political culture and new revelations of Nazi criminality, including the first trials of Nazi perpetrators in West German courts. Benjamin Ferencz: There was only one time I wanted to-- really. September 30, 2021 Stanford scholars expand digital database with historic records from the Nuremberg Trial. A Supreme Court justice led the American team of prosecutors. Were Doctors and Members of the Media Hanged in This Nuremberg Trial Benjamin Ferencz: They were 3,000 SS officers trained for the purpose, and directed to kill without pity or remorse, every single Jewish man, woman, and child they could lay their hands on. Defendants in the dock at the Nuremberg trials. Digitizing all the records from the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal Trial Archives is ongoing. Defendants-- absolutely blank. This is Ferencz making his opening statement in the Nuremberg courtroom 73 years ago. Ferencz learned quickly. [98] Jackson maintained that while the United States did "not seek to convict the whole German people of crime", neither did the trial "serve to absolve the whole German people except 21 men in the dock". It is not often you get the chance to meet a man who holds a place in history like Ben Ferencz. [200] The case law of the trials fleshed out the skeleton provided by the Nuremberg charter and the IMT verdict. [4], In early 1942, representatives of eight governments-in-exile in the United Kingdom issued a declaration on Punishment for War Crimes, which demanded an international court to try the Axis crimes committed in occupied countries. Between November 20, 1945, and October 1, 1946, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) tried 21 of the most important surviving leaders of Nazi Germany in the political, military, and economic spheres, as well as six German organizations. [136][137] The Soviet prosecution case was generally well received and presented compelling evidence about the suffering of the Soviet people and the Soviet contribution to victory. per adult (price varies by group size) Nuremberg World War 2 Tour. [217][218] The last prisoner was released in 1958. By early 1946, Western prosecutors were uneasy about the Katyn charge, although they never publicly rejected it for fear of casting the entire proceedings into question. [73] Also on trial were propagandists Julius Streicher and Hans Fritzsche; Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy who had flown to Britain in 1941; Hans Frank, governor-general of the General Governorate of Poland; Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach; Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Reich Commissioner for the Netherlands; and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the leader of Himmler's Reich Main Security Office. [26], The final version of the charter only gave the court the ability to punish those crimes against humanity that had been committed "in connection with any crimes within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal". [46], The French prosecutor, Franois de Menthon, had just overseen trials of the leaders of Vichy France;[37] he resigned in January 1946 and was replaced by Auguste Champetier de Ribes. [132][169] Through a compromise among the judges, the charge of conspiracy was narrowed to a conspiracy to wage aggressive war. Jackson submitted his final report to President Truman one week after the verdicts. In mid-1945, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed to convene a joint tribunal in Nuremberg, with the Nuremberg Charter as its legal instrument. The New Nuremberg Trials 2021. The first of the Nuremberg trials was to be the biggest murder trial in human history, with 21 Nazi leaders appearing before the court charged with the deaths of millions of innocent people during . [6][7] Trainin's ideas were reprinted in the West and widely adopted. Stanford University is marking the 75th anniversary of the International Military Tribunal of Nuremberg with a significant expansion of records from the historic trial. It was also a way to indirectly charge crimes committed before the beginning of World War II, which the charter placed outside the court's jurisdiction. Justice Jackson's Persistent Post-Nuremberg Legacy - Duke University Nearly 75 years ago, the Nuremberg Trial came to a close when on Oct. 1, 1946, a group of convicted Nazi leaders was sentenced by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) for crimes against peace . [204] In the United Kingdom, although a variety of responses were reported, it was difficult to sustain interest in a long trial. Benjamin Ferencz: Well, if it's naive to want peace instead of war, let 'em make sure they say I'm naive. Speer managed to distinguish himself from other defendants, giving the impression of apologizing, although without assuming personal guilt or naming any victims other than the German people. [155] In the context of the brewing Cold War, the trial became a means of condemning not only Germany but also the Soviet Union. Stanford, California 94305. Despite being accused of the same crimes, Sauckel was sentenced to death, while Speer was given a prison sentence because the judges considered that he could reform. Only one piece of film is known to exist of the Einsatzgruppen at work. Published Jul 14, 2021. View of Nuremberg in 1945. [46] The British chief prosecutor was Hartley Shawcross, assisted by David Maxwell Fyfe, who had been the attorney general in Churchill's government. Radio 4's Nuremberg: the stories behind the Nazi trial that changed Judges deliberate at the trials of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, Germany, Jan. 1, 1945. At the time, Ferencz just had the documents, and he started adding up the numbers. The British worked on putting together the aggressive war charge; the French and Soviet delegations were assigned the task of covering crimes against humanity and war crimes committed on the Western Front and the Eastern Front, respectively. To receive Stanford news daily, Hitler's top lieutenants were prosecuted first. (Image credit: National Archives of the Netherlands / ANP, CC0). Benjamin Ferencz: I was so young. [6] The Soviet Union wanted to hold a show trial similar to the 1930s Moscow trials, in order to demonstrate the Nazi leaders' guilt and build a case for war reparations to rebuild the Soviet economy, which had been devastated by the war. [76] Of the 24 men indicted, Martin Bormann was tried in absentia, as the Allies were unaware of his death; Krupp was too ill to stand trial; and Robert Ley committed suicide. Lesley Stahl: You've really seen evil. [183][184] The judges proved their independence from the governments that appointed them, the defendants were seen as receiving due process, and the evidence of guilt amassed by the prosecution was overwhelming. And they're chasing them. [157] Over the course of the trial, crimes against humanity and especially against Jews (who were mentioned as victims of Nazi atrocities far more than any other group) came to upstage the aggressive war charge. This week, the U.S. Lesley Stahl: Did you meet a lot of people who perpetrated war crimes who would otherwise in your opinion have been just a normal, upstanding citizen? The speech was favorably received by the prosecution, the tribunal, the audience, historians, and even the defendants. I'm a realist. [33], The negotiators decided that the tribunal's permanent seat would be in Berlin, while the trial would be held at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg. On This Day: 12 Nazis sentenced to death in the Nuremberg Trials View from above of the judges' bench at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. And the stories he heard in those camps. 27 Aug 2021. Lesley Stahl: We've had Rwanda, we've had Bosnia. He promoted an intentionalist view of the Nazi state and its overall conspiracy to commit all of the crimes mentioned in the indictment. [54] The Soviet judges and prosecutors were not permitted to make any major decisions without consulting a commission in Moscow led by Soviet politician Andrei Vyshinsky; the resulting delays hampered the Soviet effort to set the agenda. The judgement argued that aggressive war had already been illegal, even if no one had been punished for it, and therefore the German leaders could not count on immunity from prosecution. [228][24] The charge of crimes against humanity, the charge of conspiracy, and imposing criminal penalties on individuals for breaches of international law were also novel but attracted little criticism. So Ferencz has spent the rest of his life trying to deter war and war crimes by establishing an international court like Nuremburg. People receiving the COVID-19 vaccines at this point are not taking part in a medical experiment, because the vaccines already have gone through clinical trials and have received emergency . So he finished at Harvard then enlisted as a private in the Army. (November 18, 2021 / JNS) A bipartisan group of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill on Thursday to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the last living prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials.. War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people. Lesley Stahl: He's a savage when he does the murder though. [173] The war crimes and crimes-against-humanity charges held up the best, with only two defendants who were charged being acquitted on those charges. [1] Most of the defendants were also charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. It was classified, so many Jews, so many gypsies, so many others--. [145], Despite the fact that the charter did not recognize a tu quoque defense, such arguments were repeatedly raised during the trial. Exhibit 179, from Kiev in 1941: "The city's Jews were ordered to present themselves about 34,000 reported, including women and children. Judge: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty? [45] At Jackson's recommendation, the United States appointed judges Francis Biddle and John Parker. [224][225][226] During the two decades after the trial, opinions were predominantly negative. Lesley Stahl: Going on right this minute in Sudan. [88], The charter allowed the admissibility of any evidence deemed to have probative value, including depositions. Benjamin Ferencz: Going on right this minute, yes. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Fact check: COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Nuremberg Code not related But he isn't content just being a part of 20th-century history -- he believes he has something important to offer the world right now. 1/6. Episode 10 - Too Much Paper . [160] On 2 September, the court recessed; and the judges retreated into seclusion to decide the verdict and sentences, which had been under discussion since June. That's insane. The only part of the French charges that were accepted by the judges was the deportation of Jews from France and other parts of Western Europe. Ferencz had immigrated to the U.S. as a baby, the son of poor Jewish parents from a small town in Romania. The claim has circulated widely online, including in this November 24, 2021 article (archived here) published by biotechexpressmag.com titled "Team of 1,000 lawyers and 10,000 Medical Experts Start Nuremberg 2 Trial against World Leaders for Crimes Against Humanity." It opened: [94] All defendants pleaded not guilty. [87][149] United States admiral Chester Nimitz testified that the United States had used the same methods of submarine warfare that the German admirals were accused of; Dnitz's counsel successfully argued that this meant that such actions could not be crimes. Ben Ferencz, last surviving Nuremberg Trials prosecutor, receives [203], In all, 249 journalists were accredited to cover the IMT[40] and 61,854 visitor tickets were issued. (The U.S. COVID-19 vaccination does not violate the Nuremberg Code Nov. 20, 2021 / 3:00 AM On This Day: Nuremberg trials begin On Nov. 20, 1945, 24 German leaders went on trial at Nuremberg before the International War Crimes Tribunal. [144] Most defendants argued their own insignificance within the Nazi system, but Gring took the opposite approach, presenting himself as Hitler's loyalist and expecting that while he would be executed, the German people would eventually appreciate his loyalty. QAnon followers believe a second set of Nuremberg-like trials will be held to prosecute those who introduced coronavirus restrictions, on the grounds of "crimes against humanity." Acolytes of the . A new drama from Radio 4 follows the race to track down and capture war criminals, the struggle . [202] All four powers later fought independence movements using methods that had been ruled illegal at Nuremberg. Benjamin Ferencz: Never in my life. [146] The Nuremberg Laws were compared to discriminatory laws in the United States. The British government was still opposed, unable to see the benefit of such a trial and preferring the summary execution of Nazi leaders. She describes in great detail what she and many others had to endure: starvation, slave labor, beatings, epidemics and extreme cold as well the daily trauma of witnessing thousands sent to gas chambers, never to return, among many other cruelties. [240] The IMT is one of the most well-studied trials in history, and it has also been the subject of an abundance of books and scholarly publications, along with motion pictures such as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Memory of Justice (1976). Benjamin Ferencz: Of course. He delivered the closing argument in the court's first case. On Thursday, Florida Gov. 10 Things You May Not Know About the Nuremberg Trials - History Episode 9 - To Stay the Hand of Vengeance. [174] The judges interpreted crimes against humanity narrowly; they determined that crimes against German Jews before 1939 were not under the court's jurisdiction because the prosecution had not proven a connection to aggressive war. Preserving records from the Nuremberg Trial as well as materials from the subsequent tribunals and truth and reconciliation commissions it inspired is crucial to protecting the historic and judicial legacies of the war and acknowledging the consequences of mass atrocities, said David Cohen, director of the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice and professor of classics in the School of Humanities and Sciences. [56][57] After this division of formulating the charges, the British and American delegations decided to work jointly in drafting the charges of conspiracy to wage aggressive war. [60] Conspiracy charges were especially central to the cases against propagandists and industrialists; the former were charged with providing the ideological justification for war and other crimes, while the latter were accused of economic mobilization without which no war would have been possible. The courtroom was Nuremberg; the crime, genocide; and the defendants, a group of German SS officers accused of committing the largest number of Nazi killings outside the concentration camps -- more than a million men, women, and children shot in their own towns and villages in cold blood. Fact Check: 10,000 Medical Experts Did NOT Start Nuremberg 2 Trial The New Nuremberg Trials 2021: Update from Dr. Reiner Fuellmich - Minds Exhibit 111: "In the last 10 weeks, we have liquidated around 55,000 Jews." Other absent and dead men including Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, Adolf Eichmann, and Bormann were also blamed. [207][208] In a 1946 poll, 78 percent of Germans assessed the trial as fair, but four years later that had fallen to 38 percent, with 30 percent considering it unfair. [12] The United States insisted on a fair trial as a means of reforming Germany. [50][51] Because the Soviet Union expected a show trial, its appointees were familiar with this form. Lesley Stahl: Ben? Massachusetts woman arrested for placing swastikas at Jewish womans home, Netflixs Rough Diamonds brings viewers into the drama of Antwerps Orthodox diamond district, Sofia Richie, Lionel Richies daughter, marries Jewish music executive after converting to Judaism, Sammys Roumanian, iconic Lower East Side Jewish restaurant, mounts a comeback, Stranger Things star Brett Gelman proposes to singer girlfriend Ari Dayan in Jerusalem, Disney+ series A Small Light tells the Anne Frank story from the perspective of the woman who hid her, Barbra Streisand is getting the next Jewish Nobel, in prizes return to celebrity tradition, Meet the real-life rabbi in the synagogue scene of Are You There God? But the trials were already underway, and prosecution staff was stretched thin. . 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. And that's how 27-year-old Ben Ferencz became the chief prosecutor of 22 Einsatzgruppen commanders at trial number 9 at Nuremberg. Stanford University. (the covid vaccines are still experimental as of August 8, 2021), that is called duress, overreaching, and coercion, which is a clear . The indictment lodged against them contained four counts: (1) crimes against peace (i.e., the planning, initiating, and waging of wars of aggression in violation of . [125], More so than other delegations, Soviet prosecutors showed the gruesome details of German mistreatment of prisoners of war and forced laborers, as well as the systematic murder of Jews in eastern Europe. These men would never have been murderers had it not been for the war. Never again doesnt mean anything unless you know what has happened and why, said Cohen, who has partnered with Stanford Libraries to digitally archive the records and create a searchable website for the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (1945-1946). New Nuremberg Trials - Crimes Against Humanity - Golden Age of Gaia [167] The judges were aware that both the Allies and the Axis had planned or committed acts of aggression, writing the verdict carefully to avoid discrediting either the Allied governments or the tribunal. The IMT focused on the crime of aggressionplotting and waging aggressive war, which the verdict declared "the supreme international crime" because "it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole". (JTA) At the opening of his trial in Nuremberg, Julius Streicher made several uncharacteristically friendly statements about Jews a people he had devoted his professional life to demonize. I hear it here for the first time." So you do it.". For the Tokyo Trial, see. Nuremberg Trials News and latest stories | The Jerusalem Post Lesley Stahl: You don't think they turn into savages even for the act? Your legs won't reach the pedals." [89] Because of the loose evidentiary rules, photographs, charts, maps, and films played an important role in making incredible crimes believable. Benjamin Ferencz: And I start screaming. [127] Evidence was presented on the murder of children, attempts to cover up atrocities,[128] systematic plunder of occupied territories, and confiscation or destruction of cultural heritage. Nearly 75 years ago, the Nuremberg Trial came to a close when on Oct. 1, 1946, a group of convicted Nazi leaders was sentenced by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during World War II and the Holocaust.
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