At a later date, more multimedia such as film, audio recordings, photographs will be added to the collection. As U.S. forces liberated concentration camps, his job was to rush in and gather evidence. They all have already tags on 'em. Benjamin Ferencz: I was so young. Another man was sentenced to death in absentia. Benjamin Ferencz: Well, this is typical operation. On This Day, Nov. 20: Nuremberg trials begin - UPI.com They could-- like, they're waiting for a bus. Benjamin Ferencz: Well, don't say that. Lesley Stahl: So they went right in after the troops? [80][81] The aim was to have these organizations declared criminal, so that their members could be tried expeditiously for membership in a criminal organization. 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. 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. [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. Look what's happened to the same-sex marriages. Jackson submitted his final report to President Truman one week after the verdicts. Ben Ferencz in court: The charges we have brought accuse the defendants of having committed crimes against humanity. Cohen is also the WSD-HANDA Professor in Human Rights and International Justice. At the time, Ferencz just had the documents, and he started adding up the numbers. [179], The exact sentences to be given each defendant were debated at length by the judges. Stanford News is a publication of Stanford University Communications. Below his face, his motto: "law, not war.". [12] The United States insisted on a fair trial as a means of reforming Germany. The defendants' lawyers jointly appealed to the court, claiming it did not have jurisdiction against the accused; but this motion was rejected. Benjamin Ferencz: And I've got-- I've got his reports of how many he killed. 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? Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded many countries . The most optimistic. [62] Vyshinsky demanded extensive corrections to the crimes-against-peace charges, especially regarding the role of the GermanSoviet pact in starting World War II. Part of an artillery battalion, he landed on the beach at Normandy and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. But the trials were already underway, and prosecution staff was stretched thin. And I said, "Sure." So you do it.". You know? Were Doctors and Members of the Media Hanged in This Nuremberg Trial And they're chasing them. [59] The conspiracy charge was used to charge the top Nazi leaders, as well as bureaucrats who had never killed anyone or perhaps even directly ordered killing. Defendants in the dock at the Nuremberg trials. #. A high court recently . I said, "Look. Institutional rivalries hampered the search. He didn't deny the killings -- he had the gall to claim they were done in self-defense. [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. [185] Twelve military trials were convened solely by the United States in the same courtroom that had hosted the International Military Tribunal. He said, "OK. [205] Where the prosecution was disappointed by some of the verdicts, the defense could take satisfaction. The verdict was drafted by British alternate judge Norman Birkett. It's never been done before. [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. He never stops pushing his message and he's donating his life savings to a Genocide Prevention Initiative at the Holocaust Museum. [34][35] Located in the American occupation zone, Nuremberg was a symbolic location as the site of Nazi rallies. All wars, and all decent people. The New Nuremberg Trials 2021. Benjamin Ferencz: And I start screaming. For the Tokyo Trial, see. [195][196], These trials emphasized the crimes committed during the Holocaust. So the Jewish question was for me solved in Germany, but I believed that another international solution will come, that we should meet with Zionists, listen to their demands, he said on April 26, 1946 at the military tribunal where he stood trial with other Nazi officials for crimes against humanity. He wanted to be a pilot, but the Army Air Corps wouldn't take him. 2023 jewish telegraphic agency all rights reserved. For the scholars, what makes the Nuremberg archives particularly captivating is the variety of human narratives that emerges from the variety of documents and transcripts stories that are now easier to find thanks to Stanfords preservation efforts. [3] War losses in the Soviet Union alone included 27 million dead, mostly civilians, which was .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}17th of the prewar population. Google trends show a notable increase in people searching for "Nuremberg trials" since the onset of the pandemic, as well as a dramatic recent increase in searches for "Nuremberg trials 2021". Benjamin Ferencz: He was not ashamed of that. Fact Check: 10,000 Medical Experts Did NOT Start Nuremberg 2 Trial Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, in Des Moines . A bust of Ferencz was just installed outside that Nuremberg courtroom where he argued almost three-quarters of a century ago. [68] Most of the defendants had surrendered to the United States or United Kingdom. He grew up in a tough New York City neighborhood where his father found work as a janitor. [19], The Nuremberg Charter upended the traditional view of international law by holding individuals, rather than states, responsible for breaches of international law. 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. [111][112] The British case covered invasions, from that of Poland to that of the Soviet Union, which Shawcross covered in the second part of his speech;[113] these charges took three days to present, with Maxwell Fyfe detailing 15 treaties broken by Germany. [146] The Nuremberg Laws were compared to discriminatory laws in the United States. 03/Jun/2021. The Natural Capital Project is working with development banks and 10 pilot countries to put the environment at the forefront of policy and investment decisions. Benjamin Ferencz: He gave me a bunch of binders, four binders. [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. Jan Lemnitzer, University of Oxford. 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? Thanks to a grant from Tad Taube and Taube Philanthropies, now, on the 75th anniversary of the first major international war crimes trial ending, a significant new collection of digital materials will be made available to the public. 10 Things You May Not Know About the Nuremberg Trials - History One of these-- my defendants said-- He gets up, and he says, "[GERMAN]," which is, "What? [44] As the numerically strongest delegation, it would take on the bulk of the prosecutorial effort. [142] In contrast, most defendants avoided incriminating each other. The SA, the Reich Cabinet, and the General Staff and High Command were not ruled to be criminal organizations. Lesley Stahl: You know, you-- have seen the ugliest side of humanity. Top ways to experience Nuremburg Trial Courthouse and nearby attractions. In the Hostages case, several generals were tried for executing thousands of hostages and prisoners of war, looting, using forced labor, and deporting civilians in the Balkans. He says he's grateful for the life he's lived in this country, and it's his turn to give back. In doing so, it established a legal precedent in international humanitarian law that is still relevant today. 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. Streichers paper was a symbol for how Nazi propaganda methodically dehumanized Jews and used mass media to ready non-Jewish Germans to carry out the Holocaust. Judge: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty? [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. [211] The educational purpose of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals was a failure, in part because of the resistance to war crimes trials in German society, but also because of the United States Army's refusal to publish the trial record in German for fear it would undermine the fight against communism. Our intention is to make these trial archives visible to the world, via the web, using the best technology we can find, build, adopt or adapt to make scholarship easier on very complex archives, said Michael Keller, the Ida M. Green University Librarian at Stanford. 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. 25. This week, the U.S. [188] The Office of Chief Counsel for War Crimes identified 2,500 major war criminals, of whom 177 were tried. And you know what keeps me going? [180][172] On 16 October, ten were hanged, with Gring committing suicide the day before. [236][237], The trials were the first use of simultaneous interpretation, which stimulated technical advances in translation methods. [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. [153] Midway through the trial, Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech denouncing the Soviet threat delighted the defense. Benjamin Ferencz: No. Benjamin Ferencz: Well, I'm still a young man. The Nuremberg trials were a series of 13 trials carried out between 1945 and 1949, the Trial of Major War Criminals being held from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946. [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. [1] Most of the defendants were also charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Just put 'em in the ditch. Stupid to an incredible degree to send young people out to kill other young people they don't even know, who never did anybody any harm, never harmed them. [181] All three acquittals (Papen, Schacht, and Fritzsche) were based on a deadlock between the judges; these acquittals surprised observers. She said: "The Nuremberg Code relates to research, where the emphasis of informed consent requirements is on preventing the research participants from being used as a means to an end. At this stage of the project, users will be able to explore digital surrogates of trial records, including transcripts of the court hearings in English, French, German and Russian; case files; trial briefs; evidentiary exhibits filed by the prosecution and the defense; opening and closing statements; final pleas; procedural rules, orders, judgments, dissenting opinions and sentences. [13] Planners in the United States Department of War were drawing up plans for an international tribunal in late 1944 and early 1945. [117] The French prosecutors, more than their British or American counterparts, emphasized the guilt of the German people;[118] they barely mentioned the charge of aggressive war and instead focused on forced labor, economic plunder, massacres, and Germanization. COVID-19 and Crimes Against Humanity: What the Nuremberg-Hague Trials [84][85] The American prosecution drew on reports of the Office of Strategic Services and information provided by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the American Jewish Committee. [155] In the context of the brewing Cold War, the trial became a means of condemning not only Germany but also the Soviet Union. Lesley Stahl: And you had his name down on a piece of. from. It prevents a battery or negligence, and protects the autonomy rights of the patient. [79] Initially, the Americans had planned to try fourteen organizations and their leaders, but this was narrowed to six: the Reich Cabinet, the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the Gestapo, the SA, the SS and the SD, and the General Staff and High Command of the Wehrmacht. But during his first semester, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and he, like many classmates, raced to enlist. Lesley Stahl: You've really seen evil. [90][91] The bringing of conspiracy charges also slowed the trial, as the same evidence ended up being read out multiple times, when it was relevant to both substantive and conspiracy charges. A team of over 1,000 lawyers and over 10,000 medical experts led by Dr. Reiner Fuellmich have begun legal proceedings against the CDC, WHO & the Davos Group for crimes against humanity. [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. Hitler's top lieutenants were prosecuted first. He promoted an intentionalist view of the Nazi state and its overall conspiracy to commit all of the crimes mentioned in the indictment. Twelve Nazi leaders were sentenced to death by hanging. Ferencz learned quickly. [219][220] The German public took the early releases as confirmation of what they saw as the illegitimacy of the trials. [95][96] As Jackson made clear, the purpose of the trial was not just to convict the defendants but also to assemble irrefutable evidence of Nazi crimes, establish individual responsibility and the crime of aggression in international law, offer a history lesson to the defeated Germans, delegitimize the traditional German elite,[97] and allow the Allies to distance themselves from appeasement. [94] All defendants pleaded not guilty. Fullmich and his team present the faulty PCR test and the order for doctors to label any comorbidity death as a Covid death as fraud. It was the first time that international tribunals . These men would never have been murderers had it not been for the war. If you are a doctor or a nurse, . Ben Ferencz, last surviving Nuremberg Trials prosecutor, receives And I see the progress. [60] The American prosecution became derailed during attempts to provide evidence of the German annexation of Austria. But Ferencz knew they were guilty and could prove it. Benjamin Ferencz: He's not a savage. Testimony is ultimately human narratives, and it means a lot to help keep those voices alive through time and space so that we can learn from history and hopefully better understand the implications of atrocities carried out in different cultural and historical contexts, said Penelope Van Tuyl, associate director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice, who has also contributed to the preservation efforts and development of the Virtual Tribunals exhibit platform. On December 9, 1946, an American military tribunal opened criminal proceedings against 23 leading German physicians and administrators for their willing participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Brigadier General Telford Taylor was Chief of Counsel during the Doctors Trial. 2021 19:03. [172] All 22 defendants were charged with crimes against peace, and 12 were convicted. And that's just the beginning. Ferencz is the last Nuremberg prosecutor alive today. [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. The speech was favorably received by the prosecution, the tribunal, the audience, historians, and even the defendants. And you shouldn't-- you know-- be despairing because it's never happened before. And he's been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. [129] The Soviet prosecution also attempted to fabricate German responsibility for the Katyn massacre, which had in fact been committed by the Soviet Union. [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. 40 years on from the Majdanek trial verdict. [227] The main legal criticisms of the trial focused on questions of retroactivity, selectivity, and jurisdiction. They should remember, from me, it takes courage not to be discouraged. [235] In the 1990s, a revival of international criminal law included the establishment of ad hoc international criminal tribunals for Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR), which were widely seen as part of the legacy of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials. 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 . Twelve further trials were conducted by the United States against lower-level perpetrators, which focused more on the Holocaust. [116] In contrast to the other prosecution teams, the French prosecution emphasized how Nazi ideology and pan-Germanism had led to the Nazis' crimes, and delved into the Sonderweg theory of Germany's development in the nineteenth century. [88], The charter allowed the admissibility of any evidence deemed to have probative value, including depositions. The trial of 22 Nazi leaders began on Nov. 20, 1945, and the Tribunal pronounced its judgment on Oct. 1, 1946. That's insane. [192] Members of the SS were tried in the Pohl trial, which focused on members of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office that oversaw SS economic activity, including the Nazi concentration camps;[193] the RuSHA trial of Nazi racial policies; and the Einsatzgruppen trial, in which members of the mobile killing squads were tried for the murder of more than one million people behind the Eastern Front. $211.69. Ferencz told us he is still haunted by the things he saw. Exhibit 84, from Einsatzgruppen D in March of 1942: Total number executed so far: 91,678. June 27, 2021 / 6:54 PM Only one piece of film is known to exist of the Einsatzgruppen at work. Transfer of the Nuremberg Trial Archives to the Peace Palace, March 14, 1950. COVID-19 vaccination does not violate the Nuremberg Code