Number 5 was Albert Speer, Hitlers personal architect and confidant. At the wars end, he was assigned to the guard detail at Nuremburg. Read about WWII here. One spoon has a carving of a skeleton key on its handle, the other an engraving of N 19 P. I could never determine the significance of the latter carving. [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". [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. Immediately following the end of the IMT, the American military government held twelve more war crimes trials in Nuremberg. Once the IMT established the criminality of aggressive war, war . He was the first of 10 hanged on October 16, 1946. But the Nuremberg Trials showed contempt for the only-obeying-orders position, and we hold it in contempt too.". 56 high-ranking SS and other police officers, including 24 leaders of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) and key officials in Heinrich Himmler's . [52][46] The Soviet personnel's lack of knowledge of English, lack of interpreters, and unfamiliarity with diplomacy and international institutions also limited their influence. On that date, representatives from the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the provisional government of France signed an agreement that included a charter for an international military tribunal to conduct trials of major Axis war criminals whose offenses had no particular geographic location. Others were deemed "unfit" for Nazi society: Jews, lesbians, sex workers or homeless women. Generally, I would describe the food, as I recall, quite good, Prestianni remembers. [12] The United States insisted on a fair trial as a means of reforming Germany. Prestianni played checkers and chess with four of the prisoners and argued politics with others. After being rotated home in 1949, he reenlisted and soon found himself on Okinawa prior to deployment to Korea. [230] The selectivity in trying Germans but not the Allies has garnered the most persistent criticism. He often went for hours without speaking to anyone. On October 1, 1946, the verdicts on 22 of the original 24 defendants were handed down for the Nrnberg trials. Streicher, for reasons never made known, was photographed clothed and then naked and again in death. Where the convicted were housed on the ground floor, lower-tier cellblock, the main corridor was 60 meters (195 feet) long, lined by 16 cells on each side, and constantly patrolled by 1st Division guards. [10][11], Of all the Allies, the Soviet Union lobbied most intensely for trying the defeated German leaders for aggression in addition to war crimes. The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.. He would have been 92 the following month. Generally, due to rivalries and animosity toward each other during their glory years, most adhered to this policy and opted to walk, stand, or sit alone, not engaged in conversations to any degree. If one inadvertently looked up at her, she arbitrarily ordered the prisoner shot. Where they lived. Guards were, on occasion, somewhat lenient and allowed some prisoners, based on previous friendships and compatible personalities, to walk in pairs. My dad was a guard at the trials he had a Picture of himself standing behind the prisoners he died at 86 in 2015 the picture is gone and he never wanted to talk about he was a sgt and received a purple heart. [150] The judges barred most evidence on Allied misdeeds from being heard in court. [146][147] Defense lawyer Alfred Seidl[de] repeatedly tried to disclose the secret protocols of the GermanSoviet pact. My mother gave the journal to my oldest brother who died in 1998. In rendering these decisions, the tribunal rejected the major defenses offered by the defendants. Andrus, a strict disciplinarian, were constantly reminded that the prisoners should be treated with civility and objectivity at all times. He was the popular picture court room scene the second on the left of the door. The food, prepared in an American-staffed kitchen, offered identical German menus for each prisoner. Guards were randomly assigned to prisoners, and the assignments were generally not known by the guards until the duty roster was posted or announced each morning during roll call. He was not tall at all and didnt really stand out in any way from the others, Prestianni said. [66][67] The prosecutors wanted to try representative leaders of German politics, economy, and military; and the Americans had a list of 70 names at the London Conference. [8][9] On 1 November 1943, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and United States issued the Moscow Declaration to "give full warning" to the Nazi leadership of the Allies' intent to "pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earthin order that justice may be done". Most certainly. [71][72] The military leaders were Hermann Gring, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Erich Raeder, and Karl Dnitz. Popular radio commentator; head of the news division of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry. Prompt medical attention was readily available to all prisoners. Throughout the trial, he steadfastly maintained his innocence, saying they had arrested and charged the wrong person. He was sent to Nuremburg and stood guard at the Judges quarters. Attitudes toward certain prisoners were determined by the prisoners themselves, their demeanor in captivity, and their personality traits and attitudes toward their American, British, or French guards. Speer was a favorite of the guards. [142] In contrast, most defendants avoided incriminating each other. [205] Where the prosecution was disappointed by some of the verdicts, the defense could take satisfaction. The Nuremberg Trials After the war, the top surviving German leaders were tried for Nazi Germany's crimes, including the crimes of the Holocaust. Below are facts about what has been called the greatest trial in history. Boy I wish I asked more questions of the trials. List of Judges Francis Biddle (American) John J Parker (American) Edward Francis Carter (American) Colonel Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, Lord Justice (British, President of the Tribunal) Sir Norman Birkett (British) Henri Donnedieu de Vabres (French) Robert Falco (French) Major General Iona Nikitchenko (Soviet) These were the intellectuals; the ramrod-stiff military officers; the cunning politicians; the world's most vicious, depraved, notorious mass murderers; an architect; a filthy-minded and sex-obsessed anti-Semitic newspaper publisher; a gentle writer of poetry; the bombastic bullies; an unrepentant, ghost-like figure; the subservient military So the court then allowed him to choose any lawyer he wanted and Stahmer was his pick. During numerous argumentative discussions, Neurath referred to the Polish population and others that were slaughtered by German troops as untermenschen, the German expression for inferior beings. [99] According to historian Kim Christian Priemel, the conspiracy charge "invited apologetic interpretations: narratives of absolute, totalitarian dictatorship, run by society's lunatic fringe, of which the Germans had been the first victims rather than agents, collaborators, and fellow travellers". The United States delegation outlined the overall Nazi conspiracy and criminality of Nazi organizations. 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. [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. No favoritism was shown nor was a selection offered. Sykes supervised guards, including the iconic. , That used to shut him up but usually only for a few minutes, and then he would start up again with the jokes. Posted September 22, 2014. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany waged war across Europe, invading Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Low Countries, France, Denmark, Norway, Yugoslavia, Greece, and the Soviet Union, among others. [120] Ultimately, the French prosecution was unable to convince the court that Germanization was a crime against humanity, and incidents such as the German annexation of AlsaceLorraine went unmentioned in the final verdict. The seventh series of Ravensbrck trials was held between July 2nd and July 21st, 1948 to hear the cases of Aufseherin accused of maltreatment of prisoners and making selections for the gas chambers. He was physically one tough guy, Prestianni offered. The prisoners were restricted to groups of six to eight, which were strictly segregated from one another. I could never beat him in checkers. In some cases, this arrogance lingered into their years of incarceration. They were put under guard at a hotel and taken to court with armed MPs to trial each day. [126] Lev Smirnov presented evidence on the Lidice massacre in Czechoslovakia, adding that such destruction of villages had occurred throughout eastern Europe. Courtroom 600 in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice was the site of the famous Nuremberg trials, a series of military tribunals that took place between November 20, 1945 and October 1, 1946. [177] In the latter case, the Wehrmacht leadership was not considered an organization within the meaning of the charter;[177][178] but this verdict was later misrepresented as an acquittal of the criminality of the Wehrmacht, forming one of the foundations of the clean Wehrmacht myth. Recently one of our readers in the US contacted us with a photo of a pair of sunglasses that were in a box in his grandfather's garage. Joined: Oct 14, 2007 Messages: 2,804 [5] Soviet jurist Aron Trainin developed the concept of crimes against peace (waging aggressive war) which would later be central to the proceedings at Nuremberg. [241][242], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}492716N 110254E / 49.45444N 11.04833E / 49.45444; 11.04833. Also represented were some leaders of the German economy, such as Gustav Krupp (of the conglomerate Krupp AG) and former Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht.[2]. These were 60 year old Emma Zimmer, nee Mezel, and 36 year old . However, fraternization did occur on a regular basis and, for the most part, went unpunished by the prison administration. Other than that, Hess had no social interaction with the other prisoners. The small letters, tav, shin, and zayin in the list of Haman's ten sons (Esther 9), with the combined numerical value of 707, are seen as a "prophetic" code hinting to the future hanging of the ten Nazis convicted at the Nuremberg trials in the year 5707, which Julius Streicher declared as "Purimfest 1946" before he was hanged. [223], The International Military Tribunal, and the drafters of its charter, invented international criminal law essentially from nothing. He guarded Goehring. Her last name was Marsico (cant recall her first name} and she was from Montgomery, WV. Without fanfare or advance warning, on July 18, 1947, the remaining prisoners at Nuremberg were told to assemble their meager belongings. Johann Georg Richert was found guilty and was executed in Minsk, Byelorussia. Ambassador to the United Kingdom 193638. [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. I have searched photos of the trials to see if I could find my dad. I have a brass pot, called an aspersorium, obtained by my father. If anyone knows how I can verify that he was a guard, please let me know. [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][163] The judges did not attempt to define aggression[164] and decided not to mention the retroactivity of the charges in the verdict. Following the Second World War, many concentration camps such as Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz were liberated. Alfred Rosenberg was considered by Hitler the philosopher of National Socialism. They merely brushed the guilt away with self-serving claims that they were following orders from superiors or perhaps even from Hitler himself in an atmosphere where failure to do so often meant banishment to a concentration camp, Gestapo torture, or even a summary execution. Several were militaristically aloof and looked down upon those they considered to be the mere political element. Some of these camps, such as Treblinka, were death camps, intended to kill every prisoner that passed through their gates. [228] The most controversial charge was crimes against peace. Some, over time, even grew to despise him. I had a chance to meet Mr. Christian Delage at a workshop on the . [85] The prosecution examined 110,000 captured German documents[40] and entered 4,600 into evidence,[87] along with 30 kilometres (19mi) of film and 25,000 photographs. By creating an Aryan nation, the world would look up to and envy Germany for its racial purity.. There was also a picture of him guarding Hitler. These visits usually were brief, and participants were separated by a screen. [179], The exact sentences to be given each defendant were debated at length by the judges. The Nrnberg trials were a series of trials held in Nrnberg, Germany, in 1945 and 1946 following the end of World War II. Answer (1 of 5): None of the footage I have seen of the trials revealed anyone but American MPs. list of guards at nuremberg trialsdelpark homes sutton list of guards at nuremberg trials. Conversation between guards was extremely limited or nonexistent. I would have kept my distance from them.. [83] The American and British prosecutors focused on documentary evidence and affidavits rather than testimony from survivors, as the latter was considered less reliable and more liable to accusations of bias, but at the expense of reducing public interest in the proceedings. Later. [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. The speech was favorably received by the prosecution, the tribunal, the audience, historians, and even the defendants. Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death by hanging. [106] Although these aspects had already been covered by the American prosecution, Soviet prosecutors introduced new evidence from Extraordinary State Commission reports and interrogations of senior enemy officers. [190][191] Also on trial were industrialistsin the Flick trial, the IG Farben trial, and the Krupp trialfor using forced labor, looting property from Nazi victims, and funding SS atrocities. His name was David C. Porter from Pennsylvania. He said that he had the pleasure of meeting the judge known as the Hanging Judge. Many of the worst offenders were not prosecuted, for logistical or financial reasons. Hess was eccentric. The most frequently offered scenario, after intensive investigations, has been that the capsule was retrieved from Grings luggage in a storage room and was given to him by an American, Lieutenant Jack Tex Wheelis. That was until he took his own life by biting down on a cyanide capsule a few hours before he was scheduled to be hanged., Prestianni remembered vividly the night of the executions and Grings suicide. Again, without a word being spoken, the door was slammed shut. Adam Weishaupt, Abraham: The World's First Psychopath. These once powerful leaders of Nazi Germany were the accused of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. Thank you so much for your time and I am looking forward to getting into many discussions. Ambassador-Plenipotentiary 193536. They had a profound affect on my dad, who always said, I would never want to be killed by hanging. Yet, the constables who allegedly murdered my Dad did just that. [169][170] The judges did not agree that the conspiracy extended to anyone who participated in the affairs of the Nazi government, only taking being present at the high-level meetings discussing war plans in 1937 and 1939 as evidence of belonging to the conspiracy. [214] By then, the Americans were hoping to use the offer of pardon to convicted war criminals in order to bind West Germany to the Western Bloc. [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. He guarded the prisoners in their cells and also stood guard in the court room. Examine some of the collection's most-accessed trial topics. I had no idea of the magnitude of what they had done. Many were resistance fighters or political opponents. He just celebrated his 93 birthday, and is smart and caring as he has always been. They even accused guards of watching them undress. Dnitz, who was named successor to Hitler during the waning days of the war and served 10 years in prison, remained aloof. [32] The trial was held under modified common law. After his release from prison in Nuremberg, a Stuttgart court sentenced him to eight years in a work camp. Some passively resigned themselves to their futures while others fought it off and never fully accepted their fates. [219][220] The German public took the early releases as confirmation of what they saw as the illegitimacy of the trials. In an attempt to further depersonalize them, prisoners were designated by numbers rather than by their familial surnames. He is in several pictures standing at Hans Franks left. At least Im out here and you are in there, said the former guard. Had I known just who these prisoners were at the time and what they had been accused and convicted of having done, I probably would not have had such a close relationship with them. [110] Unlike Jackson, he attempted to minimize the novelty of the aggression charges. Hess, former deputy fhrer of the Nazi party and Hitlers private secretary during the early years of the National Socialist movement, was sentenced to life imprisonment and served every day of it to the age of 92 when he died in 1987 under mysterious circumstances in Berlins Spandau Prison. Stahmer fought hard for his clie. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. The following is a brief . Ten of them Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Alfred Rosenberg, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Wilhelm Keitel, and Arthur Seyss-Inquart were hanged on October 16, 1946. As well as the tank three Military Policemen can be seen on duty. [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. Former field marshal Keitel, another prisoner who was eventually executed, gradually alienated himself from the other prisoners. I rather liked him for the way he acted toward us. Eighteen-inch rectangular holes were cut from the heavy, oaken cell doors, slightly below eye level. Another favorite was Alfred Jodl, former chief of the operations staff of the Army high command, who was found guilty and executed. These sketches were given to guards who requested them and to prison officials. View full size Courtesy, U.S. Army The Military Tribunal proceedings in Nuremberg, Germany, Herman Goering sits between two guards, the left one being Andrew Wendland of Bay City. Series of military trials at the end of World War II, This article is about the series of international trials. For the subsequent trials held by the United States, see, "International Military Tribunal" redirects here. Did guards favor some prisoners over others? The Rome Statute establishing a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC), which had been proposed in 1953, was finally agreed to in 1998. These women prisoners constantly did anything they could to get a guard in trouble or disciplined.. Join historians and history buffs alike with our Unlimited Digital Access pass to every military history article ever published (over 3,000 articles) in Sovereigns military history magazines. Raeder was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released for poor health on September 26, 1955. With the change of command by rotating countries every month, each of the countries altered the previous countrys rules. By special arrangement with a guard or prison official, he gave his handwritten notes to be mimeographed and returned to him. Staff Sgt. Those men who liberated the camps of the Holocau. Three others were acquitted. [47] Although the chief British judge, Sir Geoffrey Lawrence (Lord Justice of Appeal), was the nominal president of the tribunal, in practice Biddle exercised more authority. My father was an MP at The Nuremberg Trails. He died 21 months later on August 15, 1956. During our conversations, he often asked questions about the United States, a subject in which he appeared to be quite interested, Prestianni added. To move from one corridor to another, guards carried different colored passes. The tribunal was given the authority to find any individual guilty of the commission of war crimes (counts 13 listed above) and to declare any group or organization to be criminal in character. Frick was rather taciturn, not given to talking. It was an appointment that, when coupled with his Baltic origin, brought him into sharp conflict with most of those in Hitlers entourage. Text Size:thredup ambassador program how to dress more masculine for a woman. After Ley hanged himself, this strict suicide watch was instituted, Prestianni explained. The SA, the Reich Cabinet, and the General Staff and High Command were not ruled to be criminal organizations. Today I found out that most of the soldiers who guarded the high ranking Nazi prisoners during the Nuremberg trials were in fact former members of Baltic SS . I only patrolled there once. On October 15, 1946, guards and prisoners listened to the pounding of the gallows being constructed. National Archives Collection of World War II War Crimes Records (Record Groups 153, 238 and 549) The United States conducted war crimes trials in Europe under three jurisdictions: the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuernberg (RG 238), U.S. military tribunals at Nuernberg (RG 238) and U.S. Army courts (RG 153 & RG 549). In July 2020, Dey was found guilty and given a two . My mother had pointed his photo out to me on several occasions but I was too young to remember. All guards were forced to stand practically motionless at parade rest behind their assigned prisoner seated before them in the dock. Beginning on November 20, 1945, all sessions of the tribunal were held in Nrnberg under the presidency of Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence (later Baron Trevethin and Oaksey), the British member. The purpose of the armored reinforcement was to prevent any possibility of attack by groups of still-fanatic Nazis. They, as a group, had no problem with their guilt. Each of the governing countries, the United States, England, France, and Russia, had its own interpretation of punishment. The first, held by an international tribunal (American, British, French, and Russian), was the "War. He was good, real sharp, Prestianni related. [2] They were indicted for: There was no physical contact, and all conversation via microphone was closely monitored by a guard standing behind each prisoner. He was short but very powerfully built. U.S. veteran Gerald M. Boe, the guard for Hermann Gring during the Nuremberg Trials, shares his memories of that time. I never really got to know him very well during the few months before he was released, commented Prestianni, but at one time he tried to teach me an intricate German card game, but I never could catch on to it. Until the end of the negotiations, it was not clear that any trial would be held at all, due to acrimonious disputes over fundamental matters; the American delegation threatened to walk out. Came back to the States in Jun 46. [68] Most of the defendants had surrendered to the United States or United Kingdom. The crew (left to right) Private (1st Class) Carl E McCray (Salem, Va.) and Sergeant E Wilson (Texas.)'. [81] Senior American officials believed that convicting organizations was a good way of showing that not just the top German leaders were responsible for crimes, without condemning the entire German people. These were people, Neurath reasoned, of whom Germany was cleansing the world.. [64] The division of labor, and the haste with which the indictment was prepared, resulted in duplication, imprecise language, and lack of attribution of specific charges to individual defendants. Prestiannis assignment was over, and he was transferred to guard duty at a POW compound at Bamberg, Germany. The second-level tier housed high-ranking SS (Schutzstaffel) officers and many of the infamous doctors who had conducted ghastly medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners. Examine the Nrnberg (Nuremberg) trials of formerleaders of Nazi Germany for war crimes, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/Nurnberg-trials, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Holocaust Encyclopedia - The Nuremberg Trials, Famous Trials - Nuremberg Trials (1945-49), Nuremberg Trials - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Nuremberg trials - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Konstantin von Neurath at the Nrnberg trials, Ernst Kaltenbrunner at the Nrnberg trials. Other absent and dead men including Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, Adolf Eichmann, and Bormann were also blamed. His initial assignment was as a guard at the Nuremberg prison. [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. The defendants included some of the most famous Nazis, including Hermann Gring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Wilhelm Keitel. Prisoners and guards were forced to wear heavy scarves to ward off the penetrating cold.
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