Justice Attempts WW 2 Nuremberg and Tokyo Nuremberg
Justice Attempts WW 2 Nuremberg and Tokyo
Nuremberg • International Military Tribunal – first time in history – 4 judges, 4 alternates , 3 vote min. for guilty – US, Great Britain, USSR, France (winners) – US Francis Biddle – former US Attny General • 2 New Categories of Crime – created to ensure punishment – Crimes Against Peace (II) – Crimes Against Humanity(IV), in addition to: – Common Plan/Conspiracy (I) – War Crimes (III)
Making it Work • 24 top leaders of German War machine selected as 1 st round of defendants. – 20 are found in decent health and will stand trial • Hitler, Goebbals, Himmler- dead already. • TAKING ORDERS DOES NOT EXCUSE! – Impacts punishment • Prosecutors – From each of the 4 Allies – US – Robert H. Jackson – Supreme Court Justice • Defense Attorneys – Hard to find, hard to defend – German lawyers work for leniency more than innocence
Name Position Martin Bormann (in absentia) Deputy Führer Karl Dönitz Hans Frank Wilhelm Frick Found Guilty of Counts III and IV Sentenced Action Taken Death Was missing at Assists Final Solution time of trial. Later found Bormann had died in 1945. Supreme 10 Years in Prison Served time. Died II and III – Commander of the Leader of warfare, in 1980. Navy (1943) and esp. submarine German Chancellor warfare Governor-General III and IV Death Hanged on of Occupied Poland October 16, 1946. Foreign Minister of II, III, and IV – Death Hanged on Authored Nuremberg the Interior October 16, 1946. laws, confiscated Jewish assets for the state Hans Fritzsche Head of the Radio Not Guilty Division of the Propaganda Ministry Acquitted In 1947 sentenced by Germans to 9 years in work camp; released after 3 years. Died in 1953.
Walther Funk President of the II, III, and IV – Reichsbank (1939) banks accepted Life in Prison Early release in 1957. Died in 1960. Death Committed suicide on October 15, 1946 (three hours before he was to be executed). Died in prison on August 17, 1987. Hanged on October 16, 1946. bags of jewelry and gold from the SS (from prisoners) Hermann Göring Reich Marshal All Four Helped orchestrate the Reichstag Fire and the Aryanization of Jewish businesses Rudolf Hess Alfred Jodl Ernst Kaltenbrunner Deputy to the Life in Prison I and II Führer Chief of the All Four – plotted Death Operations Staff the Czech takeover, orchestrated and of the Armed oversaw slave labor Forces in war industries Chief of the Security Police, SD, and RSHA III and IV – Ran the Gestapo and the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads in Eastern Europe) Death In 1953, a German appeals court posthumously found Jodl not guilty of breaking international law. Hanged on October 16, 1946.
Wilhelm Keitel Chief of the High All Four Command of the Armed Forces Konstantin von Neurath Minister of All Four Foreign Affairs and Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia Franz von Papen Chancellor (1932) Not Guilty Promoted the Nazis, but not the war or the genocide. Erich Raeder Supreme Commander of the Navy (19281943) II, III, and IV Death Requested to be shot as a soldier. Request denied. Hanged on October 16, 1946. 15 Years in Prison Early release in 1954. Died in 1956. Acquitted Life in Prison In 1949, a German court sentenced Papen to 8 years in work camp; time was considered already served. Died in 1969. Early release in 1955. Died in 1960.
Joachim von Reich Foreign Death All Four Ribbentrop Minister Alfred Rosenberg Party Philosopher All Four Death and Reich Minister Source of racial ideology, for the Eastern “lebensraum” Occupied Area Fritz Sauckel Plenipotentiary for II and IV Death Labor Allocation Provided slave labor (violated Geneva Accords) Hjalmar Schacht Minister of Acquitted Not Guilty Economics and Nationalist, but President of the not to a Reichsbank (1933 - criminal extent 1939) Baldur von Schirach Arthur Seyss. Inquart Führer of the IV Hitler Youth Minister of the II, III, and IV Interior and Reich Gouvernor of Austria Hanged on October 16, 1946. Denazification court sentenced Schacht to 8 years in a work camp; released in 1948. Died in 1970. 20 Years in Prison Served his time. Died in 1974. Death Hanged on October 16, 1946.
Albert Speer Julius Streicher Minister of III and IV Armaments and War Production Founder of Der IV Stürmer 20 Years in Prison Served his time. Died in 1981. Death Hanged on October 16, 1946. This trial took 9 months! Cannot keep up at such a slow pace!
Afterwards • Trials by German Occupation Zones – (US, USSR, France, Great Britain) • US Tries ~200 high officials over 12 trials (USSR et al. will do same) AFTER THIS GERMANY WILL HOLD IT’S OWN TRIALS • Categories 1946 -1947 – German Judges start 1: 46 • 10 guilty (life to 5 years), 4 acquitted – Industrialists • 2 Zyklon B directors executed, those who used slave laborsome convictions but lesser sentences – Medical Doctors who experimented on inmates • 16 Guilty (7 death, 5 life, 4 lesser) 7 acquitted – Killing Squads • All 22 convicted (14 death, 2 life, 5 lesser, 1 time spent) – Guards • Dachau – 40 convicted (36 death, 4 ten years to life) • Nordhausen 16 convicted (1 death, 15 prison) 4 Acquitted
Trial Fatigue • 1948 – Public Abroad. Growing Board with Trials • 1951 – most prison sentences are lifted/reduced • WHY? – Too many, too long, same story – Public ready to forgive and forget – Bigger problems (Cold War and security of the West) • BUT this leaves survivors in the cold – justice not complete! • Occasional trials over the years ie. : – Eichmann – Jerusalem 1960 – Demjanjuk – Jerusalem 1987
Tokyo – International Tribunal • Much less attention than Nuremberg • 28 leaders tried over 2. 5 years • Judged by: – US, USSR, UK, Australia, NZ, Netherlands, China, Canada, Philippines, India • All guilty – 7 death – hanged December 1948 (no photos – General Mac. Arthur, provisional governor defied Truman’s orders to photograph hangings) – 16 life, 2 lesser prison, 2 die before sentencing, 1 declared insane • Afterwards 5, 000 more tried by Asian Nations – 900 Executed
Acknowledgment • Germany • Japan
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