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View Full Version : Good Morning...Uber-nazi's tried for war crimes.



Okla-homey
11/20/2007, 07:25 AM
November 20, 1945, Nuremberg Trials begin

Sixty-two years ago today, 24 high-ranking Nazis went on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, for atrocities committed during World War II.

The Nuremberg Trials were conducted by an international tribunal made up of representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and Great Britain. It was the first trial of its kind in history, and the defendants faced charges ranging from crimes against peace, to war crimes, to crimes against humanity.

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Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence, the British member, presided over the proceedings, which lasted 10 months and consisted of 216 court sessions.

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Nuremberg judges, left to right: John Parker, Francis Biddle, Alexander Volchkov, Iola Nikitchenko, Geoffrey Lawrence, Norman Birkett

Perhaps unfortunately, the two biggest offenders (Hitler and Joseph Geobbels) cowardly avoided trial by offing-themselves in the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin just before the Red Army made it there to arrest the sick bastages.

On October 1, 1946, the 12 surviving architects of Nazi policy were sentenced to death. Seven others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life, and three were acquitted.

Of the original 24 defendants, one, Robert Ley, committed suicide while in prison, and another, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, was deemed mentally and physically incompetent to stand trial -- Krupp was of the great Krupp family of German war industrialists. (You can buy one of their coffee makers today BTW.)

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Feldmarschal Alfred Jodl...big shot Nazi

Among those condemned to death by hanging were Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi minister of foreign affairs; Hermann Goering, leader of the Luftwaffe; Alfred Jodl, head of the German armed forces staff; Karl Doenitz, head of the Nazi navy, AKA Kriegsmarine who was declared Hitler's successor in der Fuhrer's will; and Wilhelm Frick, minister of the interior.

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Defendants Rudolf Hess (first row, left), Joachim von Ribbentrop (first row, right), Karl Doenitz (second row, left), Erich Raeder (second row, middle), and Balder von Schirach (second row, right) sit in the dock during the Nuremberg Trials, 1945-46.

On October 16, 10 of the architects of Nazi policy were hanged. Goering, who at sentencing was called the "leading war aggressor and creator of the oppressive program against the Jews," committed suicide by poison on the eve of his scheduled execution.

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Goering testifies.

BTW,There is evidence an American MP officer was befriended by the still charming Hermann Goering during his incarceration. While not directly implicated, the MP lieutenant probably "looked the other way" when Goering killed himself. No one knows how or where Goering hid his cyanide capsules during his months of imprisonment and trial.

Nazi Party leader Martin Bormann was condemned to death in absentia (but is now believed to have died in May 1945). Trials of lesser German and Axis war criminals continued in Germany well into the 1950s and resulted in the conviction of 5,025 other defendants and the execution of 806.

One more fact I've always found interesting. Capital punishment is no longer the law in any European country. None of them. However, it was not outlawed in France until the last convicted WWII war criminal was snuffed in the latter half of the 1950's. Hmmmm.:rolleyes:

Postscript:

As an aside, it's also worth noting that many Germans, even those who claimed they had not been nazi-supporters of Hitler fans, didn't approve of the Nuremberg proceedings. They perceived them as a form of "victor's justice" and thus prejudiced against all Germans. As a result, by 1960, the vast majority of former Nazi's who were serving life sentences in Germany as a result of Nuremberg convictions in the late 1940's, had been released by the German government.

International law scholars to this day debate the efficacy of international tribunals for this very reason. In the end, some favor an international criminal court which meets in some neutral country where those indicted by an international body (like the UN) can be tried, and if convicted, imprisoned somewhere other than the convict's homeland. That's kinda scary IMHO.

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TUSooner
11/20/2007, 10:04 AM
I read the book "I Was the Nuremburg Jailer" but I can't remember exactly why Doenitz got the death penalty. I seem to recall he didn't do anything especially nasty other than prosecute the war like any other admiral would have. But, like I say, I don't really remember.

Okla-homey
11/20/2007, 03:09 PM
I read the book "I Was the Nuremburg Jailer" but I can't remember exactly why Doenitz got the death penalty. I seem to recall he didn't do anything especially nasty other than prosecute the war like any other admiral would have. But, like I say, I don't really remember.

Hence the specter of "victor's justice." Adm. Doenitz swung b/c he prosecuted unrestricted submarine warfare, and left survivors of sinkings to die in the open sea. Both of which were, and remain, violations of the Law of War.

So did we.

soonerscuba
11/20/2007, 03:22 PM
Not to nit-pick but France didn't outlaw the death penalty until the 80s. The last man to be executed was in the late 70s if I remember correctly.