Video: 'NUREMBERG - THE VERDICTS - (Nuremberg Trial)'
(Monday, September 30, 1946, 10:00 a.m.-4:22 p.m. CEST; during the Nuremberg trials) — Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop and 16 other leading figures of the fallen Nazi regime were convicted today by the International Military Tribunal in one of history’s most significant war crimes judgments, leaving death by hanging or long prison terms as the likely fate of nearly all the defendants.
Sentences will be announced tomorrow.
In a sweeping judgment that lasted more than six hours, the four-power tribunal declared that Nazi Germany had planned and waged ruthless wars of aggression across Europe, ruling that the initiation of aggressive war was “the supreme international crime.”
The court found the defendants guilty of participating in a conspiracy that plunged the world into World War II and led to countless atrocities against both soldiers and civilians.
The tribunal rejected the central defense offered by many of the accused—that they had merely followed Adolf Hitler’s orders—holding instead that those who willingly carried out the Nazi dictator’s plans bore personal responsibility for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The judgment recounted Germany’s deliberate aggression against Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, Greece and the Soviet Union, concluding that the invasions were carefully planned in violation of international law and the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which Germany had signed.
Video: 'Nuremberg trials' (14 videos of Sep. 30 1946)
The court also condemned the systematic persecution and extermination of Europe’s Jews, describing it as inhumanity “on the greatest scale,” and characterized the concentration camp system as a principal instrument of Nazi terror throughout occupied Europe.
The tribunal declared the Gestapo, the SS and its Security Service (SD) to be criminal organizations, clearing the way for future prosecutions of their members. However, it declined to designate the Reich Cabinet, the German High Command and the SA Storm Troopers as criminal organizations, ruling that responsibility should instead rest with individuals whose actions could be proved.
Even so, the judges delivered a blistering rebuke to Germany’s military leadership.
“They have been a disgrace to the honorable profession of arms,” the tribunal declared, saying the nation’s senior commanders had enabled Hitler’s campaign of conquest and bore responsibility for the suffering of millions.
Goering, once Hitler’s designated successor, sat impassively beside Hess, Ribbentrop and the other defendants as the judgment was read. Martin Bormann, tried in absentia and believed by many to have died in Berlin during the final days of the war (it later turned out that he indeed did die in the final days of the war), was also found guilty.
Heavy security surrounded the Palace of Justice throughout the proceedings, with American troops guarding the courthouse and armored vehicles patrolling nearby streets.
Tomorrow’s sentencing is expected to bring the final chapter in the historic trial, with executions widely anticipated for many of the Nazi leaders convicted today.
