The Nuremberg trials based on which conference. Soviet Nuremberg
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*Extremist and terrorist organizations banned in Russian Federation: Jehovah's Witnesses, National Bolshevik Party, Right Sector, Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), Islamic State (IS, ISIS, Daesh), Jabhat Fatah ash-Sham, Jabhat al-Nusra ”, “Al-Qaeda”, “UNA-UNSO”, “Taliban”, “Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people”, “Misanthropic Division”, “Brotherhood” Korchinsky, “Trident them. Stepan Bandera", "Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists" (OUN)
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History has never known such a court. The leaders of the country that was defeated in the war were not killed, they were not treated as honorary prisoners, they were not given asylum by any neutral state. The leadership of Nazi Germany, almost in its entirety, was detained, arrested and put on trial. They did the same with Japanese war criminals, holding the Tokyo Court of Nations, but this happened a little later. The Nuremberg trials gave a criminal and ideological assessment of the actions statesmen with whom, through 1939, world leaders negotiated, concluded pacts and trade agreements. Then they were received, they paid visits, in general, they were treated with respect. Now they were sitting in the dock, silent or answering questions. Then they, accustomed to honor and luxury, were taken to cells.
Retribution
US Army Sergeant J. Wood was an experienced professional executioner with extensive pre-war experience. In his hometown of San Antonio (Texas), he personally executed almost three and a half hundred notorious villains, among whom the majority were serial killers. But with such "material" he had to work for the first time.
The permanent head of the Nazi youth organization "Hitler Youth" Streicher resisted, he had to be dragged to the gallows by force. Then John strangled him by hand. Keitel, Jodl and Ribbentrop suffered for a long time with the noose already clamped respiratory tract, for several minutes they could not die.
At the last moment, realizing that the executioner could not be moved to pity, many of the condemned still found the strength to accept death for granted. Von Ribbentrop said words that have not lost their topicality even today, wishing Germany unity, and East and West - mutual understanding. Keitel, who signed the surrender and, in general, did not participate in the planning of aggressive campaigns (except for the attack on India that was never carried out), paid tribute to the fallen German soldiers, remembering them. Jodl greeted in the end home country. Well, and so on.
Ribbentrop was the first to ascend the scaffold. Then it was the turn of Kaltenbrunner, who suddenly remembered God. His last prayer was not denied him.
The execution went on for a long time, and in order to speed up the process, the convicts were brought into the gym where it took place, without waiting for the agony of the previous victim to end. Ten people were hanged, two more (Göring and Ley) were able to avoid the shameful execution by laying their hands on themselves.
After several examinations, the corpses were burned, and the ashes were scattered.
Process preparation
The Nuremberg trials began in the deep autumn of 1945, on November 20. It was preceded by an investigation that lasted six months. In total, 27 kilometers of tape were used up, thirty thousand photographic prints were made, a huge number of newsreels (mostly captured) were viewed. According to these figures, unprecedented in 1945, one can judge the titanic work of the investigators who prepared the Nuremberg trials. Transcripts and other documents took about two hundred tons of writing paper (fifty million sheets).
To make a decision, the court needed to hold more than four hundred meetings.
Charges were brought against 24 officials who held various posts in Nazi Germany. It was based on the principles of the Charter adopted for the new court called the International Military Tribunal. For the first time, the legal concept of a crime against humanity was introduced. The list of persons to be prosecuted under the articles of this document was published on August 29, 1945, after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Criminal plans and intentions
Aggression against Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the USSR and, as the document says, "the whole world" was blamed on the leadership of Germany. The conclusion of cooperation agreements with fascist Italy and militaristic Japan was also called criminal actions. One of the charges was an attack on the United States. In addition to specific actions, the former German government was charged with aggressive designs.
But that was not the point. Whatever insidious plans the Hitlerite elite built, they were judged not for thinking about the capture of India, Africa, Ukraine and Russia, but for what the Nazis did in their own country and abroad.
Crimes against nations
The hundreds of thousands of pages occupied by the materials of the Nuremberg Trials irrefutably prove the inhuman treatment of civilians in the occupied territories, prisoners of war and crews of ships, military and commercial, that sank the ships of the German Navy. Large-scale ethnic cleansing carried out on a national basis also took place. The civilian population was exported to the Reich in order to be used as labor resources. Death factories were built and operated at full capacity, in which the process of exterminating people took on an industrial character, for which unique technological methods invented by the Nazis were used.
Information about the progress of the investigation and some materials from the Nuremberg trials were published, although not all.
Humanity trembled.
From unpublished
Already at the stage of the formation of the International Military Tribunal, some delicate situations arose. The Soviet delegation brought with them to London, where preliminary consultations were held on the organization of the future court, a list of issues, the consideration of which was considered undesirable for the leadership of the USSR. The Western allies agreed not to discuss topics relating to the circumstances of the conclusion of the 1939 Soviet-German non-aggression pact, and in particular the secret protocol attached to it.
There were other secrets of the Nuremberg Trials that were not made public due to the far from ideal behavior of the leadership of the victorious countries in the pre-war situation and during the fighting on the fronts. It was they who could shake the balance that has developed in the world and Europe thanks to the decisions of the Tehran and Potsdam conferences. The boundaries of both states and spheres of influence, stipulated by the Big Three, were established by 1945, and, according to the intention of their authors, were not subject to revision.
What is fascism?
Almost all the documents of the Nuremberg Trials have become publicly available today. It was this fact that, in a certain sense, cooled interest in them. They are appealed to during ideological discussions. An example is the attitude towards Stepan Bandera, who is often called Hitler's henchman. Is it so?
German Nazism, also called fascism and recognized international court criminal ideological base, is inherently a hypertrophied form of nationalism. Giving an advantage to an ethnic group may well lead to the idea that representatives of other peoples living in the territory nation state, one can either be forced to renounce one's own culture, language, or religious beliefs, or be forced to emigrate. In case of disobedience, the option of forced expulsion or even physical destruction is possible. There are more than enough examples in history.
About Bandera
In connection with recent events in Ukraine, such an odious person as Bandera deserves special attention. The Nuremberg trials did not directly address the activities of the UPA. There were mentions of this organization in the materials of the court, but they concerned relations between the occupying German troops and representatives of Ukrainian nationalists, and those did not always work out well. Thus, according to document No. 192-PS, which is a report of the Reichskommissar of Ukraine to Alfred Rozneberg (written in Rovno on March 16, 1943), the author of the document complains about the hostility of the Melnik and Bandera organizations towards the German authorities (p. 25). In the same place, on the following pages, mention is made of "political impudence", expressed in the demands to grant Ukraine state independence.
It was this goal that Stepan Bandera set for the OUN. The Nuremberg trials did not consider the crimes committed by the UPA in Volhynia against the Polish population, and other numerous atrocities of Ukrainian nationalists, perhaps because this topic was among the "undesirable" for the Soviet leadership. At the time when the International Military Tribunal was taking place, pockets of resistance in Lvov, Ivano-Frankivsk and other western regions had not yet been suppressed by the forces of the MGB. And the Nuremberg trials were not engaged in Ukrainian nationalists. Bandera Stepan Andreevich tried to take advantage of the German invasion to implement his own idea of national independence. He didn't succeed. Soon he ended up in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, however, as a privileged prisoner. For the time being…
Documentary
The cinematic documentary chronicle of the Nuremberg trials in 1946 became more than just accessible. The Germans were forced to watch it, and in case of refusal they were deprived of food rations. This order was in effect in all four occupation zones. It was hard for people who had consumed Nazi propaganda for twelve years to look at the humiliation that those they had recently believed were subjected to. But it was necessary, otherwise it would hardly have been possible to get rid of the past so quickly.
The film "The Court of Nations" was shown on a wide screen both in the USSR and in other countries, but it evoked completely different feelings among the citizens of the victorious countries. Pride for their people, who made a decisive contribution to the victory over the personification of absolute evil, overwhelmed the hearts of Russians and Ukrainians, Kazakhs and Tajiks, Georgians and Armenians, Jews and Azerbaijanis, in general, all Soviet people, regardless of nationality. The Americans, the French, the British also rejoiced, it was their victory. “The Nuremberg trials paid tribute to the warmongers,” everyone who watched this documentary thought so.
"Little" Nurembergs
The Nuremberg trials ended, some war criminals were hanged, others were imprisoned in Spandau, and others managed to avoid fair retribution by taking poison or building a makeshift noose. Some even ran away and lived the rest of their lives in fear of exposure. Others were found decades later, and it was not clear whether punishment awaited them, or deliverance.
In 1946-1948, in the same Nuremberg (there was already a prepared room there, a certain symbolism also played a role in choosing a place) trials of Nazi criminals of the "second echelon" were held. A very good American film "The Nuremberg Trials" of 1961 tells about one of them. The picture was shot on black and white film, although in the early 60s Hollywood could afford the brightest Technicolor. Stars of the first magnitude are involved in the roles (Marlene Dietrich, Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Spencer Tracy and many other wonderful artists). The plot is quite real, they are trying Nazi judges who passed terrible sentences on the basis of absurd articles that filled the codes of the Third Reich. The main theme is repentance, which not everyone can come to.
It was also the Nuremberg Trials. The trial stretched out in time, it involved everyone: those who executed the sentences, and those who only wrote papers, and those who simply wanted to survive and sat on the sidelines, hoping to survive. Meanwhile, young men were executed “for disrespect for great Germany”, men who seemed inferior to someone were forcibly sterilized, girls were thrown into prison on charges of being “subhuman”.
Decades later
With every decade, the events of the Second World War seem more and more academic and historical, losing their vitality in the eyes of new generations. Quite a bit of time will pass, and they will begin to seem something like the Suvorov campaigns or the Crimean campaign. There are fewer and fewer living witnesses, and this process, unfortunately, is irreversible. Quite differently than contemporaries, the Nuremberg trials are perceived today. The collection of materials available to readers reveals many legal gaps, shortcomings of the investigation, contradictions in the testimony of witnesses and the accused. The international situation of the mid-1940s was by no means conducive to the objectivity of judges, and the restrictions originally set for the International Tribunal sometimes dictated political expediency at the expense of justice. Field Marshal Keitel, who had nothing to do with the Barbarossa plan, was executed, and his "colleague" Paulus, who took an active part in the development of the aggressive doctrines of the Third Reich, testified as a witness. At the same time, both surrendered. Of interest is the behavior of Hermann Goering, who clearly explained to the accusers that the actions of the allied countries were sometimes also criminal both in war and in domestic life. Nobody, however, listened to him.
Mankind in 1945 was outraged, it was thirsty for revenge. There was little time, and there were a lot of events to be assessed. The war has become an invaluable storehouse of plots, human tragedies and destinies for thousands of novelists and filmmakers. Future historians have yet to evaluate Nuremberg.
The international trial of the former leaders of Nazi Germany took place from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946 at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg (Germany). The original list of defendants included the Nazis in the same order that I have in this post. On October 18, 1945, the indictment was handed over to the International Military Tribunal and transmitted through its secretariat to each of the accused. A month before the start of the trial, each of them was served with an indictment for German. The defendants were asked to write on it their attitude towards the prosecution. Raeder and Lay didn't write anything (Ley's response was, in fact, his suicide shortly after the charges were brought), and the rest wrote what I have on the line: "Last word."
Even before the start court hearings, after reading the indictment, on November 25, 1945, Robert Ley committed suicide in the cell. Gustav Krupp was declared terminally ill by the medical board, and the case against him was dismissed pending trial.
Due to the unprecedented gravity of the crimes committed by the defendants, doubts arose whether all democratic norms of legal proceedings should be observed in relation to them. The UK and US prosecutions proposed not to give the defendants the last word, but the French and Soviet sides insisted on the opposite. These words, which have entered into eternity, I will present to you now.
List of accused.
Hermann Wilhelm Goering(German: Hermann Wilhelm Göring), Reich Marshal, Commander-in-Chief air force Germany. He was the most important defendant. Sentenced to death penalty through hanging. 2 hours before the execution of the sentence, he was poisoned by potassium cyanide, which was transferred to him with the assistance of E. von der Bach-Zelevsky.
Hitler publicly declared Göring guilty of failing to organize air defense countries. April 23, 1945, based on the Law of June 29, 1941, Goering, after a meeting with G. Lammers, F. Bowler, K. Koscher and others, turned to Hitler by radio, asking for his consent to accept him - Goering - as head of the government . Goering announced that if he did not receive an answer by 22 o'clock, he would consider it an agreement. On the same day, Goering received an order from Hitler forbidding him to take the initiative, at the same time, on the orders of Martin Bormann, Goering was arrested by an SS detachment on charges of treason. Two days later, Goering was replaced as commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe by Field Marshal R. von Greim, stripped of his ranks and awards. In his Political Testament, on April 29, Hitler expelled Goering from the NSDAP and officially named Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz as his successor in his place. On the same day he was transferred to a castle near Berchtesgaden. On May 5, the SS detachment handed over Göring's guards to the Luftwaffe units, and Göring was immediately released. May 8 arrested by American troops in Berchtesgaden.
The last word: "The winner is always the judge, and the loser is the accused!".
In his suicide note, Goering wrote "The Reichsmarshals are not hanged, they leave on their own."
Rudolf Hess(German: Rudolf Heß), Hitler's deputy in charge of the Nazi Party.
During the trial, lawyers declared that he was insane, although Hess gave generally adequate testimony. Was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Soviet judge, who issued a dissenting opinion, insisted on the death penalty. He was serving a life sentence in Berlin in the Spandau prison. After the release of A. Speer in 1965, he remained her only prisoner. Until the end of his days he was devoted to Hitler.
In 1986, the government of the USSR, for the first time since Hess was imprisoned, considered the possibility of his release on humanitarian grounds. In the autumn of 1987, during the presidency of the Soviet Union in the Spandau International Prison, it was supposed to take a decision on his release, "showing mercy and demonstrating the humanity of the new course" of Gorbachev.
On August 17, 1987, 93-year-old Hess was found dead with a wire around his neck. He left a testamentary note handed over to his relatives a month later and written on the back of a letter from his relatives:
"A request to the directors to send this home. Written a few minutes before my death. I thank you all, my beloved, for all the dear things you have done for me. Tell Freiburg that I am extremely sorry that since the Nuremberg trial I have to acted as if I didn't know her. I had no choice, because otherwise all attempts to gain freedom would have been in vain. I was so looking forward to meeting her. I did receive her photo and all of you. Your Senior."
The last word: "I don't regret anything."
Joachim von Ribbentrop(German: Ullrich Friedrich Willy Joachim von Ribbentrop), Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler's adviser foreign policy.
He met Hitler at the end of 1932, when he gave him his villa for secret negotiations with von Papen. With his refined manners at the table, Hitler impressed Ribbentrop so much that he soon joined the NSDAP, and later the SS. On May 30, 1933, Ribbentrop was awarded the title of SS Standartenführer, and Himmler became a frequent visitor to his villa.
Hanged by the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal. It was he who signed the non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, which Nazi Germany violated with incredible ease.
The last word: "Wrong people charged."
Personally, I consider him the most disgusting type that appeared at the Nuremberg trials.
Robert Lay(German: Robert Ley), head of the Labor Front, by whose order all trade union leaders of the Reich were arrested. He was charged with three counts - conspiracy to wage a war of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He committed suicide in prison shortly after the indictment, before the actual trial, by hanging himself from a sewer pipe with a towel.
The last word: refused.
(Keitel signs the act of unconditional surrender of Germany)
Wilhelm Keitel(German: Wilhelm Keitel), Chief of Staff of the Supreme High Command of the German Armed Forces. It was he who signed the act of surrender of Germany, which ended the Great Patriotic War and the Second world war in Europe. However, Keitel advised Hitler not to attack France and opposed the Barbarossa plan. Both times he resigned, but Hitler did not accept it. In 1942, Keitel dared to object to the Fuhrer for the last time, speaking in defense of Field Marshal Liszt, defeated on the Eastern Front. The Tribunal rejected Keitel's excuses that he was only following Hitler's orders and found him guilty of all charges. The sentence was carried out on October 16, 1946.
The last word: "An order for a soldier - there is always an order!"
Ernst Kaltenbrunner(German: Ernst Kaltenbrunner), head of the RSHA - SS Imperial Security Main Office and State Secretary of the German Imperial Ministry of the Interior. For numerous crimes against the civilian population and prisoners of war, the court sentenced him to death by hanging. On October 16, 1946, the sentence was carried out.
The last word: "I am not responsible for war crimes, I was only doing my duty as the head of the intelligence agencies, and I refuse to serve as a kind of Himmler's ersatz."
(on right) 
Alfred Rosenberg(German Alfred Rosenberg), one of the most influential members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), one of the main ideologists of Nazism, Reich Minister for the Eastern Territories. Sentenced to death by hanging. Rosenberg was the only one of the 10 executed who refused to give the last word on the scaffold.
The last word in court: "I reject the 'conspiracy' charge. Anti-Semitism was only a necessary defensive measure."
(in the center) 
Hans Frank(German Dr. Hans Frank), head of the occupied Polish lands. On October 12, 1939, immediately after the occupation of Poland, he was appointed by Hitler as head of the administration for the population of the Polish occupied territories, and then as governor general of occupied Poland. He organized the mass destruction of the civilian population of Poland. Sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out on October 16, 1946.
The last word: "I view this trial as a God-pleasing supreme court to sort out and bring to an end the terrible period of Hitler's rule."
Wilhelm Frick(German Wilhelm Frick), Minister of the Interior of the Reich, Reichsleiter, head of the NSDAP deputy group in the Reichstag, lawyer, one of Hitler's closest friends in the early years of the struggle for power.
The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg held Frick responsible for bringing Germany under Nazi rule. He was accused of drafting, signing and enforcing a number of laws prohibiting political parties and trade unions, creating a system of concentration camps, encouraging the activities of the Gestapo, persecuting Jews and militarizing the German economy. He was found guilty on counts of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. On October 16, 1946, Frick was hanged.
The last word: "The whole accusation is based on the assumption of participation in a conspiracy."
Julius Streicher(German Julius Streicher), Gauleiter, Chief Editor newspaper "Stormtrooper" (German: Der Stürmer - Der Stürmer).
He was charged with inciting the murder of Jews, which fell under Charge 4 of the process - crimes against humanity. In response, Streicher called the process "the triumph of world Jewry." According to the test results, his IQ was the lowest of all the defendants. During the examination, Streicher once again told psychiatrists about his anti-Semitic beliefs, but he was found to be sane and capable of answering for his actions, although obsessed with an obsession. He believed that the accusers and judges were Jews and did not try to repent of his deed. According to the psychologists who conducted the survey, his fanatical anti-Semitism is rather a product of a sick psyche, but on the whole he gave the impression of an adequate person. His authority among the other defendants was extremely low, many of them frankly shunned such an odious and fanatical figure as he was. Hanged by the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal for anti-Semitic propaganda and calls for genocide.
The last word: "This process is the triumph of world Jewry."
Hjalmar Shacht(German Hjalmar Schacht), Reich Minister of Economics before the war, Director of the National Bank of Germany, President of the Reichsbank, Reich Minister of Economics, Reich Minister without portfolio. On January 7, 1939, he sent a letter to Hitler, in which he pointed out that the course pursued by the government would lead to collapse financial system Germany and hyperinflation, and demanded the transfer of control over finances to the Reich Ministry of Finance and the Reichsbank.
In September 1939 he strongly opposed the invasion of Poland. Schacht reacted negatively to the war with the USSR, believing that Germany would lose the war for economic reasons. November 30, 1941 sent Hitler a sharp letter criticizing the regime. January 22, 1942 resigned as Reich Minister.
Schacht had contacts with conspirators against the Hitler regime, although he himself was not a member of the conspiracy. On July 21, 1944, after the failure of the July Plot against Hitler (July 20, 1944), Schacht was arrested and held in the Ravensbrück, Flossenburg and Dachau concentration camps.
The last word: "I don't understand why I've been charged."
This is probably the most difficult case, on October 1, 1946, Schacht was acquitted, then in January 1947, the German denazification court was sentenced to eight years in prison, but on September 2, 1948, he was nevertheless released from custody.
Later he worked in the German banking sector, founded and headed the banking house "Schacht GmbH" in Düsseldorf. June 3, 1970 died in Munich. We can say that he was the luckiest of all the defendants. Although...
Walter Funk(German Walther Funk), German journalist, Nazi Minister of Economics after Schacht, President of the Reichsbank. Sentenced to life imprisonment. Released in 1957.
The last word: "Never in my life have I, either consciously or out of ignorance, done anything that would give rise to such accusations. If, out of ignorance or as a result of delusions, I committed the acts listed in the indictment, then my guilt should be considered from the perspective of my personal tragedy but not as a crime.
(right; left - Hitler)
Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach(German: Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach), head of the Friedrich Krupp concern (Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp). From January 1933 - press secretary of the government, from November 1937 the Reich Minister of Economics and Commissioner General for War Economy, simultaneously from January 1939 - President of the Reichsbank.
At the trial in Nuremberg, he was sentenced by the International Military Tribunal to life imprisonment. Released in 1957.
Karl Doenitz(German: Karl Dönitz), Grand Admiral of the Third Reich Fleet, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, after Hitler's death and in accordance with his posthumous will - President of Germany.
The Nuremberg Tribunal for war crimes (in particular, the conduct of the so-called unlimited submarine warfare) sentenced him to 10 years in prison. This verdict was contested by some jurists, as the same methods of submarine warfare were widely practiced by the victors. Some of the Allied officers, after the verdict, expressed their sympathy to Doenitz. Doenitz was found guilty on the 2nd (crime against peace) and 3rd (war crimes) counts.
After his release from prison (Spandau in West Berlin), Doenitz wrote his memoirs "10 years and 20 days" (meaning 10 years of command of the fleet and 20 days of the presidency).
The last word: "None of the charges has anything to do with me. American inventions!"
Erich Raeder(German Erich Raeder), Grand Admiral, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy of the Third Reich. On January 6, 1943, Hitler ordered Raeder to disband the surface fleet, after which Raeder demanded his resignation and was replaced by Karl Doenitz on January 30, 1943. Raeder received the honorary position of chief inspector of the fleet, but in fact he had no rights and obligations.
In May 1945, he was taken prisoner by Soviet troops and transferred to Moscow. By the verdict of the Nuremberg trials, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1945 to 1955 in prison. Petitioned to replace his prison sentence with execution; the control commission found that "it cannot increase the punishment." January 17, 1955 released for health reasons. Wrote memoirs "My Life".
The last word: refused.
Baldur von Schirach(German: Baldur Benedikt von Schirach), head of the Hitler Youth, then Gauleiter of Vienna. At the Nuremberg trials, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He served his entire sentence in the Spandau military prison in Berlin. Released September 30, 1966.
The last word: "All troubles - from racial politics."
I fully agree with this statement.
Fritz Sauckel(German: Fritz Sauckel), leader of the forced deportations to the Reich of labor from the occupied territories. Sentenced to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity (mainly for the deportation of foreign workers). Hanged.
The last word: "The gap between the ideal of a socialist society, hatched and defended by me, in the past a sailor and a worker, and these terrible events - concentration camps - deeply shocked me."
Alfred Jodl(German: Alfred Jodl), Chief of the Operations Department of the Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces, Colonel General. At dawn on October 16, 1946, Colonel-General Alfred Jodl was hanged. His body was cremated, and the ashes were secretly removed and scattered. Jodl took an active part in planning the mass extermination of civilians in the occupied territories. On May 7, 1945, on behalf of Admiral K. Doenitz, he signed in Reims the general surrender of the German armed forces to the Western Allies.
As Albert Speer recalled, "Jodl's accurate and restrained defense made a strong impression. It seems that he was one of the few who managed to rise above the situation." Jodl argued that a soldier cannot be held responsible for the decisions of politicians. He insisted that he honestly fulfilled his duty, obeying the Fuhrer, and considered the war a fair cause. The tribunal found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Before his death, in one of his letters, he wrote: "Hitler buried himself under the ruins of the Reich and his hopes. Let whoever wants to curse him for this, but I can't." Jodl was fully acquitted when the case was reviewed by the Munich court in 1953 (!).
The last word: "The mixture of just accusations and political propaganda is regrettable."
Martin Borman(German: Martin Bormann), head of the party chancellery, accused in absentia. Chief of Staff of the Deputy Fuhrer "since July 3, 1933), head of the NSDAP Party Chancellery" since May 1941) and Hitler's personal secretary (since April 1943). Reichsleiter (1933), Reich Minister without Portfolio, SS Obergruppenführer, SA Obergruppenführer.
Associated with him interesting story.
At the end of April 1945, Bormann was with Hitler in Berlin, in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery. After the suicide of Hitler and Goebbels, Bormann disappeared. However, already in 1946, Arthur Axman, the head of the Hitler Youth, who, together with Martin Bormann, tried to leave Berlin on May 1-2, 1945, said during interrogation that Martin Bormann died (more precisely, committed suicide) in front of him on May 2, 1945.
He confirmed that he saw Martin Bormann and Hitler's personal physician, Ludwig Stumpfegger, lying on their backs near the bus station in Berlin where the battle was taking place. He crawled close to their faces and clearly distinguished the smell of bitter almonds - it was potassium cyanide. The bridge over which Bormann was going to escape from Berlin was blocked by Soviet tanks. Bormann chose to bite through the ampoule.
However, these testimonies were not considered sufficient evidence of Bormann's death. In 1946, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg tried Bormann in absentia and sentenced him to death. The lawyers insisted that their client was not subject to trial, since he was already dead. The court did not consider the arguments convincing, considered the case and delivered a verdict, while stipulating that Bormann, in the event of detention, has the right to file a request for pardon within the prescribed time frame.
In the 1970s, while laying a road in Berlin, workers discovered the remains, which were later tentatively identified as the remains of Martin Bormann. His son - Martin Borman Jr. - agreed to provide his blood for DNA analysis of the remains.
The analysis confirmed that the remains really belong to Martin Bormann, who really tried to leave the bunker and get out of Berlin on May 2, 1945, but realizing that this was impossible, he committed suicide by taking poison (traces of an ampoule with potassium cyanide were found in the teeth of the skeleton). Therefore, the "Bormann case" can safely be considered closed.
In the USSR and Russia, Borman is known not only as a historical person, but also as a character in the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" (where Yuri Vizbor played him) - and, in this regard, a character in jokes about Stirlitz.
Franz von Papen(German: Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen), German chancellor before Hitler, then ambassador to Austria and Turkey. Was justified. However, in February 1947, he again appeared before the denazification commission and was sentenced to eight months in prison as the main war criminal.
Von Papen unsuccessfully tried to restart political career in the 1950s In his later years he lived in Benzenhofen Castle in Upper Swabia and published many books and memoirs trying to justify his policies in the 1930s, drawing parallels between this period and the beginning of the Cold War. He died on May 2, 1969 in Obersasbach (Baden).
The last word: "The accusation horrified me, firstly, by the realization of irresponsibility, as a result of which Germany was plunged into this war, which turned into a world catastrophe, and secondly, by the crimes that were committed by some of my compatriots. The latter are inexplicable from a psychological point of view. It seems to me that the years of atheism and totalitarianism are to blame for everything. It was they who turned Hitler into a pathological liar."
Arthur Seyss-Inquart(German: Dr. Arthur Seyß-Inquart), chancellor of Austria, then imperial commissioner of occupied Poland and Holland. In Nuremberg, Seyss-Inquart was charged with crimes against peace, planning and unleashing a war of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was found guilty on all counts except criminal conspiracy. After the announcement of the verdict, Seyss-Inquart admitted his responsibility in the last word.
The last word: "Death by hanging - well, I did not expect anything else ... I hope that this execution is the last act of the tragedy of the Second World War ... I believe in Germany."
Albert Speer(German: Albert Speer), Imperial Reich Minister for Armaments and War Industry (1943-1945).
In 1927, Speer obtained a license as an architect at the Technische Hochschule Munich. Due to the depression taking place in the country, there was no work for the young architect. Speer updated the interior of the villa for free to the head of staff Western District- to the NSAC Kreisleiter Hanke, who, in turn, recommended the architect Gauleiter Goebbels to rebuild the meeting room and furnish the rooms. After that, Speer receives an order - the design of the May Day rally in Berlin. And then the party congress in Nuremberg (1933). He used red panels and the figure of an eagle, which he proposed to make with a wingspan of 30 meters. Leni Riefenstahl captured in her documentary-staged film "The Victory of Faith" the grandeur of the procession at the opening of the party congress. This was followed by the reconstruction of the NSDAP headquarters in Munich in the same 1933. Thus began Speer's architectural career. Hitler looked everywhere for new energetic people who could be relied upon in the near future. Considering himself a connoisseur of painting and architecture, and possessing some abilities in this area, Hitler chose Speer in his inner circle, which, combined with the latter's strong careerist aspirations, determined his entire future fate.
The last word: "The process is necessary. Even an authoritarian state does not remove responsibility from each individual for the terrible crimes committed."
(left)
Constantin von Neurath(German Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath), in the early years of Hitler's reign, Minister of Foreign Affairs, then Viceroy in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
Neurath was accused in the Nuremberg Court of having "assisted in the preparation of war, ... participated in the political planning and preparation by the Nazi conspirators of aggressive wars and wars that violate international treaties... authorized, directed and took part in war crimes ... and in crimes against humanity ... including in particular crimes against persons and property in the occupied territories. "Neurath was found guilty on all four counts and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. In 1953 Neurath was released due to poor health, aggravated by a myocardial infarction suffered in prison.
The last word: "I have always been against accusations without a possible defense."
Hans Fritsche(German: Hans Fritzsche), Head of the Press and Broadcasting Department in the Ministry of Propaganda.
During the fall of the Nazi regime, Fritsche was in Berlin and capitulated along with the last defenders of the city on May 2, 1945, surrendering to the Red Army. He appeared before the Nuremberg trials, where, together with Julius Streicher (due to the death of Goebbels), he represented Nazi propaganda. Unlike Streicher, who was sentenced to death, Fritsche was acquitted on all three charges: the court considered it proven that he did not call for crimes against humanity, did not participate in war crimes and conspiracies to seize power. Like the two others acquitted at Nuremberg (Hjalmar Schacht and Franz von Papen), Fritsche, however, was soon tried for other crimes by the denazification commission. After receiving 9 years in prison, Fritsche was released for health reasons in 1950 and died of cancer three years later.
The last word: "This is a terrible accusation of all time. Only one thing can be worse: the coming accusation that the German people will bring against us for abusing their idealism."
Heinrich Himmler(German: Heinrich Luitpold Himmler), one of the main political and military figures of the Third Reich. Reichsführer SS (1929-1945), Reich Minister of the Interior of Germany (1943-1945), Reichsleiter (1934), Chief of the RSHA (1942-1943). Found guilty of numerous war crimes, including genocide. Since 1931, Himmler has been creating his own secret service - the SD, at the head of which he put Heydrich.
From 1943, Himmler became the Imperial Minister of the Interior, and after the failure of the July Plot (1944), he became the commander of the Reserve Army. Beginning in the summer of 1943, Himmler, through his proxies, began to make contacts with representatives of Western intelligence agencies in order to conclude a separate peace. Hitler, who learned about this, on the eve of the collapse of the Third Reich, expelled Himmler from the NSDAP as a traitor and deprived him of all ranks and positions.
Leaving the Reich Chancellery in early May 1945, Himmler went to the Danish border with someone else's passport in the name of Heinrich Hitzinger, who had been shot shortly before and looked a bit like Himmler, but on May 21, 1945 he was arrested by the British military authorities and on May 23 committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide .
Himmler's body was cremated and the ashes scattered in a forest near Lüneburg.
Paul Joseph Goebbels(German: Paul Joseph Goebbels) - Reich Minister of Public Education and Propaganda of Germany (1933-1945), imperial propaganda leader of the NSDAP (since 1929), Reichsleiter (1933), penultimate chancellor of the Third Reich (April-May 1945).
In his political testament, Hitler appointed Goebbels as his successor as chancellor, but the very next day after the suicide of the Fuhrer, Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide by poisoning their six young children. "There will be no act of surrender under my signature!" - said the new chancellor, when he learned about the Soviet demand for unconditional surrender. May 1 at 21 o'clock Goebbels took potassium cyanide. His wife Magda, before committing suicide after her husband, told her young children: "Don't be afraid, now the doctor will give you an inoculation, which is given to all children and soldiers." When the children, under the influence of morphine, fell into a half-asleep state, she herself put a crushed ampoule with potassium cyanide into the mouth of each child (there were six of them).
It is impossible to imagine what feelings she experienced at that moment.
And of course, the Fuhrer of the Third Reich:
Winners in Paris
Hitler behind Hermann Göring, Nuremberg, 1928.
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Venice, June 1934.
Hitler, Mannerheim and Ruthie in Finland, 1942.
Hitler and Mussolini, Nuremberg, 1940.
Adolf Gitler(German: Adolf Hitler) - the founder and central figure of Nazism, founder of the totalitarian dictatorship of the Third Reich, Fuhrer of the National Socialist German Workers' Party from July 29, 1921, Reich Chancellor of National Socialist Germany from January 31, 1933, Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor of Germany from August 2 1934, Supreme Commander of the German Armed Forces in World War II.
The generally accepted version of Hitler's suicide
On April 30, 1945, in Berlin surrounded by Soviet troops and realizing complete defeat, Hitler, together with his wife Eva Braun, committed suicide, having previously killed his beloved dog Blondie.
In Soviet historiography, the point of view was established that Hitler took poison (potassium cyanide, like most Nazis who committed suicide), however, according to eyewitnesses, he shot himself. There is also a version according to which Hitler and Brown first took both poisons, after which the Fuhrer shot himself in the temple (thus using both instruments of death).
Even the day before, Hitler gave the order to deliver canisters of gasoline from the garage (to destroy the bodies). On April 30, after dinner, Hitler said goodbye to people from his inner circle and, shaking hands with them, retired to his apartment with Eva Braun, from where the sound of a shot was soon heard. Shortly after 3:15 pm, Hitler's servant Heinz Linge, accompanied by his adjutant Otto Günsche, Goebbels, Bormann and Axmann, entered the Fuhrer's quarters. Dead Hitler sat on the couch; there was a blood stain on his temple. Eva Braun lay next to her, with no visible external injuries. Günsche and Linge wrapped Hitler's body in a soldier's blanket and carried it into the garden of the Reich Chancellery; Eve's body was carried out after him. The corpses were placed near the entrance to the bunker, doused with gasoline and burned. On May 5, the bodies were found on a piece of blanket sticking out of the ground and fell into the hands of the Soviet SMERSH. The body was identified, in part, with the help of Hitler's dentist, who confirmed the authenticity of the corpse's dentures. In February 1946, Hitler's body, along with the bodies of Eva Braun and the Goebbels family - Joseph, Magda, 6 children, was buried at one of the NKVD bases in Magdeburg. In 1970, when the territory of this base was to be transferred to the GDR, at the suggestion of Yu. V. Andropov, approved by the Politburo, the remains of Hitler and others buried with him were dug up, cremated to ashes and then thrown into the Elbe. Only the dentures and part of the skull with the entrance bullet hole (discovered separately from the corpse) survived. They are stored in the Russian archives, as well as the side handles of the sofa on which Hitler shot himself, with traces of blood. However, Hitler's biographer Werner Maser expresses doubts that the discovered corpse and part of the skull really belonged to Hitler.
On October 18, 1945, the indictment was handed over to the International Military Tribunal and transmitted through its secretariat to each of the accused. A month before the start of the trial, each of them was handed an indictment in German.
Results: international military tribunal sentenced:
To death by hanging: Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, Bormann (in absentia), Jodl (who was fully acquitted posthumously, when the case was reviewed by a Munich court in 1953).
To life imprisonment: Hess, Funk, Raeder.
By 20 years in prison: Schirach, Speer.
To 15 years in prison: Neurata.
To 10 years in prison: Denica.
justified: Fritsche, Papen, Shakht.
Tribunal recognized as criminal organizations SS, SD, SA, Gestapo and the leadership of the Nazi Party. The decision to recognize the Supreme Command and the General Staff as criminal was not made, which caused the disagreement of the member of the tribunal from the USSR.
A number of convicts filed petitions: Goering, Hess, Ribbentrop, Sauckel, Jodl, Keitel, Seyss-Inquart, Funk, Doenitz and Neurath - for pardon; Raeder - on the replacement of life imprisonment with the death penalty; Goering, Jodl and Keitel - about replacing hanging with execution if the request for pardon is not granted. All of these applications were denied.
The death penalty was carried out on the night of October 16, 1946 in the building of the Nuremberg prison.
Having passed a guilty verdict on the main Nazi criminals, the International Military Tribunal recognized aggression as the gravest crime international character. The Nuremberg trials are sometimes referred to as the "Court of History" because they had a significant impact on the final defeat of Nazism. Funk and Raeder, sentenced to life imprisonment, were pardoned in 1957. After Speer and Schirach were released in 1966, only Hess remained in prison. The right-wing forces of Germany repeatedly demanded that he be pardoned, but the victorious powers refused to commute the sentence. On August 17, 1987, Hess was found hanged in his cell.
Mankind has long learned to judge individual villains, criminal groups, bandits and illegal armed formations. The International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg was the first experience in history of condemning crimes on a national scale - the ruling regime, its punitive institutions, top political and military figures.
On August 8, 1945, three months after the Victory over Nazi Germany, the governments of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France signed an agreement on the organization of the trial of the main war criminals. This decision caused an approving response all over the world: it was necessary to give a harsh lesson to the authors and executors of the cannibalistic plans for world domination, mass terror and murder, sinister ideas of racial superiority, genocide, monstrous destruction, robbery of vast territories. Subsequently, 19 more states officially joined the agreement, and the Tribunal became with full right to be called the Court of Nations.
The process began on November 20, 1945 and lasted almost 11 months. 24 war criminals who were members of the top leadership of Nazi Germany appeared before the Tribunal. This has never happened before in history. Also, for the first time, the issue of criminalizing a number of political and state institutions- the leadership of the fascist party NSDAP, its assault (SA) and security (SS) detachments, the security service (SD), the secret state police (Gestapo), the government cabinet, the High Command and the General Staff.
The trial was not a quick reprisal against a defeated enemy. The indictment in German was handed over to the defendants 30 days before the start of the trial, and then they were given copies of all documentary evidence. Procedural guarantees gave the accused the right to defend themselves personally or with the help of a lawyer from among German lawyers, to petition for the call of witnesses, to provide evidence in their defense, to give explanations, to interrogate witnesses, etc.
Hundreds of witnesses were interrogated in the courtroom and in the field, thousands of documents were considered. Books, articles and public speeches by Nazi leaders, photographs, documentaries, newsreel. The credibility and persuasiveness of this base was not in doubt.
All 403 sessions of the Tribunal were public. About 60,000 passes were issued to the courtroom. The work of the Tribunal was widely covered by the press and broadcast live.
“Immediately after the war, people were skeptical about the Nuremberg trials (meaning the Germans),” the deputy chairman of the Supreme Court of Bavaria, Mr. Ewald Berschmidt, told me in the summer of 2005, giving an interview to the film crew who were then working on the film “Nuremberg Alarm”. - It was still a trial of the victors over the vanquished. The Germans expected revenge, but not necessarily the triumph of justice. However, the lessons of the process were different. The judges carefully considered all the circumstances of the case, they searched for the truth. Those responsible were sentenced to death. Whose fault was less - received other punishments. Some have even been acquitted. The Nuremberg trials set a precedent international law. His main lesson was equality before the law for everyone - both for generals and for politicians.
September 30-October 1, 1946 The Court of Nations delivered its verdict. The defendants were found guilty of grave crimes against peace and humanity. Twelve of them were sentenced by the tribunal to death by hanging. Others were to serve life sentences or long prison terms. Three were acquitted.
The main links of the state-political machine, brought by the fascists to a diabolical ideal, were declared criminal. However, the government, the High Command, the General Staff and the assault detachments (SA), contrary to the opinion of the Soviet representatives, were not recognized as such. I. T. Nikitchenko, a member of the International Military Tribunal from the USSR, did not agree with this exemption (except for the SA), as well as with the justification of the three accused. He also rated Hess as a lenient sentence of life imprisonment. The Soviet judge set out his objections in a Special Opinion. It was read out in court and forms part of the verdict.
Yes, there were serious disagreements among the judges of the Tribunal on certain issues. However, they cannot be compared with the confrontation of views on the same events and persons, which will unfold in the future.
But first about the main thing. The Nuremberg trials acquired world-historical significance as the first and to this day the largest legal act of the United Nations. United in their rejection of violence against a person and the state, the peoples of the world have proved that they can successfully resist universal evil and administer fair justice.
The bitter experience of World War II made everyone take a fresh look at many of the problems facing humanity and understand that every person on Earth is responsible for the present and the future. The fact that the Nuremberg trials took place shows that the leaders of the states do not dare to ignore the firmly expressed will of the peoples and stoop to double standards.
It seemed that brilliant prospects for a collective and peaceful solution of problems for a bright future without wars and violence opened up before all countries.
But, unfortunately, humanity forgets the lessons of the past too quickly. Shortly after Winston Churchill's famous Fulton speech, despite convincing collective action at Nuremberg, the victorious powers split into military-political blocs, and political confrontation complicated the work of the United Nations. The shadow of the Cold War has descended over the world for many decades.
Under these conditions, forces were activated that wanted to revise the results of the Second World War, belittle and even nullify the leading role of the Soviet Union in the defeat of fascism, put an equal sign between Germany, the aggressor country, and the USSR, which waged a just war and saved the world at the cost of huge sacrifices. from the horrors of Nazism. 26 million 600 thousand of our compatriots died in this bloody massacre. And more than half of them - 15 million 400 thousand - were civilians.
The chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials from the USSR Roman Rudenko speaks at the Palace of Justice. November 20, 1945, Germany
There was a mass of publications, films, television programs that distort historical reality. In the "works" of the former brave Nazis and other numerous authors, the leaders of the Third Reich are whitewashed, or even glorified, and Soviet military leaders are denigrated - without regard to the truth and the actual course of events. In their version, the Nuremberg trials and the prosecution of war criminals in general are just an act of revenge on the vanquished by the victors. At the same time, a typical trick is used - to show famous fascists at the everyday level: look, these are the most ordinary and even nice people, and not at all executioners and sadists.
For example, Reichsführer SS Himmler, the chief of the most sinister punitive organs, appears as a gentle nature, a supporter of the protection of animals, a loving father of a family who hates indecency against women.
Who was this "gentle" nature really? Here are the words of Himmler, spoken publicly: “... How the Russians feel, how the Czechs feel, I absolutely do not care. Whether other peoples live in prosperity or die of starvation interests me only insofar as we can use them as slaves for our culture, otherwise it makes absolutely no difference to me. Whether 10,000 Russian women will die of exhaustion during the construction of the anti-tank ditch or not, I am interested only insofar as this ditch must be built for Germany ... "
This is more like the truth. This is the truth itself. The revelations fully correspond to the image of the creator of the SS - the most perfect and sophisticated repressive organization, the creator of the concentration camp system, which terrifies people to this day.
Warm colors are found even for Hitler. In the fantastic volume of "Hitler studies" he is both a brave warrior of the First World War, and an artistic nature - an artist, a connoisseur of architecture, and a modest vegetarian, and an exemplary statesman. There is a point of view that if the Fuhrer of the German people ceased his activities in 1939 without starting a war, he would go down in history as the greatest politician in Germany, Europe, the world!
But is there a force capable of freeing Hitler from responsibility for the aggressive, most bloody and cruel world slaughter he unleashed? Of course, the positive role of the United Nations in post-war world and cooperation is present, and it is absolutely indisputable. But there is no doubt that this role could be much more significant.
Fortunately, a global clash did not take place, but military blocs often teetered on the brink. There was no end to local conflicts. Small wars broke out with considerable casualties, in some countries terrorist regimes arose and established themselves.
The end of the confrontation between the blocs and the emergence in the 1990s. unipolar world order has not added the resources of the United Nations. Some political scientists even express, to put it mildly, a very controversial opinion that the UN in its current form is an outdated organization that corresponds to the realities of the Second World War, but by no means to today's requirements.
We have to admit that the recurrences of the past in many countries today are echoing more and more often. We live in a turbulent and unstable world, more and more fragile and vulnerable year by year. Contradictions between developed and other states are becoming more acute. Deep cracks appeared along the borders of cultures and civilizations.
A new, large-scale evil arose - terrorism, which quickly grew into an independent global force. It has many things in common with fascism, in particular, a deliberate disregard for international and domestic law, a complete disregard for morality, the value of human life. Unexpected, unpredictable attacks, cynicism and cruelty, mass casualties sow fear and horror in countries that seemed to be well protected from any threat.
In its most dangerous, international variety, this phenomenon is directed against the whole of civilization. Even today it poses a serious threat to the development of mankind. We need a new, firm, just word in the fight against this evil, similar to what the International Military Tribunal said to German fascism 65 years ago.
The successful experience of confronting aggression and terror during the Second World War is relevant to this day. Many approaches are applicable one to one, others need to be rethought and developed. However, you can draw your own conclusions. Time is a harsh judge. It is absolute. Being not determined by the actions of people, it does not forgive the disrespectful attitude to the verdicts that it has already issued once, whether it is a specific person or entire nations and states. Unfortunately, the arrows on its dial never show mankind the vector of movement, but, inexorably counting the moments, time willingly writes fatal letters to those who try to be familiar with it.
Yes, sometimes the not-so-uncompromising mother-history placed the implementation of the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal on the very weak shoulders of politicians. Therefore, it is not surprising that the brown hydra of fascism in many countries of the world has again raised its head, and the shamanistic apologists for terrorism are recruiting more and more proselytes into their ranks every day.
The activities of the International Military Tribunal are often referred to as the "Nuremberg Epilogue". With regard to the executed leaders of the Third Reich, disbanded criminal organizations, this metaphor is quite justified. But evil, as we see, turned out to be more tenacious than it seemed to many then, in 1945-1946, in the euphoria of the Great Victory. No one today can assert that freedom and democracy have established themselves in the world once and for all.
In this regard, the question arises: how much and what efforts are required to make specific conclusions from the experience of the Nuremberg trials that would translate into good deeds and become a prologue to the creation of a world order without wars and violence, based on real non-interference in the internal affairs of other states and peoples, as well as respect for the rights of the individual...
A.G. Zvyagintsev,
preface to the book main process humanity.
Reporting from the past. Appeal to the future»
A series of films dedicated to the Nuremberg Trials:
Translation from in English
Statement International Association prosecutors on occasion
70th Anniversary of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg
Today marks 70 years since the beginning of the work of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, established to try the main war criminals of the countries of the European axis, the first meeting of which took place on November 20, 1945.
As a result of the well-coordinated work of a team of prosecutors from the four Allied Powers - the Soviet Union, Great Britain, the USA and France - 24 Nazi leaders were indicted, eighteen of whom were convicted on October 1, 1946 in accordance with the Charter.
The Nuremberg trials were a unique event in history. For the first time, state leaders were convicted of crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The "Court of Nations", as the Nuremberg Tribunal was called, severely condemned the Nazi regime, its institutions, officials and their practices, and for many years determined the vector of political and legal development.
The work of the International Military Tribunal and the Nuremberg Principles formulated at that time gave impetus to the development of international humanitarian and criminal law and contributed to the creation of other mechanisms of international criminal justice.
The Nuremberg principles remain in demand in today's globalized world, full of contradictions and conflicts that hinder peace and stability.
The International Association of Prosecutors supports Resolution A /RES /69/160 of December 18, 2014 of the UN General Assembly "Combating the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to the escalation of contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" , in which, in particular, calls on States take more effective measures in accordance with international human rights standards to combat manifestations of Nazism and extremist movements that pose a real threat to democratic values.
The International Association of Prosecutors calls on its members and other prosecutors around the world take an active part in organizing and holding national and international events dedicated to the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.
(Posted on November 20, 2015 on the website of the International Association of Prosecutors www. iap association. org ).
Statement
Coordinating Council of Prosecutors General
member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States
on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the sentencing of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, established to try the main war criminals of Nazi Germany.
On August 8, 1945, an Agreement was signed in London between the governments of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France on the prosecution and punishment of the main war criminals of the European Axis countries, an integral part of which was the Charter of the International Military Tribunal. The first session of the Nuremberg Tribunal took place on November 20, 1945.
As a result of the well-coordinated work of prosecutors from the Soviet Union, Great Britain, the USA and France, on October 1, 1946, most of the accused were found guilty.
Soviet representatives, including employees of the USSR Prosecutor's Office, actively participated in the development of the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal, the preparation of the indictment, and at all stages of the process.
The Nuremberg trials became the first experience in history of international courts condemning crimes on a national scale - the criminal acts of the ruling regime of Nazi Germany, its punitive institutions, and a number of top political and military figures. He also gave a proper assessment of the criminal activities of Nazi accomplices.
The work of the International Military Tribunal serves not only as a vivid example of the triumph of international justice, but also as a reminder of the inevitability of responsibility for crimes against peace and humanity.
The "Court of Nations", as the Nuremberg Tribunal was called, had a significant impact on the subsequent political and legal development of mankind.
The principles he formulated gave impetus to the development of international humanitarian and criminal law, contributed to the creation of other mechanisms of international criminal justice and remain in demand in today's globalized world, full of contradictions and conflicts.
The attempts made in some countries to revise the results of the Second World War, the dismantling of monuments to Soviet soldiers, the criminal prosecution of veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the rehabilitation and glorification of accomplices of Nazism lead to the erosion of historical memory and carry a real threat of repetition of crimes against peace and humanity.
Coordinating Council of Prosecutors General of the States Members of the Commonwealth of Independent States:
Supports Resolution 70/139 of the UN General Assembly of December 17, 2015 “Combating the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to the escalation of contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”, which, in particular, expresses concern regarding the glorification in any form of the Nazi movement and neo-Nazism, including through the construction of monuments, memorials and public demonstrations, noting that such practices offend the memory of the countless victims of World War II and have a negative impact on children and youth, and calls States to strengthen their capacity to combat crimes motivated by racism and xenophobia, to fulfill their responsibility to bring perpetrators of such crimes to justice and fight impunity;
Considers important element professional and moral training of future generations of lawyers, including prosecutors, the study historical heritage Nuremberg Trials.
(Published on September 7, 2016 on the website of the Coordinating Council of Prosecutors General of the CIS Member States www. ksgp-cis. en ).
The trial of a group of major Nazi war criminals took place in Nuremberg (Germany) from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946 at the International Military Tribunal.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, the Russian historical society presents to your attention a presentation of photographs and archival documents from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History.
The Nuremberg trials: photographs and archival documents from the RGASPI funds
The highest state and military figures of Nazi Germany were put on trial. The defendants were accused of drawing up and carrying out a conspiracy against peace, humanity, and of the gravest war crimes. The Tribunal also considered the issue of recognizing criminal organizations - the SS, SA, Gestapo, SD, the leadership of the National Socialist Party, the imperial cabinet, the General Staff and the High Command.
The Tribunal was formed on a parity basis from representatives of the four great powers (USSR, USA, Great Britain, France) at a conference of 23 states that signed on August 8, 1945. in London, an agreement on the prosecution and punishment of major war criminals. The process was public (all 403 court sessions were open). The member of the Tribunal from the USSR was the vice-president Supreme Court USSR Major General of Justice I.T. Nikitchenko. The main accuser from the USSR was R.A. Rudenko (Prosecutor of the Ukrainian SSR, later Prosecutor General of the USSR).
The trial materials revealed the unprecedented scale of war crimes in the occupied territories.
The Tribunal recorded in its verdict that the attack on the Soviet Union had been carried out “without a shadow of legal justification. It was a clear attack."
September 30 - October 1, 1946 the verdict was announced. The Tribunal found the defendants guilty of the charges, stating:
"... unleashing a war of aggression is ... the gravest international crime, which differs from other war crimes only in that it contains in itself in a concentrated form the evil contained in each of the others."
The tribunal sentenced Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss-Inquart and Bormann (in absentia) to death by hanging; Hess, Funk and Reder - to life imprisonment; Schirach and Speer by 20, Neurath by 15 and Dönitz by 10 years in prison.
The Tribunal recognized the SS, SD, Gestapo and the leadership of the Nazi Party as criminal organizations, but did not make a decision on the recognition of the German Cabinet of Ministers, the High Command and the General Staff as criminal.
Member of the Tribunal from the USSR I.T. Nikitchenko stated that he disagreed with the decision not to recognize these organizations as criminal, with the acquittal of Schacht, Papen, Fritsche and the sentence of Hess to life imprisonment, not the death penalty.
Those sentenced to death were hanged on the night of October 16, 1946 in the building of the Nuremberg prison (with the exception of Goering, who poisoned himself shortly before the execution).
It will also be interesting:
- November 20, 1945 - Nuremberg trials. International trial of former leaders of Nazi Germany
Related materials:
Archival documents
- Report of the PU of the Belorussian Front dated April 14, 1944 No. 02 on rendering assistance to the BSSR in restoring the national economy
- Decree of the Military Council 1 of the Belorussian Front No. 046 of February 25, 1944 "On measures of assistance from the front in restoring the national economy of the Byelorussian Republic
- Aerial photography data (8 photos) from a brief review of the RO of the 1st Air Army on the hostilities of enemy aircraft on the 3rd Belorussian Front in June 1944 (Orsha, Vitebsk)
- Information from the organizing department of the GlavPURKKA dated 07/04/1944 "On the mood of the population of the regions of Belarus liberated from the German invaders"
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