DEFENDANT
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IMAGE
(click on image to see larger photo)
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I.Q.
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IN THE DEFENDANT'S WORDS
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PROSECUTION POINTS
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NOTES
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IN THE END
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Doenitz, Karl
German admiral who would eventually command
entire navy.
Chosen by Hitler to succeed him as fuhrer. Negotiated surrender
following
Hitler's suicide. |
|
138 |
"Politicians brought the Nazis to power and
started the
war. They are the ones who brought about these disgusting crimes,
and now we have to sit there in the dock with them and share the
blame!"
(5/27/46) |
On 9/17/42 Doenitz issued the "Laconia Order"
to the
German submarine fleet. The order forbid rescuing enemy survivors
of sunken ships: "Be hard. Remember, the enemy has no regard for
women and children when he bombs German cities." |
Called by Hitler "the Rommel of the
Seas"....Said "I
would rather eat dirt than have my grandson grow up in the Jewish
spirit
and faith"...Went on radio after assassination attempt on Hitler to
call
it "a cowardly attempt at murder." |
Served 10-year-sentence. Died in 1981. |
Frank, Hans
Governor-general of Nazi-occupied Poland, called
the
"Jew butcher of Cracow." |
|
130 |
"Don't let anybody tell
you that
they had no idea. Everybody sensed there was something horribly
wrong with the system." (11/29/45) "Hitler has disgraced Germany for
all
time! He betrayed and disgraced the people that loved him!...I
will
be the first to admit my guilt." (4/17/46) |
"The Jews must be eliminated. Whenever
we catch
one, it is his end"...."This territory [Poland] is in its entirety the
booty of the German Reich"...."I have not been hesitant in declaring
that
when a German is shot, up to 100 Poles shall be shot too."--from the
diary
of Hans Frank. |
In April of 1930, Hitler asked Frank to
secretly investigate
a rumor that he had Jewish blood. Frank reported back that there
was a 50-50 chance that Hitler was one-quarter Jewish. |
Hanged--wearing a beatificsmile--in Nuremberg
on Oct.
16, 1946 |
Frick, Wilhelm
Minister of the Interior |
|
124 |
"Hitler didn't want to do things my
way. I wanted
things done legally. After all, I am a lawyer." (4/24/46)....
"The
mass murders were certainly not thought of as a consequence of the
Nuremberg
Laws, [though] it may have turned out that way." |
Frick drafted, signed,
and administered
laws that abolished opposition parties, and suppressed trade unions and
Jews (including the infamous Nuremberg Laws). Frick knew that the
insane,
aged, and disabled ("useless eaters") were being systematically killed,
but did nothing to stop it. |
Frick claimed not to be an anit-Semite.
He said
he drafted the Nuremberg Laws for "scientific reasons": to protect the
purity of German blood. |
Frick was one of eleven defendants sentenced
to death.
He said, "Hanging--I didn't expect anything different....Well, I hope
they
get it over with fast." (10/1/46) Frick was hanged on Oct. 16, 1946. |
Fritzsche, Hans
Head of the Radio Division, one of twelve
departments
in Goebbel's Propoganda Ministry |
|
130 |
"I have been tricked
and trapped
by the Himmler murder machine, even when I tried to put a check on
it...Let
us explain our position to the world, so that at least we won't die
under
this awful burden of shame." (11/21/45) "I have the feeling I am
drowning in filth....I am choking in it."--(2/21/46, after watching
film
of atrocities). |
Fritzsche's radio broadcasts (he was a
popular
commentator) included strong Nazi propoganda. |
Fritzsche was one of two defendants turned
over to the
IMT by Russians.... Fritzsche often appeared on the verge of a
breakdown
during the trial. |
Fritzsche was acquitted by the IMT. He
said, "I
am entirely overwhelmed--to be set free right here, not even to be sent
back to Russia. That was more than I hoped for." He was later
tried
and convicted by a German court, then freed in 1950. He died in 1953. |
Funk, Walther
Minister of Economics |
|
124 |
"I signed the laws for the
aryanization
of Jewish property. Whether that makes me legally guilty or not,
is another matter. But it makes me morally guilty, there is no doubt
about
that. I should have listened to my wife at the end. She
said
we'd be better off dropping the whole minister business and moving into
a three-bedroom flat." (7/8/46) |
Funk agreed with Himmler to receive gold from
the SS
(including gold teeth and rings taken from those killed in
concentration
camps) and deposit in the Reichsbank. Funk told subordinates
not
to ask questions about the shipments. He either knew or should
have
known the source of the gold received. |
Funk said, "The only accusation I can make to
myself
is...that I should have resigned in 1938 when I saw how they robbed and
smashed Jewish property." (12/15/45)....Funk was often seen crying
during
the presentation of prosecution evidence and needed sleeping pills at
night. |
Funk was sentenced to life imprisonment by
the IMT.
He was released in 1957 because of poor health. He died in 1959. |
Goering, Hermann
Reichsmarschall and Luftwaffe (Air Force) Chief;
President
of Reichstag; Director of "Four Year Plan" |
|
138 |
"I joined the Party precisely because it was
revolutionary,
not because of the ideological stuff." (12/11/45)...."The whole
conspiracy
idea is cockeyed. We had orders to obey the head of state.
We weren't a band of criminals meeting in the woods in the dead of
night
to plan mass murders...The four real conspirators are missing: The
Fuhrer,
Himmler, Bormann, and Goebbels." (1/5/46)..."This is a political
trial by the victors and it will be a good thing when Germany realizes
that..." (6/13/46) |
As Director of the Four Year Plan, Goering
bore responsibility
for the elimination of Jews from political life and for the destruction
and takeover of Jewish businesses and property....He was quoted as
saying,
"I wish you had killed 200 Jews and not destroyed such valuable
property"...He
looted art treasures from occupied territories and arranged for use of
slave labor.... |
Goering surrendered to
American
officers. The officers offered Goering drinks and sang songs with him,
but the next day were reprimanded by an outraged Dwight
Eisenhower...Goering
was the most popular prisoner with the American guards because he
seemed
to take an interest in their lives....He seemed to wield a great deal
of
influence with the other defendants, and prison administrators sought
to
isolate him as much as possible....Goering said, "We don't have much to
say about our fate. The forces of history and politics and
economics
are just to big to steer." (3/9/46) |
Goering committed suicide on the day before
his scheduled
hanging by taking a cyanide pill that was smuggled into his cell.
Goering wrote in his suicide note, "I would have no objection to
getting
shot," but he thought hanging was inappropriate for a man of his
position. |
Hess, Rudolf
Deputy to the Fuhrer and Nazi Party Leader |
|
120 |
"It is just incomprehensible how those things
[atrocities]
came about...Every genius has the demon in him. You can't blame
him
[Hitler]--it is just in him...It is all very tragic. But at least
I have the satisfaction of knowing that I tried to do something to end
the war." (12/16/45) |
Jackson called Hess "the
engineer
tending to the Party machinery." He maintained the organization
as
a ready and loyal instrument of power. He signed decrees
persecuting
Jews and was a willing participant in aggression against Austria,
Czechoslavakia,
and Poland. |
During his detention following his failed
putsch, Hitler
dictated Mein Kampf to Hess...Hess mysteriously flew to England
in 1941 in an attempt to end the war on his own terms. He stayed
there until the war ended....Hess suffered from paranoid delusions,
apathy,
amnesia, and was diagnosed as having a "hysterical personality." |
Hess was sentenced to life in prison.
He remained--lost
in his own mental fog-- in Spandau prison (for many years as its only
prisoner)
until he committed suicide in 1987 at age 93. |
Jodl, Alfred
Chief of Operations for the German High Command |
|
127 |
"The indictment knocked me
on the
head. First of all, I hand no idea at all about 90 per cent of
the
accusations in it. The crimes are horrible beyond belief, if they
are true. Secondly, I don't see how they can fail to recognize a
soldier's obligation to obey orders. That's the code I've live by
all my life." (11/1/45) |
Jodl gave orders for the German army's
campaign against
Holland, Belgium, Norway, and Poland. He also planned attacks against
Greece
and Yugoslavia....Jodl was quoted as saying, "Terror attacks against
English
centers of population ...will paralyze the will of the people to
resist." |
Jodl signed Germany's unconditional surrender
on May
7, 1945, ending the war in Europe....He strongly disagreed with many of
Hitler's harsh orders: "The order to kill the escaped British
fliers--there
was absolutely no justification for that. From then on, I knew
what
kind of a man Hitler was." (4/6/46) |
Jodl was hanged in Nuremberg on Oct. 16,
1946.
Critics have called Jodl's death sentence harsh in relation to the
sentences
received by other German officers of similar rank. |
Kaltenbrunner, Ernst
Chief of RSHA (an organization which includes
offices
of the Gestapo, the SD, and the Criminal Police) and Chief of Security
Police |
|
113 |
"When I saw the newspaper headline 'GAS
CHAMBER EXPERT
CAPTURED' and an American lieutenant explained it to me, I was pale in
amazement. How can they say such things about me?" (4/11/46)..."I
have only done my duty as an intelligence organ, and I refuse to serve
as an ersatz for Himmler." |
Kaltenbrunner and RSHA bear responsibity for
"The Final
Solution" to the Jewish question--and the 6 million jews killed by
Einsatzgruppen
(2 million) and in concentration camps (4 million). Kaltenbrunner
ordered prisoners in Dachau and other camps liquidated just before the
camps would have been liberated by Allies. |
Kaltenbrunner was
described
as "a Nazi out of central casting:" six-foot-six, a huge neck, cruel
mouth,
and a scar across his left cheek...He was shunned by most of the other
defendants...His lawyer tried to portray him as a stooge for Himmler,
rather
than his right-hand man....Kaltenbrunner believed fertile German women
had a duty to produce babies, and if their husbands couldn't get them
pregnant,
other men ought to be given the job. |
Kaltenbrunner was hanged on Oct. 16, 1946 in
Nuremberg. |
Keitel, Wilhelm
Chief of Staff of the German High Command |
|
129 |
"We all believed so much
in him
[Hitler]--and we stand to take all the blame--and the shame! He gave us
the orders. He kept saying that it was all his responsibility."
912/25/45)..."I
will suffer more agony of conscience and self-reproach in this cell
than
anybody will ever know." (1/6/46)..."the only thing that is impossible
is for me to there [in court] like a louse and lie." (4/6/46) |
Keitel signed orders authorizing the killing
of captured
commandos and reprisals against the families of Allied volunteers...He
drafted the "Night and Fog" decree that authorized the nighttime
arrests
and secret killings of suspected members of the resistance..He
planned attacks on Czechoslavakia, Poland,
Belgium, Holland,
and other countries. |
Keitel's sons were killed in the German
attack on the
Soviet Union that Keitel helped execute...Keitel, on Hitler's orders,
sent
two generals to Rommel (who had supported attempts to assassinate
Hitler)
offering him the the choice of a court-martial or suicide....In prison,
Keitel worked on his autobiography....Prison pyschiatrist G. M. Gilbert
said Keitel "had no more backbone than a jellyfish." |
Keitel was one of ten defendants hanged in
the Palace
of Justice in the early morning hours of October 16, 1946. |
Neurath, Konstantin von
Minister of Foreign Affairs (until 1938), then
Reich
Protector for Bohemia and Moravia |
|
125 |
"Hitler was a liar, of course--that became
more and more
clear. He simply had no respect for the truth. But nobody
recognized
it at first...He must have done his conspiring with his little gang of
henchmen late at night. Sometimes he would call at 1, 2, or 3 in
the morning."(12/15/45) |
While Neurath was Foreign Minister, Germany
"was only
breaking one treaty at a time."...While serving at Reich Protector of
Bohemia
and Moravia, Neurath abolished political parties and trade unions....He
knew war crimes were being committed under his authority. |
At 73, Neurath was
the oldest
defendant in the Major War Figures Trial. He seemed to be showing
signs of incipient senility...When Chamberlain offered to come to
Germany
to discuss ways of averting war, Neurath urged Hitler to receive
him..."I
was always against punishment without the possibility of a
defense." |
Neurath was sentenced to fifteen years in
prison.
He was released because of poor health in 1954, and died two years
later. |
Papen, Franz von
Reich Chancellor prior to Hitler, Vice Chancellor
under
Hitler, Ambassador to Turkey |
|
134 |
"I think [Hitler] wanted the best for Germany
at the
beginning, but he became an unreasoning evil force with the flattery of
his followers--Himmler, Goering, Ribbentrop, etc...I tried to persuade
him he was wrong in his anti-Jewish policies many a time. He
seemed
to listen at first, but later on, I had no influence on him." (10/30/45) |
Von Papen helped consolidate Nazi control in
1933.
He strengthened the position of Nazis in Austria to help pave the way
for
the takeover. He appealed to the Pope to support Hitler. Von Papen
remained
in office even after learning of political killings and other crimes. |
While the trial was in
progress,
Von Papen had many heated exchanges with
Goering....Von
Papen was a moderating force in the early years of the Nazi
regime.
In 1934, he gave a speech highly critical of restrictions on individual
liberties...Von Papen said, "I've been portrayed as an intriguing
devil.
But I can prove I have always worked for peace....I am confident in
American
justice, and am glad to have the truth brought to light through this
trial." |
Von Papen was acquitted. |
Raeder, Erich
Commander in Chief of the German Navy |
|
134 |
"I have no illusion about this trial.
Naturally,
I will be hanged or shot. I flatter myself to think that I will
be
shot; at least I will request it. I have no desire to serve a
prison
sentence at my age." (5/20/46) |
Raeder advocated attacks by submarines on
neutral ships
in violation of international law. |
Raeder was one of two
defendants
handed over by the Russians, and was put on the list of major war trial
defendants at the insistence of the Soviet Union...Raeder retired in
1943...He
opposed invading Russia, but then attacked Russian submarines six days
before the invasion began. |
Raeder was sentenced to life in prison.
He served
nine years before his release in 1955. He died in 1960 at age 84. |
Ribbentrop, Joachim von
Foreign Minister |
|
129 |
"We are only living shadows--the remains of a
dead era--an
era that died with Hitler. Whether a few of us live another 10 or
20 years, it makes no difference." (3/27/46) |
Rippentrop participated in aggressive
plans against
Czechoslavakia...He helped plan attacks on Poland and
Russia...Ribbentrop
played a role in the "Final Solution" when he acted to hasten the
deportation
of Jews to concentration camps in the East. |
In prison,
Ribbentrop kept asking
everyone from doctors to cell guards to barbers for legal
advice....Prison
pyschiatrist G. M. Gilbert saw Rippentrop as "a confused and
demoralized
opportunist.".... Ribbentrop's erratic behavior caused his lawyer to
complain,
"This man is impossible to defend." |
Rippentrop was hanged on October 16, 1946. |
Rosenberg, Alfred
Chief Nazi Philosopher and Reichminister for the
Eastern
Occupied Territories |
|
127 |
"I didn't say that
the Jews are
inferior. I didn't even maintain they are a race. I merely
saw that the mixture of different cultures didn't work."
(1/12/46)..."We
let 50,000 Jewish intellectuals get across the border. Just as I
wanted Lebensraum for Germany, I thought Jews should have a Lebensraum
for themselves--outside of Germany." (12/15/45) |
Rosenberg helped plan attack on
Norway....Developed policies
of Germanization, exploitation, and extermination of opponents of Nazi
rule...His directives provided for the segregation of Jews in Ghettos,
facilitating their mass killing. He set quotas of laborers to be
sent to the Reich. |
Rosenberg was born in Estonia and did not
move to Germany
until he was 25.....Rosenberg's book promoting the Nazi philosophy was
called The Myth of the Twentieth Century....He arranged the theft of
fine
art and furniture from Jewish apartments in Paris. |
Rosenberg was hanged on October 16, 1946. |
Sauckel, Fritz
Chief of Slave Labor Recruitment |
|
118 |
"I was given this assignment which I could
not refuse--and
besides, I did everything possible to treat [the foreign slave
laborers]
well." (2/23/46) |
Soon after taking office, Sauckel had the
governing authorities
in the occupied territories establish compulsory labor service in
Germany...His
program resulted in the deportation for slave labor of 5 million
people,
many of whom had to endure cruel working conditions. |
Sauckel seemed confused
during most
of the trial....Historian Joseph Persico described Sauckel as "the
least
imposing figure among the defendants, a little man with a shining dome,
sad brown eyes, and a silly mustache patterned after the Fuhrer's." |
Sauckel was hanged on October 16, 1946. |
Schacht, Hjalmar
Reichsbank President and Minister of Economics
before
the War |
|
143 |
"I have full confidence
in the judges,
and I am not afraid of the outcome. A few of the defendants are
not guilty; most of them are sheer criminals." (10/23/45)..."All I
wanted
was to build up Germany industrially....The only thing they can accuse
me of is breaking the Versailles Treaty." (11/1/45) |
Schacht was an early supporter of the Nazi
Pary and supported
the appointment of Hitler to the post of Chancellor. Schacht used the
facilities
of the Reichsbank to facilitate the German rearmament effort and
organize
the economy for war. |
Schacht spent 10 months in 1944 in a
concentration camp
because of suspicion he was plotting against Hitler....Said Schacht of
the
experience, "I could hear the people being forced to undress and march
out to their death--and the shooting in the woods. It was
beastly.".....Schacht
had the highest IQ of any of the defendants. |
Schacht was found not guilty by the IMT.
Schacht was later
convicted by a German court and sentenced to eight years. He was
freed in 1950. He died in 1970 at age 93. |
Schirach, Baldur von
Hitler Youth Leader |
|
130 |
"I had no reason to be
anti-Semitic...until
someone made me read the American book, The International Jew, at the
impressionable
age of 17. You have no idea what a great influece this book had
on
the thinking of German youth...At the age of 18, I met Adolf
Hitler.
I must admit I was inspired by him...and became one of his staunchest
supporters."
(10/27/45) |
Von Schirach subjected German youth to an
extensive program
of Nazi propaganda....He participated in the deportation of the Jews
from
Vienna. |
Schirach began to become disillusioned with
Hitler around
1942: "About 1942, I think I first began to notice that Hitler was
becoming
slightly insane...In 1943 we had a serious quarrel [over the treatment
of Jews]. He flew at me in a rage...I fell from grace after
that." |
Schirach was sentenced to 20 years in prison
by the IMT.
He was released from Spandau Prison in 1966. He died in 1974 at
age
67. |
Seyss-Inquart, Arthur
Austrian Chancellor, then Reich
Commissioner for the Netherlands |
|
141 |
"The southern
German has
the imagination and emotionality to subscribe to a fanatic ideology,
but
he is ordinarily inhibited from excesses by his natural
humaneness.
The Prussian does not have the imagination to conceive in terms of
abstract
racial and political theories, but when he is told to do something, he
does it." (4/46) |
Seyss-Inquart ruthlessly suppressed
opposition to the
Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. He, in collaboration with the
SS, was involved in the shooting or sending to concentration camp of
opponents
of occupation. |
In Seyss-Inquart's fiefdom of the
Netherlands, over 40,000
Dutch were shot as hostages, and another 50,000 died of
starvation.
In all, 56% of Dutch Jews died during the Nazi occupation....He limped
from an injury received in an old mountain-climbing accident. |
Seyss-Inquart was hanged on October 16, 1946. |
Speer, Albert
Reichminister of Armaments and Munitions |
|
128 |
"I would like to sit down
and write one
final blast about the whole damn Nazi mess and mention names and
details
and let the German people see once and for all what rotten corruption,
hypocrisy, and madness the whole system was based on!-I would spare no
one, including myself." (2/46) |
Speer transmitted to Sauckel estimates of
numbers of
slave workers needed, then allocated those workers to various armaments
and munitions plants. |
Speer, an architect, was for years the
closest anyone
came to being a friend of Hitler. Hitler at one time gave Speer a
watercolor of a Gothic church....Speer was the leader of the
anti-Goering
faction of defendants: those willing to condemn Nazi policies and
accept
some degree of blame. |
Speer served his 20-year sentence. He
wrote two
books about his life. He died in 1981 at age 76. |
Streicher, Julius
Anti-Semitic Editor of Der Sturmer |
|
106 |
"The Jews are making
a mistake
if they make a martyr out of me; you will see. I didn't create
the
problem; it existed for thousands of years." (12/16/45)...."I am the
only
one in the world who clearly saw the Jewish menace as an historical
problem."
(11/14/45) |
Streicher was known as "the number one
Jew-baiter."
He organized a boycott of Jewish businesses in 1933 and advocated the
Nuremberg
Decrees of 1935. In 1938 he arranged for demolition of a
synagogue
in Nuremberg and began to call for annihilation of the Jewish race. |
Streicher, a vulgar man, was despised by most
of his
fellow defendants...Streicher collected pornography. He said that
he bought it from Jews to show what filth they read.... |
Streicher was hanged on October 16, 1946. |