dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
CAPT. KUCHIN: Following the German occupation of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939 the defendants seized and stole large stocks of raw materials, copper, tin, iron, cotton, and food; caused to be taken to Germany large amounts of railway rolling stock, and many engines, carriages, steam vessels and trolley buses; robbed libraries, laboratories, and art museums of books, pictures, objects of art, scientific apparatus, and furniture; stole all gold reserves and foreign exchange of Czechoslovakia, including 23,000 kilograms of gold, of a nominal value of 5,265,000 Pounds; fraudulently acquired control and thereafter looted the Czech banks and many Czech industrial enterprises; and otherwise stole, looted, and misappropriated Czechoslovak public and private property. The total sum of defendants' economic spoliation of Czechoslovakia from 1938 to 1945 is estimated at 200 billion Czechoslovak crowns. (G) Wanton destruction of cities, towns, and villages, and devastation not justified by military necessity. The defendants wantonly destroyed cities . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Will you go to Paragraph 2 of (G)? The French read the first paragraph. Do you want to go to Paragraph 2 of (G)?
CAPT. KUCHIN: I have begun . . .
THE PRESIDENT: I thought we had read Paragraph 1. We might take up at Paragraph 2, beginning "In the Eastern Countries the defendants pursued . . ."
CAPT. KUCHIN: 2. Eastern Countries: In the Eastern Countries the defendants pursued a policy of wanton destruction and devastation; some particulars of this, without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases, are set out above under the heading "Plunder of Public and Private Property". In Greece in 1941 the villages of Amelofito, Kliston, Kizonia, Messovunos, Selli, Ano-Kerzilion, and Kato-Kerzilion were utterly destroyed. In Yugoslavia on 15 August 1941 the German military command officially announced that the visage of Skela was burned to the ground and the inhabitants killed on the order of the command. On the order of the Field Commander Hoersterberg a punitive expedition from the SS troops and the field police destroyed the villages of Machkovats and Kriva Reka in Serbia and all the inhabitants were killed. General Fritz Neidhold (369 Infantry Division), on 11 September 1944, gave an order to destroy the villages of Zagniezde and Udora, hanging all the men and driving away all the women and children. In Czechoslovakia the Nazi conspirators also practiced the senseless destruction of populated places. Lezaky and Lidice were burnt to the ground and the inhabitants killed. (H) Conscription of civilian labor. Throughout the occupied territories the defendants conscripted and forced the inhabitants to labor and requisitioned their services....
THE PRESIDENT: I think Paragraph (H) has been read, the first paragraph of it. There only remains for you to read Paragraph 2 of (H).
CAPT. KUCHIN: 2. Eastern Countries: Of the large number of citizens of the Soviet Union and of Czechoslovakia referred to under Count Three VIII (B) 2 above, many were so conscripted for forced labor. IX. Individual, group and organization responsibility for the offense stated in Count Three. Reference is hereby made to Appendix A of this Indictment for a statement of the responsibility of the individual defendants for the offense set forth in this Count Three of the Indictment. Reference is hereby made to Appendix B of this Indictment for a statement of the responsibility of the groups and organizations named herein as criminal groups and organizations for the offense set forth in this Count Three of the Indictment. COUNT FOUR-CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, Charter, Article 6 , especially 6 (c). X. Statement of the offense. All the defendants committed Crimes against Humanity during a period of years preceding 8 May 1945, in Germany and in all those countries and territories occupied by the German Armed Forces since 1 September 1939, and in Austria and Czechoslovakia and in Italy and on the High Seas. All the defendants, acting in concert with others, formulated and executed a Common Plan or Conspiracy to commit Crimes against Humanity as defined in Article 6 (c) of the Charter . This plan involved, among other things, the murder and persecution of all who were or who were suspected of being hostile to the Nazi Party and all who were or who were suspected of being opposed to the common plan alleged in Count One . The said Crimes against Humanity were committed by the defendants, and by other persons for whose acts the defendants are responsible (under Article 6 of the Charter ) as such other persons, when committing the said War Crimes, performed their acts in execution of a Common Plan and Conspiracy to commit the said War Crimes, in the formulation and execution of which plan and conspiracy all the defendants participated as leaders, organizers, instigators, and accomplices.
CAPT. KUCHIN: These methods and crimes constituted of international conventions, of internal penal laws, of the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal law of all civilized nations, and were involved in and part of a systematic course of conduct. The said acts were contrary to Article 6 of the Charter. The Prosecution will rely upon the facts pleaded under Count Three as also constituting Crimes against Humanity. (A) Murder, extermination, enslavement; deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against civilian populations before and during the war. For the purposes set out above, the defendants adopted a policy of persecution, repression, and extermination of all civilians in Germany who were, or who were believed to, or who were believed likely to become, hostile to the Nazi Government and the Common Plan or Conspiracy described in Count One. They imprisoned such persons without judicial process, holding them in "protective custody" and concentration camps, and subjected them to persecution, degradation, despoilment, enslavement, torture, and murder. Special courts were established to carry out the will of the conspirators; favored branches or agencies of the State and Party were permitted to operate outside the range even of nazified law and to crush all tendencies and elements which were considered "under sizable". The various concentration camps included Buchenwald, which was established in 1933, and Dachau, which was established in 1934. At these and other camps the civilians were put to slave labor and murdered and ill-treated by divers means, including those set out in Count Three above, and these acts and policies were continued and extended to the occupied countries after the 1st September 1939 and until 8th May 1945. (B) Persecution on political, racial, and religious grounds in execution of and in connection with the common plan mentioned in Count One.
CAPT. KUCHIN: - As above stated, in execution of and in connection with the common plan mentioned in Count One, opponents of the German Government were exterminated and persecuted. These persecutions were directed against Jews. They were also directed against persons whose political belief or spiritual aspirations were deemed to be in conflict with the aims of the Nazis. Jews were systematically persecuted since 1933; they were deprived of liberty, thrown into concentration camps where they were murdered and ill-treated. Their property was confiscated. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were so treated before the 1st September 1939. Since the 1st September 1939 the persecution of the Jews was redoubled; millions of Jews from Germany and from the occupied Western Countries were sent to the Eastern Countries for extermination. Particulars by way of example and without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases are as follows: The Nazis murdered amongst others Chancellor Dollfuss, the Social Democrat Breitscheid, and the Communist Thälmann. They imprisoned in concentration camps numerous political and religious personages, for example, Chancellor Schuschnigg and Pastor Niemöller. In November 1938, by orders of the Chief of the Gestapo, anti-Jewish demonstrations all over Germany took place. Jewish property was destroyed; 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps and their property confiscated. Under paragraph VIII (A), above, millions of the persons there mentioned as having been murdered and ill-treated were Jews. Among other mass murders of Jews were the following: At Kislovodsk all Jews were made to give up their property; 2,000 were shot in an anti-tank ditch at Mineralniye Vodi; 4,300 other Jews were shot in the same ditch; 60,000 Jews were shot on an island on the Dvina near Riga; 20,000 Jews were shot at Lutsk; 32,000 Jews were shot at Sarny; 60,000 Jews were shot at Kiev and Dniepropetrovsk. Thousands of Jews were gassed weekly by means of gas-wagons which broke down from overwork.
CAPT. KUCHIN: As the Germans retreated before the Soviet Army they exterminated Jews rather than allow them to be liberated. Many concentration camps and ghettos were set up in which Jews were incarcerated and tortured, starved, subjected to merciless atrocities, and finally exterminated. About 70,000 Jews were exterminated in Yugoslavia. XI. Individual, group and organization responsibility for the offense stated in Count Four. Reference is hereby made to Appendix A of this Indictment for a statement of the responsibility of the individual defendants for the offense set forth in this Count Four of the Indictment. Reference is hereby made to Appendix B of this Indictment for a statement of the responsibility of the groups and organizations named herein as criminal groups and organizations for the offense set forth in the Count Four of the Indictment. Wherefore, this Indictment is lodged with the Tribunal in English, French, and Russian, each test having equal authenticity, and the charges herein made against the above-named defendants are hereby presented to the Tribunal. Hartley Shawcross, acting on behalf of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Robert H. Jackson, acting on behalf of the United States of America; Francois de Menthon, acting on behalf of the French Republic; R. Rudenko, acting on behalf of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Berlin, 6th October 1945.
THE PRESIDENT: Has anybody been designated to read the appendices?
MR. ALDERMAN: May it please the Tribunal, I shall read Appendix A and Appendix B. and the British Delegation will read Appendix C. One word of explanation as to Appendix A. The Court will have observed that the defendants are seated in the dock in the same order in which they are named in the Indictment. By a mechanical slip-up they are not named in Appendix A in exactly the same order. I think it would be too much difficulty for the interpreters or for me to arrange them in the same order, and if the Court will permit I will read Appendix A as it is printed. APPENDIX A - STATEMENT OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR CRIMES SET OUT IN COUNTS ONE, TWO, THREE, AND FOUR. The statements hereinafter set forth following the name of each individual defendant constitute matters upon which the Prosecution will rely inter alia as pursuant to Article 6 establishing the individual responsibility of the defendant: GOERING. The Defendant Goering between 1932 and 1945 was a member of the Nazi Party, Supreme Leader of the SA, general in the SS, a member and President of the Reichstag, Minister of the Interior of Prussia, Chief of the Prussian Police and Prussian Secret State Police, Chief of the Prussian State Council, Trustee of the Four Year Plan, Reich Minister for Air, Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, President of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich, member of the Secret Cabinet Council, head of the Hermann Goering Industrial Combine, and Successor Designate to Hitler.
MR. ALDERMAN: The Defendant Goering used the foregoing positions, his personal influence, and his intimate connection with the Führer in such a manner that: He promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators and the consolidation of their control over Germany set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he promoted the military and economic preparation for war set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he participated in the planning and preparation of the Nazi conspirators for wars of aggression and wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances set forth in Counts One and Two of the Indictment; and he authorized, directed, and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the Indictment, and the Crimes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of the Indictment, including a wide variety of crimes against persons and property. RIBBENTROP. The Defendant Ribbentrop between 1932 and 1945 was a member of the Nazi Party, a member of the Nazi Reichstag, advisor to the Führer on matters of foreign policy, representative of the Nazi Party for matters of foreign policy, special German delegate for disarmament questions, Ambassador extraordinary, Ambassador in London, organizer and director of Dienststelle Ribbentrop, Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, member of the Secret Cabinet Council, member of the Führer's political staff at general headquarters, and general in the SS.
MR. ALDERMAN: The Defendant Ribbentrop used the foregoing positions, his personal influence, and his intimate connection with the Führer in such a manner that: He promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators as set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he promoted the preparations for war set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he participated in the political planning and preparation of the Nazi conspirators for wars of aggression and wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances as set forth in Counts One and Two of the Indictment; in accordance with the Fighter Principle he executed and assumed responsibility for the execution of the foreign policy plans of the Nazi conspirators set forth in Count One of the Indictment; and he authorized, directed, and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the Indictment and the Crimes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of the Indictment, including more particularly the crimes against persons and property in occupied territories. HESS. The Defendant Hess between 1921 and 1941 was a member of the Nazi Party, Deputy to the Führer, Reich Minister without Portfolio, member of the Reichstag, member of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich, member of the Secret Cabinet Council, Successor Designate to the Führer after the Defendant Goering, a general in the SS and a general in the SA.
MR. ALDERMAN: The Defendant Hess used the foregoing positions, his personal influence, and his intimate connection with the Führer in such a manner that: He promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators and the consolidation of their control over Germany set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he promoted the military, economic, and psychological preparations for war set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he participated in the political planning and preparation for wars of aggression and wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances set forth in Counts One and Two of the Indictment; he participated in the preparation and planning of foreign policy plans of the Nazi conspirators set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he authorized, directed, and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the Indictment and the Crimes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of the Indictment, including a wide variety of crimes against persons and property. KALTENBRUNNER. The Defendant Kaltenbrunner between 1932 and 1945 was a member of the Nazi Party, a general in the SS, a member of the Reichstag, a general of the Police, State Secretary for Security in Austria in charge of the Austrian Police, Police Leader of Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria, Head of the Reich Main Security Office and Chief of the Security Police and Security Service. The Defendant Kaltenbrunner used the foregoing positions and his personal influence in such a manner that: He promoted the consolidation of control over Austria seized by the Nazi conspirators as set forth in Count One of the Indictment; and he authorized, directed, and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the Indictment and the Crimes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of the Indictment including particularly the Crimes against Humanity involved in the system of concentration camps. ROSENBERG.
MR. ALDERMAN: The Defendant Rosenberg between 1920 and 1940 was a member of the Nazi Party, Nazi member of the Reichstag, Reichsleiter in the Nazi Party for Ideology and Foreign Policy, the editor of the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter, or "People's Observer", and the NS Monatshefte, head of the Foreign Political Office of the Nazi Party, Special Delegate for the entire Spiritual and Ideological Training of the Nazi Party, Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Territories, organizer of the "Einsatzstab Rosenberg", a general in the SS and a general in the SA. The Defendant Rosenberg used the foregoing positions, his personal influence and his intimate connection with the Führer in such a manner that: He developed, disseminated, and exploited the doctrinal techniques of the Nazi conspirators set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators and the consolidation of their control over Germany set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he promoted the psychological preparations for war set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he participated in the political planning and preparation for wars of aggression and wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances set forth in Counts One and Two of the Indictment; and he authorized, directed, and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the Indictment and the Crimes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of the Indictment, including a wide variety of crimes against persons and property. FRANK. The Defendant Frank between 1932 and 1945 was a member of the Nazi Party, a general in the SS, a member of the Reichstag, Reich Minister without Portfolio, Reich Commissar for the Coordination of Justice, President of the International Chamber of Law and Academy of German Law, Chief of the Civil Administration of Lodz, Supreme Administrative Chief of the military district of West Prussia, Poznan, Lodz, and Krakow, and Governor General of the occupied Polish territories.
MR. ALDERMAN: The Defendant Frank used the foregoing positions, his personal influence, and his intimate connection with the Führer in such a manner that: He promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators and the consolidation of their control over Germany set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he authorized, directed, and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the Indictment and the Cranes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of the Indictment, including particularly the War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity involved in the administration of occupied territories. BORMANN. The Defendant Bormann between 1925 and 1945 was a member of the Nazi Party, member of the Reichstag, a member of the Staff of the Supreme Command of the SA, founder and head of "Hilfskasse der NSDAP", Reichsleiter, Chief of Staff Office of the Führer's Deputy, head of the Party Chancery, Secretary of the Führer, member of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich, organizer and head of the Volkssturm, a general in the SS, and a general in the SA. The Defendant Bormann used the foregoing positions, his personal influence, and his intimate connection with the Führer in such a manner that: He promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators and the consolidation of their control over Germany set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he promoted the preparations for war set forth in Count One of the Indictment; and he authorized, directed, and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the Indictment and the Crimes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of the Indictment, including a wide variety of crimes against persons and property. FRICK.
MR. ALDERMAN: The Defendant Frick between 1932 and 1945 was a member of the Nazi Party, Reichsleiter, general in the SS, member of the Reichstag, Reich Minister of the Interior, Prussian Minister of the Interior, Reich Director of Elections, General Plenipotentiary for the Administration of the Reich, head of the Central Office for the Reunification of Austria and the German Reich, Director of the Central Office for the Incorporation of Sudetenland, Memel, Danzig, the Eastern Occupied Territories, Eupen, Malmedy, and Moresnet, Director of the Central Office for the Protectorate of Bohemia, Moravia, the Government General, Lower Styria, Upper Carinthia, Norway, Alsace, Lorraine, and all other occupied territories, and Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia. The Defendant Frick used the foregoing positions, his personal influence, and his intimate connection with the Führer in such a manner that: He promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators and the consolidation of their control over Germany set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he participated in the planning and preparation of the Nazi conspirators for wars of aggression and wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances set forth in Counts One and Two of the Indictment; and he authorized, directed, and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the Indictment and the Crimes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of the Indictment, including more particularly the crimes against persons and property in occupied territories. LEY. The Defendant Ley between 1932 and 1945 was a member of the Nazi Party, Reichsleiter, Nazi Party Organization Manager, member of the Reichstag, leader of the German Labor Front, a general in the SA and Joint Organizer of the Central Inspection for the Care of Foreign Workers.
MR. ALDERMAN: The Defendant Ley used the foregoing positions, his personal influence and his intimate connection with the Führer in such a manner that: He promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators and the consolidation of their control over Germany as set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he promoted the preparation for war set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he authorized, directed, and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the Indictment, and in the Crimes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of the Indictment, including particularly the War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity relating to the abuse of human beings for labor in the conduct of the aggressive wars. SAUCKEL. The Defendant Sauckel between 1921 and 1945 was a member of the Nazi Party, Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Thuringia, a member of the Reichstag, General Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor under the Four Year Plan, Joint Organizer with the Defendant Ley of the Central Inspection for the Care of Foreign Workers, a general in the SS, and a general in the SA. The Defendant Sauckel used the foregoing positions and his personal influence in such manner that: He promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he participated in the economic preparations for wars of aggression and wars in violation of treaties, agreements, and assurances set forth in Counts One and Two of the Indictment; he authorized, directed, and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the Indictment, and the Crimes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of The Indictment, including particularly the War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity involved in forcing the inhabitants of occupied countries to work as slave laborers in occupied countries and in Germany. SPEER.