dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
DR. SAUTER: But above all, the former Youth Leader, in making his statement on 24 May 1946, desired to tell the youth of Germany openly that so far, quite unknowingly and with the best of intentions, he had led them astray and that now they must take another path if the German people and German culture are not to perish. In doing so Schirach did not think of himself nor of his life's work which had been destroyed; he was thinking of the youth of today, which not only faces the ruins of our cities and dwellings, but also wanders about among the wreckage of its former ideals; he was thinking of German youth, which is in dire need of new guidance and which must base its future existence on another foundation. Schirach hopes that the entire youth of Germany has heard his words. What was particularly valuable in his confession of 24 May 1946 was his assurance that he alone takes the guilt for youth, just as he formerly assumed command. If this point of view is acknowledged as being right, and if the necessary conclusions are drawn therefrom, this would be a valuable result of this Trial for our German youth. May it please the Tribunal, I am now coming to the end of my survey of the case of Von Schirach. In the treatment of this case I desisted from making general statements, and especially those of a political nature. Rather, I confined myself to the appreciation of the personality of the defendant, his actions and his motives. In this connection I should like to add, to complete the picture, that these considerations and this appreciation by the Defense have shown that the Defendant Von Schirach is not guilty in the sense of the Indictment and cannot be punished, for he did not commit a punishable act, since you as judges will not judge political guilt but rather criminal guilt in the sense of the penal code.
DR. SAUTER: At the end of my remarks in the case of Von Schirach I should like to have the privilege of making a few general statements, not immediately connected with the personality of Schirach, but suggesting themselves to a German defense counsel at the end of this Trial. May it please the Tribunal, you are the highest tribunal of our times; the power of the whole world stands behind you; you represent the four mightiest nations on earth; hundreds of millions of men, not only in the defeated countries, but also in the victorious nations listen to your opinions and anxiously await your judgment, ready to be taught by you and to follow your advice. This high authority affords you, Gentlemen, an opportunity of doing much good through your verdict and particularly through the statement of the basis for the judgment, in order that out of today's disaster the way to a better future may be found for the benefit of your own people and for the good of the German people. Today, Gentlemen of the Tribunal, Germany lies beaten to the ground, a poor people, the poorest of all. The German cities are destroyed; German industry is smashed to pieces; on the shoulders of the German people rests a national debt representing many times the entire national wealth and spelling want and poverty, hunger and slavery, for many generations for the German people if your peoples do not help us. The findings supporting your verdict will in many respects point the way and give the help needed to emerge from this desperate plight. To be sure, for reasons of sentiment it may be hard for you to consider this point of view and to take it into account when you think of the misfortune which the past six years also brought to your own countries. It becomes doubly hard, because for months this Trial has revealed nothing but crimes, crimes committed for a great number of years by a German tyrant misusing 18 July, 46 Germans and the name of this same German people of whose future you as judges are now asked to think benevolently and whom you are now required to help.
DR. SAUTER: May it please the Tribunal: Hitler is dead-with him his tools who in these years committed crimes without number tyrannizing Germany and nearly all of Europe and disgracing the German name for generations to come. The German people on the other hand live, and must be allowed to live if half a universe is not to fall into ruins. With this Trial and during this epoch, the German people are undergoing a very serious operation. It must not bring death; it must bring recovery. Your verdict can and must make a contribution in that direction, so that in the future the world may not see in every German a criminal, but revert again to the concept of Professor Arnold Nash of the University of Chicago, who a few days ago, when questioned about the purpose of his present trip to Europe, replied: "Every scientist has two fatherlands, his own and Germany." These words ought to be a warning also for all of those irresponsible critics who even today see it as their task, with propaganda means of every sort, so stir up feeling against everything German and to tell the world that at least every other person in Germany is a criminal. You, as impartial judges, will not wish to forget one thing: There always was and there still is today another Germany, a Germany that knows industriousness and economy; a Germany of Goethe and Beethoven, a Germany that knows loyalty and honesty and other good qualities which in past centuries were proverbial for the German character. Believe me, Gentlemen of the Tribunal, in this epoch, when Germany is regaining consciousness as after a severe illness, as she proceeds to rebuild a better future from the ruins of an evil past, a future for her youth which has no part in the crimes committed, at this time some 70 or 80 million German people are looking to you and are awaiting from you a verdict which will open the way for the reconstruction of German economy, the German spirit, and true freedom.
DR. SAUTER: You are, Gentlemen, truly sovereign judges, not bound by any written law, not bound to any paragraph, pledged to serve your conscience only, and called by destiny to give to the world simultaneously a legal order which will preserve for future generations that peace which the past was unable to preserve for them. A wellknown democrat of the old Germany, the former Minister Dr. Diltz, said in a recent article on the Nuremberg Trial: In a monarchist state justice would be administered in the name of the king; in republics courts would pronounce their rulings in the name of the people; but you, the Nuremberg Tribunal, should administer Justice in the name of humanity. It is, indeed, a wonderful thought for the Court, an ideal aim, if it could believe that its verdict could in fact make real the precepts of humanity, and that it could prevent Crimes against Humanity for all time. But in certain respects this would still remain an unsteady foundation for a verdict of such magnitude as confronts you, because ideas on what humanity demands or prohibits in individual cases may vary, depending upon the epoch, the people, the party concepts according to which one judges. I believe you may find a reliable foundation for your verdict when you revert to a maxim which has endured throughout the centuries and which certainly will remain valid in ages to come: Justitia est fundamentum regnorum. Thus the German people, and with them the entire world, await from you a judgment which will not just be hailed today by the victor nations as the final victory over Germany, but which history will recognize as proper; a verdict in the name of justice.
THE PRESIDENT: I call on Dr. Servatius for the Defendant Sauckel.
DR. SERVATIUS: Mr. President, may it please the Tribunal: The Defense of the Defendant Sauckel has, in the first place, to deal with the charge of 'Slave labor." What is slave labor? One cannot accept this as an established term comprising all the occurrences which, in bewildering abundance, are charged against the Defendant Sauckel under the heading "slave labor." Particularly, those actions ought first to be examined from a legal point of view. The legal basis for this examination is the Charter. However, this Charter does not say what is to be understood by "slave labor" or by "deportation." Therefore, these concepts must be clarified by interpretation. Article 6 of the Charter deals in two passages and from two different points of view with deportation and slave labor. Deportation is designated both a war crime and a crime against humanity, and forced labor appears as "slave labor" under the heading of War Crimes, and as "enslavement" under the heading of Crimes against Humanity. The question of under what heading the mobilization of labor by the Defendant Sauckel should fall is of decisive importance; if it is a war crime, then it should be judged exclusively under martial law. If it is a crime against humanity, then the latter presupposes the commission of a war crime or of a crime against peace. It follows therefrom that the deportation mentioned in Article 6(b) cannot be the same thing as deportation according to Article 6(c), nor can forced labor according to Article 6(b) be identical with forced labor under Article 6(c). The difference between the two kinds must be found in... THE PRESIDENT lInterposing.7: That paragraph of your speech which is in English on Page 2, the second paragraph: "It follows therefrom that deportation mentioned in Article 6(b) cannot be the same as deportation according to Article 6(c)..." is not altogether clear to the Tribunal. Could you make it clearer?
DR.SERVATIUS: In Article 6(c) we deal with Crimes against Humanity, whereas in Article 6(b) we deal with War Crimes. In both articles the expressions deportation and forced labor are used, but there must be some differentiation, and my examination is directed at establishing this difference more exactly. I believe, Mr. President, that my further statements will make this clearer than it has heretofore been. I turn now to the terminology used in the Charter. I was talking of the difference between the two kinds of slave labor and deportation. The difference between the two kinds is to be found in the fact that something has to be added to the war crimes which violates the rules of humanity. The correctness of this interpretation may also be recognized in the terminology of the Charter, however fluctuating it may be. For instance, the Russian text for deportation as a war crime chooses the word uvod, which means only removal from a place, whereas, on the other hand, it uses for crimes against humanity of the same nature the technical expression ssylka, by which penal deportation under the rule of the czars is understood as denoting deportation in the sense of penal deportation.
THE PRESIDENT: The French is not coming through. Will you just wait a minute, there is some difficulty with the French translation, Dr. Servatius. The Tribunal must adjourn.
MARSHAL: The Court will remain adjourned until a quarter to two. [The Tribunal recessed until 1345 hours.] Afternoon Session
DR. SERVATIUS: I was speaking of the terminology of "deportation" in the Russian text. I pointed out the distinction between the word uvod meaning only transportation, and ssylka meaning a deportation as a form of punishment. From that one may conclude that deportation from the occupied territories for the purpose of work can only be regarded as a war crime, while it becomes a crime against humanity when assuming the penal character of a transportation of prisoners. However, the question arises whether, beyond this, according to the Charter any removal of the population is punishable as a war crime, regardless of whether it occurs for allocation of labor or for other reasons. According to the text of the Charter, the latter seems at first sight to be the case, since it renders punishable "removal for slave labor, or for any other purposes." Upon closer examination, however, it becomes evident that this rule cannot be meant in such a sense, as there are cases in which a removal is not only consistent with international law but even becomes imperative. Accordingly, the Charter could only be understood to mean that the punishable act does not consist of plain "removal" but comprises the composite concept '`removal for slave labor" and "removal for any other purpose." The clause, "or for any other purpose," should be understood so as to mean only that an illegal purpose equivalent to slave labor exists. If removal of any kind was to have been made punishable, then the qualifying addition "for slave labor or for any other purpose" would be contradictory to common sense. This definition is important for the Defendant Sauckel, as otherwise proof of deportation classified as a war crime would be evident from the acts admitted by him. Just as for the various kinds of deportation, the difference between the kinds of slave labor, according to the Charter, must be clarified.
DR. SERVATIUS: Here, too, a clue to the interpretation is provided by the terminology of the different languages, though not because of their clarity and consistency but by the very opposite: The English version speaks of "slave labor" as a war crime and of "enslavement" as a crime against humanity; the French version states travaux forces and reduction en esclavage, the Russian version accordingly rabsivo (slavery) and poraboshtshenie (enslavement). It is not discernible how the terns chosen differentiate in ret Basing upon the fact that labor inconsistent with laws of humanity must be carried out under more severe conditions than other labor and assuming "slave labor" to be the severest forms of labor, it will be seen that no definition can be derived from this terminology of the Charter and that more of an ethical discrimination and stigmatization is intended. Accordingly an objective division of the kinds of labor should be carried out independent of the terminology by considering exclusively the degree of severity of labor conditions. If one tries to analyze the terminology used, one finds the designation "enslavement," esclavage) and poraboshtshenie for the inhuman form of labor, whereas the labor not inconsistent with laws of humanity is called "forced labor," travaux forces, and prinudidjenaja rabota. Slave labor ("slave labor," travaux forces, and rabstvo) consequently is the general term comprising both kinds. What does this definition mean for the defense of the Defendant Sauckel? He admits having negotiated "compulsory labor" in the form of obligatory labor which, as stated before, has been termed "slave labor" in general. He denies, however, having demanded "slave labor," which might be looked upon as inhuman labor, in other words, enslavement.
DR. SERVATIUS: A different standard applies, just as for deportation, to these two categories; "obligatory labor" is only a war crime and must be judged according to the rules of war; crimes against humanity, as I already stated above in connection with deportation as a crime against humanity, bear the additional characteristics of being connected with war crimes or crimes against peace. If it can be proven that the mobilization of manpower as ordered by the Defendant Sauckel was permitted by the rules of war, then the same act cannot be held to be a crime against humanity. The Indictment, too, has made a difference as to the kinds of labor. It has treated, under Paragraph 3, Section VIII (H), as a separate war crime under the title of "Conscription of Civilian Labor," the mobilization of manpower as directed by the Defendant Sauckel, which I shall call "regulated labor mobilization," and mentions only "forced labor." The French version speaks here of travaux forces and uses terms such as les obligerent 2 travailler and mis en obligation; the Russian version follows this and also speaks only of "compulsory labor" as prinuditjeluaja rabota but does not refer to this as being slave labor. The Defendant Sauckel does not deny the facts taken here as a basis, but I shall submit the legal reasons which justify this mobilization of labor, and I shall prove that it does not involve any war crime that would break international law. The rules of international law are authoritative in determining the question whether "regulated labor mobilization" is a war crime. The Charter cannot prohibit what international law permits in wartime. Such precepts of international law are laid down in the agreements on the rules of war and in the general legal principles and usages as applied by all states. The Prosecution bases its opinion that labor mobilization is a war crime on the definitions of the Hague Convention on Land Warfare, as well as on the agreements and rules of war and the criminal codes of the countries concerned.
DR. SERVATIUS: If it is shown that labor mobilization is permitted. by international law, then a judicial inquiry into the penal regulations is, of course, not necessary. The Hague Convention on Land Warfare can be considered as a basis for the laws of warfare with which we are concerned here. Whether it was recognized by all the states involved here is, from a practical point of view, of little importance, for inasmuch as it was not recognized or cannot be directly applied, it is a case of a shortcoming in international law which is filled as a matter of course according to the principles of the belligerent's needs and his duty to respect the laws of humanity. The principles of international law as established in the Hague Convention on Land Warfare are in all cases an important guide. The Prosecution quotes, in the first place, Article 46 of the Hague Convention on Land Warfare, which is designed to safeguard the fundamental rights of the population. It is typical for labor mobilization that it does restrict liberty, whereas this particular basic right is not protected by this article. If the Hague Convention on Land Warfare is examined for a definite rule concerning deportation and forced labor, it will be realized that no such regulation exists. Just as in the sphere of air warfare and the use of new weapons, the Hague Convention on Land Warfare could not deal with questions which, at the time of its drafting, were far from the mind of the contracting parties. The first World War was still fought between two armies with already prepared material, and after it was used up the fight would be ended. The idea of a long war consuming huge amounts of material and requiring a continuous production with all available labor was for the Hague Convention on Land Warfare not yet a problem ripe for discussion.
DR. SERVATIUS: Article 52 of the Hague Convention on Land Warfare, which deals with the right to requisition, touches on the matter; but it can be seen that the rules deal only with purely local requirements of an army which appears fully equipped and has only supplementary local requirements. It is characteristic for the purely local meaning that the requisitioning authority is entrusted to the local commanders, in contrast to Article 51 of the Hague Convention on Land Warfare which permits only an independent commanding general to impose compulsory contributions. The literature about the right to requisition in international law accordingly quotes only examples of local significance. Although Article 52 of the Hague Convention on Land Warfare can accordingly not be directly applied, its basic principles are nevertheless binding on the belligerents. The basic idea is that an army can demand practically everything necessary for the satisfaction of its requirements. There are only two limitations: It may not take more than it needs and not more than is compatible with the resources of the country. The idea of a local obligation to furnish services will have to be adapted to modem warfare. The Hague Convention on Land Warfare envisaged the employment of smiths and wheelwrights necessary for the maintenance of the equipment of the army; work within the home country of the occupying power was, in view of undeveloped transportation conditions, impracticable and remained unconsidered. Today the necessary work will no longer be done in the vicinity of the front-lines but must be carried out in the belligerents' own countries, so that it must be possible to demand that labor should be available at the only place where it can be done and where it is necessary. It must also be possible to demand such labor for modern war requirements of mass production for current replacements. What is necessary at any given time can be asked for, the amount depending on prevailing conditions.
DR. SERVATIUS: If in earlier times, according to the principle "the war feeds the war," an army far removed from its homeland was even to a large extent equipped in occupied territory, it must surely be possible today to supply the army by moving the workers to the factories in the belligerent's own country. The evolution of the laws of warfare is influenced by the requirements which these laws have to serve. With the basic idea of the obligation to furnish services the basic idea on limitations will have to be accepted, too. These limitations must also be interpreted to apply to the changed conditions. While the obligation to furnish services is justified, no more work may be demanded than the occupying power requires of its own people at home. The intensity of the war as total war must be taken into consideration. The obligation to work may thereby assume considerable proportions. The meaning and the purpose of the Hague Convention on Land Warfare is certainly not to place the nationals of a defeated state in a better position than those of the victorious state which occupied the country. This, however, would be the result if the Hague Convention on Land Warfare were interpreted according to its original wording. If this is maintained, then France, which had surrendered unconditionally together with all the other occupied countries, would have been able to look on in security while Germany, strangled by the blockade, was exhausting herself in an indefatigable struggle by sacrifices of life and property. Can one really demand that the prisoner in a besieged fortress should live more comfortably than the defender of the fortress? If Germany today could live according to the romantic concepts of the Hague Convention on Land Warfare, this would certainly be preferable to the burden of the peace treaty to be expected.