dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
GEN. RUIDENKO: Nevertheless there were special instructions in the Nuremberg Laws to two members of the Reichsregierung, namely, Hess and Frick, to elaborate and promulgate additional decrees implementing the laws. And such decrees were elaborated and promulgated by Hess and Frick. The same Frick, together with Funk, and acting on Goering's instructions, on 3 December 1938 issued a decree concerning "the liquidation of Jewish property," as well as a series of others. In any state the government is usually fully responsible for all the laws promulgated during the period when that particular government was in power. The Tribunal had an opportunity to analyze in detail the whole activity of the Hitlerite Government directed towards the preparation and initiation of aggression. It is not necessary to mention again the invasion of Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939, the attacks on Poland, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union. Numerous documents submitted to the Tribunal confirm the fact that the Hitlerite Government did everything possible to retain the invaded territories of France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Norway, Poland, Belgium, and other countries, as well as the territories of the U.S.S.R. It is only because of the powerful blows of the Red Army and the armies of the Allies that it was impossible for the Fascist conspirators to realize their predatory plans. The activities of the Hitlerite Government had brought on the war which cost millions of human lives and caused incalculable losses and immeasurable suffering to, other nations. The Hitlerite Government is also responsible for all the war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by the German troops and the German authorities during the war. The great amount of evidence submitted to the Tribunal proved clearly that Hitlerite Germany prepared itself for the conduct of the most ruthless war in complete contempt of the laws and customs of war.
GEN. RUIDENKO: The war crimes and the crimes against humanity were committed not only against the soldiers of the peace-loving nations united against the Fascist aggressors, but also against the innocent civilian populations. Long before the treacherous aggression against the Soviet Union took place, the Government of Hitlerite Germany carefully laid plans for the monstrous extermination of the most highly cultured elements of the Soviet peoples. The report published by the Extraordinary State Commission concerning the German Fascist atrocities in Novgorod, Stavropol, Orel, Stalino, Smolensk, Kiev, and other towns, has proved the existence of a carefully worked-out plan for the intended mass extermination by the German invaders of Soviet prisoners of war and Soviet civilians. The defendants, members of the Hitlerite Government, have all hypocritically claimed that until the present Trial they never heard of the monstrous atrocities of the Hitlerites in the concentration camps, or of the savage behavior of the SS men and of the German authorities in the temporarily occupied territories. These claims are thoroughly false. Every German knew something of these facts. The radio stations of the whole world had broadcast them. The revolting atrocities committed by the German authorities against the Soviet prisoners of war and the peaceful Soviet citizens were brought to the attention of the whole world in the official notes of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R., V.M. Molotov, on 25 November 1941 and 27 April 1942. But in spite of the fact that the violation of the most elementary principles of international law and of human morality committed by the German Army and the German authorities were made known to the Reich Government by the above-mentioned documents, this criminal violation of the laws and customs of war continued also in 1943 and 1945. It is clear therefore that all these crimes were committed with full knowledge and on the direct instructions of the Hitlerite Government.
GEN. RUIDENKO: Did not Rosenberg receive an official note from Lammers mentioning that the Geneva Convention was not valid for Soviet prisoners of war? Was not a circular of the Party Chancellery, signed by the Defendant Bormann and including instructions on the cruel treatment and mockery to be reserved for the Soviet prisoners of war, distributed to the ministers? Were not the Ministry of the Interior, the Reich Security Office, the Gestapo, the prisons and the concentration camps, offices and organizations of the German Government? The Government must fully bear the responsibility for the atrocities committed by those Fascist Government organizations The members of Hitler's Government tried by every possible device to separate themselves from the SS men, but on being exposed, every one presented new versions--one more false than the other. Rosenberg, Neurath, Frick, Ribbentrop, and other ministers were generals of the SS, and that this was no mere formality can be seen from the letter of the Defendant Ribbentrop to Himmler dated 22 July 1940, which was submitted to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution. Minister Rosenberg tried to, make the Tribunal believe that he did not know anything about the bestial orders of Minister Himmler. Actually, on 7 September 1943 Himmler directed the Fuehrer of the SS and SD to carry out, jointly with the military commanders, the complete destruction of the areas in Ukraine, and ordered that, and I quote: "Not a single human being, not a single head of cattle, not a hundredweight of grain, and not a railway line should remain; no house should remain standing, not a single mine should be available for years to come, no well which is not poisoned," and he recommended that special care be taken to inform the Reich Minister of the Eastern Occupied Territories, Rosenberg, of this order. On 8 March 1940, Minister Goering sent to the highest authorities of the Reich a criminal directive concerning the treatment of civilian workers of Polish nationality in the Reich.
GEN. RUIDENKO: Minister Frank, as he repeatedly mentioned in his diary, received instructions from Goering to send hundreds of thousands of Poles for slavery into Germany. The Ministers Speer, Sauckel, Rosenberg, Keitel, Funk, Seyss-Inquart, and others have been exposed during the Trial as having given directives and prepared measures for forced labor of prisoners of war and peaceful inhabitants of the territories seized by the Germans. It was none other than Minister Rosenberg who approved the measure of Army Group "Center" concerning the seizure on Soviet territory of 40 to 50,000 children between the ages of 10 and 14 and their transfer to Germany. Do not these examples testify to the crimes committed by Hitler's Government? It is established by documentary evidence that the carefully organized plunder of the territories seized by the Germans was carried out in conformity with official directives and instructions of the Hitlerite Government and of its individual members. The directive of Minister Goering concerning the planned plunder of the occupied Soviet territories (the so-called "Goering Green File"), the rapacious activities of the "Einsatzstab" and "special purpose units," the instructions of the Ministers Rosenberg and Ribbentrop concerning the plunder of cultural treasures and monuments of art, as well as the activities of the Ministers Funk and Speer, is not all this sufficient to conclude the participation of Hitler's Government in the plunder of the territories occupied by the Germans? The Government of the German Reich is responsible, therefore, for the plunder of the public, private, and communal property, and for the destruction and looting of cultural treasures in the occupied territories. In the U.S.S.R. alone the material damages amount to 679,000,000,000 roubles. The members of the Reich Government bear the responsibility for the forced Germanization of areas seized by the Germans. It was the Reich Ministers Goering, Frick, Hess, and Lammers who signed the decree incorporating into Germany, the four western provinces of Poland.
GEN. RUIDENKO: It was none other than Frick who in his instruction to Gauleiter Rainer stated, and I quote: "...Your principal task will be to include in the German Reich the entire new areas of Southeast Carinthia and Upper Carniola ... for without the creation of a "German wall" in this region every administrative structure, good as it may be, will sooner or later fall.... Your task, Party Member Rainer, is to make this district entirely German again...." To get a picture of this bandit Government it is sufficient for us to recall the agreement between the Ministers Ribbentrop and Himmler concerning the organization of the intelligence services abroad; the Himmler-Bormann agreement with Minister of Justice Thierack on 18 September 1942 concerning the special police measures for the extermination of Jews, Gypsies, Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, and Czechs who allegedly were anti-social elements; the letter of Minister Lammers of 4 June 1944 addressed to Minister Thierack regarding the impunity of those guilty of the murder of shot-down Allied airmen; the letter of Keitel to the Minister of Foreign Affairs concerning the treatment to be given to Allied airmen. On 4 February 1938 Hitler formed a Secret Cabinet Council, indicating its purpose in these words: "I am establishing this Secret Cabinet Council to advise me on questions of foreign policy." Hitler appointed Neurath as chairman of this Secret Cabinet Council, and Ribbentrop, Goering, Hess, Goebbels, Lammers, Brauchitsch. Raeder and Keitel as members. On 21 May 1938 Hitler created the Reich Defense Council. On 30 August 1939, Hitler reorganized the Reich Defense Council into the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich. He appointed Goering chairman of this council and the Ministers Hess, Frick, Funk, Keitel, and Lammers as members.
GEN. RUIDENKO: At the meeting of 23 November 1939 the chairman of this council, Goering, emphasized that "the Reich Defense Council is the deciding factor on questions concerning the preparation of war," and that "the Reich Defense Council will convene to take all the more important decisions." It was not defense but aggression, the preparation for aggressive wars, which were the tasks of this council. In preparation for the war not only the members of the Reich Defense Council participated, but all other ministers as well. At the meeting of this council on 23 November 1939 there were present, together with Goering, Funk, Frick, Himmler, Keitel, and Lammers, the Ministers Schwerin von Krosigk, Dorpmueller, and others. At this session not only the utilization in the war industry of prisoners of war and the population of the occupied territories was discussed and planned, but the utilization of internees and even the number of internees in wartime were discussed as well. In the minutes of this meeting it is stated: "The Plenipotentiary for Economy"--that is Funk--"will define the task which is to be executed by the prisoners of war as well as by the persons confined in prisons, concentration camps, et cetera . "According to information from the Reichsfuehrer SS there will be a great number of people in the concentration camps during the war. According to preliminary data 20,000 prisoners will be employed in the concentration camp workshops." Subjects discussed at the meeting also included directions on the collaboration of the OKW with the Plenipotentiary for Economy, of 3 May 1939, concerning plans for war economy and total warfare. There were also special reports from the Chief of Section V of the General Staff, Gehrke, and from the Minister of Transport, Dorpmueller. Were all members of the Reich Government informed of these decisions? Certainly, and this is clear if only from the list of addresses to which the minutes of the meeting of 23 November 1939 were sent.
GEN. RUIDENKO: The minutes of the meeting of the Reich Defense Council were sent to the Deputy of the Fuehrer, to the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, to the President of the Secret Cabinet Council, to the Delegate for the Four Year Plan, and to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Interior, Education, Economics, Church and Religion, Food and Agriculture, Labor, Finance, Communications, Postal Services, the President of the Reichsbank, et cetera . The very fact that the majority of the members of the Reich Government are defendants in the present Trial shows a great deal about the nature of the organization here discussed. I consider, therefore, that the responsibility of the German Hitlerite Government for the grave crimes here mentioned is fully proven, and that the Reich Cabinet should therefore be declared a criminal organization. Your Honors! In order to carry out their plotted crimes, the heads of the Fascist conspiracy created a system of criminal organizations which have been the subject of my statement here. Those who had made it their aim to dominate the world and to exterminate whole nations, are now awaiting with trepidation the coming verdict of the Court. This verdict does not only affect the defendants in the dock, the initiators of these cruel Fascist "ideas," the main organizers of the crimes of Hitlerism. Your verdict has to condemn the whole criminal system of German Fascism, that complicated and widely ramified network of Party, Government, SS, and military organizations which was the means of realizing the atrocious intentions of the chief conspirators. On the battlefields mankind has already pronounced its verdict on German Fascism. The fire of the greatest battles known to the history of mankind, fought by the heroic Red Army and the valiant armies of the Allied Forces, has not only destroyed the hordes of the Hitlerites but it has given a new value to the sublime and noble principles of international co-operation, human morality, and the humane rules of social community.
GEN. RUIDENKO: The Prosecution have fulfilled their duty towards this Tribunal, towards the sacred memory of the innocent victims, towards the conscience of the nations, as well as towards their own. May the Judgment of the Nations--severe but just--fall upon these Fascist hangmen.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn until 10:00 o'clock tomorrow morning. [The Tribunal adjourned until 31 August 1946 at 1000 hours.]
THE PRESIDENT: Article 24 D (j) provides that each defendant may make a statement to the Tribunal. I therefore now can upon the defendants who wish--whether they wish to make statements. Defendant Hermann Wilhelm Goering.
HERMANN WILHELM GOERING (Defendant): The Prosecution, in the final speeches, has treated the defendants and their testimony as completely worthless. The statements made under oath by the defendants were accepted as absolutely true when they could serve to support the Indictment, but conversely the statements were characterized as perjury when they refuted the Indictment. That is very elementary, but it is not a convincing basis for demonstration of proof. The Prosecution uses the fact that I was the second man of the State as proof that I must have known everything that happened. But it does not present any documentary or other convincing proof in cases where I have denied under oath that I knew about certain things, much less desired them. Therefore, it is only an allegation and a conjecture when the Prosecution says, "Who should have known that if not Goering, who was the successor of the Fuehrer?" Repeatedly we have heard here how the worst crimes were veiled with the most secrecy. I wish to state expressly that I condemn these terrible mass murders to the utmost, and cannot understand them in the least. But I should like to state clearly once more before the High Tribunal, that I have never decreed the murder of a single individual at any time, and neither did I decree any other atrocities or tolerate them, while I had the power and the knowledge to prevent them. The new allegation presented by Mr. Dodd in his final speech, that I had ordered Heydrich to kill the Jews, lacks every proof and is not true either. There is not a single order signed by me or signed in my behalf that enemy fliers should be shot or turned over to the SD. And not a single case has been established where units of my Luftwaffe carried out things like that. The Prosecution has repeatedly submitted some documents which contain alleged statements, reported and written down at third and fourth hand, without my having previously seen these statements in order to correct erroneous ideas or to preclude misunderstandings.
HERMANN WILHELM GOERING (Defendant): How easily completely distorted reports can arise from third hand notes is also proven, among other things, by the stenographic transcript of these court sessions, which often needed correction when checked. The Prosecution brings forward individual statements over a period of 25 years, which were made under completely different circumstances and without any consequences arising from them at the time, and quotes them as proof of intent and guilt, statements which can easily be made in the excitement of the moment and of the atmosphere that prevailed at the time. There is probably not one leading personage on the opposing side who did not speak or write similarly in the course of a quarter of a century. Out of all the happenings of these 25 years, from conferences, speeches, laws, actions, and decisions, the Prosecution proves that everything was desired and intended from the beginning according to a deliberate sequence and an unbroken connection. This is an erroneous conception which is entirely devoid of logic, and which will be rectified some day by history, after the proceedings here have proved the incorrectness of these allegations. Mr. Jackson in his final speech points, out the fact that the signatory states are still in a state of war with Germany, and that because of the unconditional surrender merely a state of truce prevails now. Now, international law is uniform. The same must apply to both sides. Therefore, if everything which is being done in Germany today on the part of the occupying powers is admissible under international law, then German was formerly in the same position, at least as regards France, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Yugoslavia and Greece.
HERMANN WILHELM GOERING (Defendant): If today the Geneva Convention no longer has any validity so far as Germans are concerned, if today in all parts of Germany industry is being dismantled and other great assets in all spheres can be carried away to the other states, if today the property of millions of Germans is being confiscated and many other serious infringements on freedom and property are taking place, then measures such as those taken by Germany in the countries mentioned above cannot have been criminal according to international law either. Mr. Jackson stated further that one cannot accuse and punish a state, but rather that one must hold the leaders responsible. One seems to forget that Germany was a sovereign state, and that her legislation within the German nation was not subject to the jurisdiction of foreign countries. No state ever gave notice to the Reich at the proper time, pointing out that any activity for National Socialism would be made subject to punishment and persecution. On the other hand, if we, the leaders as individuals, are called to account and condemned--very well; but you cannot punish the German people at the same time. The German people placed their trust in the Fuehrer, and under his authoritarian government they had no influence on events. Without knowledge of the grave crimes which have become known today, the people, loyal, self-sacrificing, and courageous, fought and suffered through the life-and-death struggle which had broken out against their will. The German people are free of guilt. I did not want a war, nor did I bring it about. I did everything to prevent it by negotiations. After it had broken out, I did everything to assure victory. Since the three greatest powers on earth, together with many other nations, were fighting against us, we finally succumbed to their tremendous superiority. I stand up for the things that I have done, but I deny most emphatically that my actions were dictated by the desire to subjugate foreign peoples by wars, to murder them, to rob them, or to enslave them, or to commit atrocities or crimes.
HERMANN WILHELM GOERING (Defendant): The only motive which guided me was my ardent love for my people, its happiness, its freedom, and its life. And for this I call on the Almighty and my German people to witness.
THE PRESIDENT: I call on the Defendant Rudolf Hess.
RUDOLF HESS (Defendant): First of all, I should like to make a request to the High Tribunal that I may remain seated because of my state of health.
THE PRESIDENT: Certainly.
HESS: Some of my comrades here can confirm the fact that at the beginning of the proceedings I predicted the following: (1) That witnesses would appear who, under oath, would make untrue statements while, at the same time, these witnesses could create an absolutely reliable impression and enjoy the best possible reputation. (2) That it was to be reckoned with that the Court would receive affidavits containing untrue statements. (3) That the defendants would be astonished and surprised at some German witnesses. (4) That some of the defendants would act rather strangely: they would make shameless utterances about the Fuehrer; they would incriminate their own people; they would partially incriminate each other, and falsely at that. Perhaps they would even incriminate themselves, and also wrongly. All of these predictions have come true, and as far as the witnesses and affidavits are concerned, in dozens of cases; cases in which the unequivocal oath of the defendants stands in opposition to the sworn statements of the former. In this connection I shall only mention the name Messersmith: Mr. Messersmith, who, for example, says that he spoke to Admiral Doenitz at a time when the latter was, to my knowledge, in the Pacific Ocean or the Indian Ocean. I made these predictions, however, not only here at the beginning of the Trial, but had already made them months before the beginning of the Trial in England to, among others, Dr. Johnston, the physician who was with me in Abergavenny. At the same time I put these statements down in writing, as proof. I base my predictions on some events in countries outside of Germany. In this connection I should like to emphasize now that, while I mention these incidents, I was convinced from the beginning that the governments concerned knew nothing about them. Therefore, I am not raising any accusation against these governments. In the years 1936 to 1938 political trials were taking place in one of these countries. These were characterized by the fact that the defendants accused themselves in an astonishing way.