Holocaust Memorial Museum placed online more than 700 hours of audio recordings from the trials, as well as 37 reels of film introduced as evidence. Stanford News is a publication of Stanford University Communications. They would never have been brought to justice were it not for Ben Ferencz. [230] The selectivity in trying Germans but not the Allies has garnered the most persistent criticism. [104] On 29 November, the prosecution was unprepared to continue presenting on the invasion of Czechoslovakia, and instead screened Nazi Concentration and Prison Camps. Defendants-- absolutely blank. She said: "The Nuremberg Code relates to research, where the emphasis of informed consent requirements is on preventing the research participants from being used as a means to an end. The Marines, they just looked at me and said, "Forget it, kid.". As U.S. forces liberated concentration camps, his job was to rush in and gather evidence. If we believe that understanding whats happened in the past is important for understanding the present and thinking about the future, then these testimonies are important.. [28] The charter limited the jurisdiction of the court to Germany's actions because the Allies did not want to answer to an international court for their own actions;[29] only Germans could be tried. Brigadier General Telford Taylor was Chief of Counsel during the Doctors Trial. These men would never have been murderers had it not been for the war. At the Nuremberg Trials, the doctors and nurses stood trial, and they hung. Judges deliberate at the trials of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, Germany, Jan. 1, 1945. A 103-year-old South Florida man who fought Nazi atrocities as a Nuremberg prosecutor is now the recipient of the Governor's Medal of Freedom. General Telford Taylor, in charge of the Nuremberg trials, asked him to direct a team of researchers in Berlin, one of whom found a cache of top-secret documents in the ruins of the German foreign . To receive Stanford news daily,
Other generals were tried in the High Command Trial for plotting wars of aggression, issuing criminal orders, deporting civilians, using slave labor, and looting in the Soviet Union. [182] Nikichenko released a dissent approved by Moscow that rejected all the acquittals, called for a death sentence for Hess, and convicted all the organizations. You're the sunniest man I've ever met. (JTA) At the opening of his trial in Nuremberg, Julius Streicher made several uncharacteristically friendly statements about Jews a people he had devoted his professional life to demonize. Lesley Stahl: Ben? Testimony is ultimately human narratives, and it means a lot to help keep those voices alive through time and space so that we can learn from history and hopefully better understand the implications of atrocities carried out in different cultural and historical contexts, said Penelope Van Tuyl, associate director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice, who has also contributed to the preservation efforts and development of the Virtual Tribunals exhibit platform. [6] The Soviet Union wanted to hold a show trial similar to the 1930s Moscow trials, in order to demonstrate the Nazi leaders' guilt and build a case for war reparations to rebuild the Soviet economy, which had been devastated by the war. Grbe painfully recounts how he saw a grave of over a thousand bodies, some of whom were still moving.. He says he's grateful for the life he's lived in this country, and it's his turn to give back. The SA, the Reich Cabinet, and the General Staff and High Command were not ruled to be criminal organizations. COVID-19 vaccination does not violate the Nuremberg Code . You may have given little thought to the role Native Americans played in the creation of the U.S. Constitution. The claim has circulated widely online, including in this November 24, 2021 article (archived here) published by biotechexpressmag.com titled "Team of 1,000 lawyers and 10,000 Medical Experts Start Nuremberg 2 Trial against World Leaders for Crimes Against Humanity." It opened: In doing so, it established a legal precedent in international humanitarian law that is still relevant today. Documents in the Taube Archive have been converted into digital files using optical character recognition technology that turns printed materials, including handwritten, typed or scanned paper files, into an electronic format that can be easily searched. And that's how 27-year-old Ben Ferencz became the chief prosecutor of 22 Einsatzgruppen commanders at trial number 9 at Nuremberg. [64] The division of labor, and the haste with which the indictment was prepared, resulted in duplication, imprecise language, and lack of attribution of specific charges to individual defendants. [181] All three acquittals (Papen, Schacht, and Fritzsche) were based on a deadlock between the judges; these acquittals surprised observers. [235] In the 1990s, a revival of international criminal law included the establishment of ad hoc international criminal tribunals for Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR), which were widely seen as part of the legacy of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials. [219][220] The German public took the early releases as confirmation of what they saw as the illegitimacy of the trials. The Natural Capital Project is working with development banks and 10 pilot countries to put the environment at the forefront of policy and investment decisions. Stanford University is marking the 75th anniversary of the International Military . The trial of 22 Nazi leaders began on Nov. 20, 1945, and the Tribunal pronounced its judgment on Oct. 1, 1946. (the covid vaccines are still experimental as of August 8, 2021), that is called duress, overreaching, and coercion, which is a clear . Fact check:Doctors' Trial was one of 13 Nuremberg Trials. Our aim is to create a resource that enables users to draw on that experience and knowledge in ways that can assist governments, institutions and experts in improving how we achieve accountability for mass atrocity crimes, said Cohen. The speech was favorably received by the prosecution, the tribunal, the audience, historians, and even the defendants. Flags from left to right: International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Charter of the International Military Tribunal, List of defendants at the International Military Tribunal, SS Main Economic and Administrative Office, mass expulsion of millions of Germans from central and eastern Europe, confrontation with the concentration camps, Journal of International Criminal Justice, "Notre combat pour la paix: la France et le procs de Nuremberg (1945-1946)", "Le procs de Nuremberg: retour sur soixante-dix ans de recherche", "German Participation in the Nuremberg Trials and Its Implications for Today", "Imperfect Justice at Nuremberg and Tokyo", Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg Trials), International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Special Panels of the Dili District Court, International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, List of major perpetrators of the Holocaust, Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nuremberg_trials&oldid=1152692054, International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1946, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 May 2023, at 18:42. Lesley Stahl: Did you look at the defendants' faces? Screenshot from film showing the Einsatzgruppen at work. [87] Over the course of the trial, Western judges allowed the defendants additional leeway to denounce the Soviet Union, which was ultimately revealed to be a co-conspirator in the outbreak of World War II. Episode 9 - To Stay the Hand of Vengeance. But he isn't content just being a part of 20th-century history -- he believes he has something important to offer the world right now. Benjamin Ferencz: They were 3,000 SS officers trained for the purpose, and directed to kill without pity or remorse, every single Jewish man, woman, and child they could lay their hands on. Launching Oct. 1 is an expanded repository of digital records, preserved in cooperation with the ICJ in the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR). The recordings, many of them in German without translation, offer an insight into the mood, mindset and history of people like Frank and Streicher, who spoke at length about his personal history growing up in a small village in Bavaria as the youngest of nine children. The Jews were shot? Benjamin Ferencz: Same thing, not guilty. Benjamin Ferencz: Well, don't say that. [232] On 11 December 1946, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution affirming "the principles of international law recognized by the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and the judgment of the Tribunal". [203], In all, 249 journalists were accredited to cover the IMT[40] and 61,854 visitor tickets were issued. The verdicts against ex-SS guards and . Another man was sentenced to death in absentia. [132][169] Through a compromise among the judges, the charge of conspiracy was narrowed to a conspiracy to wage aggressive war. 06/29/2021. War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people. For the past seven years, Stanford Libraries has been working with the Registry of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to obtain a complete digital corpus of the Nuremberg Trial in support of the Virtual Tribunal of the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice. per adult (price varies by group size) Nuremberg World War 2 Tour. By Cnaan Liphshiz January 15, 2021 11:48 am. [56][57] After this division of formulating the charges, the British and American delegations decided to work jointly in drafting the charges of conspiracy to wage aggressive war. The Nuremberg trials were a series of indictments and criminal procedures against Nazi war criminals that were held from 20 November 1945 to 1 October 1946 at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany. Benjamin Ferencz: And I've got-- I've got his reports of how many he killed. Ferencz says his goal from the beginning was to affirm the rule of law and deter similar crimes from ever being committed again. [81] Senior American officials believed that convicting organizations was a good way of showing that not just the top German leaders were responsible for crimes, without condemning the entire German people. [202] All four powers later fought independence movements using methods that had been ruled illegal at Nuremberg. One of these-- my defendants said-- He gets up, and he says, "[GERMAN]," which is, "What? People receiving the COVID-19 vaccines at this point are not taking part in a medical experiment, because the vaccines already have gone through clinical trials and have received emergency . 40 years on from the Majdanek trial verdict - DW - 06/29/2021 [26], The final version of the charter only gave the court the ability to punish those crimes against humanity that had been committed "in connection with any crimes within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal". He wanted to be a pilot, but the Army Air Corps wouldn't take him. The courtroom was Nuremberg; the crime, genocide; and the defendants, a group of German SS officers accused of committing the largest number of Nazi killings outside the concentration camps -- more than a million men, women, and children shot in their own towns and villages in cold blood. [87][149] United States admiral Chester Nimitz testified that the United States had used the same methods of submarine warfare that the German admirals were accused of; Dnitz's counsel successfully argued that this meant that such actions could not be crimes. [160] On 2 September, the court recessed; and the judges retreated into seclusion to decide the verdict and sentences, which had been under discussion since June. [174] The judges interpreted crimes against humanity narrowly; they determined that crimes against German Jews before 1939 were not under the court's jurisdiction because the prosecution had not proven a connection to aggressive war. [198] The trials targeted 177 defendants and obtained 142 convictions, including 25 death sentences;[199] the severity of sentencing was related to the defendant's proximity to mass murder. [207][208] In a 1946 poll, 78 percent of Germans assessed the trial as fair, but four years later that had fallen to 38 percent, with 30 percent considering it unfair. [119] Unlike the British and American prosecution strategy, which focused on using German documents to make their case, the French prosecutors took the perspective of the victims, submitting postwar police reports and calling eleven witnesses. That's insane. The trials, conducted at a military tribunal with judges from Allied nations including the Soviet Union, were a seminal milestone in the creation of modern international law in general and the prosecution of crimes against humanity. more_horiz. Lesley Stahl: So they went right in after the troops? Building a digital space for the archives is part of Cohens and the Libraries larger vision to create a comprehensive database, known as the Virtual Tribunals Initiative, of all international criminal proceedings that deal with mass atrocities, starting from post-WWII court proceedings to contemporary cases like the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor (SPSC) or similar international criminal tribunals for Rwanda, Sierra Leone or the former Yugoslavia. [105] The American prosecutors were not any more effective when presenting documentary evidence on the conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity, and ended up reaching a "saturation point of horror" by their indiscriminate selection and disorganized presentation of evidence without tying it to specific defendants. [32] The trial was held under modified common law. For the scholars, what makes the Nuremberg archives particularly captivating is the variety of human narratives that emerges from the variety of documents and transcripts stories that are now easier to find thanks to Stanfords preservation efforts. He promoted an intentionalist view of the Nazi state and its overall conspiracy to commit all of the crimes mentioned in the indictment. He was proud of that. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. I know I'm right. Nuremburg Trial Courthouse (Nuremberg) - All You Need to - Tripadvisor Holocaust Memorial Museum). [74], Although the list of defendants was finalized on 29 August,[75] as late as October, Jackson demanded changes and expansion of the defendants list, but this was rejected. [106][107] The Americans summoned Einsatzgruppen commander Otto Ohlendorf, who testified about the murder of 80,000 people by those under his command, and SS general Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who admitted that German anti-partisan warfare was little more than a cover for the mass murder of Jews. Benjamin Ferencz: Going on right this minute, yes. There are also transcripts of eyewitness accounts, including that of Hermann Grbe, a construction manager who described the horrors of a mass execution he saw in Dubno, Ukraine. Lesley Stahl: We've had Rwanda, we've had Bosnia. The bill was introduced by Reps. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) One of America's most recognized and experienced broadcast journalists, Lesley Stahl has been a 60 Minutes correspondent since 1991. It is not often you get the chance to meet a man who holds a place in history like Ben Ferencz. And you're full of energy and passion. Be there when human rights changed with 'The World's - Guide [47] Although the chief British judge, Sir Geoffrey Lawrence (Lord Justice of Appeal), was the nominal president of the tribunal, in practice Biddle exercised more authority. Transfer of the Nuremberg Trial Archives to the Peace Palace, March 14, 1950. [194] Luftwaffe general Erhard Milch was tried for using slave labor and deporting civilians. And I see the progress. And I can't believe you're 97 years old. [60] Conspiracy charges were especially central to the cases against propagandists and industrialists; the former were charged with providing the ideological justification for war and other crimes, while the latter were accused of economic mobilization without which no war would have been possible. Well, see here, this-- they rounded 'em up. 27 Aug 2021. In 1946, verdicts were handed down in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. The only part of the French charges that were accepted by the judges was the deportation of Jews from France and other parts of Western Europe. But SLS scholars argue that Native people profoundly shaped the conversation. Never again doesnt mean anything unless you know what has happened and why, said Cohen, who has partnered with Stanford Libraries to digitally archive the records and create a searchable website for the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (1945-1946). After they had been made to give up their clothing and valuables, all of them were killed, which took several days." He said, "OK. [54] The Soviet judges and prosecutors were not permitted to make any major decisions without consulting a commission in Moscow led by Soviet politician Andrei Vyshinsky; the resulting delays hampered the Soviet effort to set the agenda. [16] On May 2, at the San Francisco Conference, the United States' new president Harry S. Truman announced the formation of an international military tribunal. Benjamin Ferencz: Standard routine, nicht schuldig. Judges deliberate at the trials of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, Germany, Jan. 1, 1945. . Ferencz is the last Nuremberg prosecutor alive today. Judge: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty? [98] Jackson maintained that while the United States did "not seek to convict the whole German people of crime", neither did the trial "serve to absolve the whole German people except 21 men in the dock". Nov. 20, 2021 / 3:00 AM On This Day: Nuremberg trials begin On Nov. 20, 1945, 24 German leaders went on trial at Nuremberg before the International War Crimes Tribunal. These were people who could quote Goethe, who loved Wagner, who were polite--. The defense lawyers saw themselves as acting on behalf of their clients, but also the German nation;[78] they prioritized the Wehrmacht's reputation over the lives of the generals on trial. Benjamin Ferencz: And I start screaming. [4], In early 1942, representatives of eight governments-in-exile in the United Kingdom issued a declaration on Punishment for War Crimes, which demanded an international court to try the Axis crimes committed in occupied countries. Lesley Stahl: What was going on inside of you? [167] The judges were aware that both the Allies and the Axis had planned or committed acts of aggression, writing the verdict carefully to avoid discrediting either the Allied governments or the tribunal. The United States and the United Kingdom refused to endorse this proposal, citing the failure of war crimes prosecutions after World War I. A team of over 1,000 lawyers and over 10,000 medical experts led by Dr. Reiner Fuellmich have begun legal proceedings against the CDC, WHO & the Davos Group for crimes against humanity. Benjamin Ferencz: We're marching forward. Taylor told Ferencz adding another trial was impossible. And the stories he heard in those camps. 10 issued by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Jackson submitted his final report to President Truman one week after the verdicts. [59] The conspiracy charge was used to charge the top Nazi leaders, as well as bureaucrats who had never killed anyone or perhaps even directly ordered killing. add_to_queue. Preserving records from the Nuremberg Trial as well as materials from the subsequent tribunals and truth and reconciliation commissions it inspired is crucial to protecting the historic and judicial legacies of the war and acknowledging the consequences of mass atrocities, said David Cohen, director of the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice and professor of classics in the School of Humanities and Sciences. View of Nuremberg in 1945. Look at the emancipation of woman in my lifetime. The defendants, who included Nazi Party officials . [22][23] War crimes already existed in international law as criminal violations of the laws and customs of war. I hear it here for the first time." The Nuremberg Trials, 75 Years Later - The Unwritten Record [45] At Jackson's recommendation, the United States appointed judges Francis Biddle and John Parker. Lesley Stahl: You've really seen evil. Benjamin Ferencz: He gave me a bunch of binders, four binders. Benjamin Ferencz: He's not a savage. I said, "Look. The Center for Human Rights and International Justice and Stanford Libraries hope to establish a single destination point that can help people understand how to seek justice when crimes against humanity have occurred and how to pursue accountability for systematic and widespread violence. Streicher, editor in chief of the Der Sturmer anti-Semitic weekly, claimed that hed always viewed German Jews as legitimate compatriots and long supported Zionism. Although controversial at the time for their use of ex post facto law, the trials' innovation of holding individuals responsible for violations of international law established international criminal law. Were Doctors and Members of the Media Hanged in This Nuremberg Trial [18], At the London Conference, held from 26 June to 2 August 1945, representatives of France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States negotiated the exact form that the trial would take. The purpose of the trial was not just to convict the defendants but also to assemble irrefutable evidence of Nazi crimes, offer a history lesson to the defeated Germans, and delegitimize the traditional German elite. [110] Unlike Jackson, he attempted to minimize the novelty of the aggression charges. [155] In the context of the brewing Cold War, the trial became a means of condemning not only Germany but also the Soviet Union. [100], On 21 November, Jackson gave the opening speech for the prosecution. By exploring previous international or domestic trials, tribunals, and commissions, people from policymakers to human rights activists can see what was successful in previous investigations or prosecutions, where there were failures, and how such defeats can be avoided in the future.