The trial of fascism Nuremberg trials. Nuremberg Tribunal: Statutes, Fundamental Principles and Exclusive Competence

  1. The most important element of the denazification of Germany is the Nuremberg trial of Nazi criminals. Although they were not sealed by a causal relationship, but without the categorical decision of the Nuremberg court over the bonzes of the 3rd Reich, the process of lustration of post-war Germany would most likely lead to a repeat of the Versailles syndrome.

    Nuremberg Trial: a verdict to Nazism

    Back in November 43, at a Moscow conference, the main principles of the Nuremberg trial were announced. The verdict of Nazism was supposed to endure everything global community... The choice of the venue for the tribunal was not accidental - the Nazis especially singled out the city of Nuremberg, there they held their congresses, accepted new members into their ranks, rejoiced under Hitler's speeches. Because of this, it was sometimes said that
    In the city, the very same hall in the very house where everything took place is open to the public.

    Particular attention was paid to the preparation of the work of the panel of judges, the charter of the tribunal and document flow. The fact is that the Nuremberg trial is a unique phenomenon in world practice that has no precedents. And according to the conditions, representatives of countries with fundamentally different ideologies were to take an equal part in the work of the court.

    In particular, the fact of the crimes of the Nazi regime was exposed, even before the start of the work of the judicial body, in October 43, at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.

    In this regard, in relation to the defendants, it was decided not to apply the fundamental principle legal law- presumption of innocence.

    With regard to document circulation, each of the participating countries had their own specific conditions, which they negotiated on Potsdam conference at the beginning of August 45. Although these nuances have not yet been fully disclosed, partial information about these exceptions is available in the open press. And even now, the obscenity of these exceptions does not honor the participants.

    When the Nuremberg trials over Nazi criminals began, none of the victorious countries wanted the documents on the work of the tribunal to reflect manifestations of racial segregation in relation to the representatives of the German and Japanese nations who lived in the territories of the members of the anti-Hitler coalition.

    For example, in the United States, during the war, about 500 thousand ethnic Japanese were deprived of their civil rights and property without trial and investigation. In the USSR, a similar procedure was applied to the Volga Germans.

    It should be noted that the coordination of all the conditions for the full functioning of the Nuremberg Tribunal took place without any difficulties.

    The trial lasted 10 months and 10 days, but according to the results of the work, the death sentences of the Nuremberg trials were approved only in relation to 12 defendants. Although all decisions were approved unanimously, the protocols recorded the "dissenting opinion" of Judge Nikitchenko (a representative of the USSR), where he expressed the Soviet side's disagreement with the "soft" sentences in relation to some of the defendants who were acquitted or received prison terms.

    Judge Nikitchenko

    The essence of the Nuremberg trial

    The inconsistency in the actions of the allies after the First World War led to the formation of the "Versailles Syndrome". This is a special state of the mentality of the population of an entire country, which after the defeat in the war did not thoroughly revise its beliefs, and demanded revenge.

    The basis for the emergence of this syndrome was:

    • Schlieffen's meticulously crafted plan;
    • Reassessment of your strengths;
    • Disdainful attitude towards opponents.
    As a result, after the crushing defeat and the conclusion of the shameful Versailles Peace Treaty, the German nation did not reassess its aspirations, but only began a "witch hunt." Jews and socialists were recognized as internal enemies. And the very idea of ​​war and world domination German weapons just got stronger. Which in turn led to Hitler's power.

    The essence of the Nuremberg trials, by and large, consisted in the fact that a cardinal change took place in the national consciousness of the German people. And the beginning of this change was to serve as a global assessment of the crimes of the Third Reich.

    Results of the Nuremberg trial

    Nazi criminals, executed by the verdict of the Nuremberg trials, lived after the end of the trial for only 16 days. During this time, they all filed appeals and were refused. At the same time, some of them asked to replace hanging or life imprisonment with execution.

    But only 10 convicts were executed. One of them was sentenced in absentia (M. Bormann).

    Another (G. Goering) took poison a few hours before his execution.

    Execution by hanging, carried out by American military personnel, in a converted gymnasium.

    Chief executioner of the Nuremberg trials

  2. Photos of the executions in Nuremberg have been published in many newspapers around the world.

    Photos of executions in Nuremberg

    The bodies of Nazi criminals were cremated near Munich, and the ashes were scattered over the North Sea.
    Consolidated proceedings in the crimes of the Nazi regime of the Third Reich were undertaken not so much to punish the criminals, but more to unanimously and finally condemn Nazism and genocide. At the same time, one of the points of the final document was the principle of "inviolability of the decision of the Nuremberg Tribunal." In other words: "there will be no review of decisions."

    Denazification progress

    For 5 years, the personal files of all German citizens who occupied at least some significant leadership posts during the Third Reich were thoroughly checked. The scrupulous work on denazification allowed the German people to rethink the vector of their aspirations and embark on the path of peaceful development of Germany.

    Although more than 72 years have passed since the end of World War II, and de jure Germany is an independent country, in fact, the occupation forces of the United States are still on its territory.

    This fact is diligently hushed up by the liberal media, and only in moments of exacerbation political environment, it is raised by the nationally oriented associations of Germany.

    Apparently free Germany still inspires fears.

  3. , why are you interested in this topic? In general, people with a Soviet education are familiar with this. Well, for those who are younger, it is worth reading.

    The essence of the Nuremberg trials, by and large, consisted in the fact that a cardinal change took place in the national consciousness of the German people. And the beginning of this change was to serve as a global assessment of the crimes of the Third Reich.

    A well-developed plan for the denazification of post-war Germany provided for a phased lustration of the activities of government officials at all levels. At the same time, the procedure should have started with the leaders of the Wehrmacht, gradually disclosing crimes at all levels of government.

    Click to Expand ...

    Do you think that even then the mighty of this world - the representatives of the victorious countries - were thinking about the self-consciousness of the German people? And how did you manage it? Everywhere they write that they have succeeded - that the Germans, for the most part, shy away from that past and from the theories once instilled in their society. But you add that this is only an appearance:

    And the last phrase
    Is it a regret that a great, in general, country is being held back in development in some sense, or do you also think that new aggressive trends can arise there?


  4. It is unlikely that something is holding back Germany now. Earlier, it was, indeed: the Germans, as it were, did not stick out their nationality because of the memory of the Second World War.

    And in the last ten years, especially under Merkel, the Germans are gradually moving away from this.

    But neither then, nor now, nothing hindered and did not restrain the growth of the German economy. That is, there were no sanctions as we understand them.


  5. The main executioner of the Nuremberg Trials is the American John Woods.

    In the photo, this person shows his "unique" rope knot of 13 knots. John Woods "helped" his victims by clinging to the legs of the one who had just been hanged, so the process ended faster.

    The prison where the Nazis were kept during the Nuremberg Trials was in the American sector. American soldiers were on duty in this prison, guarding Nazi criminals:

    A Soviet soldiers guarded the entrance to the courthouse where the Nuremberg trials over Nazi criminals:

    Woods was accustomed to work quickly, work experience affected, especially for this "service" he was recruited back in Normandy as a volunteer.

    Experienced Woods organized 3 gallows at once in the sports hall of the Nuremberg prison. Hatches were installed in the scaffolding so that the hanged would fall through the hatch, break their necks and die longer and more painfully.

    The Nuremberg trials ended, and Nazism was sentenced. The first victim of the executioner was to be Goering.

    But he committed suicide. There is a version that the ampoule with poisonous cyanide potassium in a kiss was given to Gernig by his wife at a farewell meeting.

    By the way, the executioner himself, John Woods, died in the service, in 1950, after the war, from an electric current.

    Last edited: Sep 29, 2017

  6. The Nuremberg trials of Nazi criminals led to the fact that some of them were sentenced to death. Those executed by the verdict of the Nuremberg Trials, photos of their executions and deaths are given above.
    And one person was sentenced in absentia. This man was Martin Bormann.

    One of the key figures of the Third Reich, Bormann came from an employee's family. Martin Bormann long time was something like Hitler's press secretary. And then he began to control Hitler's financial flows: receipts of money from German industrialists, royalties for the sale of Mein Kanff's book, and much more. He partially controlled the "access to the body" of the Fürrer for those who attended the meetings.

    A member of the NSDAP, he was an ardent supporter of the persecution of Jews and Christians. In particular, Bormann said that "in future Germany there will be no place for churches, it is just a matter of time." And in relation to Jews and prisoners of war, Bormann adhered to a position of maximum cruelty. During the Second World War, Martin Bormann strengthened his position and in the hierarchy began to obey only Hitler. Many believed, not without reason, that falling out of favor with Bormann was about the same as falling out of favor with Hitler himself. And after the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad, Hitler remained an olin for a long time, not letting anyone in. Bormann had the right to be near at such moments.

    From January 1945, Hitler was in the bunker. In April 45, the Soviet Army launched an offensive on Berlin. The goal is to surround the city. At the end of April, Hitler marries Eva Braun in a bunker. Martin Bormann and Goebbels were witnesses at this "wedding". Hitler draws up a will, according to which Bormann becomes - Minister of Party Affairs. Further, by order of the Fuhrer, Bormann leaves the bunker.

    Meanwhile, Bormann, as part of a group of four people, among whom was SS doctor Stumpfegger, are making an attempt to break out of the Soviet encirclement. Bormann was wounded while crossing the bridge over the Spree in Berlin. On subsequent attempts, the group managed to cross the bridge, after which the group members split up. One of the fugitives recalled that he stumbled upon a Soviet patrol, returned to the bridge and saw the dead - Bormann and SS doctor Stumpfegger. But the body of Martin Bormann was not found in reality. And his fate remained unknown to the end.

    The post-war period gave rise to and in every possible way warmed up rumors: either Bormann was seen in Argentina, then his former driver reports that he saw a patron in Munich.

    When the Nuremberg trials began, the official Bormann was "neither alive nor dead." The Nuremberg trials sentenced Martin Bormann to death in absentia for crimes against humanity due to the lack of proof of his death.

    But attempts to find the body of Reichsleiter Martin Bormann continued. The CIA and special services of the Federal Republic of Germany worked. Bormann's son Adolf (note the name) recalls that during the war period several thousand publications were published that his father was seen somewhere.
    The options were as follows -
    Martin Bormann has changed his appearance and lives in Paraguay,
    Martin Bormann was a Soviet agent and fled to Moscow
    Martin Bormann hides in South America
    Martin Bormann lives in Latin America, developing activities to create and strengthen the new Nazi organization.
    Etc.

    And in 1972, during the construction of a house near the place of Bormann's alleged death, human remains were removed. And initially - on the reconstruction of the remains, and later again - on the basis of a DNA examination, it was proved that the remains belong to Bormann. The remains were burned, and the ashes were scattered over the Baltic Sea.


  7. When the Nuremberg trials of Nazi criminals began, there was even talk about the non-application of the basic norms of democracy to the accused, so large-scale and cruel were their crimes. However, in the ten months that the Nuremberg war criminals were going on, the relationship between the prosecuting parties changed. The aggravation of relations was facilitated by Churchill's speech, the so-called "Fulton Speech".

    And the accused, war criminals, understood and felt this. They and their lawyers were playing for time as best they could.

    At this stage, the firmness, intransigence and professionalism of the actions of the Soviet side helped. The most convincing evidence of the cruelty of the Nazis in concentration camps was also presented in the form of chronicles from Soviet war correspondents.

    There were no doubts and loopholes left to challenge the guilt of the defendants.
    This is what the accused Nazis looked like when the verdicts of the Nuremberg trials were announced:

    The essence of the Nuremberg Trials is that the history of international law begins with it. Aggression was recognized as the most serious crime.

    The norms of international law are often questioned today. Sometimes there are words that they simply do not work.

    Only a strong country capable of defending its borders and its people can speak of independence today.

    8. S. Kara-Murza, in his book "Manipulation of Consciousness", gives an interesting example of a network attack.
    Imagine there is a division of super-duper special forces. Everything is in the most modern equipment, armor protection, modern weapons. Well, practically, you can only bomb them. You can't take it that way.
    But then a cloud of mosquitoes, midges and midges flies in. They are hammered under body armor, under ammunition, they sting and bite fighters.
    And none of the available defenses and no weapons will help this division to withstand.
    A real example?
    According to a similar scenario, the USSR was destroyed. They are coming to Russia with a similar event.
    The trouble is that they are preparing to resist one weapon, and the enemy uses another.
    And it would be fine if there were external attacks. Otherwise they are from the inside recent times act.

Goering in the dock at the Nuremberg Trials

On October 1, 1946, the verdict of the International Military Tribunal was announced in Nuremberg, condemning the main war criminals. It is often called the "Court of History". It was not only one of the largest trials in the history of mankind, but also a major milestone in the development of international law. The Nuremberg trials legalized the final defeat of fascism.

In the dock:

For the first time, criminals who made an entire state criminal were found and were severely punished. The initial list of the accused included:

1. Hermann Wilhelm Göring, Reichsmarschall, Commander-in-Chief of the German Air Force
2. Rudolf Hess (German Rudolf Heß), Hitler's deputy in charge of the Nazi party.
3. Joachim von Ribbentrop (German Ullrich Friedrich Willy Joachim von Ribbentrop), Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany.
4. Robert Ley, head of the Labor Front
5. Wilhelm Keitel (German: Wilhelm Keitel), Chief of Staff of the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces.
6. Ernst Kaltenbrunner (German Ernst Kaltenbrunner), head of the RSHA.
7. Alfred Rosenberg (German Alfred Rosenberg), one of the main ideologues of Nazism, Reich Minister for Eastern Territories.
8. Hans Frank (German Dr. Hans Frank), head of the occupied Polish lands.
9. Wilhelm Frick (German Wilhelm Frick), Minister of the Interior of the Reich.
10. Julius Streicher (German Julius Streicher), Gauleiter, editor-in-chief of the anti-Semitic newspaper "Sturmovik" (German: Der Stürmer - Der Sturmer).
11. Hjalmar Schacht, Reich Minister of Economy before the war.
12. Walther Funk (German Walther Funk), Minister of Economy after Schacht.
13. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (German: Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach), head of the Friedrich Krupp concern.
14. Karl Dönitz (German Karl Dönitz), admiral of the fleet of the Third Reich.
15. Erich Raeder, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy.
16. Baldur von Schirach (German Baldur Benedikt von Schirach), head of the Hitler Youth, Gauleiter of Vienna.
17. Fritz Sauckel (German Fritz Sauckel), leader of the forced deportations to the Reich of labor from the occupied territories.
18. Alfred Jodl (German Alfred Jodl), chief of staff of the OKW operational leadership
19. Franz von Papen (Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen), German Chancellor to Hitler, then Ambassador to Austria and Turkey.
20. Arthur Seyß-Inquart (German Dr. Arthur Seyß-Inquart), Chancellor of Austria, then Imperial Commissioner of the occupied Holland.
21. Albert Speer, Reich Minister of Armaments.
22. Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath (German: Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath), Minister of Foreign Affairs in the early years of Hitler's reign, then governor in the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
23. Hans Fritzsche (German. Hans Fritzsche), head of the press and broadcasting department in the Ministry of Propaganda.

Twenty-fourth - Martin Bormann, head of the party office, was accused in absentia. Groups or organizations to which the defendants belonged were also accused.

Consequence and nature of the charge

Soon after the end of the war, the victorious countries of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France, during the London conference, approved the Agreement on the Establishment of the International Military Tribunal and its Charter, the principles of which were approved by the UN General Assembly as generally recognized in the fight against crimes against humanity. On August 29, 1945, a list of top war criminals was published, including 24 prominent Nazis. The charges against them included the following points:

Nazi Party plans

  • -Using Nazi control for aggression against foreign states.
  • -Aggressive actions against Austria and Czechoslovakia.
  • -An attack on Poland.
  • -Aggressive war against the whole world (1939-1941).
  • -Invasion of Germany into the territory of the USSR in violation of the non-aggression pact of 23 August 1939.
  • -Cooperation with Italy and Japan and the aggressive war against the United States (November 1936 - December 1941).

Crimes against the world

"All the accused and various other persons for a number of years up to May 8, 1945, participated in the planning, preparation, unleashing and waging wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements and obligations."

War crimes

  • -Killings and ill-treatment of civilians in the occupied territories and on the high seas.
  • - Taking the civilian population of the occupied territories into slavery and for other purposes.
  • -Killings and cruel treatment of prisoners of war and military personnel of countries with which Germany was at war, as well as with persons who were sailing on the high seas.
  • -The aimless destruction of cities and towns and villages, devastation, not justified by military necessity.
  • -Germanization of the occupied territories.

Crimes against humanity

  • -The accused pursued a policy of persecution, repression and extermination of the enemies of the Nazi government. The Nazis threw people into prisons without a trial, subjected them to persecution, humiliation, enslavement, torture, and killed them.

On October 18, 1945, the indictment arrived at the International Military Tribunal and, a month before the start of the trial, was served on each of the accused in German. On November 25, 1945, after reading the indictment, Robert Ley committed suicide, and Gustav Krupp was declared terminally ill by the medical commission, and the case against him was dismissed pending trial.

The rest of the accused were brought to trial.

Court

In accordance with the London Agreement, the International Military Tribunal was formed on an equal footing from representatives of the four countries. Lord J. Lawrence, the representative of Great Britain, was appointed chief judge. From other countries, the members of the tribunal were approved:

  • - from the USSR: Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, Major General of Justice I. T. Nikitchenko.
  • -from USA: former Attorney General of the country F. Biddle.
  • -from France: professor of criminal law A. Donnedier de Vabre.

Each of the 4 countries sent their main prosecutors, their deputies and assistants to the trial:

  • - from the USSR: the Prosecutor General of the Ukrainian SSR R.A. Rudenko.
  • -From USA: Member of the Federal Supreme Court Robert Jackson.
  • -from UK: Hartley Shawcross
  • -from France: François de Menton, who was absent in the early days of the trial, and was replaced by Charles Dubost, and then Champentier de Ribes was appointed instead of de Menton.

The trial lasted ten months in Nuremberg. A total of 216 court hearings were held. Each side presented evidence of crimes committed by Nazi criminals.

Due to the unprecedented severity of the crimes committed by the defendants, doubts arose as to whether to observe democratic norms of legal proceedings in relation to them. For example, representatives of the prosecution from England and the United States proposed not to give the defendants the last word. However, the French and Soviet sides insisted on the opposite.

The trial was tense not only because of the unusualness of the tribunal itself and the charges brought against the defendants.

The post-war exacerbation of relations between the USSR and the West after the famous Fulton speech by Churchill also affected, and the defendants, sensing the prevailing political situation, skillfully dragged on for time and hoped to get away from the well-deserved punishment. In such a difficult situation, the tough and professional actions of the Soviet prosecution played a key role. The film about concentration camps, shot by front-line cameramen, finally turned the tide of the process. The terrible pictures of Majdanek, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz completely removed the doubts of the tribunal.

Court verdict

The International Military Tribunal sentenced:

  • -To death by hanging: Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, Bormann (in absentia), Jodl (was acquitted posthumously during the review of the case by the Munich court in 1953).
  • -To life imprisonment: Hessa, Funka, Redera.
  • -To 20 years in prison: Shirakh, Speer.
  • -To 15 years in prison: Neurath.
  • -To 10 years in prison: Denitsa.
  • -Justified: Fritsche, Papen, Schacht.

The Soviet side protested against the acquittal of Papen, Fritsche, Schacht and the non-use of the death penalty against Hess.
The Tribunal recognized the organizations of the SS, SD, SA, Gestapo and the leadership of the Nazi party as criminal. The decision on recognizing the Supreme Command and the General Staff as criminal was not made, which caused the disagreement of a member of the tribunal from the USSR.

Most of the convicts filed petitions for clemency; Raeder - on the replacement of life imprisonment the death penalty; Goering, Jodl and Keitel - about replacing the hanging with execution if the request for clemency is not granted. All of these motions were rejected.
The death penalty was carried out on the night of October 16, 1946 in the building of the Nuremberg prison. Goering was poisoned in prison shortly before his execution.

The verdict was carried out "by on their own"American Sergeant John Wood.

Funk and Raeder, sentenced to life imprisonment, were pardoned in 1957. After Speer and Schirach were released in 1966, only Hess remained in prison. The right-wing forces of Germany repeatedly demanded that he be pardoned, but the victorious powers refused to commute the sentence. On August 17, 1987, Hess was found hanged in his cell.

Results and conclusions

The Nuremberg Tribunal, having created a precedent for the jurisdiction of the highest government officials to an international court, refuted the medieval principle "Kings are subject only to God." It was with the Nuremberg Trials that the history of international criminal law began. The principles enshrined in the Charter of the Tribunal were soon confirmed by decisions of the UN General Assembly as universally recognized principles of international law. Having passed a guilty verdict on the main Nazi criminals, the International Military Tribunal recognized the aggression as the gravest crime of an international character.

Not everyone who appeared before the tribunal received the same sentence. Of the 24 people, six were found guilty on all four counts. For example, Franz Papen, ambassador to Austria and then to Turkey, was released in the courtroom, although the Soviet side insisted on his guilt. In 1947, he received a sentence, which was then softened. The Nazi criminal ended his years ... in a castle, but far from a prison. And he continued to bend the line of his party, releasing "Memoirs of a Political Leader of Hitlerite Germany. 1933-1947 ", where he spoke about the correctness and consistency of German policy in the 1930s:" I made many mistakes in my life and more than once came to false conclusions. However, I owe it to my own family to correct at least some of my most offensive distortions of reality. The facts, when examined impartially, recreate a completely different picture. Nevertheless, this is not my main task. At the end of my life, which stretched over three generations, I am most concerned with promoting a greater understanding of the role of Germany in the events of this period. "

Organization of the tribunal

In 1942, British Prime Minister Churchill announced that the Nazi leadership should be executed without trial. He expressed this opinion more than once in the future. When Churchill tried to impose his opinion on Stalin, Stalin objected: “Whatever happens, it must be ... appropriate judgment... Otherwise, people will say that Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin simply took revenge on their political enemies! "" Roosevelt, hearing that Stalin insists on the trial, in turn said that the trial procedure should not be "too legal."

The demand for the creation of an International Military Tribunal was contained in the statement of the Soviet government of October 14, 1942 "On the responsibility of the Nazi invaders and their accomplices for the atrocities committed by them in the occupied countries of Europe."

The agreement on the creation of the International Military Tribunal and its charter were worked out by the USSR, USA, Great Britain and France during the London conference, which took place from June 26 to August 8, 1945. The jointly developed document reflected the agreed position of all 23 countries participating in the conference, the principles of the charter were approved by the UN General Assembly as universally recognized in the fight against crimes against humanity. On August 29, the first list of the main war criminals was published, consisting of 24 Nazi politicians, military men, ideologists of fascism.

List of defendants

In the initial list of the accused, the defendants were included in the following order:

  1. Hermann Wilhelm Goering (German. Hermann Wilhelm Göring), Reichsmarschall, Commander-in-Chief of the German Air Force
  2. Rudolf Hess (it. Rudolf Heß), Hitler's deputy in charge of the Nazi Party.
  3. Joachim von Ribbentrop (German. Ullrich Friedrich Willy Joachim von Ribbentrop ), Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany.
  4. Wilhelm Keitel (German. Wilhelm keitel), Chief of Staff of the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces.
  5. Robert Leigh (it. Robert Ley), head of the Labor Front
  6. Ernst Kaltenbrunner (German. Ernst Kaltenbrunner), head of the RSHA.
  7. Alfred Rosenberg (it. Alfred rosenberg), one of the main ideologues of Nazism, Reich Minister for Eastern Territories.
  8. Hans Frank (German. Dr. Hans Frank), head of the occupied Polish lands.
  9. Wilhelm Frick (German. Wilhelm frrick), Minister of the Interior of the Reich.
  10. Julius Streicher (German. Julius streicher), Gauleiter, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Sturmovik" (German. Der stürmer - Der Sturmer).
  11. Walter Funk (German. Walther funk), Minister of Economy after Schacht.
  12. Hjalmar Schacht (it. Hjalmar Schacht), Reich Minister of Economy before the war.
  13. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Galbach (German. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach ), head of the Friedrich Krupp concern.
  14. Karl Dönitz (German. Karl Dönitz), Grand Admiral of the Navy of the Third Reich, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, after Hitler's death and in accordance with his posthumous testament - the President of Germany
  15. Erich Raeder (it. Erich raeder), Commander-in-Chief of the Navy.
  16. Baldur von Schirach (German. Baldur benedikt von schirach), head of the Hitler Youth, Gauleiter of Vienna.
  17. Fritz Sauckel (German. Fritz Sauckel), the head of the forced deportations to the Reich of labor from the occupied territories.
  18. Alfred Jodl (German. Alfred jodl), chief of staff of the OKW operational management
  19. Martin Bormann (it. Martin Bormann), the head of the party office, was accused in absentia.
  20. Franz von Papen (it. Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen ), Chancellor of Germany to Hitler, then Ambassador to Austria and Turkey.
  21. Arthur Seyss-Inquart (German. Dr. Arthur Seyß-Inquart), Chancellor of Austria, then Imperial Commissioner of Occupied Holland.
  22. Albert Speer (German. Albert speer), Reich Minister of Armaments.
  23. Constantine von Neurath (it. Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath ), in the early years of Hitler's reign, Minister of Foreign Affairs, then governor in the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
  24. Hans Fritsche (it. Hans Fritzsche), head of the press and broadcasting department at the Ministry of Propaganda.

Remarks to the accusation

The defendants were asked to write on it their attitude to the prosecution. Raeder and Lei did not write anything (Lei actually responded by committing suicide shortly after the charges were filed), and the rest of the defendants wrote as follows:

  1. Hermann Wilhelm Goering: "The winner is always the judge, and the loser is the accused!"
  2. Rudolf Hess: "I don't regret anything"
  3. Joachim von Ribbentrop: "The wrong people were charged"
  4. Wilhelm Keitel: "An order for a soldier is always an order!"
  5. Ernst Kaltenbrunner: “I am not responsible for war crimes, I was only doing my duty as a leader intelligence agencies, and I refuse to serve as a kind of ersatz Himmler "
  6. Alfred Rosenberg: “I reject the 'conspiracy' charge. Anti-Semitism was only a necessary defensive measure. "
  7. Hans Frank: “I see this process as a high court pleasing to God, designed to sort out the terrible period of Hitler’s reign and complete it”
  8. Wilhelm Frick: "The entire accusation is based on the assumption of participation in a conspiracy"
  9. Julius Streicher: "This process is a triumph of world Jewry"
  10. Hjalmar Schacht: “I don’t understand at all why I was charged”
  11. Walter Funk: “Never in my life have I done anything consciously or out of ignorance that would give grounds for such accusations. If I, out of ignorance or due to delusion, committed the acts listed in the indictment, then my guilt should be viewed from the perspective of my personal tragedy, but not as a crime. "
  12. Karl Dönitz: “None of the charges have anything to do with me. American inventions! "
  13. Baldur von Schirach: "All troubles come from racial politics"
  14. Fritz Sauckel: “The chasm between the ideal of a socialist society, nurtured and defended by me, a sailor and a worker in the past, and these terrible events - concentration camps- shook me deeply "
  15. Alfred Jodl: "The mixture of just accusations and political propaganda is deplorable"
  16. Franz von Papen: “The accusation horrified me, firstly, by the awareness of irresponsibility, as a result of which Germany was plunged into this war, which turned into a global catastrophe, and secondly, by the crimes that were committed by some of my compatriots. The latter are inexplicable from a psychological point of view. It seems to me that the years of atheism and totalitarianism are to blame for everything. It was they who turned Hitler into a pathological liar "
  17. Arthur Seyss-Inquart: "Hopefully this is the last act of the tragedy of World War II"
  18. Albert Speer: “The process is necessary. Even an authoritarian state does not relieve each individual of responsibility for the terrible crimes they have committed. "
  19. Konstantin von Neurath: "I have always been against accusations with no possible defense"
  20. Hans Fritsche: “This is a terrible accusation of all time. Only one thing can be more terrible: the forthcoming accusation that the German people will bring against us for abusing their idealism. "

Groups or organizations to which the defendants belonged were also accused.

Even before the start of the trial, after reading the indictment, on November 25, 1945, the head of the Labor Front, Robert Ley, committed suicide in the cell. Gustav Krupp was declared terminally ill by the medical commission, and the case was dismissed pending trial.

The rest of the accused were brought to trial.

The progress of the process

The International Military Tribunal was formed on a parity basis from representatives of the four great powers in accordance with the London Agreement.

Members of the tribunal

  • from the United States: former Attorney General of the country F. Biddle.
  • from the USSR: Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, Major General of Justice I. T. Nikitchenko.
  • from UK: Chief Justice, Lord Jeffrey Lawrence.
  • from France: Professor of Criminal Law A. Donnedier de Vabre.

Each of the 4 countries sent their own chief accusers, their deputies and assistants:

  • from the US: US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson.
  • from the USSR: Prosecutor General of the Ukrainian SSR R.A. Rudenko.
  • from UK: Hartley Shawcross
  • from France: François de Menton, who was absent in the early days of the trial and was replaced by Charles Dubost, and then Champentier de Ribes was appointed in place of de Menton.

In total, 216 court hearings were held, the chairman of the court was the representative of Great Britain J. Lawrence. Various evidences were presented, among them the so-called. "Secret protocols" to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (presented by I. Ribbentrop's lawyer A. Seidl).

Due to the post-war aggravation of relations between the USSR and the West, the process was tense, this gave the accused hope for the collapse of the process. The situation became especially tense after Churchill's Fulton speech, when real opportunity wars against the USSR. Therefore, the accused behaved boldly, skillfully playing for time, hoping that the coming war would put an end to the trial (Goering contributed most of all to this). At the end of the trial, the prosecution of the USSR presented a film about the concentration camps of Maidanek, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz, filmed by front-line cameramen of the Soviet army.

Accusations

  1. Nazi Party plans:
    • Using Nazi control for aggression against foreign states.
    • Aggressive actions against Austria and Czechoslovakia.
    • Attack on Poland.
    • Aggressive war against the whole world (-).
    • German invasion of the USSR in violation of the non-aggression pact of 23 August 1939.
    • Cooperation with Italy and Japan and the aggressive war against the United States (November 1936 - December 1941).
  2. Crimes against the world:
    • « All the accused and various other persons for a number of years before May 8, 1945, participated in the planning, preparation, unleashing and waging of aggressive wars, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements and obligations».
  3. War crimes:
    • Murder and ill-treatment of civilians in the occupied territories and on the high seas.
    • The withdrawal of the civilian population of the occupied territories into slavery and for other purposes.
    • Murders and cruel treatment of prisoners of war and military personnel of countries with which Germany was at war, as well as with persons who were sailing on the high seas.
    • Aimless destruction of cities and towns and villages, devastation not justified by military necessity.
    • Germanization of the occupied territories.
  4. Crimes against humanity:
    • The defendants pursued a policy of persecution, repression and extermination of the enemies of the Nazi government. The Nazis threw people into prisons without a trial, subjected them to persecution, humiliation, enslavement, torture, and killed them.

Hitler did not take all responsibility with him to the grave. All wine is not wrapped in Himmler's shroud. These living have chosen these dead as accomplices in this grand brotherhood of conspirators, and each of them must pay for the crime they committed together.

We can say that Hitler committed his last crime against the country over which he ruled. He was a mad messiah who started a war for no reason and continued it senselessly. If he could no longer rule, then he did not care what would happen to Germany ...

They stand before this judgment as blood-stained Gloucester stood before the body of his slain king. He pleaded with the widow, as they plead with you: "Tell me I did not kill them." And the queen replied: “Then tell them that they are not killed. But they are dead. " If you say that these people are innocent, it is the same as saying that there was no war, there were no killed, there was no crime.

From the accusatory speech by Robert Jackson

Sentence

International military tribunal sentenced:

  • To death by hanging: Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, Bormann (in absentia), Jodl.
  • To life imprisonment: Hess, Funka, Redera.
  • By 20 years in prison: Schirach, Speer.
  • By 15 years in prison: Neurath.
  • By 10 years in prison: Dönitz.
  • Justified: Fritsche, Papen, Schacht

Soviet judge I. T. Nikitchenko filed a dissenting opinion, where he objected to the acquittal of Fritsche, Papen and Schacht, non-recognition of the German Cabinet of Ministers, the General Staff and the Supreme Command of criminal organizations, as well as life imprisonment (and not the death penalty) for Rudolf Hess.

Jodl was fully acquitted posthumously, when the case was reviewed by the Munich court in 1953, but later, under US pressure, the decision to overturn the verdict of the Nuremberg court was annulled.

The Tribunal declared the SS, SD, SA, Gestapo and the leadership of the Nazi Party to be criminal.

A number of convicts submitted petitions to the Allied Control Commission for Germany: Goering, Hess, Ribbentrop, Sauckel, Jodl, Keitel, Seyss-Inquart, Funk, Doenitz and Neurath - for pardon; Raeder - on the replacement of life imprisonment with the death penalty; Goering, Jodl and Keitel - about replacing the hanging with execution if the request for clemency is not granted. All of these motions were rejected.

The death penalty was carried out on the night of October 16, 1946, in the gymnasium of the Nuremberg prison. Goering poisoned himself in prison shortly before the execution (there is an assumption that his wife gave him a capsule with poison during his last date with a kiss).

Trials of lesser war criminals continued in Nuremberg until the 1950s (see Subsequent Nuremberg Trials), but not in The International Tribunal and in an American court.

On August 15, 1946, the American Information Administration published a survey of polls, according to which the overwhelming majority of Germans (about 80 percent) considered the Nuremberg trial fair and the defendants' guilt undeniable; about half of the respondents answered that the defendants should be sentenced to death; only four percent responded negatively to the process.

Execution and cremation of the bodies of convicts

One of the witnesses to the execution, the writer Boris Polevoy, published his memoirs and impressions of the execution. The sentence was carried out by US Sergeant John Wood - "of his own free will."

Going to the gallows most of of them she tried to appear bold. Some behaved defiantly, others resigned themselves to their fate, but there were also those who appealed to God's mercy... All but Rosenberg made short last-minute statements. And only Julius Streicher mentioned Hitler. In the gym, where American guards played basketball three days ago, there were three black gallows, of which two were used. They were hung one at a time, but in order to finish as soon as possible, the next Nazi was brought into the hall when the previous one was still hanging out on the gallows.

The condemned climbed 13 wooden steps to a platform 8 feet high. Ropes were suspended from beams supported by two pillars. The hanged man fell into the interior of the gallows, the bottom of which was hung with dark curtains on one side, and on three sides it was covered with a tree so that no one could see the death throes of the hanged.

After the execution of the last convict (Zeiss-Inquart), a stretcher with Goering's body was brought into the hall so that he would take a symbolic place under the gallows, as well as for journalists to be convinced of his death.

After the execution, the bodies of the hanged and the corpse of Goering's suicide were placed in a row. “Representatives of all the Allied powers,” wrote one of the Soviet journalists, “examined them and signed the death certificates. Photographs were taken of each body, clothed and nude. Then each corpse was wrapped in a mattress along with the last clothes it was wearing, and With the rope on which he was hung, they put him in the coffin. All the coffins were sealed. While the rest of the bodies were being handled, Goering's body was brought on a stretcher, covered with an army blanket ... At 4 in the morning, the coffins were loaded into 2.5-ton trucks, those who were waiting in the prison yard, covered with a waterproof tarp and drove with a military escort, with an American captain in the front car, followed by a French and an American general, followed by trucks and a jeep guarding them with specially selected soldiers and a machine gun. The convoy drove through Nuremberg and , leaving the city, took a direction to the south.

At dawn they drove up to Munich and immediately went to the outskirts of the city to the crematorium, the owner of which had been warned of the arrival of the corpses of "fourteen American soldiers." There were actually only eleven corpses, but this was said in order to lull possible suspicions of the crematorium staff. The crematorium was surrounded, radio communication was established with the soldiers and tankmen of the cordon in case of any alarm. Anyone who entered the crematorium was not allowed to leave until the end of the day. The coffins were unsealed and the bodies checked by the American, British, French and Soviet officers present at the execution to ensure they were not replaced on the way. After that, the cremation immediately began, which lasted all day. When this case was finished, a car drove up to the crematorium, a container with ashes was put in it. The ashes were scattered from the plane in the wind.

Conclusion

Having passed a guilty verdict on the main Nazi criminals, the International Military Tribunal recognized the aggression as the gravest crime of an international character. The Nuremberg Trials are sometimes referred to as " By the court of history"Because he had a significant impact on the final defeat of Nazism. Funk and Raeder, sentenced to life imprisonment, were pardoned in 1957. After Speer and Schirach were released in 1966, only Hess remained in prison. The right-wing forces of Germany repeatedly demanded that he be pardoned, but the victorious powers refused to commute the sentence. On August 17, 1987, Hess was found hanged in a gazebo in the prison yard.

The American film "Nuremberg" ( Nuremberg) ().

At the trial in Nuremberg, I said: “If Hitler had friends, I would be his friend. I owe him the inspiration and glory of my youth, just as I owe it later with horror and guilt. "

In the image of Hitler, as he was in relation to me and others, you can catch some nice features. There is also the impression of a person who is in many ways gifted and selfless. But the longer I wrote, the more I felt that it was about superficial qualities.

Because such impressions are countered by an unforgettable lesson: the Nuremberg Trials. I will never forget one photographic document of a Jewish family going to their death: a man with his wife and his children on the road to death. He still stands before my eyes today.

In Nuremberg I was sentenced to twenty years in prison. The verdict of the military tribunal, no matter how imperfectly portrayed history, tried to formulate guilt. Punishment, always of little use for measuring historical responsibility, ended my civic life. And that photo took the foundation of my life. It turned out to be more durable than the sentence.

Museum

Currently, the conference room ("Room 600"), where the Nuremberg trials took place, is the usual working space of the Nuremberg Regional Court (address: Bärenschanzstraße 72, Nürnberg). However, on weekends there are guided tours (from 1 pm to 4 pm every day). In addition, the Documentation Center for the History of Nazi Congresses in Nuremberg has a special exhibition dedicated to the Nuremberg Trials. This new museum (opened November 4) also has audio guides in Russian.

Notes (edit)

Literature

  • Gilbert G. M. Nuremberg Diary. The process through the eyes of a psychologist / per. with him. A. L. Utkina. - Smolensk: Rusich, 2004. - 608 pp. ISBN 5-8138-0567-2

see also

  • The Nuremberg Trials is a feature film by Stanley Kramer (1961).
  • "Nuremberg alarm" - two-part documentary 2008 based on the book by Alexander Zvyagintsev.

International trial former leaders Hitlerite Germany was held from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946 at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg (Germany). The initial list of the accused included the Nazis in the same order that I have listed in this post. On October 18, 1945, the indictment was served on the International Military Tribunal and, through its secretariat, transferred to each of the accused. A month before the start of the trial, each of them was served with an indictment in German. The defendants were asked to write on it their attitude to the prosecution. Raeder and Lei did not write anything (Lei's response was in fact his suicide shortly after the charges were filed), and the others wrote what I have on my line: "The last word."

Even before the start of the trial, after reading the indictment, on November 25, 1945, Robert Ley committed suicide in his cell. Gustav Krupp was declared terminally ill by the medical commission, and the case was dismissed pending trial.

Due to the unprecedented gravity of the crimes committed by the defendants, doubts arose whether to comply with all democratic norms of legal proceedings. The British and US accusations suggested not to give the defendants the last word, but the French and Soviet sides insisted on the opposite. These words, which have entered into eternity, I will present to you now.

List of the accused.


Hermann Wilhelm Goering(German Hermann Wilhelm Göring), Reichsmarschall, Commander-in-Chief of the German Air Force. He was the most important defendant. Sentenced to death by hanging. 2 hours before the execution of the sentence, he was poisoned with cyanide potassium, which was transferred to him with the assistance of E. von der Bach-Zelewski.

Hitler publicly declared Goering guilty of failing to organize air defense country. On April 23, 1945, proceeding from the Law on June 29, 1941, Goering, after a meeting with G. Lammers, F. Bowler, K. Kosher and others, turned to Hitler on the radio, asking for his consent to accept by him - Goering - the functions of the head of the government ... Goering announced that if he did not receive an answer by 22 o'clock, he would consider it as consent. On the same day, Goering received an order from Hitler, forbidding him to take the initiative, at the same time, on the orders of Martin Bormann, Goering was arrested by an SS detachment on charges of high treason. Two days later, Goering was replaced as commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe by Field Marshal R. von Greim, and stripped of his titles and awards. In his Political Testament, Hitler expelled Goering from the NSDAP on April 29 and officially named Grossadmiral Karl Doenitz as his successor in his place. On the same day he was transferred to a castle near Berchtesgaden. On May 5, the SS detachment transferred Goering's guards to Luftwaffe units, and Goering was immediately released. May 8, arrested by American troops in Berchtesgaden.

The last word: "The winner is always the judge, and the defeated is the accused!"
In a suicide note, Goering wrote "The Reichsmarshals are not hanged, they leave on their own."


Rudolf Hess(German Rudolf Heß), Hitler's deputy for the leadership of the Nazi party.

During the trial, his lawyers argued that he was insane, although Hess gave generally adequate testimony. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Soviet judge, who expressed a dissenting opinion, insisted on the death penalty. He served a life sentence in Berlin in the Spandau prison. After the release of A. Speer in 1965, she remained its only prisoner. Until the end of his days he was devoted to Hitler.

In 1986, the USSR government, for the first time in the entire time of Hess's imprisonment, considered the possibility of his release on humanitarian grounds. In the fall of 1987, during the presidency of the Soviet Union in the Spandau International Prison, it was planned to make a decision on his release, "showing mercy and demonstrating the humanity of Gorbachev's new course."

On August 17, 1987, 93-year-old Hess was found dead with a wire around his neck. After him, there was a testamentary note, handed to his relatives a month later and written on the back of a letter from relatives:

"A request to the directors to send this home. Written a few minutes before my death. I thank you all, my beloved, for all the dear things you have done for me. Tell Freiburg that I am extremely sorry that, starting with the Nuremberg trial, I must was to act as if I did not know her. I had no choice, because otherwise all attempts to find freedom would be in vain. I was so looking forward to meeting her. I did get a photo of her and you all. Your Eldest. "

The last word: "I don't regret anything."


Joachim von Ribbentrop(German: Ullrich Friedrich Willy Joachim von Ribbentrop), Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler's advisor foreign policy.

He met Hitler at the end of 1932, when he gave him his villa for secret negotiations with von Papen. With his exquisite manners at the table, Hitler impressed Ribbentrop so much that he soon joined the NSDAP, and later the SS. On May 30, 1933, Ribbentrop was awarded the title of SS Standartenfuehrer, and Himmler became a frequent visitor to his villa.

Hanged by the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal. It was he who signed the non-aggression pact between Germany and The Soviet Union, which the fascist Germany broke with incredible ease.

The last word: "The charges were brought against the wrong people."

Personally, I think he is the most disgusting type that appeared at the Nuremberg trials.


Robert Lay(German Robert Ley), head of the Labor Front, by order of which all the trade union leaders of the Reich were arrested. Charges were brought against him on three counts - conspiracy to wage aggressive war, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Committed suicide in prison shortly after being indicted before the trial began by hanging himself from a sewer pipe with a towel.

The last word: refused.


(Keitel signs the act of Germany's unconditional surrender)
Wilhelm Keitel(German Wilhelm Keitel), Chief of Staff of the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces. It was he who signed the act of surrender of Germany, which ended the Great Patriotic War and the second world war in Europe. However, Keitel advised Hitler not to attack France and opposed the Barbarossa plan. Both times he resigned, but Hitler did not accept it. In 1942 Keitel in last time dared to object to the Fuehrer, speaking in defense of Field Marshal Liszt, who had been defeated on the Eastern Front. The tribunal rejected Keitel's excuses that he was only following Hitler's orders and found him guilty on all counts. The verdict was carried out on October 16, 1946.

The last word: "An order for a soldier - there is always an order!"


Ernst Kaltenbrunner(German Ernst Kaltenbrunner), head of the RSHA - Main Directorate of Reich Security of the SS and State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of the Interior of Germany. For numerous crimes against civilians and prisoners of war, the court sentenced him to death by hanging. On October 16, 1946, the sentence was carried out.

The last word: "I am not responsible for war crimes, I was only fulfilling my duty as the head of the intelligence agencies, and I refuse to serve as a kind of ersatz Himmler."


(on right)


Alfred Rosenberg(German Alfred Rosenberg), one of the most influential members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), one of the main ideologues of Nazism, Reich Minister for Eastern Territories. Sentenced to death by hanging. Rosenberg was the only one of the 10 executed who refused to utter the last word on the scaffold.

The last word in court: "I reject the charge of 'conspiracy.' Anti-Semitism was only a necessary defensive measure."


(in the center)


Hans Frank(German Dr. Hans Frank), head of the occupied Polish lands. On October 12, 1939, immediately after the occupation of Poland, he was appointed by Hitler as the head of the department for population affairs of the Polish occupied territories, and then as governor-general of occupied Poland. Organized the mass destruction of the civilian population of Poland. Sentenced to death by hanging. The verdict was carried out on October 16, 1946.

The last word: "I see this process as a high court pleasing to God, designed to sort out the terrible period of Hitler's rule and complete it."


Wilhelm Frick(German Wilhelm Frick), Minister of the Interior of the Reich, Reichsleiter, head of the NSDAP deputy group in the Reichstag, lawyer, one of Hitler's closest friends in the early years of the struggle for power.

The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg held Frick responsible for placing Germany under Nazi rule. He was accused of drafting, signing and enforcing a number of laws banning political parties and trade unions, creating a system of concentration camps, encouraging the activities of the Gestapo, persecuting Jews and militarizing the German economy. He was found guilty on counts: crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Frick was hanged on October 16, 1946.

The last word: "The whole accusation is based on the assumption of participation in a conspiracy."


Julius Streicher(German Julius Streicher), Gauleiter, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Sturmovik" (German Der Stürmer - Der Sturmer).

He was charged with incitement to murder Jews, which fell under the Charge 4 trials - crimes against humanity. In response, Streicher called the process "a triumph of world Jewry." According to the test results, his IQ was the lowest of all the defendants. During the examination, Streicher once again told psychiatrists about his anti-Semitic beliefs, but he was found sane and capable of taking responsibility for his actions, albeit obsessed with an obsession. He believed that the accusers and judges were Jews and did not try to repent of their deeds. According to the psychologists who conducted the survey, his fanatical anti-Semitism is more likely a product of a sick psyche, but on the whole he gave the impression of an adequate person. His authority among the other accused was extremely low, many of them openly shunned such an odious and fanatical figure like him. Hanged on the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal for anti-Semitic propaganda and calls for genocide.

The last word: "This process is a triumph of world Jewry".


Hjalmar Schacht(German: Hjalmar Schacht), Reich Minister of Economy before the war, Director of the National Bank of Germany, President of the Reichsbank, Reich Minister of Economics, Reich Minister without portfolio. On January 7, 1939, he sent a letter to Hitler in which he indicated that the course pursued by the government would lead to the collapse of the German financial system and hyperinflation, and demanded the transfer of control over finances into the hands of the Reich Ministry of Finance and the Reichsbank.

In September 1939 he sharply opposed the invasion of Poland. Schacht reacted negatively to the war with the USSR, believing that Germany would lose the war by economic reasons... On November 30, 1941, he sent Hitler a harsh letter criticizing the regime. On January 22, 1942, he resigned from the post of Reich Minister.

Schacht had contacts with the conspirators against the Hitler regime, although he himself was not a member of the conspiracy. On July 21, 1944, after the failure of the July conspiracy against Hitler (July 20, 1944), Schacht was arrested and held in the concentration camps of Ravensbrück, Flossenburg and Dachau.

The last word: "I don't understand why I was charged."

Probably, this is the most difficult case, on October 1, 1946 Schacht was acquitted, then in January 1947 by a German denazification court he was sentenced to eight years in prison, but on September 2, 1948 he was still released from custody.

Later he worked in the banking sector in Germany, founded and headed the banking house "Schacht GmbH" in Dusseldorf. He died on June 3, 1970 in Munich. We can say that he was the luckiest of all the defendants. Though...


Walter Funk(German Walther Funk), German journalist, Nazi Minister of Economy after Schacht, President of the Reichsbank. Sentenced to life in prison. In 1957 he was released.

The last word: "Never in my life have I undertaken anything consciously or ignorantly that would give grounds for such accusations. If I, out of ignorance or due to delusion, committed the acts listed in the indictment, then my guilt should be considered in the light of my personal tragedy but not as a crime. "


(right; left - Hitler)
Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Galbach(German: Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach), head of the Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp concern. Since January 1933 he has been government press secretary, since November 1937, Reich Minister of Economy and General Plenipotentiary for War Economy, at the same time since January 1939 - President of the Reich Bank.

At the trial in Nuremberg, he was sentenced by the International Military Tribunal to life imprisonment. In 1957 he was released.


Karl Doenitz(German Karl Dönitz), Grand Admiral of the Fleet of the Third Reich, Commander-in-Chief navy Germany, after the death of Hitler and in accordance with his posthumous testament - the President of Germany.

The Nuremberg Tribunal for war crimes (in particular, conducting the so-called unrestricted submarine war) sentenced him to 10 years in prison. This verdict was contested by some lawyers, since the same methods of submarine warfare were widely practiced by the victors. Some allied officers after the verdict expressed their sympathy to Doenitz. Doenitz was found guilty on counts 2 (crimes against peace) and 3 (war crimes).

After his release from prison (Spandau in West Berlin), Doenitz wrote his memoirs "10 years and 20 days" (meaning 10 years in command of the fleet and 20 days of the presidency).

The last word: "None of the charges have anything to do with me. American inventions!"


Erich Raeder(German Erich Raeder), Grand Admiral, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy of the Third Reich. On January 6, 1943, Hitler ordered Raeder to disband the surface fleet, after which Raeder demanded resignation and on January 30, 1943, he was replaced by Karl Doenitz. Raeder received the honorary position of chief inspector of the fleet, but in fact had no rights and responsibilities.

In May 1945, he was taken prisoner by Soviet troops and transferred to Moscow. By the verdict of the Nuremberg Trials, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1945 to 1955 in custody. He petitioned to have his prison sentence replaced by firing squad; the control commission found that it "cannot increase the sentence." On January 17, 1955, he was released for health reasons. He wrote his memoirs "My Life".

The last word: refused.


Baldur von Schirach(German: Baldur Benedikt von Schirach), leader of the Hitler Youth, then Gauleiter of Vienna. At the Nuremberg Trials, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He fully served his imprisonment in the Berlin military prison Spandau. Released on September 30, 1966.

The last word: "All troubles are from racial politics."

I completely agree with this statement.


Fritz Sauckel(German Fritz Sauckel), leader of the forced deportations to the Reich of labor from the occupied territories. Sentenced to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity (mainly for the deportation of foreign workers). Hanged.

The last word: "The chasm between the ideal of a socialist society, nurtured and defended by me, in the past a sailor and a worker, and these terrible events - the concentration camps - deeply shook me."


Alfred Jodl(German: Alfred Jodl), Chief of the Operations Division of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, Colonel General. At dawn on October 16, 1946, Colonel General Alfred Jodl was hanged. His body was cremated, and his ashes were secretly taken out and scattered. Jodl was actively involved in planning mass destruction civilians in the occupied territories. On May 7, 1945, on behalf of Admiral K. Doenitz, he signed a general surrender of the German armed forces to the Western allies in Reims.

As Albert Speer recalled, "Jodl's precise and discreet defense made a strong impression. It seems that he was one of the few who managed to rise above the situation." Jodl argued that the soldier cannot be held responsible for the decisions of politicians. He insisted that he honestly performed his duty, obeying the Fuehrer, and considered the war a just deed. The tribunal found him guilty and sentenced to death. Before his death, in one of his letters, he wrote: "Hitler buried himself under the ruins of the Reich and his hopes. Let whoever wants to curse him for this, I can't." Jodl was fully acquitted during the review of the case by the Munich court in 1953 (!).

The last word: "The mixture of just accusations and political propaganda is deplorable."


Martin Bormann(it. Martin Bormann), the head of the Party Chancellery, was accused in absentia. Chief of Staff of the Deputy Fuhrer "from July 3, 1933), head of the NSDAP Party Chancellery" from May 1941) and Hitler's personal secretary (from April 1943). Reichsleiter (1933), Reichsminister without portfolio, SS Obergruppenführer, SA Obergruppenführer.

Associated with him interesting story.

At the end of April 1945, Bormann was with Hitler in Berlin, in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery. After the suicides of Hitler and Goebbels, Bormann disappeared. However, already in 1946, Arthur Axman, the chief of the Hitler Youth, who, together with Martin Bormann on May 1-2, 1945, tried to leave Berlin, said during interrogation that Martin Bormann died (more precisely, committed suicide) before his eyes on May 2, 1945.

He confirmed that he had seen Martin Bormann and Hitler's personal physician Ludwig Stumpfegger lying on their backs near the bus station in Berlin where the battle was taking place. He crawled close to their faces and clearly distinguished the smell of bitter almonds - it was potassium cyanide. The bridge over which Bormann intended to escape from Berlin was blocked Soviet tanks... Bormann chose to bite through the ampoule.

However, this testimony was not considered sufficient evidence of Bormann's death. In 1946, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg tried Bormann in absentia and sentenced him to death. The lawyers insisted that their client was not subject to trial, since he was already dead. The court did not find the arguments convincing, considered the case and delivered a verdict, stipulating that Bormann, in case of arrest, has the right to submit a request for pardon within the established time frame.

In the 1970s in Berlin, while laying a road, workers discovered the remains, which were later tentatively identified as the remains of Martin Bormann. His son - Martin Bormann Jr. - agreed to provide his blood for DNA analysis of the remains.

The analysis confirmed that the remains really belong to Martin Bormann, who actually tried to leave the bunker and get out of Berlin on May 2, 1945, but realizing that this was impossible, he committed suicide by taking poison (traces of an ampoule with potassium cyanide were found in the teeth of the skeleton). Therefore, the "Bormann case" can be safely considered closed.

In the USSR and Russia, Bormann is known not only as a historical person, but as a character in the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" (where he was played by Yuri Vizbor) - and, in this regard, a character in anecdotes about Stirlitz.


Franz von Papen(German Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen), Chancellor of Germany before Hitler, then Ambassador to Austria and Turkey. Was acquitted. However, in February 1947, he was again brought before the denazification commission and sentenced to eight months in prison as a major war criminal.

Von Papen tried unsuccessfully to restart political career in the 1950s. In his declining years he lived in the castle of Benzenhofen in Upper Swabia and published many books and memoirs trying to justify his policies of the 1930s, drawing parallels between this period and the beginning " Cold war"Died on May 2, 1969 in Obersasbach (Baden).

The last word: “The accusation horrified me, firstly, by the realization of irresponsibility, as a result of which Germany was plunged into this war, which turned into a global catastrophe, and secondly, by the crimes that were committed by some of my compatriots. The latter are inexplicable from a psychological point of view. It seems to me that the years of atheism and totalitarianism are to blame for everything. It was they who turned Hitler into a pathological liar. "


Arthur Seyss-Inquart(German Dr. Arthur Seyß-Inquart), Chancellor of Austria, then Imperial Commissioner of occupied Poland and Holland. At Nuremberg, Seyss-Inquart was charged with crimes against peace, planning and unleashing an aggressive war, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was found guilty on all counts, excluding conspiracy. After the announcement of the verdict of Seyss-Inquart in last word admitted his responsibility.

The last word: "Death by hanging - well, I did not expect anything else ... I hope that this execution is the last act of the tragedy of World War II ... I believe in Germany."


Albert Speer(German Albert Speer), Reich Minister of Armaments and War Industry (1943-1945).

In 1927, Speer obtained an architect's license at the Munich Higher Technical School. Due to the depression taking place in the country, there was no work for the young architect. Speer renovated the interior of the villa for free to the head of staff western district- cruiser NSAK Hanke, who, in turn, recommended the architect to Gauleiter Goebbels for rebuilding the meeting room and furnishing the rooms. After that, Speer receives an order - the design of the May Day rally in Berlin. And then the party congress in Nuremberg (1933). He used red panels and the figure of an eagle, which he proposed to make with a wingspan of 30 meters. Leni Riefenstahl captured in her documentary film "Victory of Faith" the grandiose procession at the opening of the party congress. This was followed by the reconstruction of the headquarters of the NSDAP in Munich in the same 1933. This is how Speer's architectural career began. Hitler was looking for new ones everywhere energetic people on which one could rely in the not too distant future. Considering himself an expert in painting and architecture, and possessing some abilities in this area, Hitler chose Speer in his inner circle, which, combined with the strong careerist aspirations of the latter, determined his entire future destiny.

The last word: "The process is necessary. Even an authoritarian state does not relieve everyone of responsibility for the terrible crimes they have committed."


(left)
Constantine von Neurath(German: Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath), in the early years of Hitler's reign, Minister of Foreign Affairs, then governor in the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Neurath was accused at the Nuremberg Court of "assisting in the preparation of the war, ... participated in the political planning and preparation by the Nazi conspirators of aggressive wars and wars that violate international treaties ... authorized, directed and took part in war crimes ... and in crimes against humanity, ... including in particular crimes against persons and property in the occupied territories. " Neurath was found guilty on all four counts and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. In 1953, Neurath was released due to poor health, aggravated by a myocardial infarction in prison.

The last word: "I have always been against accusations with no possible defense."


Hans Fritsche(German Hans Fritzsche), head of the press and broadcasting department at the Ministry of Propaganda.

During the fall of the Nazi regime, Fritsche was in Berlin and surrendered along with the last defenders of the city on May 2, 1945, surrendering to the Red Army. He appeared before the Nuremberg trials, where, together with Julius Streicher (in view of the death of Goebbels), he represented Nazi propaganda. Unlike Streicher, who was sentenced to death, Fritsche was acquitted on all three charges: the court found it proven that he did not call for crimes against humanity, did not participate in war crimes and conspiracies to seize power. Like the two others acquitted at Nuremberg (Hjalmar Schacht and Franz von Papen), Fritsche, however, was soon convicted of other crimes by a denazification commission. After 9 years in prison, Fritsche was released for health reasons in 1950 and died of cancer three years later.

The last word: "This is a terrible accusation of all times. Only one thing more terrible can be: the forthcoming accusation that the German people will bring against us for the abuse of their idealism."


Heinrich Himmler(German Heinrich Luitpold Himmler), one of the main political and military leaders of the Third Reich. Reichsfuehrer SS (1929-1945), Reich Minister of the Interior of Germany (1943-1945), Reichsleiter (1934), head of the RSHA (1942-1943). Found guilty of numerous war crimes, including genocide. Since 1931, Himmler was engaged in the creation of his own secret service - SD, at the head of which he put Heydrich.

Since 1943, Himmler became the Reich Minister of the Interior, and after the failure of the July conspiracy (1944) - the commander of the Reserve Army. Beginning in the summer of 1943, Himmler, through his proxies, began to maintain contacts with representatives of the Western special services in order to conclude a separate peace. Having learned about this, Hitler, on the eve of the collapse of the Third Reich, expelled Himmler from the NSDAP as a traitor and deprived him of all ranks and posts.

After leaving the Reich Chancellery in early May 1945, Himmler headed to the Danish border with a foreign passport in the name of Heinrich Hitzinger, who had been shot shortly before and looked a bit like Himmler, but on May 21, 1945, he was arrested by the British military authorities and on May 23, he committed suicide by taking cyanide ...

Himmler's body was cremated and the ashes scattered in a forest near Luneburg.


Paul Joseph Goebbels(German Paul Joseph Goebbels) - Reich Minister of Education and Propaganda of Germany (1933-1945), imperial head of Nazi Party propaganda (since 1929), Reichsleiter (1933), penultimate chancellor of the Third Reich (April-May 1945).

In his political testament, Hitler appointed Goebbels as his successor as chancellor, but the very next day after the Fuhrer's suicide, Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide, having previously poisoned their six young children. "There will be no act of surrender under my signature!" - declared the new chancellor when he learned about the Soviet demand for unconditional surrender. On May 1 at 21 o'clock, Goebbels took potassium cyanide. His wife Magda, before committing suicide after her husband, said to her young children: "Do not be alarmed, now the doctor will vaccinate you, which is given to all children and soldiers." When the children, under the influence of morphine, fell into a half-sleep state, she herself put a crushed ampoule with potassium cyanide into each child's mouth (there were six of them).

It is impossible to imagine how she felt at this moment.

And of course, the Fuhrer of the Third Reich:

Winners in Paris.


Hitler behind Hermann Goering, Nuremberg, 1928.


Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Venice, June 1934.


Hitler, Mannerheim and Ruthie in Finland, 1942.


Hitler and Mussolini, Nuremberg, 1940.

Adolf Gitler(German Adolf Hitler) - the founder and central figure of Nazism, the founder of the totalitarian dictatorship of the Third Reich, Fuhrer of the National Socialist German Workers' Party from July 29, 1921, Reich Chancellor of National Socialist Germany from January 31, 1933, Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor of Germany from August 2 1934, supreme commander the armed forces of Germany in World War II.

The conventional version of Hitler's suicide

On April 30, 1945, in Berlin surrounded by Soviet troops and realizing a complete defeat, Hitler, along with his wife Eva Braun, committed suicide, having previously killed their beloved Blondie dog.
In Soviet historiography, the point of view was confirmed that Hitler took poison (cyanide potassium, like most of the Nazis who committed suicide), however, according to eyewitnesses, he shot himself. There is also a version according to which Hitler and Brown first took both poison, after which the Fuhrer shot himself in the temple (thus using both instruments of death).

The day before, Hitler gave the order to deliver cans of gasoline from the garage (to destroy the bodies). On April 30, after lunch, Hitler said goodbye to those from his inner circle and, shaking hands with them, together with Eva Braun retired to his apartment, from where the sound of a shot was soon heard. Shortly after 15 hours 15 minutes, Hitler's servant Heinz Linge, accompanied by his adjutant Otto Günsche, Goebbels, Bormann and Axmann, entered the Fuehrer's apartment. Dead Hitler was sitting on the sofa; a bloody stain was spreading across his temple. Eva Braun was lying next to her, no visible external damage. Gunsche and Linge wrapped Hitler's body in a soldier's blanket and carried it to the garden of the Reich Chancellery; after him they carried out the body of Eve. The bodies were laid near the entrance to the bunker, doused with gasoline and burned. On May 5, the bodies were found on a piece of blanket sticking out of the ground and fell into the hands of the Soviet SMERSH. The body was identified, in part, with the help of Hitler's dentist, who confirmed the authenticity of the corpse's dentures. In February 1946, Hitler's body, along with the bodies of Eva Braun and the Goebbels family - Joseph, Magda, 6 children, was buried at one of the NKVD bases in Magdeburg. In 1970, when the territory of this base was to be transferred to the GDR, at the suggestion of Yu.V. Andropov, approved by the Politburo, the remains of Hitler and others buried with him were dug, cremated to ash and then thrown into the Elbe. Only dentures and a part of the skull with a bullet entrance hole (discovered separately from the corpse) have survived. They are kept in Russian archives, as are the side arms of the sofa on which Hitler shot himself, with traces of blood. However, Hitler's biographer Werner Mather expresses doubts that the discovered corpse and part of the skull really belonged to Hitler.

On October 18, 1945, the indictment was served on the International Military Tribunal and, through its secretariat, transferred to each of the accused. A month before the start of the trial, each of them was served with an indictment in German.

Outcome: international military tribunal sentenced:
To death by hanging: Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, Bormann (in absentia), Jodl (who was fully acquitted posthumously when the case was reviewed by the Munich court in 1953).
To life imprisonment: Hessa, Funka, Redera.
By 20 years in prison: Shirakh, Speer.
By 15 years in prison: Neurath.
By 10 years in prison: Denitsa.
Justified: Fritsche, Papen, Schacht.

The tribunal recognized as criminal organizations SS, SD, SA, Gestapo and the leadership of the Nazi party... The decision on recognizing the Supreme Command and the General Staff as criminal was not made, which caused the disagreement of a member of the tribunal from the USSR.

A number of convicts filed petitions: Goering, Hess, Ribbentrop, Sauckel, Jodl, Keitel, Seyss-Inquart, Funk, Doenitz and Neurath - for clemency; Raeder - on the replacement of life imprisonment with the death penalty; Goering, Jodl and Keitel - about replacing the hanging with execution if the request for clemency is not granted. All of these motions were rejected.

The death penalty was carried out on the night of October 16, 1946 in the building of the Nuremberg prison.

Having passed a guilty verdict on the main Nazi criminals, the International Military Tribunal recognized the aggression as the gravest crime of an international character. The Nuremberg Trials are sometimes referred to as the "Judgment of History" because it had a significant impact on the final defeat of Nazism. Funk and Raeder, sentenced to life imprisonment, were pardoned in 1957. After Speer and Schirach were released in 1966, only Hess remained in prison. The right-wing forces of Germany repeatedly demanded that he be pardoned, but the victorious powers refused to commute the sentence. On August 17, 1987, Hess was found hanged in his cell.



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