35
LOOKING BACK
Justice At
Nuremberg:
When Nazis
Told The Tiruth
It will soon be 40 years
since 22 Nazi war criminals
were arraigned before an
international tribunal. Was
justice done?
BY ARNOLD AGES
Special to The Jewish News
It will soon be 40 years
since the allied powers im-
paneled judges and court per-
sonnel to hear charges against
22 prominent Nazis.
Some of the people who
were most responsible for
Nazis crimes did not sit in the
docket at Nuremberg.
Hitler, the chief architect
and ideologue of Nazism, was
not available for trial; he took
his own life in his Berlin
bunker shortly before con-
quering Russian troops en-
tered the city.
Goebbels, the Reich propa-
ganda minister who used a
brilliantly malignant mind to
foster the atmospherics of
anti-Semitism in Germany,
joined his wife and their five
children in a suicide pact in
Hitler's bunker.
Himmler, the head of the
SS, the organization that
created and perfected the
death camp system, exited
the world via a cyanide cap-
sule.
Heydrich, his protege and
head of the SS security net-
work, didn't make it to Nur-
emberg because he was killed
by partisans in Prague in
1942.
Eichmann, another Himm-
ler trainee and a specialist in
Jewish affairs who ordered
the dispatch of millions of
Jews to the death camps,
avoided Nuremberg by se-
cretly making his way to Ar-
gentina, where he surfaced in
1960 when Israeli agents
found him.
Nuremberg was chosen as
the venue for the prosecution
of the 22 men who did appear
for trial because of its sym-
bolic significance. In Nurem-
berg, the Nazis promulgated
their odious anti-Semitic
laws, and in Nuremberg, the
Nazis held their triumphal
parades and demonstrations,
captured in film by Leni
Riefenstal.
Who were the defendants
The Nazi defendants are shown in the dock during the trial. Front row,
accused of war crimes and
extreme left, is Goering. Next to him is Rudolf Hess.
crimes against humanity?
Karl Doenitz, Hitler's heir,
Arthur Seyss-Inquart was
that the easiest way to deal
was the supreme commander
Hans Frank's deputy respon-
with the question was simp-
of the German navy. Hans
sible for The Netherlands.
ly to round up 50,000 leading
Frank was the governor-gen-
Albert Speer, Hitler's archi-
Nazis and shoot them with-
tect, headed the munitions
eral of occupied Poland. Wil-
out ceremony. It is reported
helm Frick was the "protec-
portfolio. Julius Streicher,
that Churchill, not knowing if
tor" of Bohemia.
editor of the anti-Semitic
Stalin was being serious,
newspaper "Der Stuermer,"
Hans Fritzsche, a Goebbels
tried to defuse the atmos-
appointee, directed the Ger-
was a public relations officer.
phere by arguing that it
The most prominent Nazi
man home service radio and
would be necessary to shoot
Walter Funk was president of ''arraigned at Nuremberg was
only 49,000.
the Reichbank. Rudolph Hess
Herman Goering, Hitler's
Even after the desirability
second-in-command. When
was Hitler's one-time private
of the projected trial was
picked up by the Americans,
secretary and deputy leader
established, there was a lack
he was grossly overweight
until he left unexpectedly for
of consensus on the nature of
and addicted to paracodeine,
England.
the• judicial hearing to take
20,000 capsules of which were
Alfred Jodl was the head of
place. Was the American,
the German army while Ernst • found on him at the time of
British, French or Russian
his capture.
Kaltenbrunner, the Gestapo
system to be adopted? It ap-
In some ways, one of the
chief, supervised the concen-
pears that the American mo-
most surprising things about
tration camps. Wilhelm Kei-
del was chosen only through
the Nuremberg trial was that
tel was chief of the general
the forceful representations
it took place at all
staff.
of United States Associate
When details of nazi atro-
Constantin von Neurath
Justice Robert Jackson, a
cities became fully available
was president of Hitler's
man who had had experience
in 1944 as allied armies swept
secret cabinet council. Franz
helping the Norwegians con-
over the death camps, waves
von Papen was vice chancel-
vict Vidkund Quisling, the
of revulsion inundated the
lor for awhile in the 1930's.
individual whose very name
leaders of the western al-
Erich Raeder was Grand Ad-
has become a synonym for
miral of the German navy.
liance. The savagery of the
traitor.
Nazis' war against civiliza-
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Before the trial, many of
tion took the lives of six
was the Nazi foreign minister
the principals on the prosecu-
million Jews and the same
who bullied the Poles and the
tion side expressed reserva-
number of European gentiles.
Czechs. Alfred Rosenberg,
tions about the unprece-
Russian casualties alone sur-
the intellectuals' anti-Semite,
dented legal aspects of the
passed the figure for all the
was in the Nazi foreign office.
trial. This was the first such
allied victims of Nazi bar-
Fritz Sauckel headed the
tribunal to be held in history
barism.
slave labor operations in the
and the judges involved were
It is not surprising, there-
Third Reich. Hjahnar Scliacht
aware of the precedent-set-
was one of the ministers of . fore, that in 1943 when the
ting nature of their delibera-
Allies met in Teheran, there
economics while Baldur, von
tions. Legal scholars today
was a difference of opinion on
Sirach served first as head of
still debate the legitimacy of
the way to deal with Nazis
the Hitler Youth and subse-
the Nuremberg tribunal bat
after the war. For example,
quently as "gauleiter" of
in 1945, when the "thousand
Vienna. ,
Stalin suggested to Churchill
year Reich" collapsed, the
judges did not have the lux-
ury of unhurried meditation.
The world was crying out for
justice.
It is to the credit of those
involved at Nuremberg that
they demanded justice not
only be done but that it be
seen to have been done. De-
spite the nonsensical and ma-
levolent assertions of neo-
Nazi revisionist writers that
torture was used to extract
confessions, the hard evi-
dence shows that punctilious
care was taken to ensure fair
treatment of the defendants.
The fact that several of the
defendants were acquitted
and that several others re-
ceived mild sentences is addi-
tional proof that justice was
done at Nuremberg.
In their meticulous study
of the Nuremberg trials, Ann
and John Tusa point out that
Major Burton Andrus, the
American officer responsible
for the defendants' health,
went out of his way to see
that the latter ate well and
had enough exercise. Andrus
indicated that he wanted the
accused to look neat and
healthy for their court ap-
pearances, so that they would
induce no sympathy from the
judges.
It i§ also significant to
point out that the 22 accused
at Nuremberg had, in most
instances, very competent
defense attorneys. The con-
duct of these lawyers was no
pro forma exercise. Their at-
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