Sunday Times 2
Nazi Germany’s judges were also tried as war criminals
View(s):By Jayantha Gunasekera
When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the Prime Minister of Great Britain was Neville Chamberlain, the President of the United States was polio stricken Franklin D Roosevelt, and the French President was Francois Daladier.
Hitler successfully bluffed the Western leaders and Russia, by signing a Peace Agreement which was known as the Munich Agreement. By this the Allies were lulled into a state of complacency while Hitler was stealthily building up his war machinery. The factories of Alfred Krupps were working at breakneck speed and had the western leaders caught unawares when Hitler decided to invade Europe. After signing the Munich Agreement, Neville Chamberlain went home and bragged that he had ushered in peace. He was a good man, but lacked foresight.
On September 1, 1939, German armies — the Nazis — moved across the Polish frontier and converged on Warsaw, from the North, South and the West.
When the War ended, Sir Winston Churchill was still the PM of the UK. President Roosevelt died and Harry Truman succeeded him. The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces was Dwight Eisenhower. The Commander of the British Forces was Field marshal (later Viscount) Montgomery and the Commander of the Russian Forces was marshal Zhukov.
Nuremberg trials: The courtroom crowded with lawyers and defendants
On 29th April 1945, one of the last pieces of news to reach Hitler’s bunker from the outside world came in. It was that his fellow fascist dictator and partner in aggression Mussolini had met his end , and it had been shared by his mistress Clara Petacci.
Shortly after receiving the news of Mussolini’s death Hitler began to make final plans for his own death. He had his favourite Alsatian dog Blondi poisoned and the two other dogs in the household shot. Erik Kempka his driver who was in charge of the chancellery garage, received an order to deliver 200 liters of gasoline in jerricans . Hitler and Eva Braun (who he had married only two days before) retired to their room in the bunker. Revolver shots were heard. The body of Hitler was found sprawled on the sofa. He had shot himself in the mouth. At his side lay Eva, who had not used her revolver. She had swallowed poison.
On the 4th of May 1945, the German High Command surrendered to Field Marshal Montgomery. Japanese Emperor Hirohito decreed that despite the surrender of the German Forces, the Japanese Forces should fight to the last man. The Japanese Forces were as ruthless as the Germans. Peace was not to dawn though Germany had unconditionally surrendered. The US, though now in possession of the Atom Bomb, was not going to use it if Japan too surrendered. But because of the unprovoked attack by Japan on the US Naval Fleet in Pearl Harbour, they decided to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which caused hitherto unheard of and unseen devastation. The pilot enlisted to drop the bombs was Captain Tibetts who flew the “Enola Grey”. Utter misery and destruction were brought on the Japanese people due to the egoistic action of Emperor Hirohito, who also should have been tried for war crimes.
Twenty-four war criminals were indicted by the Allies. The charges were for:
Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of crimes against peace,
Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace,
War crimes,
Crimes against humanity.
The war criminals were held in Spandau Prison. They argued that the International Military Tribunal was a Victor’s Justice and that it was a mock trial.
The Judges were:
- Major General Iona Nikitchenko (Soviet main)
- Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Volchkov (Soviet alternate)
- Lord Justice Colonel Sir Geoffrey Lawrence (British main), President of the Tribunal
- Sir Norman Birkett (British alternative)
- Francis Biddle (American main)
- John J. Parker (American alternative)
- Professor Henri Donnedieu de Vabres (French main)
- Robert Falco (French alternative)
Chief prosecutors:
- Attorney General Sir Hartley Shawcross (United Kingdom)
- Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson (United States)
- Lieutenant-General Roman Andreyevich Rudenko (Soviet Union)
- François de Menthon, later replaced by Auguste
- Champetier de Ribes (France)
Assisting Jackson were the lawyers Telford Taylor, William S. Kaplan and Thomas J. Dodd, and Richard Sonnenfeldt, a US Army interpreter. Assisting Shawcross were Major Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe and Sir John Wheeler-Bennett. Mervyn Griffith-Jones, who was later to become famous as the chief prosecutor in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover obscenity trial, was also on Shawcross’s team. Shawcross also recruited a young barrister, Anthony Marreco, who was the son of a friend of his, to help the British team with the heavy workload.
The vast majority of the defence attorneys were German lawyers. The main counsel were supported by a total of 70 assistants, clerks and lawyers. The defence counsel witnesses included several men who took part in the war crimes during World War II, such as Rudolf Höss. The men testifying for the defence hoped to receive more lenient sentences. All of the men testifying on behalf of the defence were found guilty on several counts.
Trial of the German Judges and Jurists:
Apart from the trial of the Nazi war criminals there were 12 other trials at Nuremberg, occupied by the United States. They were held before US military courts and not before the International War Crimes Tribunal. These 12 trials were known as the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. In one trial 16 German Judges and Jurists were indicted for:
Participating in a common plan or conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity;
War crimes through the abuse of the judicial and penal process, resulting in mass murder, torture, plunder of private property.
Crimes against humanity on the same grounds, including slave labor charges.
Membership in a criminal organization, the NSDAP or SS leadership corps.
The highest ranking officials of the Nazi judicial system could not be tried.
Franz Gurtner, Minister of Justice since 1942, had committed suicide in 1946. Roland Freisler, President of the People’s Court was killed in a bombing raid on Berlin. Gunther Volmer was killed in 1945.
The judges and jurists who were put on trial are
- Josef Altstötter – Guilty, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment
- Wilhelm von Ammon – Guilty, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment
- Paul Barnickel – Acquitted
- Hermann Cuhorst – Acquitted
- Karl Engert – Unfit to stand trial
- Günther Joel – Guilty, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment
- Herbert Klemm – Guilty, sentenced to life imprisonment
- Ernst Lautz – Guilty, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment
- Wolfgang Mettgenberg – Guilty, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment
- Günther Nebelung – Acquitted
- Rudolf Oeschey – Guilty, sentenced to life imprisonment
- Hans Petersen – Acquitted
- Oswald Rothaug – Guilty, sentenced to life imprisonment
- Curt Rothenberger – Guilty, sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment
- Franz Schlegelberger – Guilty, sentenced to life imprisonment
- Carl Westphal – Committed suicide after his indictment but before the beginning of his trial
Between 1941 and 1944 Germans deported millions of Jews from Germany, from occupied territories and from Axis Countries to ghettos often called Extermination Camps. There they were done to death in gas chambers. They moved these Jews by trains packing them like sardines. This continued up to the day the German forces unconditionally surrendered.
The Judge’s Trial was depicted in a movie shot in 1961, called “Judgement at Nurembrg”, with a star studded cast, starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schelle, Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift. These were some of the best known film stars of the era.
(A longer version of this article appears in our web edition www.sundaytimes.lk)