“That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury, stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.”
- Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson, Opening Statements
The Opening StatementRobert Jackson clearly laid out in his opening statements: the goals of the IMT, its justification for trying the defendants, and the responsibility the IMT had for the future of international law.
(Click here for a full transcript of the opening statements) |
Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackon's Opening Statements
(Robert H. Jackson Center) |
Defendants in the Trial
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Göring pleads not guilty
(US Holocaust Memorial Museum) |
All defendants pleaded "not guilty," claiming that it was a show trial. However, the IMT balanced their responsibility to carry out justice with the rights of the defendants to a fair and unbiased trial. |
Types of Evidence
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Evidence was documents from the Nazi government, video evidence of war crimes, and witness testimony emphasizing the planned, calculated nature of Nazi rise to power & rule to support counts of aggressive war
"[Reading the documents] did greatly slow the proceedings, and Jackson soon sought ways and means to alter that." - Telford Taylor, member of US prosecution team on why videos were used |
Evidence documents - click to enlarge
(Harvard Law School Library) |
Evidence Testimony
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"Nazi Concentration Camps"
(US Holocaust Memorial Museum) |
"The Nazi Plan"
(US Holocaust Memorial Museum) |
Witness AccountsDefense and prosecution brought firsthand witnesses; defendants & some members of Nazi leadership testified for the defense, but some voluntarily testified for the prosecution.
"This order or directive which Ribbentrop issued and which Keitel transmitted to Canaris, Ribbentrop also giving it to Canaris during a brief discussion, was in reference to the organizations of National Ukrainians with which Amt Abwehr cooperated along military lines, and which were to bring about an uprising in Poland, an uprising which aimed to exterminate the Poles and the Jews; that is to say, above all, such elements as were always being discussed in these conferences." - Prosecution witness Erwin von Lahousen |
One famous defense witness, Rudolf Höss (commander of Auschwitz Concentration Camp), shocked attendees with his casual admittance of huge human rights violations.
Höss on the witness stand
(Nuremberg Municipal Museums) |
"I estimate that at least 2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gassing and burning, and at least another half million succumbed to starvation and disease, making a total dead of about 3,000,000. This figure represents about 70% or 80% of all persons sent to Auschwitz as prisoners, the remainder having been selected and used for slave labor in the concentration camp industries." - Rudolf Höss, defense witness
Cross-Examination of Defendants
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Cross-examination of Nazi leadership provided illuminating information about the inner workings of the Third Reich - often very incriminating. Many defendants tried to evade questions.
Göring on the witness stand
(US Holocaust Memorial Museum) |
Göring, especially, monopolized the witness stand for several days with his evasion tactics. "Jackson: You, from the very beginning, together with those who were associated with you, intended to overthrow and later did overthrow, the Weimar Republic?
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Evidence Documents and Testimony
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Major William F. Walsh (Assistant USA Prosecutor) delivering evidence of Nazi Germany's oppression of the Jewish people
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Closing the Trial
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Göring's final statement (click here for translation)
(US Holocaust Memorial Museum) |
Jackson's final statement
(US Holocaust Memorial Museum) |
