Everyone within hearing distance knew what the hammering signified. Twelve further trials were conducted by the United States against lower-level perpetrators, which focused more on the Holocaust. The whole focus was on keeping the prisoners under surveillance through the opening in the cell doors, Prestianni said. [56][57] After this division of formulating the charges, the British and American delegations decided to work jointly in drafting the charges of conspiracy to wage aggressive war. Postal Service. [86] Overall, the prosecution called 37 witnesses compared to the defense's 83, not including 19 defendants who testified on their own behalf. . When I once asked him why he had done what he was convicted of doing, he replied that he only did what the Fatherland [Germany] instructed him to do. He was the popular picture court room scene the second on the left of the door. The SA, the Reich Cabinet, and the General Staff and High Command were not ruled to be criminal organizations. The following is a brief . The guards at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials The guards at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials Accession Number 72-850 7.25x9.5 inches Black & White Printer-Friendly Version Order This Image Keywords Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946 Soldiers HST Keywords Nurnberg Trials; Germany - Nurnberg Institutional rivalries hampered the search. This wasnt authorized, but it was done on occasion, Prestianni smiled. [103], Much of the American case focused on the development of the Nazi conspiracy before the outbreak of war. [12] The United States insisted on a fair trial as a means of reforming Germany. The small letters, tav, shin, and zayin in the list of Haman's ten sons (Esther 9), with the combined numerical value of 707, are seen as a "prophetic" code hinting to the future hanging of the ten Nazis convicted at the Nuremberg trials in the year 5707, which Julius Streicher declared as "Purimfest 1946" before he was hanged. [161][162], The International Military Tribunal agreed with the prosecution that aggression was the gravest charge against the accused, stating in its judgement that because war in general is evil, "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole. Generally, I would describe the food, as I recall, quite good, Prestianni remembers. [179], The exact sentences to be given each defendant were debated at length by the judges. Ambassador-Plenipotentiary 193536. [222] By the late 1950s, the West German consensus on release began to erode, due to greater openness in political culture and new revelations of Nazi criminality, including the first trials of Nazi perpetrators in West German courts. Below are facts about what has been called the greatest trial in history. [177] In the latter case, the Wehrmacht leadership was not considered an organization within the meaning of the charter;[177][178] but this verdict was later misrepresented as an acquittal of the criminality of the Wehrmacht, forming one of the foundations of the clean Wehrmacht myth. My father was a guard in the courtroom (Palace of Justice) at the Nuremberg trials in 1946. -. [158][136] In contrast to the opening prosecution statements, all eight closing statements highlighted the Holocaust; and the French and British prosecutors made this the main charge, as opposed to that of aggression. Despite this precaution, such limited, semiamicable relationships did exist. He often went for hours without speaking to anyone. These compelling first-person accounts of the Nuremberg trials were recorded by professional historians who interviewed 11 Americans participants, including prosecutors, journalists, security guards, and even the architect who designed the courtroom. He was a physical fitness fanatic who threw his cell window open in mid-winter and splashed toilet water over his bare chest and then did pushups, before meals, after meals, most any time, over and over. [2] They were indicted for: Throughout the trial, he steadfastly maintained his innocence, saying they had arrested and charged the wrong person. He always was respectful, always the consummate gentleman. Speer was convicted and served 20 years in prison. The first of the trials was the Major War Crimes Trial, in which 22 high-ranking Nazis stood trial in the Palace of Justice. On October 15, 1946, guards and prisoners listened to the pounding of the gallows being constructed. [18], At the London Conference, held from 26 June to 2 August 1945, representatives of France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States negotiated the exact form that the trial would take. Proposals for how to punish the defeated Nazi leaders ranged from a show trial (the Soviet Union) to summary executions (the United Kingdom). Hans Frank, known as the Slayer of Poles, was small, outwardly arrogant, and had a cruel face, Prestianni revealed. Seven others, over time, were reduced by lengthy prison sentences to hollow, shuffling shadows of their former selves. She kept a scrapbook which had photos of her group and many signatures of court officials and army officers commending them for their service. My final wish is that Germany should recover her unity and that, for the sake of peace, there should be an understanding between East and West. [121], On 8 February, the Soviet prosecution opened its case with a speech by Rudenko that covered all four prosecution charges, highlighting both aggressive war and the devastation of Eastern Europe[122] and listing many crimes committed by the German occupiers against the Soviet people. By early 1946, Western prosecutors were uneasy about the Katyn charge, although they never publicly rejected it for fear of casting the entire proceedings into question. During our conversations, he often asked questions about the United States, a subject in which he appeared to be quite interested, Prestianni added. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). It was only sometime later that I realized in retrospect that I had become part of history, Prestianni said. Four were convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years. There was also a picture of him guarding Hitler. He was sent to Nuremburg and stood guard at the Judges quarters. This is evidenced by the change of the guards uniforms back and forth from the heavier, darker, winter uniform to the lighter colored summer uniform. Guards were, on occasion, somewhat lenient and allowed some prisoners, based on previous friendships and compatible personalities, to walk in pairs. [208][209] Many Germans lumped criminal trials with denazification, internment, and confrontation with the concentration camps, as illegitimate victor's justice and the imposition of collective guilt. Omissions? [132][169] Through a compromise among the judges, the charge of conspiracy was narrowed to a conspiracy to wage aggressive war. [104] On 29 November, the prosecution was unprepared to continue presenting on the invasion of Czechoslovakia, and instead screened Nazi Concentration and Prison Camps. Gerald lives in MN. I could never beat him in checkers. Bragging of his ability to mass murder millions of Jews, Frank never admitted to his brutal inhumanity during the war crimes trial but was sentenced nonetheless to hang. Four were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years: Karl Dnitz, Baldur von Schirach, Albert Speer, and Konstantin von Neurath. During the dead of winter, cell temperatures constantly hovered near freezing, partially due to severe coal shortages throughout most of Germany, and some prisoners were relegated to wearing stockings as gloves and wrapping their feet in underwear or any other available cloth to keep warm. Alfried was tried in a separate Nuremberg trial (the Krupp Trial) for the use of slave labor, thereby escaping worse charges and possible execution; found guilty in 1948, pardoned and all property returned 1951. [240] The IMT is one of the most well-studied trials in history, and it has also been the subject of an abundance of books and scholarly publications, along with motion pictures such as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Memory of Justice (1976). jkeller, Aug 11, 2010 #16. macrusk Proud Daughter of a Canadian WWII Veteran. Corrections? [88], The charter allowed the admissibility of any evidence deemed to have probative value, including depositions. He was made an MP after the war William A Shoemaker from North Carolina. He had actually tried to usurp Hitlers authority during the last days of the Reich but remained an ardent supporter of the Nazi regime during the trial, often proving himself a skilled debater. [230] The selectivity in trying Germans but not the Allies has garnered the most persistent criticism. Before and during the war crimes trial, they were to be considered still innocent, Andrus drummed into the military personnel under his command. After encountering a you tube video by accident I have a different answer. I had a chance to meet Mr. Christian Delage at a workshop on the . Long live Germany.. The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.. He still resides in Framingham after retiring from a 33-year career in supervisory positions with the U.S. The trials were not fair, though not in the way you are suggesting. Until the end of the negotiations, it was not clear that any trial would be held at all, due to acrimonious disputes over fundamental matters; the American delegation threatened to walk out. [30] Article 7 prevented the defendants from claiming immunity for their actions under the act of state doctrine,[31] and the plea of acting under superior orders was left for the judges to decide. We used to argue democracy versus dictatorship, the free versus the suppressed. Some were gassed. She was released after four years and eventually committed suicide in a Bavarian prison. Prestianni played checkers and chess with four of the prisoners and argued politics with others. He was a rather low key person at Nuremberg who caused the guards no problems at all, said Prestianni. [84][85] The American prosecution drew on reports of the Office of Strategic Services and information provided by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the American Jewish Committee. Dads birthday. [135] The Soviet Union also called two Holocaust survivors as witnesses, Samuel Rajzmana Treblinka survivorand poet Abraham Sutzkever, who eloquently described the murder of tens of thousands of Jews from Vilna, although their testimony did not directly incriminate any of the defendants. [171] Only eight defendants were convicted on that charge; all of whom were also found guilty of crimes against peace. He used to tell me he always did what he thought was right for the Fatherland but that just too much came to light during the trial.. [43] The United States prosecution believed that Nazism was the product of a German deviation from Western history (the Sonderweg thesis) and sought to correct this deviation with a trial that would serve both retributive and educational purposes. [52] Initially, it was planned that Iona Nikitchenko, who had presided over the Moscow trials, would serve as the chief prosecutor, but he was appointed as a judge and replaced by Roman Rudenko, a show trial prosecutor[53] chosen for his skill as an orator. . "[1][163] The judges did not attempt to define aggression[164] and decided not to mention the retroactivity of the charges in the verdict. On October 1, 1946, the International Military Tribunal handed down its verdicts in the trials of 22 Nazi leaders - eleven were given the death penalty, three were acquitted, three were given life imprisonment and four were given imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years. The names were -- Wippern, Hahnefeld and myself carried out the checking. These citations refer to documents at "The International Military Tribunal for Germany". [33], The negotiators decided that the tribunal's permanent seat would be in Berlin, while the trial would be held at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg. [102] Jackson's focus was on the aggressive war charge, which he described as the root of the crimes against humanity and of war crimes. 23rd September 2021 at 5:18pm. The note said, To a good man in remembrance of my going forth to death., Prestianni said, I have no idea why he gave it to me. As well as the tank three Military Policemen can be seen on duty. List of defendants at the International Military Tribunal, William L. Shierer "The Rise and Fall of the third reich", Nuremberg-chapter of part IV. Afterwards, during the Berlin Blockade, they took part in securing Allied facilities involved in the Berlin Airlift and later also were guarding USA Army headquarters. He rarely talked, but when he did his speech was rambling. Jobs People Learning . In this capacity, he was ultimately responsible for the use of slave laborers from the occupied territories in armaments production. For added security outside the prison, three American Sherman tanks, manned by MPs, were positioned at the front, side, and rear entries to the prison. Ten of them Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Alfred Rosenberg, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Wilhelm Keitel, and Arthur Seyss-Inquart were hanged on October 16, 1946. To some, he was demeaned as the foreigner., I didnt like his looks at all. [108][109], On 12 December, Shawcross gave the opening speech for the British. The British worked on putting together the aggressive war charge; the French and Soviet delegations were assigned the task of covering crimes against humanity and war crimes committed on the Western Front and the Eastern Front, respectively. That was enough. On 17 September, the various delegations met to discuss the indictment. Twelve paid with their lives. After one of those accused, Robert Ley, former director of the nations Labor Front, hanged himself from a drain pipe with a torn towel, prisoners were kept under constant visual surveillance by guards, and while sleeping were forced to do so with their faces and hands exposed above their blankets at all times. At least 30,000 women died here. I wish peace to the world. These were the intellectuals; the ramrod-stiff military officers; the cunning politicians; the world's most vicious, depraved, notorious mass murderers; an architect; a filthy-minded and sex-obsessed anti-Semitic newspaper publisher; a gentle writer of poetry; the bombastic bullies; an unrepentant, ghost-like figure; the subservient military [27] Especially the United States wanted to avoid countenancing any rule that would give an international court jurisdiction over a government's treatment of its own citizens. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded many countries across Europe, inflicting 27 million deaths in the Soviet Union alone. [183][184] The judges proved their independence from the governments that appointed them, the defendants were seen as receiving due process, and the evidence of guilt amassed by the prosecution was overwhelming. 125. That was until he took his own life by biting down on a cyanide capsule a few hours before he was scheduled to be hanged., Prestianni remembered vividly the night of the executions and Grings suicide. [58], The charge of conspiracy was spearheaded by the United States prosecution and was less popular with the other Allies. He is in several pictures standing at Hans Franks left. After two years he was released and promptly reestablished himself in a successful career as a financial consultant for developing nations. [95] None of the defendants tried to assert that the Nazis' crimes had not occurred; instead, they attempted to divert blame from their own actions. [172] All 22 defendants were charged with crimes against peace, and 12 were convicted. [99] Nevertheless, defense lawyers (although not most of the defendants) often argued that the prosecution was trying to promote German collective guilt and forcefully countered this as a strawman argument. [46], The French prosecutor, Franois de Menthon, had just overseen trials of the leaders of Vichy France;[37] he resigned in January 1946 and was replaced by Auguste Champetier de Ribes. Hildegard Lchert (AKA "Bloody Brigette" or "Beast") Hildegard Lchert was conscripted to join the Nazi women in 1942, at the age of 22. He was able to get to get the Hitler peoples autographs. Dnitz, who was named successor to Hitler during the waning days of the war and served 10 years in prison, remained aloof. The same routine was followed for each of the condemned prisoners. He promoted an intentionalist view of the Nazi state and its overall conspiracy to commit all of the crimes mentioned in the indictment. The judgement argued that aggressive war had already been illegal, even if no one had been punished for it, and therefore the German leaders could not count on immunity from prosecution. The United States and United Kingdom refused to endorse this proposal, citing the failure of war crimes prosecutions after World War I. [146] The Nuremberg Laws were compared to discriminatory laws in the United States. Each prisoners cell was equipped with a simple, bench-like bed against one wall adjacent to the cell door, a primitive commode, a wooden table to hold the few allowed pictures and other personal items, and a chair too rickety to support the weight of a standing man. Some smiled while others snarled at each other or harshly criticized other individuals. If anyone knows how I can verify that he was a guard, please let me know. My father was an MP at The Nuremberg Trails. They were told they would be part of history. They were individually handcuffed to guards, driven by ambulance to a nearby airfield, and flown to Berlin, where they were processed at Spandau Prison. I rather liked him for the way he acted toward us. I do remember that Schacht, like most of the others, steadfastly maintained his innocence, never admitting to guilt in any form. He greeted me in the morning and that was about it. The requested reassignments were generally granted.. Uncover the topics related to the Nuremberg trials. list of guards at nuremberg trialsdelpark homes sutton list of guards at nuremberg trials. I do have a photo of my Dad standing behind the German prisoners. Streicher had published Der Sturmer, a widely read newspaper filled with pornography, ethnic hate, and anti-Jewish cartoons to enflame the German population. (November 1945) Sources: All photos copyright and courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library. During watch on one bitter cold night, Prestianni contracted pneumonia and collapsed, unconscious. [92], The International Military Tribunal began trial on 20 November 1945,[93] after postponement requests from the Soviet prosecution, who wanted more time to prepare its case, were rejected. [36][35] On 8 August, the Nuremberg Charter was signed in London. [119] Unlike the British and American prosecution strategy, which focused on using German documents to make their case, the French prosecutors took the perspective of the victims, submitting postwar police reports and calling eleven witnesses. It was also a way to indirectly charge crimes committed before the beginning of World War II, which the charter placed outside the court's jurisdiction. events, and resources, Michael Prestianni: Guarding the War Criminals at Nuremberg. [71][72] The military leaders were Hermann Gring, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Erich Raeder, and Karl Dnitz. All female prisoners were segregated on a third tier. One can only imagine the effect the pounding had on the condemned prisoners, now with only one more day to live. The IMT focused on the crime of aggressionplotting and waging aggressive war, which the verdict declared "the supreme international crime" because "it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole". Schacht had been imprisoned in July 1944, under suspicion of being part of an assassination conspiracy against Hitler. Guards were randomly assigned to prisoners, and the assignments were generally not known by the guards until the duty roster was posted or announced each morning during roll call. Gifts, usually clothing, soap, tobacco, and family photos, could be given to prisoners after inspection by a guard.