waffe.215 The other defendants included five generals216 and two lieutenant generals who had held high field commands, Admiral Otto Schniewind (Chief of the Naval War Staff under Raeder), two lieutenant generals from Hitler's immediate military staff, and Lieutenant General Lehmann, the Judge Advocate General of the Wehrmacht. All the defendants were accused of planning and waging aggressive wars, and the evidence showed that many of them had attended the major conferences at which Hitler announced his intentions to invade Poland, the Low Countries, Russia, and other nations, a circumstance upon which the IMT had leaned heavily in convicting Keitel, Jodl, Raeder, and von Neurath of "crimes against peace. "217 The defendants who had not attended the Hitler conferences had all been privy to, and some had participated in drafting, the actual invasion plans. However, despite these circumstances, the Tribunal did not see fit to discuss the evidence. According to the Tribunal, knowledge of Hitler's aggressive intentions and participation in the planning and initiation of aggressive wars was "not sufficient to make participation even by high ranking military officers in the war criminal.” It was also necessary that the possessor of such knowledge, after he acquires it, shall be in a position to shape or influence the policy that brings about its initiation or its continuance after initiation, either by furthering, or by hindering or preventing it.218 Without any discussion of the functions discharged by or the proven activities of any of the individual defendants, the court concluded that "the defendants were not on the policy level," and all were found not guilty.2 219 215 Sperrle had commanded the so-called "Condor Legion" in Spain, and during the war headed the German air forces in Western Europe. 216 One of these, General Blaskowitz, committed suicide in Nuremberg Jail on the opening day of the trial. 217 Trial of the Major War Criminals, Vol. I, pp. 188-92, 288-89, 315-16, 322-23, and 333-34. 218 Transcript, p. 10034. 219 Ibid., p. 10038. The charges established against the defendants with respect to war crimes and crimes against humanity were very sweeping. Orders had been circulated throughout the Wehrmacht for the execution of all "commandos" and "political commissars," even though taken captive in uniform on the field of battle. Despite some murmerings against these orders, they had been carried out in many instances, the "Commando Order" chiefly on the western front and the "Commissar Order" on the eastern front. Other extensive crimes against prisoners of war were held to have been proved. Nor was the German Army's record in the treatment of civilians in occupied countries any better. The Army had participated in the deportation of hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homelands to forced labor in Germany; the dreaded SS "Einsatzgruppen," that had slaughtered over a million Jews on the eastern front, had carried on these murderous activities in cooperation with the German Army, which had fed, transported, and billeted them, and supported them in other ways. At least three of the defendants had personally participated in drafting criminal orders such as the "Commissar" and "Commando" orders, and most of the other defendants were directly implicated in their execution. The German Navy and Air Force were not nearly as deeply involved in these atrocities as was the Army, and Field Marshal Sperrle and Admiral Schniewind were acquitted of all charges. The other eleven defendants were all convicted. Two of them (Lieutenant Generals Warlimont and Reinecke, from Hitler's immediate military staff) were sentenced to life imprisonment. Field Marshal von Kuechler received a term of twenty years, as did two other defendants; the other sentences, except for that of Field Marshal von Leeb, ranged from five to fifteen years. Leeb was convicted on a single charge and sentenced to three years' imprisonment, but he had already spent, a slightly longer period in confinement awaiting and during trial, and was therefore immediately released. Government Ministers Many of the defendants in the cases which have already been described held high positions in the government of the Third Reich, and might appropriately fall under this rather broad classification. For example, Karl Brandt as Reich Commissioner for Health and Sanitation, and Schlegelberger as Acting Reich Minister of Justice, occupied the highest positions in the medical hierarchy and the judicial system respectively, and discharged ministerial responsibilities, but they were indicted and tried together with other members of their profession rather than with their ministerial colleagues. The first of all the Nuremberg judgments under Control Council Law No. 10 was rendered in the case of Erhard Milch, who was the sole defendant in the proceeding (United States v. Erhard Milch, Case No. 2).220 Milch held the rank of Field Marshal in the Luftwaffe, and was Goering's principal deputy in the Air Ministry, but the principal charges against him related to his administrative activities as a member of the “Central Planning Board," established by a Hitler decree of 29 October 1943. The dominant member of the "Central Planning Board" was Albert Speer, tried and convicted by the IMT, which also found221 that the Board "had supreme authority for the scheduling of German production and the allocation and development of raw materials" and that "the Board had authority to instruct Sauckel [also tried and convicted by the IMT] to provide laborers for industries under its control." Sauckel and Speer were both convicted by the IMT chiefly on the basis of their participation in the "slave labor program," and this was the principal charge brought against Milch. He was also accused of complicity in the medical experiments (high altitude and freezing) conducted at Dachau for the benefit of the German Air Force. 220 This was the only Nuremberg trial in which there was but a single defendant. Next in size was the "Flick Case," in which six were tried; in all the other indictments twelve or more defendants were named. 221 Trial of the Major War Criminals, Vol. I, p. 331. The "Milch Case" was tried before Military Tribunal II as originally constituted,222 which rendered its judgment on 16 April 1947. 223 The Tribunal held that Milch's guilt for the medical experiments had not been established beyond reasonable doubt, and acquitted him on that charge. But his responsibility, along with that of Speer and Sauckel and others, for the "slave labor program" was held conclusively proven; on this charge he was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life.224 The largest, longest, and last of the Nuremberg trials was primarily concerned with the activities of government officials, and consequently has become known as the "Ministries" or "Wilhelmstrasse" Case (United States v. Ernst Weizsaecker et al., Case No: 11). It was heard by Military Tribunal IV, presided over by William C. Christianson (who had sat as a member of this Tribunal in the "Flick Case"), and its other members were Leon W. Powers (formerly of the Iowa Supreme Court), and Robert F. Maguire (of the Oregon Bar and Standing Master in Chancery for the United States District Court of Oregon). The entire proceeding lasted seventeen months, from the filing of the indictment on 15 November 1947 to the imposition of sentences following judgment on 14 April 1949. The transcript of the testimony and the documentary evidence were most extensive; sixty-eight attorneys (including one American) 225 represented the twenty-one defendants, and thirty-four attorneys were used for all or part of the case on the prosecution side.226 222 This same Tribunal, with the same membership, also tried the "Pohl Case." See supra, pp. 293-95. 223 The Chief Prosecutor in the "Milch Case" was Clark Denney of New York City, assisted by James Conway (Yonkers, New York), Henry T. King, Jr. (Meriden, Connecticut), Raymond J. McMahon, Jr. (Pawtucket, Rhode Island), and Maurice C. Myers (Los Angeles, California). 224 In addition to the opinion of the Tribunal, Judges Phillips and Musmanno wrote separate concurring opinions. 225 Warren Magee of Washington, D.C. 226 The "political" segment of the prosecution was under the charge of Dr. Robert M. W. Kempner, Deputy Chief of Counsel, assisted by Alexander G. Hardy (Washington, D.C.), H. W. William Caming (New York City), Alvin Landis (Beverly Hills, California), Mrs. Dorothea G. Minskoff (Silver Spring, Maryland), John Lewis (Suffern, New York), Arthur L. Petersen (New York City), John J. Posner (Brooklyn, New York), and Ralph Goodman (New Of twenty-one defendants, eighteen227 were ministers or high functionaries in the civil administration of the Third Reich. The defendant von Weizsaecker was a career diplomat who had been Minister to Norway and Switzerland and who became Undersecretary (Staatssekretaer) of the German Foreign Office at the time when Ribbentrop replaced von Neurath as Foreign Minister. In 1943 he became ambassador to the Vatican and was replaced by Steengracht von Moyland, who was also a defendant, as were several other Foreign Office officials. At the cabinet level, other defendants included Hans Lammers (Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery), Darre (Minister for Food and Agriculture), and Schwerin von Krosigk (Minister of Finance), as well as other well-known political figures of the Third Reich such as Otto Dietrich (second only to Goebbels in the Propaganda Ministry). On the "economic" side the defendants included Emil Puhl (Vice President of the Reichsbank), Paul Koerner (Deputy to Goering in the Office of the Four Year Plan), Paul Pleiger (the dominant figure in the huge "Hermann Goering Works"), and Hans Kehrl (who held a number of high governmental economic positions). Except for the exclusion of military leaders, and a higher proportion of diplomatic and economic officials, the composition of the dock paralleled that of the trial before the IMT. The indictment charged a majority of the defendants with the commission of crimes against peace (Counts One and Two). Seven of the defendants were charged with war crimes, including complicity in the "lynching" of Allied aviators, and the murder and mistreatment of prisoners of war (Count Three). Thirteen of the defendants were accused of crimes against humanity committed against German nationals prior to the outYork City). The "economic" aspect of the case was handled successively by Rawlings Ragland (Washington, D.C.), Charles S. Lyon (New York City), and Morris Amchan, all Deputy Chiefs of Counsel, with the assistance of Paul H. Gantt, James M. Fitzpatrick (Washington, D.C.), Walter J. Rockler (Chicago, Illinois) and Walter W. O'Haire (Pittston, Pennsylvania). 227 The other three were SS Generals Berger and Schellenberg (supra, p. 302) and the banker, Karl Rasche (supra, pp. 319-20). |