Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume IVarious
Philosophy
Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume I
Various
Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946; War crime trials -- Germany -- Nuremberg
We have still other responsibilities here. The defendants in the dock
are charged with murder, but this is no mere murder trial. We cannot
rest content when we have shown that crimes were committed and that
certain persons committed them. To kill, to maim, and to torture is
criminal under all modern systems of law. These defendants did not kill
in hot blood, nor for personal enrichment. Some of them may be sadists
who killed and tortured for sport, but they are not all perverts. They
are not ignorant men. Most of them are trained physicians and some of
them are distinguished scientists. Yet these defendants, all of whom
were fully able to comprehend the nature of their acts, and most of whom
were exceptionally qualified to form a moral and professional judgment
in this respect, are responsible for wholesale murder and unspeakably
cruel tortures.
It is our deep obligation to all peoples of the world to show why and
how these things happened. It is incumbent upon us to set forth with
conspicuous clarity the ideas and motives which moved these defendants
to treat their fellow men as less than beasts. The perverse thoughts and
distorted concepts which brought about these savageries are not dead.
They cannot be killed by force of arms. They must not become a spreading
cancer in the breast of humanity. They must be cut out and exposed, for
the reason so well stated by Mr. Justice Jackson in this courtroom a
year ago—
“The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so
calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization
cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive
their being repeated.”
To the German people we owe a special responsibility in these
proceedings. Under the leadership of the Nazis and their war lords, the
German nation spread death and devastation throughout Europe. This the
Germans now know. So, too, do they know the consequences to Germany:
defeat, ruin, prostration, and utter demoralization. Most German
children will never, as long as they live, see an undamaged German city.
To what cause will these children ascribe the defeat of the German
nation and the devastation that surrounds them? Will they attribute it
to the overwhelming weight of numbers and resources that was eventually
leagued against them? Will they point to the ingenuity of enemy
scientists? Will they perhaps blame their plight on strategic and
military blunders by their generals?
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