list of guards at nuremberg trials

He was quiet by nature and spent much of his time writing his memoirs. Eighteen-inch rectangular holes were cut from the heavy, oaken cell doors, slightly below eye level. Nuremberg Trials and Other Trials Against Germany [163] Contrary to the prosecution, the verdict dated the planning of aggression to the 1937 Hossbach Memorandum and not to the founding of the Nazi Party. Where the convicted were housed on the ground floor, lower-tier cellblock, the main corridor was 60 meters (195 feet) long, lined by 16 cells on each side, and constantly patrolled by 1st Division guards. [197] The trials heard 1,300 witnesses, entered more than 30,000 documents into evidence, and generated 132,855 pages of transcripts, with the judgements themselves totaling 3,828 pages. The intentionally weakened table and chair, Prestianni said, prevented possible suicide attempts by hanging. [195][196], These trials emphasized the crimes committed during the Holocaust. Prestianni never served in the trial courtroom, only in the cellblock. Second, it rejected the argument that the trial and adjudication were ex post facto. While on duty, guards carried no weapons, only wooden truncheons. The Estonian Guard Co. 4221 was formed to answer the need to guard the Nuremberg courthouse and the prison where accused Nazi War Criminals were held. Courtesy Emily Aho Around Memorial Day of 2000, Emily Aho took her then 75-year-old father, Emilio "Leo". The International Military Tribunal (IMT) delivered its judgment against the Nazi leaders on September 30 and October 1, 1946. He often went for hours without speaking to anyone. [146][147] Defense lawyer Alfred Seidl[de] repeatedly tried to disclose the secret protocols of the GermanSoviet pact. list of guards at nuremberg trials While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Number 5 was Albert Speer, Hitlers personal architect and confidant. An avid reader, he availed himself of a well-stocked library with a steady supply of books. [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. [67] Also prosecuted were leaders of the German economy, such as Gustav Krupp (of the conglomerate Krupp AG), former Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht, and economic planners Albert Speer and Walther Funk, along with Speer's subordinate and head of the forced labor program, Fritz Sauckel. My father became an MP after the war. He was found innocent and released but sentenced in 1949 by a German court to nine years in prison. Hess, former deputy fhrer of the Nazi party and Hitlers private secretary during the early years of the National Socialist movement, was sentenced to life imprisonment and served every day of it to the age of 92 when he died in 1987 under mysterious circumstances in Berlins Spandau Prison. 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 After the war, she and other WACS were asked to stay for the Nuremburg trials to serve as stenographers . [217][218] The last prisoner was released in 1958. By creating an Aryan nation, the world would look up to and envy Germany for its racial purity.. The Palace of Justice was relatively intact but needed to be renovated for the trial due to bomb damage; it had an attached prison where the defendants could be held. Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library. These sketches were given to guards who requested them and to prison officials. The Chaplain at Nuremberg - The Text Message [210] As the Cold War began, the rapidly changing political environment began to affect the effectiveness of the trials. [167] The judges were aware that both the Allies and the Axis had planned or committed acts of aggression, writing the verdict carefully to avoid discrediting either the Allied governments or the tribunal. The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and "American Justice" Streicher had published Der Sturmer, a widely read newspaper filled with pornography, ethnic hate, and anti-Jewish cartoons to enflame the German population. Prominent banker and economist. [64] The division of labor, and the haste with which the indictment was prepared, resulted in duplication, imprecise language, and lack of attribution of specific charges to individual defendants. Nazi Ravensbrck camp: How ordinary women became SS torturers (Robert Ley committed suicide while in prison, and Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbachs mental and physical condition prevented his being tried.) [179], The exact sentences to be given each defendant were debated at length by the judges. Procurement is quick and merely requires an . He was totally indifferent to the world around him and to world affairs. This is a good documentary on the Nuremberg Trials that occurred after the end of the war. [87] Over the course of the trial, Western judges allowed the defendants additional leeway to denounce the Soviet Union, which was ultimately revealed to be a co-conspirator in the outbreak of World War II. Three of the defendants were acquitted: Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen, and Hans Fritzsche. The Nuremberg Trials ended on October 1, 1946. [99] According to historian Kim Christian Priemel, the conspiracy charge "invited apologetic interpretations: narratives of absolute, totalitarian dictatorship, run by society's lunatic fringe, of which the Germans had been the first victims rather than agents, collaborators, and fellow travellers". 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. In the prison cellblock, each single-occupant cell had two parallel heating pipes beneath a single, heavily scratched, plastic-covered window, the top half of which could be tilted open for limited ventilation. Sixteen of these captives were guarded by Pfc. The United States delegation outlined the overall Nazi conspiracy and criminality of Nazi organizations. The tribunal was given the authority to find any individual guilty of the commission of war crimes (counts 13 listed above) and to declare any group or organization to be criminal in character. [6][7] Trainin's ideas were reprinted in the West and widely adopted. He told multiple stories of his time there. During watch on one bitter cold night, Prestianni contracted pneumonia and collapsed, unconscious. Nazi, Alfred Rosenberg, lies dead on a casket following his execution after the Nuremberg Trials. Soldiers in tank stand guard in front of the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg where the International Military Tribunal . To maintain the steady flow of Speer pencil sketches, guards always provided him with an adequate supply of paper and sharpened pencils. [83] The American and British prosecutors focused on documentary evidence and affidavits rather than testimony from survivors, as the latter was considered less reliable and more liable to accusations of bias, but at the expense of reducing public interest in the proceedings. [37] Nineteen states ratified the charter and were admitted as observers. -. However, fraternization did occur on a regular basis and, for the most part, went unpunished by the prison administration. Ambassador-Plenipotentiary 193536. On 1 October 1946, 12 death sentences were passed down by the judges of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg on some of the most high-ranking and influential members of Nazi Germany. [87][149] United States admiral Chester Nimitz testified that the United States had used the same methods of submarine warfare that the German admirals were accused of; Dnitz's counsel successfully argued that this meant that such actions could not be crimes. On November 20, 1945, several months after the end of World War II, a series of military tribunals began in the German city of Nuremberg. Waffen-SS Soldiers Guarded the Nuremberg Trials - VikingLifeBlog My father Ed Rossi was also a guard at the Nuremberg trials. In addition to this brass pot I have three skeleton keys to the cells that held the Nazi war criminals, as well as a pair of wooden spoons used by them. All were destined for incarceration, at least during their trials, in two of Germanys most feared prisons: the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg and Spandau Prison on the western outskirts of Berlin. Kaltenbrunner had perpetrated extreme barbarism in the extermination of Jews through the planning and execution of the Final Solution. Another, Hermann Goring, opted to commit . These parapets included watchtowers at the four corners equipped with telephones to contact or summon supervising sergeants or lieutenants, who were constantly on call to resolve problems that might develop. 1 Feb 1946. He always was respectful, always the consummate gentleman. Speer was convicted and served 20 years in prison. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. 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.. During his service in Korea, Prestianni was wounded twice and decorated for valor numerous times. Pre-war president of the. Patrolling the wall was cold, cold, cold, Prestianni remembered. Besides Speer, Ribbentrop, Kaltenbrunner, and Jodl, Prestianni also guarded Luftwaffe Reichsmarshal Hermann Gring, Grand Admiral Dnitz, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Reich financier Hjalmar Schacht, Governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Konstantin von Neurath, Nazi philosopher Alfred Rosenberg, virulent anti-Semite Julius Streicher, diplomat Franz von Papen, Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, Grand Admiral Raeder, Hess, and Hans Frank, the governor general of occupied Poland. Nuremberg trials - Wikipedia Nuremberg Trials | Encyclopedia.com 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. [126] Lev Smirnov presented evidence on the Lidice massacre in Czechoslovakia, adding that such destruction of villages had occurred throughout eastern Europe. Had I known just who these prisoners were at the time and what they had been accused and convicted of having done, I probably would not have had such a close relationship with them. For the subsequent trials held by the United States, see, "International Military Tribunal" redirects here. The duty roster for guards was revised daily in an attempt to prevent the development of unauthorized relationships with prisoners. Two of the six were acquitted, two given prison terms and two sentenced to death. [77] Gring, the most famous surviving Nazi, headlined the trial. Back in 1945, his grandfather was stationed in Germany for the infamous Nuremberg trials, during which he got his hands on a pair of sunglasses allegedly worn by a high ranking Nazi. He was short but very powerfully built. Prestianni does not recall Raeder maintaining even a limited friendship with the other prisoners. 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. 08-12-2007, 10:07 PM. Stahmer fought hard for his clie. Call us at (425) 485-6059. Waffen-SS Soldiers Guarded the Nuremberg Trials Mark Felton Productions 1.82M subscribers Subscribe 81K 4.3M views 2 years ago Unbelievable but true - an entire unit of former Waffen-SS. Goring had been given a list of approved lawyers by the US authorities, but rejected every name on it. [5] Soviet jurist Aron Trainin developed the concept of crimes against peace (waging aggressive war) which would later be central to the proceedings at Nuremberg. As well as the tank three Military Policemen can be seen on duty. [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. Read about WWII here. Boy I wish I asked more questions of the trials. 56 Execution Of Nazis 1946 Premium High Res Photos [82], Over the summer, all of the national delegations struggled to gather evidence for the upcoming trial. Number 4 was assigned to Erich Raeder, the Navys former grand admiral before being replaced by Dnitz. His initial assignment was as a guard at the Nuremberg prison. [16] On 2 May, at the San Francisco Conference, the United States' new president Harry S. Truman announced the formation of an international military tribunal. The Nrnberg trials were a series of trials held in Nrnberg, Germany, in 1945 and 1946 following the end of World War II. Sykes supervised guards, including the iconic. By special arrangement with a guard or prison official, he gave his handwritten notes to be mimeographed and returned to him. [106] Although these aspects had already been covered by the American prosecution, Soviet prosecutors introduced new evidence from Extraordinary State Commission reports and interrogations of senior enemy officers. [204] In the United Kingdom, although a variety of responses were reported, it was difficult to sustain interest in a long trial. There was no physical contact, and all conversation via microphone was closely monitored by a guard standing behind each prisoner. [219][220] The German public took the early releases as confirmation of what they saw as the illegitimacy of the trials. [165] The official interpretation of the IMT held that all of the charges had a solid basis in customary international law,[166] which was elaborated in the verdict. [26], The final version of the charter only gave the court the ability to punish those crimes against humanity that had been committed "in connection with any crimes within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal". But, he gave us no problem and I found him engaging to talk to and an excellent checkers player.. Im always looking for pictures of the guards and hoping one day I will see him as a young soldier. One spoon has a carving of a skeleton key on its handle, the other an engraving of N 19 P. I could never determine the significance of the latter carving. He died about five years ago and I wished I would have asked questions. During the Nuremberg Trial, American guards maintain constant surveillance over the major Nazi war criminals in the prisonattached to the Palace of Justice. At this time, 24 former Nazi leaders were charged with the perpetration of war crimes, and various groups (such as the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police) were charged with being criminal in character. my father david c bergeron was a 1st LT with the guards at the war trials. Today I found out that most of the soldiers who guarded the high ranking Nazi prisoners during the Nuremberg trials were in fact former members of Baltic SS . In the Hostages case, several generals were tried for executing thousands of hostages and prisoners of war, looting, using forced labor, and deporting civilians in the Balkans. Only Speer stood in the courtroom showing some remorse and, in an act of contrition, admitted his guilt and knowledge of the camps. Brush with infamy: Mercer man, 95, oversaw guards at Nuremberg trials Nikitchenko, the Soviet member, took place on October 18, 1945, in Berlin. The 24 accused were, with respect to each charge, either indicted but not convicted (I), indicted and found guilty (G), or not charged (), as listed below by defendant, charge, and eventual outcome: Gustav was selected for indictment in error, instead of his son Alfried, who ran Krupp during most of the war. 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. On that date, representatives from the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the provisional government of France signed an agreement that included a charter for an international military tribunal to conduct trials of major Axis war criminals whose offenses had no particular geographic location. Of course he was amongst other guards to his left and right. [214] By then, the Americans were hoping to use the offer of pardon to convicted war criminals in order to bind West Germany to the Western Bloc. Did guards favor some prisoners over others? Prestianni particularly liked Speer, Hitlers architect and the designer of many of Berlins most spectacular buildings and later minister of armament and munitions. On October 1, 1946, the verdicts on 22 of the original 24 defendants were handed down for the Nrnberg trials. On the night he was to be hanged, Streicher gave Prestianni a signed, handwritten note after supper. Nuremberg was chosen as the location for the trials because of its symbolic value. For the Tokyo Trial, see, International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Charter of the International Military Tribunal, List of defendants at the International Military Tribunal, SS Main Economic and Administrative Office, mass expulsion of millions of Germans from central and eastern Europe, confrontation with the concentration camps, Journal of International Criminal Justice, "Notre combat pour la paix: la France et le procs de Nuremberg (1945-1946)", "Le procs de Nuremberg: retour sur soixante-dix ans de recherche", "German Participation in the Nuremberg Trials and Its Implications for Today", "Imperfect Justice at Nuremberg and Tokyo", Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg Trials), International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Special Panels of the Dili District Court, International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, List of major perpetrators of the Holocaust, Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nuremberg_trials&oldid=1142633133, International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1946, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 14:39. Designated as protector of Bohemia and Moravia in August 1943, he played a major role in developing the concentration- and labor-camp network for the slaughter of millions. [108][109], On 12 December, Shawcross gave the opening speech for the British. My dad was a guard at the trials he had a Picture of himself standing behind the prisoners he died at 86 in 2015 the picture is gone and he never wanted to talk about he was a sgt and received a purple heart. Prestianni also favorably related to Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the notorious chief of Germanys security police and a behind-the-scenes prime mover at the January 1942 Wannsee Conference where the proposed extermination of Jewry in central Europe was discussed by top Nazis. [88], The charter allowed the admissibility of any evidence deemed to have probative value, including depositions. The food, prepared in an American-staffed kitchen, offered identical German menus for each prisoner. Minister of Foreign Affairs (until 1938), then Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia. Without fanfare or advance warning, on July 18, 1947, the remaining prisoners at Nuremberg were told to assemble their meager belongings. Three others were acquitted. His face had an animal look to it, Prestianni stated. The two men were deep in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany, venue for the Nuremberg War Crimes trials of Germany's Nazi leaders. [194] Luftwaffe general Erhard Milch was tried for using slave labor and deporting civilians. [205] Where the prosecution was disappointed by some of the verdicts, the defense could take satisfaction. At the time, I saw these men only as individual prisoners, guilty of unknown crimes. [206], Many Germans at the time of the trials focused on finding food and shelter; few followed the trial closely. Attitudes toward certain prisoners were determined by the prisoners themselves, their demeanor in captivity, and their personality traits and attitudes toward their American, British, or French guards. 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. [223], The International Military Tribunal, and the drafters of its charter, invented international criminal law essentially from nothing. I tried to treat each prisoner without rancor.. Upon arriving in the European Theater, Prestianni, a replacement, found himself in the U.S. 1st Infantry Division. Answer (1 of 3): Yes, he was a German lawyer named Otto Stahmer from Kiel. [236][237], The trials were the first use of simultaneous interpretation, which stimulated technical advances in translation methods. Verdicts were handed down on October 1, 1946. The Nuremberg Trials: Complete Tribunal Proceedings (V. 4): Trial Proceedings From 17th December 1945 to 8th January 1946 by International Military Tribunal (shelved 1 time as nuremberg-trial) avg rating 0.0 0 ratings published Want to Read Rate this book 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars [40] Each state appointed a prosecution team and two judges, one being an alternate. Brief Overview of Defendants & Verdicts at Nuremberg Trials If he is American it will be easier to find some kind of information about him. After being rotated home in 1949, he reenlisted and soon found himself on Okinawa prior to deployment to Korea. The first, held by an international tribunal (American, British, French, and Russian), was the "War. . Soviet prosecutors in Nrnberg, Germany brought out Friedrich Paulus and Erich Buschenhagen by surprise as witnesses in the war crimes trials. At least Im out here and you are in there, said the former guard. [32] The trial was held under modified common law. Number 3 was Konstantin von Neurath, a former high-ranking politician. SECURITY AT THE NUREMBERG TRIALS | Imperial War Museums Frick, one of Hitlers closest advisers during the early years of the Nazi regime, was one of those hanged. [230] The selectivity in trying Germans but not the Allies has garnered the most persistent criticism. Came back to the States in Jun 46. [19], The Nuremberg Charter upended the traditional view of international law by holding individuals, rather than states, responsible for breaches of international law. The only part of the French charges that were accepted by the judges was the deportation of Jews from France and other parts of Western Europe. He was not tall at all and didnt really stand out in any way from the others, Prestianni said. He argued that he was being persecuted.. was on Court room duty. He greeted me in the morning and that was about it. He argued that Germans needed Lebensraum (living space) and that they were looking only for land expansion. [62] Vyshinsky demanded extensive corrections to the crimes-against-peace charges, especially regarding the role of the GermanSoviet pact in starting World War II. Two and a quarter hours before he was to be executed he took poison under the. [17] On 8 May, Germany surrendered unconditionally. Tags International Military TribunalNurembergGermanywar crimes trialstrials National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD [186] These trials were held under Law No. However, some Russian guards who had perhaps the best reason to want to harshly punish the former German leaders in retaliation for previous atrocities and other crimes committed in the Soviet Union, were friendly and, even in some cases, considerate of the prisoners and American personnel.. A. Posted September 22, 2014. [188] The Office of Chief Counsel for War Crimes identified 2,500 major war criminals, of whom 177 were tried. Michael Prestianni: Guarding the War Criminals at Nuremberg [6] The Soviet Union wanted to hold a show trial similar to the 1930s Moscow trials, in order to demonstrate the Nazi leaders' guilt and build a case for war reparations to rebuild the Soviet economy, which had been devastated by the war. They just never admitted to it. The defendants included some of the most famous Nazis, including Hermann Gring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Wilhelm Keitel. [90][91] The bringing of conspiracy charges also slowed the trial, as the same evidence ended up being read out multiple times, when it was relevant to both substantive and conspiracy charges. Between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) tried 24 of the most important political and military leaders of Nazi Germany. [1] Most of the defendants were also charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. [105] The American prosecutors were not any more effective when presenting documentary evidence on the conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity, and ended up reaching a "saturation point of horror" by their indiscriminate selection and disorganized presentation of evidence without tying it to specific defendants. [132] The inclusion of Katyn in the charges undermined the credibility of Soviet evidence in general. Guards occasionally retaliated against unpopular, troublesome prisoners by rapping on the cell doors with their night sticks to disturb the occupants sleep. Nrnberg trials | Facts, Definition, & Prominent Defendants

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