[155] In the context of the brewing Cold War, the trial became a means of condemning not only Germany but also the Soviet Union. He was another of Prestiannis favorite checker-playing opponents. The requested reassignments were generally granted.. [234][235] Further developments in international criminal law in the aftermath of the trials included the Genocide Convention (1948) and the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949). His face had an animal look to it, Prestianni stated. 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. Prestianni played checkers and chess with four of the prisoners and argued politics with others. Proposals for how to punish the defeated Nazi leaders ranged from a show trial (the Soviet Union) to summary executions (the United Kingdom). Ribbentrop was held in low esteem by others close to Hitler due to his perceived ineptness in many areas. When Hess exercised or sat on a bench in the courtyard it was always alone, a single, disheveled old man staring at the courtyard bricks. [156], On 31 August, closing arguments were presented. He was strictly military during the three months I observed him. This brass pot held the holy water that an attending priest sprinkled on the condemned immediately before their execution. 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. Nuremberg, Germany, November 1945. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded many countries across Europe, inflicting 27 million deaths in the Soviet Union alone. was on Court room duty. I need your: End of the trial: Guardian report on the executions, 16 October 1946 Hermann Gring last night died by his own hand. The 3rd Battalion of the 26th Infantry Reg., "Blue Spaders," of the 1st Infantry Division were chosen to secure the historic Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Postal Service. [14][15] The exact form that retribution would take was left unresolved at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. Pre-war president of the. Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library. My dad, Frederick M. Bencriscutto, was in the field artillery in the 1st Infantry Division during WWII. [143] Although a few defense lawyers inverted the arguments of the prosecution to assert that the Germans' authoritarian mindset and obedience to the state exonerated them from any personal guilt, most rejected such arguments. Boy I wish I asked more questions of the trials. My father was also a guard, but he said he always was on the outside guarding. Johann Georg Richert was found guilty and was executed in Minsk, Byelorussia. 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, Stay up to date with all of our latest news, His remembrance of duty at Nuremberg remains vivid. An enduring mystery of the 1946 Nuremberg trials was apparently solved yesterday when an American former prison guard claimed it was he who, as an unwitting accomplice, passed to Hermann. Per newspaper accounts of the scene, when the inmates heard the news they "shouted with joy" and "chattering excitedly, hastily shed the red . [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. Colonels from all four countries were running around trying to determine how it happened.. Ten of those men would be hung 16 days later. Adam Weishaupt, Abraham: The World's First Psychopath. She kept a scrapbook which had photos of her group and many signatures of court officials and army officers commending them for their service. Somewhat regularly, cellblock guards also pulled duty patrolling the parapet-style walls 50 feet above the cellblock and the courtyard, where observation of strolling prisoners below could be maintained. God have mercy on my soul. [60] The American prosecution became derailed during attempts to provide evidence of the German annexation of Austria. Guards occasionally retaliated against unpopular, troublesome prisoners by rapping on the cell doors with their night sticks to disturb the occupants sleep. While on duty, guards carried no weapons, only wooden truncheons. [85] The prosecution examined 110,000 captured German documents[40] and entered 4,600 into evidence,[87] along with 30 kilometres (19mi) of film and 25,000 photographs. 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 [103], Much of the American case focused on the development of the Nazi conspiracy before the outbreak of war. Today these sketches are highly prized. This wasnt authorized, but it was done on occasion, Prestianni smiled. The prisons concrete walls, most of which were more than three feet thick, encased the solitary cell window that offered the prisoners no view of the outside world. He just celebrated his 93 birthday, and is smart and caring as he has always been. [85] After the American prosecution flooded the trial with untranslated evidence, the judges insisted that all of the evidence be read into the record, which slowed the trial. His name was Raymond J Arsenault. Her last name was Marsico (cant recall her first name} and she was from Montgomery, WV. My Dad was a guard at the Nuremberg trials. The authority of the International Military Tribunal to conduct these trials stemmed from the London Agreement of August 8, 1945. After 216 court sessions, on October 1, 1946, the verdict on 22 of the original 24 defendants was handed down. These sketches were given to guards who requested them and to prison officials. Nuremberg Trials Nuremberg Trials after WWII Nuremberg Trials post Second World War Categories: General news, War and unrest, Government and politics, Military and defense, Social affairs; Location: Germany Display: All Displaying 1 - 124 of 124 Results < Prev | 1 | Next > 4508300110 4508301118 4508310176 4508310168 451007142 490414058 490414049 U.S. veteran Gerald M. Boe, the guard for Hermann Gring during the Nuremberg Trials, shares his memories of that time. Those men who liberated the camps of the Holocau. Later. Once the IMT established the criminality of aggressive war, war . [159] During the closing statements, most defendants disappointed the judges by their lies and denial. [201], At the same time as the Nuremberg Charter was finalized, the Allies also signed the Potsdam Agreement, which provided for the mass expulsion of millions of Germans from central and eastern Europe, so that certain acts for which Nazis were convicted at Nuremberg were therefore made an official policy of the Allies. Even before this decision, around 1,000 former Latvian Legion soldiers had served as guards at the Nuremberg trials, guarding Nazi war criminals. [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. I rather liked him for the way he acted toward us. [198] The trials targeted 177 defendants and obtained 142 convictions, including 25 death sentences;[199] the severity of sentencing was related to the defendant's proximity to mass murder. [28] The charter limited the jurisdiction of the court to Germany's actions because the Allies did not want to answer to an international court for their own actions;[29] only Germans could be tried. John C. Woods, hangman at Nuremberg Anyone else might have been embarrassed about botching such a high-level execution. Stahmer fought hard for his clie. [228] The most controversial charge was crimes against peace. Others subjected inmates to horrific experiments and torture. 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 My Dad was murdered, hanged, when I was 5 years old in 1965. [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. Still others displayed docile and taciturn mannerisms and personalities. [136][137] The Soviet prosecution case was generally well received and presented compelling evidence about the suffering of the Soviet people and the Soviet contribution to victory. After the war, she and other WACS were asked to stay for the Nuremburg trials to serve as stenographers . Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi Germanys foreign minister beginning in 1938, was amiable, Prestianni said. Uncover the topics related to the Nuremberg trials. Guards, for the most part, were not allowed to talk to each other or to prisoners while on security duty. Other prisoners were outspoken in their condemnation of Hess as a traitor to the Fatherland when he flew to England in May 1941, ostensibly to arrange a peace between Hitlers Germany and Great Britain. 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. [38], In early 1946, there were a thousand employees from the four countries' delegations in Nuremberg, of which about two-thirds were from the United States. Did guards favor some prisoners over others? [174] The judges interpreted crimes against humanity narrowly; they determined that crimes against German Jews before 1939 were not under the court's jurisdiction because the prosecution had not proven a connection to aggressive war. 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. Prisoners and guards were forced to wear heavy scarves to ward off the penetrating cold. Streicher had published Der Sturmer, a widely read newspaper filled with pornography, ethnic hate, and anti-Jewish cartoons to enflame the German population. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [210] As the Cold War began, the rapidly changing political environment began to affect the effectiveness of the trials. On October 1, 1946, the verdicts on 22 of the original 24 defendants were handed down for the Nrnberg trials. My father Gordon Fitzgerald also spent several months as a guard there. Michael R. Prestianni of Framingham, Massachusetts, who later survived months of combat in Korea. American guards ate in separate, enlisted mess halls and slept in segregated, barracks-like rooms, six to a room. Some of these camps, such as Treblinka, were death camps, intended to kill every prisoner that passed through their gates. They, as a group, had no problem with their guilt. [63] Jackson also rewrote the indictment with the intent of keeping the proceedings under American control by separating out an overall conspiracy charge from the other three charges. Guards were, on occasion, somewhat lenient and allowed some prisoners, based on previous friendships and compatible personalities, to walk in pairs. Four were convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years. After the first trial ended in October 1946, the United States held 12 other trials at Nuremberg under the authority of the International Military Tribunal. The food, prepared in an American-staffed kitchen, offered identical German menus for each prisoner. [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. It was only sometime later that I realized in retrospect that I had become part of history, Prestianni said. Prestianni, the guard contingent, and supervisors under the command of Colonel B.C. His name was David C. Porter from Pennsylvania. We needled him by saying his girls wanted to abandon the Fatherland, marry Americans, and emigrate to the United States.. [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. 3 Feb 1946. Speer was a favorite of the guards. 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 . Of course he was amongst other guards to his left and right. Also represented were some leaders of the German economy, such as Gustav Krupp (of the conglomerate Krupp AG) and former Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht.[2]. 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. I did nothing to be here, he stated. I sure would like to find out more about his service. Series of military trials at the end of World War II, This article is about the series of international trials. On occasion, guards assigned to courtroom duty asked for reassignment as they became emotionally and physically sickened by the film evidence of war crimes that was presented. Long live Germany.. [32] The trial was held under modified common law. Among those brought to trial were. 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 It was difficult and tiring duty. Hitler's friend, favorite architect, and Minister of Armaments from 1942 until the end of the war. I never heard him speak, Prestianni remembered. The duty roster for guards was revised daily in an attempt to prevent the development of unauthorized relationships with prisoners. Hans Frank, known as the Slayer of Poles, was small, outwardly arrogant, and had a cruel face, Prestianni revealed. He died about five years ago and I wished I would have asked questions. I inherited all of it. [126] Lev Smirnov presented evidence on the Lidice massacre in Czechoslovakia, adding that such destruction of villages had occurred throughout eastern Europe. These visits usually were brief, and participants were separated by a screen. My father was a guard in the courtroom (Palace of Justice) at the Nuremberg trials in 1946. In July 1945 the 98 th set up operations in a hospital in Munich, and several months later Col. Burton C. Andrus, prison commandant at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, requested Gerecke's service. Minister of Foreign Affairs 193845. [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. My mothers cousin was a WAC serving in England during WW2. [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. Hildegard Lchert (AKA "Bloody Brigette" or "Beast") Hildegard Lchert was conscripted to join the Nazi women in 1942, at the age of 22. Nazi, Alfred Rosenberg, lies dead on a casket following his execution after the Nuremberg Trials. [125], More so than other delegations, Soviet prosecutors showed the gruesome details of German mistreatment of prisoners of war and forced laborers, as well as the systematic murder of Jews in eastern Europe. He maintained an air of superiority toward Dnitz, considering him still a subordinate officer. Emilio DiPalma (right) stands on guard at the Nuremberg Trials in 1945. [36][35] On 8 August, the Nuremberg Charter was signed in London. Thank you so much for your time and I am looking forward to getting into many discussions. A mother of three small children, she would eventually serve as a guard at Auschwitz, Ravensbruck and Majdanek concentration camps. Meals were brought to the prisoners on a precise schedule each day on wheeled, double-tiered push carts by German prisoners from other sections of the prison who were being held for civil crimes. Below are facts about what has been called the greatest trial in history. Seven others, over time, were reduced by lengthy prison sentences to hollow, shuffling shadows of their former selves. Other absent and dead men including Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, Adolf Eichmann, and Bormann were also blamed. [115], From 17 January to 7 February 1946, France presented its charges and supporting evidence. Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death by hanging. Answer (1 of 3): Yes, he was a German lawyer named Otto Stahmer from Kiel. To some, he was demeaned as the foreigner., I didnt like his looks at all. He argued that he was being persecuted.. Joachim von Ribbentrop's body after his execution. Join historians and history buffs alike with our Unlimited Digital Access pass to every military history article ever published (over 3,000 articles) in Sovereigns military history magazines. After being rotated home in 1949, he reenlisted and soon found himself on Okinawa prior to deployment to Korea. Dnitz remained an unrepentant Nazi until his death in 1980. [10][11], Of all the Allies, the Soviet Union lobbied most intensely for trying the defeated German leaders for aggression in addition to war crimes. Some were convicted of historys most barbaric crimes against humanity. Immediately following the end of the IMT, the American military government held twelve more war crimes trials in Nuremberg. Outside the cellblock complex, a small courtyard with a few scraggly pear trees allowed each prisoner the opportunity to walk for 20 minutes each day. Gring enjoyed baiting his guards. [207][208] In a 1946 poll, 78 percent of Germans assessed the trial as fair, but four years later that had fallen to 38 percent, with 30 percent considering it unfair. Each of the governing countries, the United States, England, France, and Russia, had its own interpretation of punishment. Only Speer occasionally tried to befriend him or penetrate his deep solitude with a few words of encouragement. [160] On 2 September, the court recessed; and the judges retreated into seclusion to decide the verdict and sentences, which had been under discussion since June. After trial, incarcerated at. I asked him why that necessitated the killing of people to achieve this so-called needed land, especially the people of Poland. During the months of imprisonment, the brisk gait of some of the prisoners gradually evolved into defeatist, head-bowed shuffling as acceptance of their fate gradually wore them down and eroded their will. [202] All four powers later fought independence movements using methods that had been ruled illegal at Nuremberg. If one inadvertently looked up at her, she arbitrarily ordered the prisoner shot. April 22, 2020. I wish I would have ask more questions about his experience there. [151], In order to appease concerns about fair process, the defendants were allowed a free hand with their witnesses and a great deal of irrelevant testimony was heard. Many of the worst offenders were not prosecuted, for logistical or financial reasons. A further 12. One can only imagine the effect the pounding had on the condemned prisoners, now with only one more day to live. Courtroom 600 in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice was the site of the famous Nuremberg trials, a series of military tribunals that took place between November 20, 1945 and October 1, 1946. [224][225][226] During the two decades after the trial, opinions were predominantly negative. Three days on and three days off with shifts of four hours on, four hours off each day was the standard work assignment for guards. Despite being accused of the same crimes, Sauckel was sentenced to death, while Speer was given a prison sentence because the judges considered that he could reform. Home; Services; New Patient Center. [44] As the numerically strongest delegation, it would take on the bulk of the prosecutorial effort. Throughout the trial, he steadfastly maintained his innocence, saying they had arrested and charged the wrong person. False accusations of rape, abuse, or other misconduct by guards were commonplace. Twelve sets of trials, involving over a hundred defendants and several different courts, took place in Nuremberg from 1945 to 1949. Ten condemned Nazi ringleaders died on the gallows in the Nuernberg jail early today but Herman Goering, Adolf . [153] Midway through the trial, Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech denouncing the Soviet threat delighted the defense. 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. [231], The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Trial) borrowed many of its ideas from the IMT, including all four charges. He looked like a gaunt corpse, like a ghost. Whether the prisoners availed themselves of this privilege was by individual choice. I would have kept my distance from them.. [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. Beginning on November 20, 1945, all sessions of the tribunal were held in Nrnberg under the presidency of Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence (later Baron Trevethin and Oaksey), the British member. 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. The tribunal responded that such acts had been regarded as criminal prior to World War II. 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. [228][24] The charge of crimes against humanity, the charge of conspiracy, and imposing criminal penalties on individuals for breaches of international law were also novel but attracted little criticism. [81] Senior American officials believed that convicting organizations was a good way of showing that not just the top German leaders were responsible for crimes, without condemning the entire German people. 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. During the Nuremberg Trial, American guards maintain constant surveillance over the major Nazi war criminals in the prisonattached to the Palace of Justice. Considered by some as the most intelligent and talented prisoner, he was the quintessential gentleman. Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death, three to life imprisonment, four to imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years, and three were acquitted. Streicher, sentenced to death, was perhaps the most despised prisoner of all due to his complete obsession with sex. Soviet prosecutors in Nrnberg, Germany brought out Friedrich Paulus and Erich Buschenhagen by surprise as witnesses in the war crimes trials. Wells, was military policeman and a Provost Sergeant in charge of a special confinement unit whose responsibilities included providing security for the war crimes trials in Nrnberg. FRD provides custom research services to federal agencies, the District of Columbia government, and authorized federal contractors. During numerous argumentative discussions, Neurath referred to the Polish population and others that were slaughtered by German troops as untermenschen, the German expression for inferior beings. My Dad Arthur Tacopino was a guard at The Nuremberg Trials. 18008 Bothell Everett Hwy SE # F, Bothell, WA 98012. Trial issues are criminal activities or subjects at issue in a trial that are addressed by a document. 1 They were convened under the authority of Control Council Law No.. The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials that occurred in post-World War II Germany to provide a platform for justice against accused Nazi war criminals. He never repented for anything he ever did. The whole focus was on keeping the prisoners under surveillance through the opening in the cell doors, Prestianni said. Former Nazi leaders were indicted and tried as war criminals for their conduct by the International Military Tribunal. The International Military Tribunal set up by the . SS members were generally frowned upon and can't imagine them having anything to do with the trials except sit in the dock. On 17 September, the various delegations met to discuss the indictment. . At the time, I saw these men only as individual prisoners, guilty of unknown crimes. list of guards at nuremberg trialsdelpark homes sutton list of guards at nuremberg trials. 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. Prestianni guarded Streicher many times. I dont remember the name of the game after all these years. 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.. Whenever these female prisoners, most of whom were former concentration camp guards, created a problem, we merely, as instructed, called the sergeant-of-the-guard to resolve the situation. The verdict was drafted by British alternate judge Norman Birkett. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. He has little or no memory of the six remaining defendants, Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach, Labor Front head Robert Ley, Minister of Economics Walther Funk, Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment Fritz Sauckel, propagandist Hans Fritzsche, or Artur Seys-Inquart, the administrator of the occupied Netherlands. All sessions of the tribunal were held in Nrnberg, Germany, under the presidency of Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence. After Ley hanged himself, this strict suicide watch was instituted, Prestianni explained. By. [71][72] The military leaders were Hermann Gring, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Erich Raeder, and Karl Dnitz. [4], In early 1942, representatives of eight governments-in-exile in the United Kingdom issued a declaration on Punishment for War Crimes, which demanded an international court to try the Axis crimes committed in occupied countries.