list of guards at nuremberg trials

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 [22][23] War crimes already existed in international law as criminal violations of the laws and customs of war. One was sentenced in absentia. Number 3 was Konstantin von Neurath, a former high-ranking politician. I did nothing to be here, he stated. After his release from prison in Nuremberg, a Stuttgart court sentenced him to eight years in a work camp. I dont remember the name of the game after all these years. [101] He described the fact that the defeated Nazis received a trial as "one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason". [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. 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. [54] The Soviet judges and prosecutors were not permitted to make any major decisions without consulting a commission in Moscow led by Soviet politician Andrei Vyshinsky; the resulting delays hampered the Soviet effort to set the agenda. 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. He said that he had the pleasure of meeting the judge known as the Hanging Judge. These sketches were given to guards who requested them and to prison officials. The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. Text Size:thredup ambassador program how to dress more masculine for a woman. He argued that Germans needed Lebensraum (living space) and that they were looking only for land expansion. [71][72] The military leaders were Hermann Gring, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Erich Raeder, and Karl Dnitz. On October 15, 1946, guards and prisoners listened to the pounding of the gallows being constructed. 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. [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. At the time, it was just a job we were told to do. [186] These trials were held under Law No. Does anyone know where I can read about the nuremberg trials from the guards perspective? [150] The judges barred most evidence on Allied misdeeds from being heard in court. [179], The exact sentences to be given each defendant were debated at length by the judges. It would be so greatly appreciated. His name was David C. Porter from Pennsylvania. [60] The American prosecution became derailed during attempts to provide evidence of the German annexation of Austria. Other prisoners shuffled past him without even glancing in his direction or outwardly acknowledging that he existed. 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. Guards, for the most part, were not allowed to talk to each other or to prisoners while on security duty. They had a profound affect on my dad, who always said, I would never want to be killed by hanging. Yet, the constables who allegedly murdered my Dad did just that. All war crimes prisoners ate from a single German menu. If an organization was found to be criminal, the prosecution could bring individuals to trial for having been members, and the criminal nature of the group or organization could no longer be questioned. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. [120] Ultimately, the French prosecution was unable to convince the court that Germanization was a crime against humanity, and incidents such as the German annexation of AlsaceLorraine went unmentioned in the final verdict. There was a constant, steady flow of rules and regulations, many of them meaningless, while others tended to be more punitive, he said. This is a good documentary on the Nuremberg Trials that occurred after the end of the war. We jokingly told him the girls coveted the gifts American soldiers could offer and they had all forgotten his (Schirachs) Nazi National Socialism propaganda indoctrination. 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. He promoted an intentionalist view of the Nazi state and its overall conspiracy to commit all of the crimes mentioned in the indictment. 18008 Bothell Everett Hwy SE # F, Bothell, WA 98012. Streicher, sentenced to death, was perhaps the most despised prisoner of all due to his complete obsession with sex. Uncover the topics related to the Nuremberg trials. Upon arriving in the European Theater, Prestianni, a replacement, found himself in the U.S. 1st Infantry Division. [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. Other than that, Hess had no social interaction with the other prisoners. Whether the prisoners availed themselves of this privilege was by individual choice. They, as a group, had no problem with their guilt. [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. Recently one of our readers in the US contacted us with a photo of a pair of sunglasses that were in a box in his grandfather's garage. 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. This brass pot held the holy water that an attending priest sprinkled on the condemned immediately before their execution. The authority of the International Military Tribunal to conduct these trials stemmed from the London Agreement of August 8, 1945. 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. Give me information about your Dad and I will help you research about your fathers deployment to Germany. They were individually handcuffed to guards, driven by ambulance to a nearby airfield, and flown to Berlin, where they were processed at Spandau Prison. There were limits to how much gore that could be tolerated by some of the courtroom guards, he recalled. All of those with whom I came in contact spoke flawless English, he remembered. Because of his moral corruption, the other prisoners shunned him. We were given strict orders to have no contact whatsoever with these women, no conversation, no nothing and to stay well away from them, noted Prestianni. 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. Prestianni guarded Streicher many times. They were put under guard at a hotel and taken to court with armed MPs to trial each day. [8][9] On 1 November 1943, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and United States issued the Moscow Declaration to "give full warning" to the Nazi leadership of the Allies' intent to "pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earthin order that justice may be done". [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. [132][169] Through a compromise among the judges, the charge of conspiracy was narrowed to a conspiracy to wage aggressive war. 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. Per newspaper accounts of the scene, when the inmates heard the news they "shouted with joy" and "chattering excitedly, hastily shed the red . 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. Trial issues are criminal activities or subjects at issue in a trial that are addressed by a document. He was largely overlooked in prison, Prestianni said of von Papen. [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. An accomplished horseman, Streicher continued to wear high leather boots and riding britches during his confinement. [87], Initially, it was planned to hold a second international tribunal for German industrialists, but this was never held because of differences between the Allies. Cell doors were never opened when food was distributed. [238][239] The Palace of Justice houses a museum on the trial and the courtroom became a tourist attraction, drawing 13,138 visitors in 2005. [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. I played checkers with him on a number of occasions, Prestianni revealed. Johann Georg Richert was found guilty and was executed in Minsk, Byelorussia. [228] The most controversial charge was crimes against peace. He was another of Prestiannis favorite checker-playing opponents. Minister of Foreign Affairs (until 1938), then Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia. 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 . Number 2 was given to Karl Dnitz, former grand admiral of the German Navy. Hitler's friend, favorite architect, and Minister of Armaments from 1942 until the end of the war. There was a large clock on the wall that was above his right shoulder. The following is a brief . SS members were generally frowned upon and can't imagine them having anything to do with the trials except sit in the dock. During watch on one bitter cold night, Prestianni contracted pneumonia and collapsed, unconscious. Your Moms birthday and maiden name. Dads birthday. [236][237], The trials were the first use of simultaneous interpretation, which stimulated technical advances in translation methods. At the time, I saw these men only as individual prisoners, guilty of unknown crimes. [182] Nikichenko released a dissent approved by Moscow that rejected all the acquittals, called for a death sentence for Hess, and convicted all the organizations. He guarded Goehring. Their voices speak directly to the reader and reflect upon the meaning of justice in the post . [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. Did guards favor some prisoners over others? Home; Services; New Patient Center. [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. 1 Feb 1946. The first of the trials was the Major War Crimes Trial, in which 22 high-ranking Nazis stood trial in the Palace of Justice. Posted September 22, 2014. I only patrolled there once. [10] The declaration also stated that those high-ranking Nazis who had committed crimes in several countries would be dealt with jointly. . While on duty, guards carried no weapons, only wooden truncheons. The second-level tier housed high-ranking SS (Schutzstaffel) officers and many of the infamous doctors who had conducted ghastly medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [189], One set of trials focused on the actions of German professionals: the Doctors' trial focused on human experimentation and euthanasia murders, the Judges' trial on the role of the judiciary in Nazi crimes, and the Ministries trial on the culpability of bureaucrats of German government ministries, especially the Foreign Office. Conversation between guards was extremely limited or nonexistent. Hello everybody, this morning ended an auction on ebay of a Nuremberg Trials Guard uniform and I would hear your thoughts about the patch - especially of the scale on the patch because the right bowl has three strings and the left one has two strings.The Nuremberg Trial patches were German made ( Bullions) and all of . The purpose of the armored reinforcement was to prevent any possibility of attack by groups of still-fanatic Nazis. I asked him why that necessitated the killing of people to achieve this so-called needed land, especially the people of Poland. The trial started in November 1945. If one inadvertently looked up at her, she arbitrarily ordered the prisoner shot. Once the IMT established the criminality of aggressive war, war . By far the most attention--not surprisingly, given the figures involved--has focused on the first Nuremberg trial of twenty-one major war criminals. By creating an Aryan nation, the world would look up to and envy Germany for its racial purity.. Three of the defendants were acquitted: Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen, and Hans Fritzsche. But, he gave us no problem and I found him engaging to talk to and an excellent checkers player.. [1] The defendants included some of the most famous Nazis, including Hermann Gring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Wilhelm Keitel. 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. Sixteen of these captives were guarded by Pfc. [79] Initially, the Americans had planned to try fourteen organizations and their leaders, but this was narrowed to six: the Reich Cabinet, the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the Gestapo, the SA, the SS and the SD, and the General Staff and High Command of the Wehrmacht. 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. Michael R. Prestianni of Framingham, Massachusetts, who later survived months of combat in Korea. Ribbentrop, Prestianni related, was a man without humor. In mid-1945, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed to convene a joint tribunal in Nuremberg, with the Nuremberg Charter as its legal instrument. [115], From 17 January to 7 February 1946, France presented its charges and supporting evidence. The purpose of the trial was not just to convict the defendants but also to assemble irrefutable evidence of Nazi crimes, offer a history lesson to the defeated Germans, and delegitimize the traditional German elite. [233] In 1950, the International Law Commission drafted the Nuremberg principles to codify international criminal law, although the Cold War prevented the adoption of these principles until the 1990s. [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. Batya. He was a rather low key person at Nuremberg who caused the guards no problems at all, said Prestianni. He was quiet by nature and spent much of his time writing his memoirs. My father became an MP after the war. There was also a picture of him guarding Hitler. I would like any information that would lead me to a more detailed understanding of what my father did while part of this undertaking. [32] The trial was held under modified common law. 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. [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. In 2019, Bruno Day, who served as a SS camp guard at the Stutthof Concentration Camp, was brought to trial accused of contributing to the murder of 5230 people at the camp. 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. [211] The educational purpose of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals was a failure, in part because of the resistance to war crimes trials in German society, but also because of the United States Army's refusal to publish the trial record in German for fear it would undermine the fight against communism. [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. [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. [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. [154] The United States controlled the prison where the defendants and some of the witnesses were held, and tried its best to shut the Soviets out of the proceedings. Still others displayed docile and taciturn mannerisms and personalities. Tags International Military TribunalNurembergGermanywar crimes trialstrials National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD God have mercy on my soul. [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. Where they lived. All guards were forced to stand practically motionless at parade rest behind their assigned prisoner seated before them in the dock. He did mention seeing the prisoners in their cells. The requested reassignments were generally granted.. [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. 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. In return, he often was rewarded with cigarettes, pipe tobacco, or other small items he coveted. [124] Paulus incriminated his former associates, pointing to Keitel, Jodl, and Gring as the defendants most responsible for the war. 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. As well as the tank three Military Policemen can be seen on duty. Three of the defendants were acquitted. It was always a battle of authority. [159] During the closing statements, most defendants disappointed the judges by their lies and denial. 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. The Russians always were a problem and only cooperated with the other countries about 10 percent of the time. [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. Seven others, over time, were reduced by lengthy prison sentences to hollow, shuffling shadows of their former selves. Convicted and hanged, Rosenbergs ideology led to an appointment as minister of the occupied eastern territories in 1941. [106][107] The Americans summoned Einsatzgruppen commander Otto Ohlendorf, who testified about the murder of 80,000 people by those under his command, and SS general Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who admitted that German anti-partisan warfare was little more than a cover for the mass murder of Jews. The Nuremberg Trials After the war, the top surviving German leaders were tried for Nazi Germany's crimes, including the crimes of the Holocaust. I wish peace to the world. Gring enjoyed baiting his guards. Number 6 was Walther Funk, former minister of economics, and Number 7 was Rudolf Hess, once Hitlers private secretary and deputy fhrer. Another, Hermann Goring, opted to commit . [69][37], The defendants, who were largely unrepentant,[70] included former cabinet ministers: Franz von Papen (who had brought Hitler to power); Joachim von Ribbentrop (foreign minister), Wilhelm Frick (interior minister), and Alfred Rosenberg, minister for the occupied eastern territories. -. The defense lawyers saw themselves as acting on behalf of their clients, but also the German nation;[78] they prioritized the Wehrmacht's reputation over the lives of the generals on trial. I tried to treat each prisoner without rancor.. [129] The Soviet prosecution also attempted to fabricate German responsibility for the Katyn massacre, which had in fact been committed by the Soviet Union. Other generals were tried in the High Command Trial for plotting wars of aggression, issuing criminal orders, deporting civilians, using slave labor, and looting in the Soviet Union. [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. An avid reader, he availed himself of a well-stocked library with a steady supply of books. Prestianni and another guard handcuffed Streicher and walked him silently to the gallows chamber, where they rapped on the door with their truncheons. The Nuernberg trial records include transcripts of proceedings . The whole focus was on keeping the prisoners under surveillance through the opening in the cell doors, Prestianni said. 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. [95][96] As Jackson made clear, the purpose of the trial was not just to convict the defendants but also to assemble irrefutable evidence of Nazi crimes, establish individual responsibility and the crime of aggression in international law, offer a history lesson to the defeated Germans, delegitimize the traditional German elite,[97] and allow the Allies to distance themselves from appeasement. Pre-war president of the. 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. By. 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. events, and resources, Michael Prestianni: Guarding the War Criminals at Nuremberg. [110] Unlike Jackson, he attempted to minimize the novelty of the aggression charges. He told multiple stories of his time there. [49][48] The French government tried to appoint staff who were not tainted by collaboration with the Vichy regime; some appointments were of those who had been in the French resistance. The Wiener Holocaust Library's holdings on war crime trials largely pertain to those crimes committed by the Nazis and their allies during the Second World War. The prisoners were restricted to groups of six to eight, which were strictly segregated from one another. Raeder kept to himself, voraciously reading and writing his memoirs, but when he interacted with the others, it was often to lash out in anger. Gerald lives in MN. [1] Most of the defendants were also charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Later. Three were sentenced to life imprisonment: Rudolf Hess, Walther Funk, and Erich Raeder. Asked whether the 60-year myth about Streicher struggling for 20 minutes at the end of the hangmans rope was true, Prestianni said guards never witnessed the hanging and he had not heard any such rumors at the time, but guessed it could have happened. Seven defendants (Hess, Funk, Raeder, Dnitz, Schirach, Speer, and Neurath) were sent to Spandau Prison to serve their sentences. He would just lie on his bed staring at the ceiling with expressionless, sunken eyes and fallow, sort of ashen, death-like skin. False accusations of rape, abuse, or other misconduct by guards were commonplace. Perhaps the most feared group of accused criminals in the annals of history was a potpourri of personalities who had been associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. list of guards at nuremberg trialsdelpark homes sutton list of guards at nuremberg trials. The defendants, who included Nazi Party officials . Procurement is quick and merely requires an . He was sent to Nuremburg and stood guard at the Judges quarters. He recently passed in January of 2020 at the age of 91. [145], Despite the fact that the charter did not recognize a tu quoque defense, such arguments were repeatedly raised during the trial. Jackson. Although controversial at the time for their use of ex post facto law, the trials' innovation of holding individuals responsible for violations of international law established international criminal law. These visits usually were brief, and participants were separated by a screen. [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. [215] Early releases of those convicted by the Nuremberg Military Tribunals began in 1949;[216] and in 1951, High Commissioner John J. McCloy overturned most of the sentences. The names were -- Wippern, Hahnefeld and myself carried out the checking. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany waged war across Europe, invading Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Low Countries, France, Denmark, Norway, Yugoslavia, Greece, and the Soviet Union, among others. Sykes supervised guards, including the iconic. [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. The first of the trials was the Major War Crimes Trial, in . 23rd September 2021 at 5:18pm. Below are facts about what has been called the greatest trial in history. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [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. Strict attention was always paid to the prisoners. [217][218] The last prisoner was released in 1958. . [46] The British chief prosecutor was Hartley Shawcross, assisted by David Maxwell Fyfe, who had been the attorney general in Churchill's government.