My father, Jack J. John C. Woods, hangman at Nuremberg Anyone else might have been embarrassed about botching such a high-level execution. Gring was the acknowledged leader among the prisoners. 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. 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. Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library. [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. Came back to the States in Jun 46. 3 Feb 1946. After being rotated home in 1949, he reenlisted and soon found himself on Okinawa prior to deployment to Korea. The trials were not fair, though not in the way you are suggesting. In most respects, fraternization between guards and prisoners was closely monitored by those who set the policies for the prisoners confinement. I have a brass pot, called an aspersorium, obtained by my father. She was given the nickname "Bloody Brigette" by the camp . [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. [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. I never really got to know him very well during the few months before he was released, commented Prestianni, but at one time he tried to teach me an intricate German card game, but I never could catch on to it. But, he gave us no problem and I found him engaging to talk to and an excellent checkers player.. I have been searching for evidence that my Dad was a guard, so that the stories I have been told since I was a child could be documented. Before and during the war crimes trial, they were to be considered still innocent, Andrus drummed into the military personnel under his command. [52][46] The Soviet personnel's lack of knowledge of English, lack of interpreters, and unfamiliarity with diplomacy and international institutions also limited their influence. [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. jkeller, Aug 11, 2010 #16. macrusk Proud Daughter of a Canadian WWII Veteran. Efficiency Report for Henry F. Gerecke, 7/1/1945, NAID 6016856. They saw the horrible films the NAZIs took and heard the case the prosecution presented with all the evidence and saw the brutal photos, It was very hard on these young women, but they did their job they were asked to do. I asked him why that necessitated the killing of people to achieve this so-called needed land, especially the people of Poland. Updated on January 22, 2020. Nuremberg was chosen as the location for the trials because of its symbolic value. 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. [192] Members of the SS were tried in the Pohl trial, which focused on members of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office that oversaw SS economic activity, including the Nazi concentration camps;[193] the RuSHA trial of Nazi racial policies; and the Einsatzgruppen trial, in which members of the mobile killing squads were tried for the murder of more than one million people behind the Eastern Front. Many were resistance fighters or political opponents. Only Speer stood in the courtroom showing some remorse and, in an act of contrition, admitted his guilt and knowledge of the camps. [181] All three acquittals (Papen, Schacht, and Fritzsche) were based on a deadlock between the judges; these acquittals surprised observers. Others subjected inmates to horrific experiments and torture. [71][72] The military leaders were Hermann Gring, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Erich Raeder, and Karl Dnitz. U.S. veteran Gerald M. Boe, the guard for Hermann Gring during the Nuremberg Trials, shares his memories of that time. Kaltenbrunner had perpetrated extreme barbarism in the extermination of Jews through the planning and execution of the Final Solution. I had a chance to meet Mr. Christian Delage at a workshop on the . Raeder was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released for poor health on September 26, 1955. April 22, 2020. If one inadvertently looked up at her, she arbitrarily ordered the prisoner shot. He was a man of some stature with flowing white hair, but he would still never be noticed much in a crowd. He was not tall at all and didnt really stand out in any way from the others, Prestianni said. My father was also a guard, but he said he always was on the outside guarding. [36][35] On 8 August, the Nuremberg Charter was signed in London. He never repented for anything he ever did. [227] The main legal criticisms of the trial focused on questions of retroactivity, selectivity, and jurisdiction. Tags International Military TribunalNurembergGermanywar crimes trialstrials National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD [33], The negotiators decided that the tribunal's permanent seat would be in Berlin, while the trial would be held at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg. His initial assignment was as a guard at the Nuremberg prison. Many of the worst offenders were not prosecuted, for logistical or financial reasons. 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. Pre-war president of the. 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. 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. [229] Some defenders of the trial argued that the legal principle of nullum crimen sine lege (no crime without law) was not binding in international proceedings. His daily diary notes culminated in a book after his release. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [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. They were individually handcuffed to guards, driven by ambulance to a nearby airfield, and flown to Berlin, where they were processed at Spandau Prison. 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. The door was opened just enough to allow Streicher to enter. The Nazi war criminal, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, after execution at Nuremberg. "[1][163] The judges did not attempt to define aggression[164] and decided not to mention the retroactivity of the charges in the verdict. Twelve of the defendants would be sentenced to death. In July 2020, Dey was found guilty and given a two . Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death (Gring, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss-Inquart, and Bormann). [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. He always was respectful, always the consummate gentleman. Speer was convicted and served 20 years in prison. Call us at (425) 485-6059. Among those brought to trial were. Guards gradually learned through everyday observation, however, that the prisoners collective makeup truly spanned a psychologically intricate cross-section of those who had served Hitler. False accusations of rape, abuse, or other misconduct by guards were commonplace. 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. 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, Stay up to date with all of our latest news, 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. Unbelievable but true - an entire unit of former Waffen-SS Grenadiers were retrained and deployed by the Americans to help guard the Nuremberg Trials in 1946-49. Seven defendants (Hess, Funk, Raeder, Dnitz, Schirach, Speer, and Neurath) were sent to Spandau Prison to serve their sentences. The crew (left to right) Private (1st Class) Carl E McCray (Salem, Va.) and Sergeant E Wilson (Texas.)'. Four were convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years. 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 our conversations, he often asked questions about the United States, a subject in which he appeared to be quite interested, Prestianni added. [175][176], Four organizations were ruled to be criminal: the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the SS, the Gestapo, and the SD, although some lower ranks and subgroups were excluded. 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. was on Court room duty. Frick was rather taciturn, not given to talking. All eight judges participated in the deliberations, but the alternates could not cast a vote. Mark Felton Productions. Posted September 22, 2014. To move from one corridor to another, guards carried different colored passes. 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. He promoted an intentionalist view of the Nazi state and its overall conspiracy to commit all of the crimes mentioned in the indictment. [19], The Nuremberg Charter upended the traditional view of international law by holding individuals, rather than states, responsible for breaches of international law. Their trial was held before an International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg, Germany. The IMT focused on the crime of aggressionplotting and waging aggressive war, which the verdict declared "the supreme international crime" because "it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole". Examine some of the collection's most-accessed trial topics. Dnitz remained an unrepentant Nazi until his death in 1980. All war crimes prisoners ate from a single German menu. View full size Courtesy, U.S. Army The Military Tribunal proceedings in Nuremberg, Germany, Herman Goering sits between two guards, the left one being Andrew Wendland of Bay City. Courtesy Emily Aho Around Memorial Day of 2000, Emily Aho took her then 75-year-old father, Emilio "Leo". I would have kept my distance from them.. One was sentenced in absentia. Dnitz, who was named successor to Hitler during the waning days of the war and served 10 years in prison, remained aloof. Everyone within hearing distance knew what the hammering signified. Usually these are prosecution chargeslike crimes against humanityor a defense response. The United States and United Kingdom refused to endorse this proposal, citing the failure of war crimes prosecutions after World War I. , That used to shut him up but usually only for a few minutes, and then he would start up again with the jokes. Martin Bormann was tried and condemned to death in absentia, and Hermann Gring committed suicide before he could be executed. 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. Public to Get Access to Nuremberg Trials Digital Recordings He maintained an air of superiority toward Dnitz, considering him still a subordinate officer. [219][220] The German public took the early releases as confirmation of what they saw as the illegitimacy of the trials. He died about five years ago and I wished I would have asked questions. [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. [187] Pursuant to this law, United States forces had arrested almost 100,000 Germans as war criminals. How Gring obtained the lethal capsule has never been firmly established. Number 2 was given to Karl Dnitz, former grand admiral of the German Navy. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded many countries across Europe, inflicting 27 million deaths in the Soviet Union alone. 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. 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. A defendant was entitled to receive a copy of the indictment, to offer any relevant explanation to the charges brought against him, and to be represented by counsel and confront and cross-examine the witnesses. Even before this decision, around 1,000 former Latvian Legion soldiers had served as guards at the Nuremberg trials, guarding Nazi war criminals. And when he spoke, it was to lash out violently at anyone close to him at the time, even the guards.. The Russians always were a problem and only cooperated with the other countries about 10 percent of the time. Nuremberg, Germany, November 1945. 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. Ten condemned Nazi ringleaders died on the gallows in the Nuernberg jail early today but Herman Goering, Adolf . Guards were randomly assigned to prisoners, and the assignments were generally not known by the guards until the duty roster was posted or announced each morning during roll call. [138], From March to July 1946, the defense presented its counterarguments. Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi Germanys foreign minister beginning in 1938, was amiable, Prestianni said. 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 [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. Afterwards, during the Berlin Blockade, they took part in securing Allied facilities involved in the Berlin Airlift and later also were guarding USA Army headquarters. Goehring gave my Dad a notebook that he had drawn in. Thank you so much for your time and I am looking forward to getting into many discussions. His face had an animal look to it, Prestianni stated. 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. These women prisoners constantly did anything they could to get a guard in trouble or disciplined.. Institutional rivalries hampered the search. Streicher, for reasons never made known, was photographed clothed and then naked and again in death. [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. [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. I believe her rank was a corporal. These were the intellectuals; the ramrod-stiff military officers; the cunning politicians; the worlds 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 lackeys; and even their self-appointed leader, a bloated, drug-addicted former war hero. [84][85] The American prosecution drew on reports of the Office of Strategic Services and information provided by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the American Jewish Committee. The tribunal responded that such acts had been regarded as criminal prior to World War II. Soldiers in tank stand guard in front of the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg where the International Military Tribunal . He was proud of his physique, saying he was strong like Germany.. 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. I need your: Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. my father david c bergeron was a 1st LT with the guards at the war trials. Speer spent much of his time drawing exquisite pencil sketches ranging from landscapes to magnificent buildings to quaint German villages. The verdict was drafted by British alternate judge Norman Birkett. Two of the six were acquitted, two given prison terms and two sentenced to death. The first session, under the presidency of Gen. I.T. 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. events, and resources, Michael Prestianni: Guarding the War Criminals at Nuremberg. The International Military Tribunal (IMT) delivered its judgment against the Nazi leaders on September 30 and October 1, 1946. Hildegard Lchert (AKA "Bloody Brigette" or "Beast") Hildegard Lchert was conscripted to join the Nazi women in 1942, at the age of 22. [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. This is evidenced by the change of the guards uniforms back and forth from the heavier, darker, winter uniform to the lighter colored summer uniform. 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. Ten of them Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Alfred Rosenberg, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Wilhelm Keitel, and Arthur Seyss-Inquart were hanged on October 16, 1946. It was always a battle of authority. The Nuremberg Trials: Table of Contents | Indictments | Defendants & Verdicts Click Left/Right to Scroll American guards maintain constant surveillance over Nazi war criminals in the Nuremberg prison.