International Military Tribunal
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INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL November 24, 1947 President: Salomé Beyer Vice-President: Tomás Ortiz 2 Index 1. Cover page 2. Letters from the Chair 2.1. President 2.2. Vice -President 3. Purpose of the Committee 3.1. What is the International Military Tribunal? 3.2. Why is the International Military Tribunal important? 4. Law 5. History 5.1. World War II 5.2. The Holocaust 5.3. The Auschwitz Trials 6. Defendants 6.1. Maria Mandl 6.2. Arthur Liebehenschel 6.3. Johann Paul Kremer 7. QARMAS 8. Useful Sources 9. Bibliography COSMUN 2019 3 2. Letters from the Chair 2.1. President “Those who do not remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.” -George Santayana Dearest delegates, It is an absolute honor and privilege to be the president of the International Military Tribunal for COSMUN 2019. I personally want to thank you for choosing to be part of this committee, and COSMUN as a whole, and guarantee that both myself and Tomás will do our absolute best to make this experience an engaging and impactful one. I have been involved with Model United Nations since sixth grade and I completely love it. The magic that I have found within the walls of committees like the Security Council, the Human Rights Council, the International Court of Justice and the Joint Crisis Committee is unlike anything else I have ever experienced, and the friendships that I have developed because of these activities are priceless and timeless. I also want to tell you that all my experience is entirely at your disposal if you are to have any doubts, comments or concerns. All of my experience leads me to believe that the IMT at this year’s COSMUN is perhaps the most challenging, exciting and innovative committee I have ever been a part of. As a committee that has rarely, if ever, been done before in any of the Medellín Model United Nations, COSMUN proudly introduces a criminal and historical court, which goes along with COSMUN’s mission to create a better future for ourselves, and the future generations. After all, to change the present you must understand the past. We expect deep historical and political understanding from our delegates and are looking forward to seeing their individual and collective performance. Also, we expect that both the procedure and the historical guides be completely read by all of our delegates. Please take into account that you must turn in a document with your responses to the Questions to the Delegate prior to the Model. Please contact us if you have any doubts, comments or concerns at [email protected]. I look forward to meeting you, and wish you the best of luck, Salomé Beyer President of the International Military Tribunal COSMUN 2019 4 2.2. Vice-President Distinguished delegates, Welcome to the International Military Tribunal at COSMUN 2019. As Vice-President, it is a great privilege to form part of this committee. The Model of United Nations is more than a school activity. Beyond the leadership that it promotes, it is all about the essence of being able to transport yourself, and interpret a situation second handedly, by understanding first how humanity has treated past, current, and future matters. It is about the personal growth, academic learning, social connections, and exposure to the world that make such an event worth all the hard work. I can guarantee that the next three days we will be overseeing a transformation in every one of you, because a committee as challenging as the International Military Tribunal requires true academics, and leaders in formation. I have been deeply involved with Models of United Nations for years, and I can testify that when I am there, there is nowhere I would rather be. I remember being skeptical about the simulations that took place, until I was faced with how real history is, and how we are changed when we learn from it. With this same passion I am really looking forward to co-lead a committee of past and future merged in one. The hard work that both the president and I have put into this committee is at your entire disposal, and it is with all the passion, experience, research, and commitment that we have worked together with the purpose of creating an innovative committee that has not been presented before. It is precisely with this component of originality that we expect deep analysis of history, politics and society from each and every one of the delegates, because such a fusion requires a profound understanding. COSMUN intends to simulate a reality, and it is this very reality that we will be living, because the future is ours to shape, based on what has occurred. If there is anything you might need, either a question or a request, do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]. I look forward to meeting you, and await with eagerness and high expectations, Tomás Ortiz Vice-President of the International Military Tribunal COSMUN 2019 5 3. Purpose of the Committee 3.1. What is the International Military Tribunal? The International Military Tribunal was the entity through which the Allied Powers of World War II judged Nazi war criminals for their atrocious war crimes. The Tribunal was formally opened in Nuremberg, Germany on the November 20, 1945 and by October of that same year, the chief prosecutors had already presented the charges against the 24 Nazis who were to be judged. The four charges which were presented against them were: 1. Conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity, 2. Crimes against peace, 3. War Crimes, 4. Crimes against humanity. The defendants represented the diplomatic, economic, political and military areas of leadership within the Nazi party. But the most prominent leaders of Nazi Germany, them being Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels, did not stand trial because they committed suicide before the end of the war. Even though they could, the IMT decided to not try them posthumously because they did not want to create speculation or any kind of doubt on people’s minds on whether or not these infamous leaders were dead. Even though the IMT wanted to put 24 individuals on trial at Nuremberg, they only managed to include 22. Of these 22, the Allied forces had convincing evidence which tied them to crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity: 1. Martin Bormann, 2. Karl Doenitz, 3. Hans Frank, 4. Wilhelm Frick, 5. Hans Fritzsche, 6. Walter Funk, 7. Hermann Goering, 8. Rudolph Hess, 9. Alfred Jodl, 10. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, 11. Wilhelm Keitel, 12. Erich Raeder, 13. Alfred Rosenberg COSMUN 2019 6 14. Fritz Sauckel, 15. Hjalmar Schacht, 16. Arthur Seyss-Inquart, 17. Albert Speer, 18. Julius Streicher, 19. Constantin von Neurath, 20. Franz von Papen, 21. Joachim von Ribbentrop, 22. Baldur von Schirach. These 22, the “original 22”, had committed crimes that ranged from forced slave labor to the creation of concentration camps and being the masterminds behind the infamous Kristallnacht1. The Allied Forces tried their hardest to legally punish each and every single member of the Nazi party, but many of them argued that they were only following orders, which tainted the cases by affecting the ruling. This made the specific piece of evidence a mitigating circumstance2 . Many Nazis who claimed such things received very light sentences and went back to their normal lives in a matter of months. Other former Nazis escaped to other countries to avoid persecution. Many of them lived their lives without any sort of punishment for what they had done. One must consider that even though the Nuremberg Trials were the most famous and the most publicized trials out of the ones the IMT directed, many more trials happened under their ruling. Some other tribunals were the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings3, the individual trials carried out by the Soviet Union, the United States of America, the French Republic and the United Kingdom, and finally, the Auschwitz trials. 3.2. Why is the International Military Tribunal important? The International Military Tribunal is a historical accomplishment and this can be proven just by looking at the name of their most famous trials; Nuremberg. Many historians consider the decision of having the trials take place in Nuremberg as a final act of defiance against the Nazis, 1 The organized destruction of synagogues, Jewish houses and shops, along with the arrest of individual Jews. It took place on the night between the 9th and the 10th of November of 1938. 2 Mitigating circumstance: an accessory condition, event or fact which may be considered by the court to reduce the culpability of a criminal. 3 12 trials on high ranking German officials directed by the United States of America. COSMUN 2019 7 considering the previous existence of the Nuremberg Laws4. But its defiance towards immoral and atrocious organizations and coalitions is not the only aspect which makes the IMT so special. The testimonies brought out in the trials revealed much of what we know about the Holocaust today, and guided many of the articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The IMT also served as a base for the current international criminal law because it introduced and established the mentality of “justice, not revenge”. This means that the winners of the war prosecuted criminals because of factual information and because of things that were proven to have occurred, rather than simply to look for revenge, as it happened after WWI. In addition, the Charter for the International Military Tribunal served as base for the Nuremberg Principles established by the International Law Commission5.