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The Significance of the Nuremberg Trials to the Armed Forces*

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The Significance of the Nuremberg Trials to the Armed Forces* THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NUREMBERG TRIALS TO THE ARMED FORCES* Pre'lliously Unpublished Personal Obser'llations by the Chief Counsel for the, United States BY MR. JusTicE RoBERT H. JAcKSON The armed services are naturally concerned the case and treated as pertaining principally as to what we were driving at at Nuremberg, to military matters. If one were to deal with and as to the principle on which the leaders all the things that would be of particular in­ of the German armed services were called terest to you, it would require much more upon to pay a penalty for their acts. Mili" time, both in preparation and ih delivery, tary men throughout the world wanted to than I am able to give it, but I can give you know what it was that brought the German some general idea of the law which we sought military men to that somewhat unhappy posi- to establish and of the basis of· the judgment . tion. I propose to face that problem very against the servicemen who were condemned. frankly today and to discuss the effect of First of all, I think you should know that · this trial on the profession of arms. the idea of a trial of these German leaders It is very difficult to carve out of this case did not originate among theoreticians of the just those things which relate to the military legal profession. This plan originated in the men because they were a part of a large con­ War Department. This plan was pretty fully spiracy which involved the seizure of power developed in the War Department before I in Germany, the rearmament in defiance of was appointed. This plan was developed the Versailles Treaty, and during its early largely to implement the ideas and ideals of stages in secret, the raising and drilling of an Secretary Stimson who for many years had army concealed as a labor corps in violation advocated the outlawry of aggressive war, of that treaty, and a great many steps which and who probably knows more about that cannot be separated from the main stream of subject than any statesman in the United States-and I refer to him as a statesman because his career shows a more farsighted *A speech on the Nuremberg trials which was de­ livered by Mr. Jackson before a special group at the understanding of what was going on in the National War College, Washington, D. C., 6 Decem­ world than that of any man I know. And ber, 1946,. is printed here in complete form, without introduction, by special permission of Mr. Jackson and oftentimes I cited him as my authority and the Commandant of the Collzge. One of the principal sometimes didn't have much else, but I think points which Mr. Jackson seeks to ,clarify is the con~ siderable misunderstanding in military and naval circles I was weU fortified with him. as to the· exact objective of the prosecution. He offers When President Roosevelt went to Yalta proof that justice, in the form of hanging, was meted he took a memorandum which had been ap­ to Wdr crimind/s, and not military men who were only following superior orders. proved by Secretary Stimson, Secretary Stet- 3 4 MILITARY AFFAIRS Winter tinius and the Attorney General, Mr. Bid­ of the law against the wars of aggression. dle. That was presented and discussed brief­ But he also has written, an~ I c9mtnend to ly, and I think very vaguely, at Yalta, and your attention when it is published, an article they referred it to the Foreign Ministers to for "Foreign Affairs." He is one of the few prepare some implementation. The Foreign men who has really studied the documents Ministers became engaged in other things, before he wrote. There has been a great and eventually it drifted until it was left deal of comment on the Nuremberg trial to me to negotiate agreement on behalf of written by people who didn't bother to read the United States at ~ondon. the documents. I don't mean to say that It might be well to quote w:1at Mr. Vish­ Secretary Stimson read all of the evidentiary insky said when he came to Nuremberg. He documents, but he examined with great care said in substance that "The reason WI?. were the agreement, the speeches and th~ judg· able to get an agreement was that it was left ment, and he followed the case from begin­ to lawyers instead of diplomats." Since Vish­ ning to end with a dose attention. insky was himself a diplomat as well as a He says this: "The great undertaking at lawyer I take it he was not referring dis­ Nuremberg can live and grow in meaning, paragingly to one of his own professions. however, only if its principles are rightly What he meant, and· what I think is true, understood and accepted. It is therefore dis­ is we were given an unusual measure of au­ turbing to find that its work is critici~ed and thority. The subj-ect was technical and a lit­ even challenged as lawless by many who tle troublesome, and they wished it onto us should know better. In the deep convict~on and let us go. We didn't have to debate the that this' trial deserves to be known and political questions which get involved some valued as a long step ahead on the only up­ way with these things in the councils of na­ ward road, I venture to set down· my general tions. Our conferences were private confer­ view of . its nature and accomplishments." ences: The press was not in to publish ru­ His conclusion is: "In the judgment of mors and stir up trouble as the press some­ Nuremberg there is affirmed the central prin­ times does in international affairs, and we ciple .of peace, that the man who makes or. ···"W&re~-.able-.·.t.o .. -werk- ·oot:...an~.agreemetit.-.w.hkh plans to make aggressive war is a criminal. reconciled four legal systems. Our own and A standard has been raised to which Amer­ that of the British were easy to reconcile; icans at 'least must repair, for it is only as our own and that of the French were not so thi; standard is accepted, supported, and easy; our own and that of the Soviet Union enforced that we can move onward to a world are quite different. But we adopted a sys­ of peace within the law." tem by which these German prisoners would You must recall that the United States be given a fair hearing, and if there was any found on its hands a considerable group of defense in the world for what they had .done, · prisoners, that these prisoners in the judg­ it could be heard. ment of the world were guilty of the most atrocious of crimes. They had started a war STIMSoN's INFLUENCE without cause, they had waged it without In so doing we were carrying out this plan, consideration either for their own code or which originated in the War. Department. any other law, and they had perpetrated all Secretary Stimson made important contribu­ manner of atrocities on civilians. We tried tions in the early stages of the development to glean from existing law and codify defi- 1946 JACKSON: NUREMBERG TRIALS mtrons of the crimes we intended to prose­ are of course abstract, is the manner in which cute. The law which underlies the Nurem­ they were applied to leaders of the anned berg trial I will read to you. It had to be forces. Indicted individually before the tri­ quite general and as you will see a good deal bunal was Goering, who was, as you well_· had to be left to the discretion of the tri­ know, the builder and commander of the bunal. Luftwaffe; Keitel and Jodi from the Army; "(a) CRIMES AGAINST PEACE: namely, and 'Raeder and Donitz from the Navy. We planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a also asked that the General Staff as a group war of aggression, or a war in violation of inter­ be declared criminal. .In order to declare national treaties, agreements or assurances, or par­ any group criminal it was required under the ticipation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoin,g; terms of the charter that some individuals representative of the group be convicted. In "(b) WAR CRIMES: namely, violations of other words, the group could only be de­ the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treat­ dared criminal provided we tried and heard ment or deportation to slave labor or for any and convicted a representati~e who could other purpose of civilian population of or in occu­ speak for that group. Keitel and Jodl and pied territory, murder, ill-treatment of prisoners Goering, of course, represented the General of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, Staff and High Command; Raeder, Donitz, plunder of public or private property, wanton de­ struction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation the Navy. not justified by military necessity; JuDGMENT UNPUBLISHED "(c) CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, de­ It is unfortunate that the judgment has portation, and other inhumane acts committed not yet been published in the United States, against any civilian population, before or during because the recital of the judgment against the wat; or persecutions on political, racial or re­ ligious grounds in execution of or in connection these individuals really shows what they were with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tri­ up to.
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