He, like the others, was always bumming cigarettes or cans of Prince Albert tobacco for his pipe. Some were convicted of historys most barbaric crimes against humanity. Waffen-SS Soldiers Guarded the Nuremberg Trials Mark Felton Productions 1.82M subscribers Subscribe 81K 4.3M views 2 years ago Unbelievable but true - an entire unit of former Waffen-SS. Did guards favor some prisoners over others? Hitler's Minister of Economics; succeeded Schacht as head of the, Hitler's Deputy Fhrer until he flew to Scotland in 1941 in an attempt to broker peace with the United Kingdom. All female prisoners were segregated on a third tier. My father Paul Davis Smith served at a guard at Nuremberg though he never really talked much about it so I dont know in what capacity. [21] At the conference, it was debated whether wars of aggression were prohibited in existing international customary law; regardless, before the charter was adopted there was no law providing for criminal responsibility for aggression. Ambassador-Plenipotentiary 193536. 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. Frick was rather taciturn, not given to talking. [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". Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. [60] Conspiracy charges were especially central to the cases against propagandists and industrialists; the former were charged with providing the ideological justification for war and other crimes, while the latter were accused of economic mobilization without which no war would have been possible. Prestianni never served in the trial courtroom, only in the cellblock. [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. [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. Prestianni, the guard contingent, and supervisors under the command of Colonel B.C. [66][67] The prosecutors wanted to try representative leaders of German politics, economy, and military; and the Americans had a list of 70 names at the London Conference. I asked him why that necessitated the killing of people to achieve this so-called needed land, especially the people of Poland. [115], From 17 January to 7 February 1946, France presented its charges and supporting evidence. The indictment lodged against them contained four counts: (1) crimes against peace (i.e., the planning, initiating, and waging of wars of aggression in violation of international treaties and agreements), (2) crimes against humanity (i.e., exterminations, deportations, and genocide), (3) war crimes (i.e., violations of the laws of war), and (4) a common plan or conspiracy to commit the criminal acts listed in the first three counts. The United States delegation outlined the overall Nazi conspiracy and criminality of Nazi organizations. Ribbentrop, Prestianni related, was a man without humor. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. His name was David C. Porter from Pennsylvania. Still others displayed docile and taciturn mannerisms and personalities. The Nuernberg trial records include transcripts of proceedings . With the change of command by rotating countries every month, each of the countries altered the previous countrys rules. Number 3 was Konstantin von Neurath, a former high-ranking politician. He was a rather low key person at Nuremberg who caused the guards no problems at all, said Prestianni. Movement was extremely restricted and closely monitored, even for the guards. [227] The main legal criticisms of the trial focused on questions of retroactivity, selectivity, and jurisdiction. Hans Frank, known as the Slayer of Poles, was small, outwardly arrogant, and had a cruel face, Prestianni revealed. Strict attention was always paid to the prisoners. He told multiple stories of his time there. The tribunal was given the authority to find any individual guilty of the commission of war crimes (counts 13 listed above) and to declare any group or organization to be criminal in character. He had been instrumental in establishing a totalitarian state. I look forward to hearing from him. 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 To move from one corridor to another, guards carried different colored passes. Subsequent Nuremberg Trials (December 1946 - April 1949) [228] The most controversial charge was crimes against peace. Two of the six were acquitted, two given prison terms and two sentenced to death. I never heard him speak, Prestianni remembered. These were 60 year old Emma Zimmer, nee Mezel, and 36 year old . The Rome Statute establishing a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC), which had been proposed in 1953, was finally agreed to in 1998. No favoritism was shown nor was a selection offered. Some passively resigned themselves to their futures while others fought it off and never fully accepted their fates. The Nrnberg trials were a series of trials held in Nrnberg, Germany, in 1945 and 1946 following the end of World War II. Another, Hermann Goring, opted to commit . 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. Until the end of the negotiations, it was not clear that any trial would be held at all, due to acrimonious disputes over fundamental matters; the American delegation threatened to walk out. Kaltenbrunner had perpetrated extreme barbarism in the extermination of Jews through the planning and execution of the Final Solution. [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. Had been imprisoned since then. [165] The official interpretation of the IMT held that all of the charges had a solid basis in customary international law,[166] which was elaborated in the verdict. [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. [150] The judges barred most evidence on Allied misdeeds from being heard in court. Besides Speer, Ribbentrop, Kaltenbrunner, and Jodl, Prestianni also guarded Luftwaffe Reichsmarshal Hermann Gring, Grand Admiral Dnitz, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Reich financier Hjalmar Schacht, Governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Konstantin von Neurath, Nazi philosopher Alfred Rosenberg, virulent anti-Semite Julius Streicher, diplomat Franz von Papen, Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, Grand Admiral Raeder, Hess, and Hans Frank, the governor general of occupied Poland. Eighteen-inch rectangular holes were cut from the heavy, oaken cell doors, slightly below eye level. He guarded top Nazis at Nuremberg trials; now he'll share his story By CAROL SMITH, P-I REPORTER Updated Nov 7, 2007 Jack Carver holds a portrait of top-ranking Nazi Hermann Goering, whom he met. God have mercy on my soul. [68] Most of the defendants had surrendered to the United States or United Kingdom. [100], On 21 November, Jackson gave the opening speech for the prosecution. SS members were generally frowned upon and can't imagine them having anything to do with the trials except sit in the dock. [82], Over the summer, all of the national delegations struggled to gather evidence for the upcoming trial. He was short but very powerfully built. After his release from prison in Nuremberg, a Stuttgart court sentenced him to eight years in a work camp. The Nuremberg Trials were 13 trials held in Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II. FRD provides custom research services to federal agencies, the District of Columbia government, and authorized federal contractors. The intentionally weakened table and chair, Prestianni said, prevented possible suicide attempts by hanging. Through these openings, aluminum food trays could be placed within reach of the prisoners. John C. Woods, hangman at Nuremberg Anyone else might have been embarrassed about botching such a high-level execution. [59] The conspiracy charge was used to charge the top Nazi leaders, as well as bureaucrats who had never killed anyone or perhaps even directly ordered killing. Usually these are prosecution chargeslike crimes against humanityor a defense response. He was strictly military during the three months I observed him. Boy I wish I asked more questions of the trials. [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. 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. In the Hostages case, several generals were tried for executing thousands of hostages and prisoners of war, looting, using forced labor, and deporting civilians in the Balkans. William L Shierer "the Rise and Fall of the third Reich", part IV, Nuremberg-chapter, the United States committed the same breach, Last and Near-Last Words of the Famous, Infamous and Those In-Between, "The International Military Tribunal for Germany", The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_defendants_at_the_International_Military_Tribunal&oldid=1114903079, Successor to Hess as Nazi Party Secretary. [126] Lev Smirnov presented evidence on the Lidice massacre in Czechoslovakia, adding that such destruction of villages had occurred throughout eastern Europe.