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towards ships and cargoes of the enemy and of neutral countries, the prize disc was constructed, which through simple manipulations indicated the articles of the Prize Ordinance to be applied. Thus, insofar as preparations had been made at all for economic warfare by submarines they were based exclusively on the German... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Day | 27,900 | 28,400 |
as equal military opponents. In order to show the effect of all the measures taken by the adversary, I have presented to the Tribunal some examples which I do not wish to repeat. They show unequivocally that further action against enemy merchant ships in accordance with the Prize Ordinance was no longer feasible from t... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Day | 28,350 | 28,850 |
that the one or the other party acted fraudulently during the signing or the subsequent interpretation of a treaty. I will endeavor to show how unjustified this charge is particularly in regard to the German interpretation of the London Submarine Protocol. There are two terms on which the German interpretation hinges, ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Day | 28,800 | 29,300 |
Root Resolution goes further and stipulates that any commander who, no matter whether he acted with or without higher orders, violated the rules established for the sinking of merchant vessels should be punished as a war criminal like a pirate. Finally it was recognized that under the conditions stipulated in the resol... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Day | 29,250 | 29,750 |
is typical of conferences of this kind. Root closed the debate with the statement that in his opinion the resolution held good for all merchant ships as long as the ship remained a merchant vessel.** With this compromise a formula was created which, while representing a momentary political success, would not however ca... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Day | 29,700 | 30,200 |
sense. And this very same common sense demands also that the armed merchantman be held just as guilty of forcible resistance as the convoyed ship. Let us take an extreme instance in order to make the matter quite clear. An unarmed merchant ship of 20,000 tons and a speed of 20 knots, which is convoyed by a trawler with... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Day | 30,150 | 30,650 |
agreement which leading American professors of international law, such as Jessup, Borchard, and Charles Warren, published in the American Journal of International Law of July 1939 and which includes arguments which furnish an excellent idea of the latest trend of opinion. Article 54 of this draft corresponds word for w... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Day | 30,600 | 31,100 |
of an offensive nature.* In the later course of the first World War, the United States changed its opinion and declared that mounting guns on the stern could be taken as proof of the defensive character of the armaments. This standpoint was adopted in some international agreements and drafts, as well as by British juri... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Day | 31,050 | 31,550 |
was heard in Court, and I do not want to repeat it. Actually, from the very beginning of the war merchant vessels were under orders to fire on every occasion on every submarine which came within range of their guns. And that is what the captains of British merchant vessels did. The reason for this offensive action can ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Day | 31,500 | 32,000 |
never recur, to destroy the enemy by naval or air forces. This is an unequivocal utilization of all merchant vessels for military intelligence service with intent directly to injure the enemy. If one considers the fact that according to the hospital ship agreement even the immunity of hospital ships ceases, if they rel... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Day | 31,950 | 32,449 |
Avalon Home Document Collections Ancient 4000bce - 399 Medieval 400 - 1399 15 th Century 1400 - 1499 16 th Century 1500 - 1599 17 th Century 1600 - 1699 18 th Century 1700 - 1799 19 th Century 1800 - 1899 20 th Century 1900 - 1999 21 st Century 2000 - Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 18 Previous Day Volume 18 Menu Ne... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 0 | 500 |
cites especially for the sinking of a neutral vessel contrary to international law. It concerns the torpedoing of the Danish steamer Vendia, which occurred at the end of September 1939. The Tribunal will recall that this ship was stopped in a regular way and was torpedoed and sunk only when it prepared to ram the Germa... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 450 | 950 |
46 Examining the question of blacked-out vessels from the legal standpoint, Vanselow, the well-known expert on the law governing naval warfare, makes the following remark:* "In war a blacked-out vessel must in case of doubt be considered as an enemy warship. A neutral as well as an enemy merchant vessel navigating with... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 900 | 1,400 |
". . . to warn anew and more strongly that in view of the fact that the actions are carried on with all the technical means of modern warfare, and in view of the fact that these actions are increasing in the waters around the British Isles and near the French coast, these waters can no longer be considered safe for neu... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 1,350 | 1,850 |
46 combat zone around England without any limitation was designated as an operational area. "Every ship"-so the note reads-"which sails in this area exposes itself to destruction not only by mines but also by other combat means. Therefore the German Government once more urgently warns against entering this endangered a... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 1,800 | 2,300 |
mines made it possible to render large sea areas 329 16 July 46 dangerous. But if it was admissible to destroy by mines every ship sailing, despite warning, in a designated sea area, one could see no reason why other means of naval warfare should not be used in this area in the same way. Besides, the traditional instit... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 2,250 | 2,750 |
Theories strategiques IV, Page 323: "Meme en zone de guerre n'aura-t-on pas contra sol le damne article 22 du traits de Londres?" *** Bauer, Das U-Boot, 1931, Report on it by Captain G. P. Thomson, R. N. in The Journal of the Royal News Instruction 1931, Page 511. ·"' Sperrgebiete im Seekrieg, Zeitsehrift fin auslandi... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 2,700 | 3,200 |
draft, was to include the waters up to a distance of 50 sea miles from the blockaded coast. * French Yellow Book, La Conference de Washington, Page 88. " Report of 8 October 1940, Page 3: "On- thing is certain, namely, apart from vessels in declared war zones, destruction of a merchant vessel is envisaged if even only ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 3,150 | 3,650 |
through continuous combat actions. This practical threat was present in the German operational zone in my opinion, and I refer in that connection to the proclamation of President Roosevelt regarding the U.S.A. combat zone, where the entering of that zone was prohibited, because as a result of combat actions shipping mu... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 3,600 | 4,100 |
which I intended to utilize in order to prove that British naval warfare also paid no attention to the interests of neutrals when they were in contradiction with their own interests. If it is the Tribunal's wish, I will not go into the details of the British measures, and in summing up I will mention them only insofar ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 4,050 | 4,550 |
Navy did not exercise naval supremacy, namely, off the coasts we occupied, and in the Baltic Sea, it used the same methods of naval warfare as we did. In any case the official German opinion was that the aforementioned British control measures against neutrals were inadmissible, and the Reich Government reproached the ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 4,500 | 5,000 |
naval forces of the belligerents were entitled to apply to neutrals. On the other hand, as I have already mentioned, the President of the United States prohibited, on 4 November 1939, U.S. citizens and ships from entering the waters extending over approximately one million square miles along the European coast. Thus th... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 4,950 | 5,450 |
is to be looked upon and justified as a measure of reprisal. For me the important thing is to show what actual practice looked like, and that is unequivocal. The Prosecution finds particularly blameworthy the orders to carry out attacks without warning in the operational areas, if possible without being noticed, so tha... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 5,400 | 5,900 |
sinkings such as in the instances dealt with here had not been denied but admitted instead? First of all, since that would have come to the knowledge of the enemy too, we should have lost the military advantage which lay in misleading his defense. Furthermore-and this is no less important-we might quite possibly have f... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 5,850 | 6,350 |
ones. The real reason for this differentiating treatment is given in Document UK-65 in the notation on the report which the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy made to the Fuehrer on 16 October 1939. According to this the neutral governments mentioned are requested to declare that they will not carry contraband; otherwise t... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 6,300 | 6,800 |
that the submarine warfare against neutrals was wage* in a "cynical and opportunist" way. If this is meant to convey that it was influenced also by political considerations, then I am ready to admit it. But I do not consider this a reproach; since war itself is a political instrument, it is in keeping with its essence ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 6,750 | 7,250 |
Command. ** John Chamberlain, "The man who pushed Pearl Harbor," Life, of 1 April 1946. 340 16 July 46 ship was due to the fact that the commander mistook it for an armed merchant cruiser. If the Tribunal should still hesitate to believe the concurring statements of all the witnesses heard here on this critical instanc... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 7,200 | 7,700 |
which some were intended not only for higher staffs but for schools and for training flotillas as well. Therefore, whenever an occurrence was to be restricted to a 341 16 July 46 small group of individuals, it was not to be reported in the War Diary. Since the sequence of the War Diary continued, the missing period had... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 7,650 | 8,150 |
commanders on his return from a successful operation tried before a court-martial because of a single slip which occurred in that action. Every military command acts in accordance with these principles. In this connection I will refer to the unreserved recognition which * Manual for Courts Martial U. S. Army, 1928, Pag... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 8,100 | 8,600 |
declared-war that they began to set about thinking in the most elementary manner on how such a war should be conducted. Since neither surprise attacks on armed merchant vessels nor the declaration of prohibited zones violate international law, 343 16 July 46 a belligerent might well be allowed to consider after the out... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 8,550 | 9,050 |
of urgent necessity. The surprise attack on the Danish fleet, 1807, as well as the hunger blockade against Germany are based on that 344 16 July 46 The well-known expert on international law, Baron von Freytagh-Loringhoven says, and I quote: ". . . always been war which has given its strongest impulses to international... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 9,000 | 9,500 |
political considerations were decisive for orders of the U-boat war, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy had no influence on them. The Commander of U-boats had not been notified of such considerations any more than of the political settlement of incidents which arose through U-boats. My second remark concerns the questi... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 9,450 | 9,950 |
the Prosecution concerns only the question already dealt with, namely, which ships were entitled to protection under the agreement and which were not. In the case of all ships not entitled to protection under the agreement, sinking should be considered a military combat action. The legal basis, therefore, with regard t... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 9,900 | 10,400 |
that time operating immediately of3? the British coast. It may be seen from the order itself that every paragraph deals with combat in the presence of enemy escort and patrol forces. The last paragraph therefore also deals only with this aspect and serves the warranted purpose of protecting submarine commanders against... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 10,350 | 10,850 |
following days devotedly rescued, towed boats, supplied food, and so forth, they received no less than three admonitions from the Commander to be careful to divide the shipwrecked, and at all times to be ready to submerge. These warnings were of no avail On 16 September one of the submarines displaying a Red Cross flag... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 10,800 | 11,300 |
period of almost 3 years this order was carried out not even a dozen times, which proves how high the commanders themselves estimated the danger to their boats in surfacing. On the other hand, nothing was more distressing for members of the crews of torpedoed ships than to be taken aboard a U-boat, because of course th... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 11,250 | 11,750 |
of the last wars one may be doubtful whether this classical theory still has any validity. I am inclined to regard the hunger blockade as the first important infringement of this theory, which by cutting off all food supply was aimed at the civilian population, therefore the noncombatants of a country. The victims of t... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 11,700 | 12,200 |
Command of the Navy. **** See for instance Wheaten's International L a w, 5th Edition, Page 727, Liddell Hart, "The Revolution in Naval Warfare," Observer of 14 April 1946. I 351 16 JuIy 46 The German Naval Operations Staff regarded these men as combatants. The British Admiralty takes the opposite standpoint in its ord... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 12,150 | 12,650 |
on board a submarine. These men were trained under military supervision, they fired the guns along with gunners of the navy, and the use of their weapons was regulated according to the * Oppenheim, Die Stellung des Kauffahrteischiffes im Seekrleg, Zeit-schrift fur Volkerrecht, 1914, Page 165. 352 16 July 46 Admiralty's... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 12,600 | 13,100 |
the execution of these orders in the first World War, Vidaud, in 'Les navires de commerce armds pour leur defense," Paris, 1936, Pages 63-64 says as follows: ``Les (quipages eux-memes vent militarists et soumis a la discipline militaire, ainsi que le capitaine Alfred Sheldon, appartenant a la reserve de la Marine Royal... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 13,050 | 13,550 |
to the fact that Korvettenkapitan Kuppisch from the staff of the Commander of U-boats had told him the story of U-386, a boat whose commander had been reprimanded for not having shot Allied airmen drifting in a rubber dinghy. This explanation of Mohle's cannot be correct. It is proven beyond any doubt by the War Diary ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 13,500 | 14,000 |
this conduct he and two of his officers were sentenced to death, and thereby punished with a severity which less agitated times will no longer comprehend. The two cases presented by the Prosecution, where shipwrecked crews allegedly were shot at, are so obviously unsuited to prove this accusation that I need not deal w... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 13,950 | 14,450 |
the U-boats to take action against lifeboats or shipwrecked crews was considered impossible by the Naval Operations Staff, since that would go against the grain of every sailor. In June 1943 Grossadmiral Doenitz, on receiving reports from Korvettenkapitan Witt about British aviators having fired on shipwrecked crews of... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 14,400 | 14,900 |
by the interests of his country. An insular power like Great Britain having long and vulnerable sea lanes, has always looked upon these questions from a different angle than the continental powers. The attitude of the United States from the renunciation of submarine warfare by the Root Resolution of 1922 to unrestricte... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 14,850 | 15,350 |
it into war. Not because they conducted the war; but because they have been driving to war." If this standard is used, then for the defense of Admiral Doenitz against the charge of preparing aggressive wars I need only point to the result of the evidence. At the beginning of the war he was a relatively young commander;... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 15,300 | 15,800 |
Hugo Grotius: "To participate in a crime a person must not only have knowledge of it but also the ability to prevent it."* While the entire legal. concept of the conspiracy in itself represents a special creation of Anglo-Saxon justice in our eyes, this applies even more to the retroaction of the so-called conspiracy. ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 15,750 | 16,250 |
to prevent the collapse of his nation's maritime warfare? Even the Prosecution seems to realize this. For, corresponding to their general idea, they attempt to link Admiral Doenitz with the conspiracy in a political way. This is accomplished by the assertion that he became a member of the Reich Cabinet by virtue of his... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 16,200 | 16,700 |
no longer existed during the war, and consequently stated that the actual governing was carried out by those who participated in the situation conferences at the Fuehrer's headquarters. As all witnesses examined here stated, we are concerned here with events of a purely military nature, where incoming reports were pres... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 16,650 | 17,150 |
to establish this assertion. In fact Doenitz, as he himself admits, did read or have presented to him the order in question in the autumn of 1942 in his capacity of Commander of U-boats, and in the same form in which the frontline commanders received it. I do not wish to speak here of the circumstances which led to obj... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 17,100 | 17,600 |
the Navy which were coming up. How can one require such a man as in the quietest of times to cope with an order of remote date, which had nothing whatever to do with naval warfare? On the contrary, a special paragraph explicitly excluded prisoners taken during naval operations. A word or two on the channels of command.... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 17,550 | 18,050 |
the Prosecution to establish a participation in the alleged conspiracy to commit war crimes the submission of Admiral Wagner's minutes on the question of withdrawal from the Geneva Convention in the spring of 1945. The details are contained in Wagner's testimony, according to which the Fuehrer pointed out in a conferen... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 18,000 | 18,500 |
no question at all of keeping any measures secret; they had to be made known, regardless of whether they were meant to deter our own deserters or as reprisals. But Wagner's note does not mention any kind of concrete measures to be taken, and all witnesses present at this situation conference in Hitler's headquarters st... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 18,450 | 18,950 |
first of all to point out that Admiral Doenitz is not accused, under Count Four of the Indictment, of direct commission of Crimes against Humanity. Not even participation in the conspiracy to commit Crimes Against Humanity was contended in the detailed charges. That, I would say, is an admission that there was in fact ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 18,900 | 19,400 |
put forward against this are assumptions, but no proofs. On this point, therefore, I will only refer to the statement of the then Minister for Armaments, Speer, according to which the inmates of concentration camps were much better off in industrial work than in camp, and that they tried with all means to obtain employ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 19,350 | 19,850 |
property and the honor of their women. This administration of justice was constantly supervised by the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy as the Chief Court Administrator. Under terms of legal procedure it was his duty to confirm death penalties imposed on German soldiers. The time at my disposal does not permit a more det... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 19,800 | 20,300 |
German sailors who, together with some Frenchmen, had robbed French Jews. From the findings of the court I again quote a sentence which characterizes the general attitude: "That the crimes were committed against Jews does not excuse the defendants in Any way." Similarly, it seems to me that the efforts of the Prosecuti... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 20,250 | 20,750 |
to discuss these matters with the political authorities, and in order to be successful in his demands, he had to make sure-that any political mistrust was eliminated from the very start. This he deliberately did, and he demanded the same of his subordinates. To him the Party was not an ideological factor, but rather th... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 20,700 | 21,200 |
a decisive obstacle on the road to political recovery. And now I should like to deal with the charge that in February 1945 Admiral Doenitz protracted the inevitable surrender out of political fanaticism, and I wish to do so for a particular reason. This charge, which seems hardly to have anything to do with the Indictm... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 21,150 | 21,650 |
this opinion objectively. But it may already be said today that such considerations arose entirely from a full sense of responsibility for the life of German men and women. The same sense of responsibility caused him, when he became head of the State on 1 May 19457 to cease hostilities against the West, but to protract... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 21,600 | 22,100 |
for my document books and for the whole presentation of my evidence. I think a survey of the whole case will thus be made easier. Raeder, who has just turned 70 years of age, has been exclusively a soldier, body and soul, ever since the age of 18, that is to say, for nigh on half a century covering an eventful period. ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 22,050 | 22,550 |
at no time came within the compass of his activity. 373 16 July 46 I shall naturally also discuss the military accusations, with the exception of submarine warfare, which, for the sake of uniformity, has already been dealt with by Dr. Kranzbuehler on behalf of Raeder, too. It will be seen from other military accusation... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 22,500 | 23,000 |
trifle or else a military measure-such as for example the antiaircraft batteries-based exclusively on the notion of defense. Raeder has plainly admitted 374 16 July 46 that treaty infractions did occur, but the trivial nature of the infractions showed that these measures could not possibly have been connected with an i... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 22,950 | 23,450 |
It appears from this clear treaty clause that participation in the Dutch firm was not a violation of the Treaty of Versailles. 375 16 July 46 According to Article 191, Germany was only forbidden to construct or purchase U-boats, moreover, strictly speaking, only in Germany. As a matter of fact, no U-boat was built in G... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 23,400 | 23,900 |
Chancellor or the Reich ministers concerned, in this case, the Minister of Defense. I quote: "Responsibility is assumed through the countersignature." Thus, from the point of view of constitutional law it is absolutely clear that the responsibility rests with the Minister of Defense or the Reich Government 376 16 July ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 23,850 | 24,350 |
danger was particularly evident in connection with Polish border incidents in East Prussia and Silesia and during the occupation of Vilna, and it even increased when all attempts of Stresemann and Muller failed to achieve adherence to the promise to disarm which the other powers had given in the Versailles Treaty. 377 ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 24,300 | 24,800 |
of 1935 show the same factual and juridical picture. During these 2 years no important expansion of naval armament took place either. The only disputable accusation made by the Prosecution in this respect is contained in Document D-855, which was submitted during cross-examination. This is the 378 16 July 46 report of ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 24,750 | 25,250 |
with regard to U-boat tonnage. Germany's demands were not unreasonable; on the contrary, in the document mentioned, His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom explicitly confirmed the German proposal to be ". . . an exceedingly important contribution to future limitation of naval armaments." This agreement between ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 25,200 | 25,700 |
the violation of the agreement consisted in the fact that the Navy, although now entitled to build larger battleships, neglected to inform Britain of her desire to make use of that right. It was, therefore, only a violation of the obligation to exchange information. How meaningless this measure was is proved by the alt... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 25,650 | 26,150 |
as well, are wrong. Actually there was no violation at all of the naval agreement with regard to U-boats. [A recess was taken.] DR. SIEMERS: I now come to the allegation of the Prosecution that Grossadmiral Raeder took part in a conspiracy to wage wars of aggression, and in particular supported Hitler and National Soci... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 26,100 | 26,600 |
the development of the Navy within the general limitations of naval armament. During this conversation Hitler clearly indicated that he. did not want a naval armament race and that the development of the Navy should take place only in friendly agreement with England. This principle was absolutely in line with the viewp... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 26,550 | 27,050 |
from various facts which the Prosecution or the Defense submitted in evidence: Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and the Prosecution reproaches Raeder because he thereupon took an oath in which he named the Fuehrer in the place of the fatherland. (Record of 15 January 1946, Volume V, Page 262.) This point was sufficien... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 27,000 | 27,500 |
admiral never takes part in political decisions, while at the same time he is obliged to make certain precautionary preparations depending upon such political decisions of the government. -This is another example of the discrepancy I have already mentioned affecting the position of a military commander, which, although... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 27,450 | 27,950 |
It has been established in particular that Raeder was neither informed of the details of the Austrian Anschluss nor of the kind of conference which ultimately led to an agreement with President Hacha. He was not told of the discussions with Hacha, nor of the threat of a bombardment of Prague, which was made in the cour... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 27,900 | 28,400 |
this decree of Hitler did not assign a political task to Raeder, as the Prosecution would like to have it. Moreover, this decree does not even give him the right to participate in Cabinet sessions at his own will, but only, as Hitler says in the above-mentioned document, "upon my order." This simply means that Racder m... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 28,350 | 28,850 |
the morale of the Navy was founded on a Christian basis. I refer in this connection to the typical National Socialist phrase of Bormann: "National Socialist and Christian concepts are incompatible."*** In the same document Bormann, as he so often did, expressed views devoid of all civilized standards and attacked Chris... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 28,800 | 29,300 |
of all known facts, be acknowledged as objectively true; the real issue is only whether Raeder realized, or was even able to realize, Hitler's deviation from his own ideas, and the answer to that is "no." Raeder could not have guessed, much less have known, that Hitler at some time became untrue to his own political id... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 29,250 | 29,750 |
form a just judgment of a public figure who has attained the enormous dimensions of Adolf Hitler, until his lifework as a whole is before us... We cannot tell whether Hitler will be the man who will once again let loose upon the world another war in which civilization will irretrievably succumb, or whether he will go d... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 29,700 | 30,200 |
branches of the Armed Forces, even if in certain cases one branch of the Armed Forces was not at all, or only vaguely, concerned with them. Of all these documents which have been submitted in the case of Raeder, only the four documents which, because of their importance, the Prosecution described as key documents, coul... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 30,150 | 30,650 |
it was not a verbatim record; however, he was at least careful to state at the beginning that Hitler's words were being reproduced "in essence." The feeblest documents, that is to say, the two versions of the speech of 22 August 1939 which the Prosecution has submitted, are written in the direct form of speech, and the... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 30,600 | 31,100 |
those concerned. That the documents were not sent to Raeder was established in the evidence by him and by the witness Schulte-Monting, apart from the fact that it is already apparent from the lack of a distribution list on the document. This point, in particular, seems to me of great importance. Listening to a speech o... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 31,050 | 31,550 |
of a dictatorship, and indeed it may be very difficult to understand the immeasurable dictatorial power of Hitler if one has not personally lived through all of those 12 years in Germany, in particular the growth of Hitler's power from its first beginnings until it finally developed into a dictatorship wielding the mos... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 31,500 | 32,000 |
When reading the documents in their entirety, the number of contradictions becomes evident, as the witness Admiral Schulte-Monting correctly pointed out during his examination and cross-examination. It is just because of such contradictions and often illogical thinking that the evidential value of the documents is dimi... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 31,950 | 32,450 |
himself; and thirdly, some ideas which he himself did not fully think out. I believe this way of thinking as explained by Hitler himself illustrates most strikingly how little reliance could ultimately be placed on statements which he made before a small or a large group of people. It seems to me quite plausible, there... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 32,400 | 32,900 |
these documents as the basis for the charge of conspiracy. Hossbach Document, discussion of 5 November 1937 in the Reich Chancellery: The crucial passages of this document are obvious, and the Prosecution has cited them often enough. But in dealing with this document it should be taken into consideration that both Goer... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 32,850 | 33,350 |
carried on negotiations and settled both questions without war. This fact in particular seems significant, because it proved to Raeder in the course of later events that he was in not ascribing undue importance to Hitler's strong words of 5 November 1937, for in spite of these words Hitler in reality did carry on negot... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 33,300 | 33,800 |
the Schmundt version might warrant. Schmundt obviously made an 397 16 July 46 endeavor to formulate Hitler's contradictory, fantastic, and incongruous statements in a clear way in accordance with his own precise military manner of thinking. This gives the document a clarity which does not correspond to Hitler's speech.... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 33,750 | 34,250 |
the witness Dahlerus who illustrated the terrible tragedy of this event. It seems to me important that up to August 1939 not only the witness Dahlerus, but also Chamberlain still believed in Hitler's * Record of 22 May 1946, Volume XIV, Page 306. 398 16 July 46 good will. It must be said again therefore that one cannot... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 34,200 | 34,700 |
military leaders, who merely receive the order to work out a certain plan, are neither authorized nor obliged to determine whether the execution of their plans will later on lead to an aggressive or a defensive war. It is well known that the Allied military leaders rightly hold the same view. No admiral or general of t... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 34,650 | 35,150 |
documents for all of us. So as on my part to assist the Tribunal and the Prosecution in making this comparison, I requested Generaladmiral Bohm in the meantime to compare these versions himself and in doing so to use the compilation of the British Prosecution which I mentioned just now. The result is contained in Bohm'... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 35,100 | 35,600 |
country. I am quite aware of the fact that the most serious reproaches can be made against Hitler's attitude following the time of the Munich Agreement until the outbreak of the war in Poland, although, and this is decisive for the Raeder case, not against the military command, but exclusively against the political lea... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 35,550 | 36,050 |
that "Hitler's prestige reached the stage at which one no longer dared to oppose his views." Finally it remains to be mentioned that this last key document dates from a time when the war was already in progress, and that the military leaders cannot be blamed if in all their plannings during a war they strove to attain ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Day | 36,000 | 36,278 |
Avalon Home Document Collections Ancient 4000bce - 399 Medieval 400 - 1399 15 th Century 1400 - 1499 16 th Century 1500 - 1599 17 th Century 1600 - 1699 18 th Century 1700 - 1799 19 th Century 1800 - 1899 20 th Century 1900 - 1999 21 st Century 2000 - Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 18 Previous Day Volume 18 Menu Ne... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Eightieth Day | 0 | 500 |
Weizsacker, and Fritzsche, together with the documents, establish the following facts absolutely clearly: (1) In early September 1939 Raeder himself firmly believed that the sinking was not to be imputed to a German U-boat, because it was revealed by the reports that the nearest German U-boat was at least 75 nautical m... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Eightieth Day | 450 | 950 |
well-known fact that precisely at the beginning of the war inaccurate reports also appeared in the English press about alleged German atrocities, which, even after their clarification, were not rectified, as for instance, the false report about the murder of 10,000 Czechs in Prague by German elements in September 1939,... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Eightieth Day | 900 | 1,400 |
behalf of the Allied General Staff in order to establish airplane bases there. Furthermore, preparations were made to land in Greece. As proof I have presented, as Exhibit Number Raeder-59, the minutes of the session of the French War Committee of 26 April 1940, which shows that the War Committee was at that time alrea... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Eightieth Day | 1,350 | 1,850 |
protection of a Balkan front, especially for the Romanian oil district. In addition to that, the inquiry of Raeder on 18 March 1941 was justified on strategic grounds, because Greece offered many landing possibilities for the British and the only possible defense was for Greece to be firmly in the hands of Germany, as ... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Eightieth Day | 1,800 | 2,300 |
would be for Norway and all Scandinavia to remain absolutely neutral. Raeder and Schulte-Monting were in agreement on this point during their interrogations; and it is, moreover, proved by documents. For this, I refer to Exhibit Number Raeder-69 where the conviction of Raeder is expressed that the most favorable soluti... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Eightieth Day | 2,250 | 2,750 |
of final plea I shall confine myself to a summary of the essential concepts of the opinion. ~ Articles 1 and ~ of ~ the Hague Convention on Rights and Obligations of Neutrals in the event of warfare at sea stipulate that the parties at war are bound to respect the rights of sovereignty of neutral powers in the territor... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Eightieth Day | 2,700 | 3,200 |
46 DR. SIEMERS: Mr. President, I beg to apologize, but I am afraid I cannot quite understand the sense as it comes through in translation. PRESIDENT: I will say it again more slowly. According to your contention, would it make any difference if the Tribunal were to think that Germany had been the aggressor in the war w... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Eightieth Day | 3,150 | 3,650 |
Germany was not allowed to use these coastal waters, then the mining of these coastal waters would have been a justified breach of neutrality on Britain's part, so that, as far as I am concerned, the mining operation as grounds for this would have to be left out of my plea, though not the other facts I am citing. Minin... | Yale Avalon (proceedings_vol18): One Hundred and Eightieth Day | 3,600 | 4,100 |
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