Post-WWII - 1945, Germany: Nuremberg War Crime Trial, Thomas J. Dodd Summation. 29Aug46 1 of 2
Munich no. 386. Court standing waiting for justices to enter; sit down. Thomas Dodd to lectern w/ notes.
04:47:36 Since the 20th day of November 1945, this International Military Tribunal has been in almost continual session. In these many months, a record of more than 15,000 pages has been compiled. Over 300,000 affidavits have been submitted; about 3,000 documents have been offered & oral testimony has been heard from some 200 witnesses. This great mass of evidence, oral & written, almost exclusively of German origin, has established beyond question the commission of the crimes of criminal conspiracy, aggressive war, mass murder, slave labor, racial & religious persecutions, and brutal mistreatment of millions of innocent people. The four prosecuting powers have indicted & hold responsible for these frightful crimes as individuals the 22 defendants named in the Indictment. But the four prosecuting powers, recognizing that the 22 individual defendants could not by themselves alone accomplish the execution of these enormous crimes, have also named in the Indictment the Nazi organizations as the principal media by & through which these transgressions were effected. These organizations, some Nazi-created, some Nazi-perverted were the agencies upon which the defendants relied & through which they operated for the accomplishment of their criminal purposes over the complacent people of Germany & over the conquered peoples of Europe. The named organizations fall into two classes: in the first class are those which are peculiarly Nazi creations, having no counterpart outside the Nazi regime & which had no intrinsically legitimate purpose. This group includes the Politische Leiter, the SA, & the SS. In the second class are those which existed in one form or another before the Nazi regime but which were corrupted by the Nazis. This group includes the Reich Cabinet, the High Command & General Staff, and the Gestapo. As to, this second class, it is not our contention that the institutions themselves were basically criminal; but rather that they became criminal under Nazi domination, although by its very nature as a secret political police system the Gestapo was the most easily adapted to criminal purposes & became one of the most effective of all instruments of Nazi criminality.
04:50:36 “It would be a mistake to consider these organizations named in the Indictment as isolated, independently functioning aggregations of persons, each pursuing separate tasks & objectives. They were all a part of & essential to the Police State, planned by Hitler & perfected by his clique into the most absolute tyranny of modem times. That Police State was the political Frankenstein of our era, which brought terror & fear to Germany & spread horror & death throughout the world. The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party was its body, the Reich Cabinet its head, its powerful arms were the Gestapo and the SA, and when it strode over Europe its legs were the Armed Forces & the SS. It was Hitler & his cohorts who created this police state monster, and it brought Germany to shame & the nations of Europe to ruin.
04:51:35 “It would likewise be erroneous to view the structure of this police system as something casual, or its growth & development as normal political phenomena. For it was planned from the earliest days by the conspirators. The Nazi ‘old fighters’ had a design for despotism. They built the SA at the outset as a private band of strong-arm men to wield the club against the political opponent & the whip against the Jew. They established the SS as the dread guard of the Fuehrer & of themselves. When they seized power they abolished police protection & substituted police persecution as the mission of the Gestapo. They wiped out all semblance of free government, set themselves up in the Reich Cabinet w/ plenary powers. They depraved the highest traditions of military ethics & substituted ‘willing tools’ for ranking men at arms. They obliterated all other political parties & fastened on the German people a political straightjacket in the form of the Leadership Corps.” 04:52:48 Continued on 220560-10.
Post-WW2; Holocaust Charges; Extermination; Evidence; Horrors of War; Crimes Against Humanity; 1940s;
NOTE: Partial or entire of 04:47:00 - 04:57:38 (2 cards) sold at per reel rate. Sound has background hum.
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Post-WWII - 1945, Germany: Nuremberg War Crime Trial, Thomas J. Dodd Summation. 29Aug46 1 of 2 Munich no. 386. Court standing waiting for justices to enter; sit down. Thomas Dodd to lectern w/ notes. 04:47:36 Since the 20th day of November 1945, this International Military Tribunal has been in almost continual session. In these many months, a record of more than 15,000 pages has been compiled. Over 300,000 affidavits have been submitted; about 3,000 documents have been offered & oral testimony has been heard from some 200 witnesses. This great mass of evidence, oral & written, almost exclusively of German origin, has established beyond question the commission of the crimes of criminal conspiracy, aggressive war, mass murder, slave labor, racial & religious persecutions, and brutal mistreatment of millions of innocent people. The four prosecuting powers have indicted & hold responsible for these frightful crimes as individuals the 22 defendants named in the Indictment. But the four prosecuting powers, recognizing that the 22 individual defendants could not by themselves alone accomplish the execution of these enormous crimes, have also named in the Indictment the Nazi organizations as the principal media by & through which these transgressions were effected. These organizations, some Nazi-created, some Nazi-perverted were the agencies upon which the defendants relied & through which they operated for the accomplishment of their criminal purposes over the complacent people of Germany & over the conquered peoples of Europe. The named organizations fall into two classes: in the first class are those which are peculiarly Nazi creations, having no counterpart outside the Nazi regime & which had no intrinsically legitimate purpose. This group includes the Politische Leiter, the SA, & the SS. In the second class are those which existed in one form or another before the Nazi regime but which were corrupted by the Nazis. This group includes the Reich Cabinet, the High Command & General Staff, and the Gestapo. As to, this second class, it is not our contention that the institutions themselves were basically criminal; but rather that they became criminal under Nazi domination, although by its very nature as a secret political police system the Gestapo was the most easily adapted to criminal purposes & became one of the most effective of all instruments of Nazi criminality. 04:50:36 “It would be a mistake to consider these organizations named in the Indictment as isolated, independently functioning aggregations of persons, each pursuing separate tasks & objectives. They were all a part of & essential to the Police State, planned by Hitler & perfected by his clique into the most absolute tyranny of modem times. That Police State was the political Frankenstein of our era, which brought terror & fear to Germany & spread horror & death throughout the world. The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party was its body, the Reich Cabinet its head, its powerful arms were the Gestapo and the SA, and when it strode over Europe its legs were the Armed Forces & the SS. It was Hitler & his cohorts who created this police state monster, and it brought Germany to shame & the nations of Europe to ruin. 04:51:35 “It would likewise be erroneous to view the structure of this police system as something casual, or its growth & development as normal political phenomena. For it was planned from the earliest days by the conspirators. The Nazi ‘old fighters’ had a design for despotism. They built the SA at the outset as a private band of strong-arm men to wield the club against the political opponent & the whip against the Jew. They established the SS as the dread guard of the Fuehrer & of themselves. When they seized power they abolished police protection & substituted police persecution as the mission of the Gestapo. They wiped out all semblance of free government, set themselves up in the Reich Cabinet w/ plenary powers. They depraved the highest traditions of military ethics & substituted ‘willing tools’ for ranking men at arms. They obliterated all other political parties & fastened on the German people a political straightjacket in the form of the Leadership Corps.” 04:52:48 Continued on 220560-10. Post-WW2; Holocaust Charges; Extermination; Evidence; Horrors of War; Crimes Against Humanity; 1940s; NOTE: Partial or entire of 04:47:00 - 04:57:38 (2 cards) sold at per reel rate. Sound has background hum.