Nuremberg Trials
Opening Address for the United States
Robert Jackson
This document was retrieved from the archives of Nizkor. Source: Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression, Volume I, Chapter VII, Office of the United States Chief Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1946.
As the German frontiers were expanded by war, so the campaign against
the Jews expanded. The Nazi plan never was limited to extermination in
Germany; always it contemplated extin-
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guishing the Jew in Europe and often in the world. In the wet, the Jews
were killed and their property taken over. But the campaign achieved it
zenith of savagery in the East. The Eastern Jew has suffered as no
people ever suffered. Their sufferings were carefully reported to the
Nazi authorities to show faithful adherence to the Nazi design. I shall
refer only to enough of the evidence of these to show the extent of the
Nazi design for killing Jews.
If I should recite these horrors in words of my own, you would think me
intemperate and unreliable. Fortunately, we need not take the word of
any witness but the Germans themselves. I invite you now to look at a
few of the vast number of captured German orders and reports that will
be offered in evidence, to see what a Nazi invasion meant. We will
present such evidence as the report of Einsatzgruppe (Action Group) A of
10/16/1941, which boasts that in overrunning the Baltic States, "Native
An itic forces were induced to start pogroms against the Jews
during the first hours after occupation *********." The report
continues:
"From the beginning it was to be expected that the Jewish problem in the
East could not be solved by pogroms alone. In accordance with the basic
orders received, however, the cleansing activities of the Security
Police had to aim at a complete annihilation of the Jews. Special
detachments reinforced by selected units in Lithuania -- partisan
detachments, in Latvia units of the Latvian auxiliary police --
therefore performed extensive executions both in the towns and in rural
areas. The actions of the execution detachments were performed smoothly.
"The sum total of the Jews liquidated in Lithuania amounts to 71,105.
During the pogroms in Kowno .800 Jews were eliminated, in the smaller
towns about 1,200 Jews.
"In Latvia, up to now a total of 30,000 Jews were executed. 500 were
eliminated by pogroms in Riga." (L-180).
This is a captured report from the Commissioner of Sluzk on October 30,
1941, which describes the scene in more detail. It says:
"The first lieutenant explained that the police battalion had received
the assignment to effect the liquidation of all Jews here in the town of
Sluzk, within two days. Then I requested him to postpone the action one
day. However, he reacted this with the remark that he had to carry out
this action everywhere and in all towns and that only two days
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were allotted for Sluzk. Within these two days, the town of Sluzk had to
be cleared of Jews by all means. *** ******All Jews without exception
were taken out of the factories and shops and deported in spite of our
agreement. It is true that part of the Jews was moved by way of the
ghetto where many of them were processed and still segregated by me, but
a large part was loaded directly on trucks and liquidated without
further delay outside of the town. *** ******For the rest, as regards
the execution of the action. I must point out to my deepest regret that
the latter bordered already on sadism.
The town itself offered a picture of horror during the action. With
indescribable brutality on the part of both the German police officers
and particularly the Lithuanian partisans, the Jewish people, but also
among them White Ruthenians, were taken out of their dwellings and
herded together. Everywhere in the town shots were to be heard and in
different streets the corpses of shot Jews accumulated. The White
Ruthenians were in greatest distress to free themselves from the
encirclement.
Regardless of the fact that the Jewish people, among whom were also
tradesmen, were mistreated in a terribly barbarous way in the face of
the White Ruthenian people, the White Ruthenians themselves were also
worked over with rubber clubs and rifle butts. There was no question of
an action against the Jews any more. It rather looked like a revolution.
*********" (1104-PS).
There are reports which merely tabulate the numbers slaughtered. An
example is an account of the work of Einsatzgruppen of Sipo and SD in
the East, which relates that --
In Estonia, all Jews were arrested immediately upon the arrival of the
Wehrmacht. Jewish men and women above the age of 16 and capable of work
were drafted for forced labor. Jews were subjected to all sorts of
restrictions and all Jewish property was confiscated.
All Jewish males above the age of 16 were executed, with the exception
of doctors and elders. Only 500 of an original 4,500 Jews remained.
37,180 persons have been liquidated by the Sipo and SD in White Ruthenia
during October.
In one town, 337 Jewish women were executed for demonstrating a
"provocative attitude." In another, 380 Jews were shot for spreading
vicious propaganda.
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And so the report continues, listing town after town, where hundreds
upon hundreds of Jews were murdered.
In Witebsk 3,000 Jews were liquidated because of the danger of
epidemics.
In Kiew, 33,771 Jews were executed on September 29 and 30 in retaliation
for some fires which were set off there.
In Shitomir, 3,145 Jews "had to be shot" because, judging from
experience they had to be considered as the carriers of Bolshevik
propaganda.
In Cherson, 410 Jews were executed in reprisal against acts of sabotage.
In the territory east of the Djnepr, the Jewish problem was "solved" by
the liquidation of 4,891 Jews and by putting the remainder into labor
battalions of up to l,000 persons. (R-102)
Other accounts tell not of the slaughter so much as of the depths of
degradation to which the tormentors stooped. For example, we will show
the reports made to defendant Rosenberg about the army and the SS in the
area under Rosenberg's jurisdiction, which recited the following:
"Details: In presence of SS man, a Jewish dentist has to break all gold
teeth and fillings out of mouth of German and Russian Jews before they
are executed."
Men, women and children are locked into barns and burned alive.
Peasants, women and children are shot on pretext that they are suspected
of belonging to bands (R-135).
We of the Western World heard of Gas Wagons in which Jews and political
opponents were asphyxiated. We could not believe it. But here we have
the report of May 16, 1942 from the German SS officer, Becker, to his
supervisor in Berlin which tells this story:
Gas vans in C. group can be driven to execution spot, which is generally
stationed 10 to 1 kms. from main road only in dry weather. Since those
to be executed become frantic if conducted to this place, such vans
become immobilized in wet weather.
Gas vans in D group camouflaged as cabin trailers, but vehicles well
known to authorities and civilian population which calls them "Death
Vans".
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Writer of letter (Becker) ordered all men to keep as far away as
possible during gassing. Unloading van has "atrocious spiritual and
physical effect" on men and they should be ordered not to participate in
such work (501-PS).
I shall not dwell on this subject longer than to quote one more
sickening document which evidences the planned and systematic character
of the Jewish persecutions. I hold a report written with Teutonic
devotion to detail, illustrated with photographs to authenticate its
almost incredible text, and beautifully bound in leather with the loving
care bestowed on a proud work. It is the original report of the SS
Brigadier General Stroop in charge of the destruction of the Warsaw
Ghetto, and its title page carried the inscription, "The Jewish Ghetto
in Warsaw no longer exists." It is characteristic that one of the
captions explains that the photograph concerned shows the driving out of
Jewish "bandits'; those whom the photograph shows being driven out are
almost entirely women and little children. It contains a day-by-day
account of the killings mainly carried out by the SS organisation, too
long to relate, but let me quote General Stroop's summary:
"The resistance put up by the Jews and bandits could only be suppressed
by energetic actions of our troops day and night. The Reichsfuehrer SS
ordered, therefore on 4/23/1943 the cleaning out of the ghetto with
utter ruthlessness and merciless tenacity. I, therefore, decided to
destroy and burn down the entire ghetto without regard to the armament
factories. These factories were systematically dis-mantled and then
burned. Jews usually left their hideouts, but frequently remained in the
burning buildings and jumped out of the windows only when the heat
became unbearable. They then tried to crawl with broken bones across the
street into buildings which were not afire. Sometimes they changed their
hideouts during the night into the ruins of burned buildings. Life in
the sewers was not pleasant after the first week. Many times we could
hear loud voices in the sewers. SS men or policemen climbed bravely
through the manholes to capture these Jews. Sometimes they stumbled over
Jewish corpses; sometimes they were shot at. Tear gas bombs were thrown
into the manholes and the Jews driven out of the sewers and captured.
Countless numbers of Jews were liquidated in sewers and bunkers through
blasting. The longer the resistance continued the tougher became the
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members of the Waffen SS police and Wehrmacht who always discharged
their duties in an exemplary manner. Frequently Jews who tried to
replenish their food supplies during the night or to communicate with
neighboring groups were exterminated." (1 061-PS) .
This action eliminated, says the SS commander, "a proved total of
56,065. To that we have to add the number of those killed through
blasting, fire, etc., which cannot be counted."
We charge that all atrocities against Jews were the manifestation and
culmination of the Nazi plan to which every defendant here was a party.
I know very well that some of these men did take steps to spare some
particular Jew for some personal reason from the horrors that awaited
the unrescued-Jew. Some protested that particular atrocities were
excessive, and discredited the general policy. While a few defendants
may show efforts to make specific exceptions to the policy of Jewish
extermination, I have found no instance in which any defendant opposed
the policy itself or sought to revoke or even modify it.
Determination to destroy the Jews was a binding force which at all times
cemented the elements of this conspiracy. On many internal policies
there were differences among the defendants. But there is not one of
them who has not echoed the rallying cry of Naziism -- DEUTSCHLAND
ERWACHE JUDA VERRECKE! (GERMANY AWAKE, JEWRY PERISH!)
A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
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College of Education, University of South Florida © 2005.