The Nuremberg Trials (Vol.2). International Military Tribunal
you have full opportunity to consult with your clients. In the courtroom we must confine you to written communications to your clients. At the end of each day’s sitting, you will have full opportunity to consult with them in private.
DR. DIX: I shall discuss this with my colleagues of the Defense and we should like if possible to return to this question.
DR. THOMA: May I have the floor?
THE PRESIDENT: Will you state your name please.
DR. THOMA: Dr. Ralph Thoma. I represent the Defendant Rosenberg. Yesterday my client gave me a statement as regards the question of guilt or innocence. I took this statement and promised him to talk with him about it. Neither last night nor this morning have I had an opportunity to talk with him; and, consequently, neither I nor my client are in a position to make a statement today as to whether he is guilty or not guilty. I therefore request that the proceedings be interrupted so that I may speak with my client.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Thoma, the Tribunal will be prepared to adjourn for 15 minutes in order that you may have an opportunity of consulting with your clients.
DR. THOMA: Thank you. I should like to make another statement. Some of my colleagues have just told me that they are in the same position as I, particularly Dr. Sauter. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: I meant that all defendants’ counsel should have an opportunity of consulting with their clients; but I would point out to the defendants’ counsel that they have had several weeks’ preparation for this Trial, and that they must have anticipated that the provisions of Article 24 would be followed. But now we will adjourn for 15 minutes in which all of you may consult with your clients.
DR. THOMA: May I say something further in that respect, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
DR. THOMA: The Defense asked whether the question of guilty or not guilty could only be answered with “yes”, or “no” or whether a more extensive and longer statement could be made. We obtained information on this point only the day before yesterday. We therefore have had no opportunity to confer at length with our clients on this matter.
THE PRESIDENT: One moment. The question will have to be answered in the words of Article 24 of the Charter, and those words are printed in italics: “The Tribunal shall ask each defendant whether he pleads guilty or not guilty.” That is what they have got to do at that stage. Of course, the defendants will have a full opportunity themselves, if they are called as witnesses, and by their counsel, to make their defense fully at a later stage.
[A recess was taken.]
THE PRESIDENT: I will now call upon the defendants to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges against them. They will proceed in turn to a point in the dock opposite to the microphone.
Hermann Wilhelm Göring.
HERMANN WILHELM GÖRING: Before I answer the question of the Tribunal whether or not I am guilty. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: I informed the Court that defendants were not entitled to make a statement. You must plead guilty or not guilty.
GÖRING: I declare myself in the sense of the Indictment not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Rudolf Hess.
RUDOLF HESS: No.
THE PRESIDENT: That will be entered as a plea of not guilty. [Laughter.]
THE PRESIDENT: If there is any disturbance in court, those who make it will have to leave the court.
Joachim von Ribbentrop.
JOACHIM VON RIBBENTROP: I declare myself in the sense of the Indictment not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Wilhelm Keitel.
WILHELM KEITEL: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: In the absence of Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the Trial will proceed against him, but he will have an opportunity of pleading when he is sufficiently well to be brought back into court.
Alfred Rosenberg.
ALFRED ROSENBERG: I declare myself in the sense of the Indictment not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Hans Frank.
HANS FRANK: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Wilhelm Frick.
WILHELM FRICK: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Julius Streicher.
JULIUS STREICHER: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Walter Funk.
WALTER FUNK: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Hjalmar Schacht.
HJALMAR SCHACHT: I am not guilty in any respect.
THE PRESIDENT: Karl Dönitz.
KARL DÖNITZ: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Erich Raeder.
ERICH RAEDER: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Baldur von Schirach.
BALDUR VON SCHIRACH: I declare myself in the sense of the Indictment not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Fritz Sauckel.
FRITZ SAUCKEL: I declare myself in the sense of the Indictment, before God and the world and particularly before my people, not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Alfred Jodl.
ALFRED JODL: Not guilty. For what I have done or had to do, I have a pure conscience before God, before history and my people.
THE PRESIDENT: Franz von Papen.
FRANZ VON PAPEN: I declare myself in no way guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Arthur Seyss-Inquart.
ARTHUR SEYSS-INQUART: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Albert Speer.
ALBERT SPEER: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Constantin von Neurath.
CONSTANTIN VON NEURATH: I answer the question in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: Hans Fritzsche.
HANS FRITZSCHE: As regards this Indictment, not guilty.
[At this point Defendant Göring stood up in the prisoner’s dock and attempted to address the Tribunal.]
THE PRESIDENT: You are not entitled to address the Tribunal except through your counsel, at the present time.
I will now call upon the Chief Prosecutor for the United States of America.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: May it please Your Honors:
The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.
This Tribunal, while it is novel and experimental, is not the product of abstract speculations nor is it created to vindicate legalistic theories. This inquest represents the practical effort of four of the most mighty of nations, with the support of 17 more, to utilize international law to meet the greatest menace of our times—aggressive war. The common sense of mankind demands that law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people. It must also reach men who possess themselves of great power and make deliberate and concerted use of it to set in motion evils which leave no home in the world untouched. It is a cause of that magnitude that the United Nations will lay before Your Honors.
In the prisoners’