After Germany’s defeat in WWII, the Nuremberg and later trials were organized primarily for political purposes rather than to dispense impartial justice. Wears War brings to you each week a quote from the many fine men and women who were openly appalled by the trials. All of these people were highly respected and prominent in their field, at least until they spoke out against the trials.
The Nuremberg Trials are arguably the gravest miscarriage of justice since the witch trials of pre-Enlightenment Europe and colonial America. At the close of the Second World War, the Allies arrested the entire hierarchy of the Third Reich and put its members on trial for “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity,” the latter an entirely new concept in international law. Actions taken by various governmental officials were declared, ex post facto, to be “crimes.” Perfectly legitimate organizations were declared to be “criminal” and all members of these organizations were subject to arrest and incarceration without writ of habeas corpus.
Normal rules of evidence were suspended and affidavits of “witnesses” were not allowed to be cross examined. The prosecution presented as evidence numerous documents which were such absurdly bad forgeries that they were disallowed by their own judges out of sheer embarrassment. Both the American judge, Biddle, and the Russian judge, Nikitchenko, made statements prior to the trial to the effect that the defendants had already been convicted. The press was invited to watch the proceedings and the trial was broadcast over the radio. It lasted nearly a year and for entertainment value it outdid the Circus Maximus and the games of the Roman Colosseum combined. It was the political show trial of the century, making the 1930’s purge trials of Stalin seem like the epitome of just law.
Karl Brecht reviewing the book Not Guilty at Nuremberg: The German Defense Case by Carlos Whitlock Porter
Full Review: The Journal of Historical Review, Fall 1990 (Vol. 10, No. 3), pages 353-356.
Carlos Whitlock Porter was born in 1947 in California in a family of Navy officers and lawyers. C.W. Porter studied in Europe, and is a professional translator and member of the Institute of Linguists. Since 1976, he has studied the Holocaust and war crimes trials with detailed patience and precision, including the related questions of law, toxicology and chemistry. Concerning the International Military Tribunal trial records, C.W. Porter’s work exposes these kangaroo courts to have been absurd and hideous miscarriages of justice. The Nuremberg Trial records would be hysterically funny if they were not responsible for over fifty years of suffering and injustice.
Recommended: Nuremberg Farce #13: An Einstein Attends His Own Murder Trial
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The International Tribunal at Nuremberg, set up to pass judgement on the vanquished nations, was neither international nor legal in any accepted sense of these terms. Most of these ‘trials’ were arranged independently of other victor nations; Great Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union along with dictatorships created by the allies, Participation by neutral states or observers was neither invited nor welcomed. Mostly, they were ‘military tribunals’ such as the American Military Tribunal’ that ran ‘trials’ at Dachau.
The British government set up its own trials, independently of other victor nations so it is difficult to imagine why or how such charades could ever be described as being international in nature. The US Supreme Court on December 20 1948 washed its hands of US Government responsibility when it stated “We are satisfied that the Tribunal sentencing these prisoners is not a tribunal of the United States.”
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“…making the 1930’s purge trials of Stalin seem like the epitome of just law.”
How it’s possible to compare cause and consequence?
What happened after the WW2 was a direct result of allying the most criminal regime ever and allowing it to make so-called “justice” in Nürnberg. Kind of spectacular that both sides (Axis and Allies) managed to get into alliance with USSR during the WW2, and both have lost in the end, at least definitely in the long run on European territory.
One just can’t win anything from an alliance with murderous THUGS!
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Another facet of these show trials is that so many of the participants and parts of the machinery so to speak of the trials were Jews. This is not anti-Semitism but fact. The trials were mainly about Jewish vengeance and retribution, not true, objective justice.
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Reblogged this on THE FOURTH REICH CENTURY.
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