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Justice at Nuremberg – The Trial of the Century recounts one of the most significant legal battles in human history. In the aftermath of World War II, the world watched as high-ranking Nazi officials stood trial for crimes against humanity. This powerful documentary-style film explores the courtroom drama, moral dilemmas, and global impact of the Nuremberg Trials. A compelling look into justice, accountability, and the fight for truth in a broken world.
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00:00THE END
00:30On May the 2nd, 1945, Berlin's resistance was smashed and the red flag was hoisted over the German capital, the flag of victory.
01:00Berlin had capitulated.
01:09From their holes and hiding places, the German generals emerged like beasts ferreted out of their lairs.
01:16Whole divisions, regiments, field police battalions, all the remnants of the defeated and shattered German army laid down their arms.
01:24Goering gave himself up.
01:36Keitel surrendered.
01:41Dönitz was caught.
01:42Goebbels preferred to shoot himself.
01:50But the dragnet closed around Yordal and rip and drop.
01:57Now the major war criminals were in the hands of justice.
02:00It was decided to try them in Nuremberg.
02:04In Nuremberg, once the cradle of German fascism, Nuremberg where the Nazis ran rampant.
02:25Nuremberg, from which the demented Hitler, Elias Paul Schuppelgruber, hurled his threats of the world.
02:34Nuremberg now lies in ruins and ashes.
02:37It is symbolized by this disabled German in that it is a philosophical lesson of history.
02:46A lesson which future aggressors would do well to remember.
02:53For the aggressors of yesterday are now in the Nuremberg prison, awaiting the decision of their fate.
02:59The beast has been driven into the cage of the Nuremberg prison.
03:12Ribbentrop cell.
03:16Keitel cell.
03:20Goering cell.
03:29Only yesterday, the beast was still raging at liberty.
03:34It was from Nuremberg and from Munich that the Nazis began their marauding march.
03:42Only to finish up in the prison of Nuremberg.
03:46This is their last march.
03:48Their march into the dock.
03:51Here, they were brought to answer for their crimes.
03:54These warmongers and conspirators against nations.
03:57These butchers of whole peoples and plunderers of whole states.
04:03These child murderers and slave traders.
04:07These 20th century Huns.
04:09For all this, they must now answer.
04:12Don't hide your face, Goering.
04:26All the world knows you.
04:28And the world curses you.
04:31The hour of reckoning has come.
04:33March to the dock.
04:34Where your black deeds will be revealed.
04:36Soldiers of the Soviet army.
04:48They have come from Stalingrad to stand guard in Nuremberg.
04:52The international tribunal set for many months.
05:00A vast mechanism was set up for the trial.
05:03And hundreds of persons helped to further the cause of justice.
05:05The court room in Nuremberg.
05:19Here, the freedom-loving nations will try the major German war criminals.
05:23Not from motives of vengeance, but that the great ends of justice may be served.
05:28The story of the monstrous fascist conspiracy against peace, liberty and democracy must be told.
05:35The criminals must be named and made to bear the punishment of their guilt.
05:40The world must be warned.
05:42A whole library of damning documents was assembled by the prosecution.
05:52Here, the documents of the Soviet prosecution were kept.
05:55Their contents are now known to the world.
06:03The laboratory, where thousands of photostats were made.
06:07And the machines on which the copies of the documents were made.
06:21Here, the works of the Nazi leaders were gathered.
06:25Never before, perhaps, had such frenzied and bloodthirsty ravings come off the printing presses.
06:37Soviet artist, Boris the Fimov.
06:46And the Kukranixi trio, whose ruthless pencils had already exposed and pilloried the criminals in their caricatures.
07:07Soviet journalist, Ily Ehrenberg.
07:09Soviet journalist, Ily Ehrenberg.
07:27The Soviet telegraph room, where the reports of the trial were transmitted to the Soviet press.
07:41A sound record was made of all the proceedings of the trial.
07:46In the British telegraph room, men of the Signals Corps indefatigably tapped out the endless press messages.
07:53Photographs of the trial were radioed to all parts of the world.
08:13Every word spoken at the trial was at once translated into four languages.
08:19Russian, English, French and German.
08:21The world listened with strained attention as the trial unfolded.
08:31And the world waited, waited impatiently, for justice to be done.
08:44The trial was held in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
08:47A building that seemed to have been deliberately saved from the ravages of war,
08:51in order that fascism might be tried.
08:55The court is coming.
09:03The court has come.
09:05The court of the nations.
09:11And into the courtroom will come the martyrs of Majdanek and Aswenzel.
09:16From the ditch of Kerch, the dead will rise.
09:27They will rise from the graves.
09:29They will rise from the flames, bringing with them the acrid smoke and the deathly odour of scorched and martyred urine.
09:37And the children, they too will come, stern and merciless.
09:42The butchers had no pity on them.
09:44Now the victims will judge the butchers.
09:47Today, every drop of spilt innocent blood will speak for itself.
09:56And every wrinkle will call for retribution.
10:03Today, the tear of the child is the judge.
10:07The grief of the mother is the prosecutor.
10:09Oh, what a long and painful road judges and prosecutors had to flod to reach this courtroom.
10:17Before fascism could be tried, it had to be vanquished.
10:21Hitler's countless hordes swept on, seemingly irresistible,
10:25until the Red Army struck and struck again and emerged victorious.
10:30Through horror and death came the victors, judges, and prosecutors.
10:35The wounded, leaning on their comrades, pressed onward.
10:40The dead, before they dropped, bequeathed the call for retribution to the living
10:44and marched on, invisible in the ranks of the living.
10:49In the forests of Belarusia, the guerrillas joined the soldiers.
10:56Across Yugoslavia's mountain summits came Tito's dauntless warriors.
11:01Living and dead have come here to judge.
11:05They sit invisible in the courtroom.
11:07But the criminals see and hear them and tremble.
11:11The hour of reckoning has come.
11:14The International Military Tribunal, in the name of the freedom-loving nations,
11:28is sitting in judgment of the Nazi criminals.
11:32Chief Judge for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Major General Nikitschenko.
11:37His deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Volchkov.
11:40Chief Judge for the United Kingdom, Lord Justice Lawrence.
11:46His deputy, Sir Norman Birkett.
11:49Chief Judge for the United States of America, Francis Biddle.
11:53His deputy, Parker.
11:56Chief Judge for the Republic of France, De Fabre.
12:01His deputy, Volkoff.
12:03The court is presided over by Lord Justice Lawrence.
12:08Among the distinguished visitors, Bishinsky, deputy foreign minister of the USSR,
12:13and Gorshinin, Soviet prosecutor general.
12:15The criminals are accused of general conspiracy.
12:25Of crimes against peace.
12:30Of crimes of war.
12:34Of crimes against humanity.
12:36Of crimes against humanity.
12:41The prisoners duck.
12:42Hermann Goering, Hitler's close friend, formerly known as the second man in the Reich.
12:54He is much thinner and shrunken now.
12:57Goering looked a different man at the height of his power.
13:00He was sleek and a beast then.
13:03It was his airmen that bombed Warsaw, Leningrad, and London.
13:08Goering was the founder of the notorious Gestapo.
13:11He helped to draw up and carry out the plan of attack on the USSR.
13:17Goering is criminal number one.
13:24Rudolf Hess, leader of the Nazi party and Hitler's deputy.
13:29He summoned the Germans to prepare for war.
13:31Guns instead of butter, he cried.
13:33Joachim von Ribbentrop, Reich's minister for foreign affairs.
13:50With the cunning of a fox, he was a past master in international intrigue.
13:54He was always ready to vow eternal friendship.
13:56For there was not a vow he did not violate, nor a nation he did not betray, and betray again.
14:03He was the right and left hand of the warmongers.
14:10Wilhelm Keitel, commander of Germany's armed forces.
14:13I am just a soldier, he says, trying to disavow his guilt.
14:20But this is not the face of a soldier.
14:22It's the face of a hangman and butcher.
14:25His uniform is stained with the blood of disarmed and defenseless people.
14:29Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the security police and the SD.
14:41He is responsible for the gas chambers and gas wagons, the death factories and the concentration camps.
14:46On his conscience is the blood of thousands and thousands of innocent people,
14:50tortured to death and buried alive in the Ukraine, Belarusia and the Baltic states.
14:55Alfred Rosenberg, the author of the race theory, which was to drench Europe in blood.
15:02He drew up the plan for the division of the USSR.
15:06Then he was made minister of the Ostland.
15:08And by his orders, Poland, the Ukraine, Belarusia and the Caucasus were ravaged and plundered
15:15and put to fire and soared.
15:18The superman is nervous now.
15:22Hans Frank, the cynical butcher of Poland.
15:28He called Poland a booty land.
15:30He said the country must be reduced to a pile of ruins.
15:34Poles and Ukrainians must be turned into mincemeat.
15:37And as to the Jew, they must be destroyed, every one of them.
15:40Wilhelm Frick, Reich's minister of the interior and protector of Bohemia and Moravia.
15:52A snarling, vicious jackal, now caught by the tail and locked in a cage.
15:56Julia Streicher, editor of the Sturmer, one of the vilest news sheets in the world.
16:06Jew beater, preacher of anti-Semitism, corrupt of youth.
16:10He proudly called himself Jew-hater number one.
16:16Walter Funk, he was one of Germany's economic bosses.
16:20He supplied the means to run Hitler's marauding war.
16:24And the war supplied the means to line the pockets of Funk, Krupp and the other German bankers and industrialists.
16:34Hjalmar Schacht.
16:36He directed the finances and the economy of the piratical Nazi state.
16:41Grand Admiral Dönitz, chieftain of the Nazi pirates.
16:50His wolf packs, sunk unarmed ships and neutral vessels without warning.
16:55When Hitler saw that the game was up, he entrusted Dönitz with the task of saving the Nazi ship.
17:01But the ship went to the bottom.
17:03And Dönitz is now in the prisoner's dock.
17:08Erich Rader.
17:09He and Hitler conceived the idea of wiping Leningrad off the face of the earth.
17:15They failed.
17:16But the grief and suffering of Leningrad, its blood and sacrifices, called for expiation.
17:24Baldur von Schirach.
17:26His ideal was,
17:28We will raise up the youths of Germany to be cruel and ruthless.
17:32The whole world will tremble before them.
17:35I want to see the glint of the wild beast in their eyes.
17:39I want to see the glint of the war.
17:41Fritz Zalkal, the slave trader.
17:44Girls of the Ukraine.
17:46Youths of France.
17:48Children of Czechoslovakia.
17:50Look at him now.
17:51It was he that drove you like cattle to the slave markets of Germany.
17:55Alfred Yordal, Hitler's military advisor.
18:04Bloodthirsty and ruthless, and an implacable foe of the Soviet people.
18:08The Russians should be hanged head downwards, he said.
18:12The world will not breathe freely until he is hanging head downwards.
18:19Franz von Papen.
18:21As vain as a peacock.
18:22A master of espionage, sabotage and intrigue.
18:25It was he that put Germany into Hitler's hands.
18:28Butcher of Poland, Austria, and the Netherlands.
18:38Albert Speer, Reichsminister of Armaments.
18:40In Speer's underground munition factories, thousands upon thousands of men and women toiled and slaved
18:46until they grew blind, died of exhaustion, or pined away.
18:50Konstantin von Neurath, Nazi diplomat with the rank of a general of the SS.
18:55Butcher of Czechoslovakia.
18:59Hans Fritsche, Goebbels' assistant, who, like him, poisoned the mines with a venom of lies and calumny.
19:10Such is the roster of the major German war criminals who broke all the laws of humanity
19:16in their attempt to impose their monstrous rule of violence and rapine on the world.
19:22And these are their defendants in their medieval Rome,
19:25who will argue and finesse and cite the law in defense of lawlessness.
19:31They will claim that the tribunal of the nations has no legal power to judge crimes against nations.
19:37They will try to divide its councils by anti-Servic slanders and inenduos.
19:42What is the blood of the martyrs to them?
19:47They will try to save fascism.
19:49This is fascism's last line of defense, but it too will prove futile.
19:54One after another, the prosecutors came forward to state the case against the criminals.
20:12The first to speak was Robert Jackson.
20:14In the prisoners' dock sit twenty odd-broken men,
20:24reproached by the humiliation of those they have led,
20:28almost as bitterly as by the desolation of those they have attacked.
20:34Their personal capacity for evil is forever past.
20:38It is hard now to perceive in these miserable men as captives
20:44the power by which as Nazi leaders
20:47they once dominated much of the world
20:51and terrified most of it.
20:54We will show them to be living symbols of racial hatred,
20:58of terrorism and violence,
21:01and of the arrogance and cruelty of power.
21:03They are symbols of fierce nationalism and of militarism,
21:09of intrigue and war-making,
21:12which have embroiled Europe generation after generation,
21:17crushing its manhood,
21:18destroying its homes,
21:21and impoverishing its life.
21:23Civilization can afford no compromise with the social forces,
21:28which would gain renewed strength if we deal ambiguously or indecisively.
21:36Step by step, the prosecution unfolded the story of the Nazi conspiracy
21:40against peace and humanity.
21:45The early days of Nazism.
21:48The first stormtroopers.
21:50You have forgotten this, Rudolf Hess.
21:56You are suffering from loss of memory.
21:58One moment, we will help you to remember.
22:06Do you hear that bestial roar?
22:12Do you see these nocturnal frenzies?
22:14This demented worship of fire?
22:16This wild animal triumph?
22:17You remember now, Hess.
22:25But there were obstacles in the way of the fascist beast.
22:28Man and his ideas and ideals.
22:32Culture.
22:33Books.
22:34And so the books went hurling into the flames.
22:37And the savages danced and sang.
22:39Suppose the world does line ruins.
22:42To hell with it, we say.
22:44Tomorrow the whole world will be ours,
22:46as Germany is today.
22:51Hitler became Germany's Führer
22:52and also the servant of his masters,
22:55the Armament Kings.
22:56It was von Papen that put Hitler in power
23:03and obligingly resigned to him
23:05the post of Reich Chancellor.
23:10Hindenburg, before retiring to his grave,
23:13gave Hitler his blessing.
23:15Banker Schacht acted as intermediary.
23:18And the capitalists poured lavish funds
23:20into the treasury of the Nazi party.
23:22And Krupp, the merchant of death,
23:25the real master of Germany,
23:26okayed Hitler as the ruler of the Reich.
23:29Here they are,
23:31a charming family portrait.
23:33Bankers hobnobbing with the aggressors.
23:35And so everything that breathed of freedom
23:38and honesty in Germany
23:39was crushed,
23:40smothered,
23:41trampled upon.
23:43The storm troops became
23:44the rulers of Berlin streets.
23:47Germany was surrounded in barbed wire.
23:50Barbed wire was henceforth
23:52to become the symbol of Germany.
23:53February the 8th
24:01was a big day at the trial.
24:03The courtroom was filled to overflowing.
24:06Not a single seat was empty.
24:12Defense counsel
24:13were tense and anxious.
24:17The criminals betrayed
24:18signs of nervousness.
24:19That day,
24:22the Soviet prosecution
24:23was to open its case.
24:26Chief Prosecutor for the USSR,
24:28Ari Rudenko.
24:37Your Worship.
24:39I begin my speech
24:41which will wind up
24:42the opening speeches
24:43of the Chief Prosecutors
24:45in this trial
24:46with a full and deep sense
24:48of the historical imports
24:50of the occasion.
24:53This is the first time
24:54in the history of the world
24:55that crimes of such magnitude
24:58and with consequences
24:59so prodigious
25:00have come under the consideration
25:02of justice.
25:05This is the first time
25:06that criminals
25:07who seized whole states
25:09and turned their own states
25:11into an instrument
25:11of their crimes
25:12have been brought to trial.
25:15This is the first time
25:21that we here
25:22are trying not only
25:23the criminals themselves
25:24but the criminal institutions
25:26and organizations
25:27they founded
25:28and the theories
25:30and ideas of hatred
25:31which they disseminated
25:32in furtherance of crimes
25:34they had long been
25:35nurturing against peace
25:37and humanity.
25:38the day has come
25:44when the nations
25:46of the world
25:46are demanding
25:47stern retribution
25:48of the Nazi butchers
25:49are demanding
25:52the stern punishment
25:53of the criminals
25:53all the villainous
25:57committed by the Nazi
25:58major war criminals
25:59jointly and severally
26:02will be weighed by us
26:04with scrupulous care
26:05and attention
26:08as is demanded
26:09by the law
26:11by the charter
26:11of the international
26:12military tribunal
26:14by justice
26:15and by our consciences.
26:19The Soviet prosecution
26:20showed and demonstrated
26:21how the Nazis
26:22secretly prepared
26:23for world war.
26:24Everything was bent
26:25to this purpose.
26:34Von Schirach's puppies
26:36playing with toy daggers.
26:40These are still youths
26:41and only carrying spades
26:43but these are already soldiers
26:45and the German women
26:50are already rubbing
26:51their hands
26:52in greedy anticipation
26:53of the parcels
26:54to come from the east.
26:56These are only dummy houses.
26:59These are still
26:59peaceful Germans.
27:02But the muzzles
27:02of the guns
27:03have already been raised.
27:06Wars of aggression
27:07are begun
27:07by treaties of friendship
27:09signed by the aggressor's diplomats.
27:12Von Ribbentrop,
27:12that travelling salesman
27:13of death,
27:14wandered through Europe
27:15signing pacts of peace
27:16and giving instructions
27:18to his spies
27:18and fermenters of war.
27:20This is the original
27:21of the agreement
27:22concluded between
27:22Ribbentrop and Himmler
27:23for coordination
27:25of espionage work.
27:26This is a letter
27:27from Kaltenbrunner
27:28asking Ribbentrop
27:29for a million tumens
27:30for espionage activities
27:32in Persia.
27:34And the ink
27:35on the last
27:35pact of non-aggression
27:37was hardly dry
27:39when the German hordes
27:41were already
27:42on the march.
27:43only the Soviet Union
27:52warned the world
27:53of the deadly danger
27:54of fascist aggression.
27:55But the Munich
27:56appeasers bowed
27:57and scraped
27:58before the aggressors
27:59and threw open
27:59the gates of Europe
28:00to them.
28:05Hitler and Keitel
28:06set about refashioning
28:08the map of the world.
28:09Frontier gates
28:17were smashed.
28:18Boundaries
28:21were violated.
28:22Vows and pacts
28:26were dishonored.
28:28And the brown plague
28:34began to spread
28:36through Europe.
28:42The secret plans
28:43of aggression
28:44were now put
28:45into operation.
28:47The green plan
28:48for the Fafidius attack
28:49on Czechoslovakia.
28:53It was signed
28:54by Yodl.
29:08The Soviet prosecution
29:10at the trial
29:10exposed the way
29:12the world war
29:13was prepared.
29:24Warsaw is in flames.
29:27These are the fruits
29:27of Munich.
29:33Germany's panzer forces
29:34invaded country
29:35after country.
29:36Unprepared for war
29:37and deceived
29:38by their own governments,
29:40European capitals
29:41surrendered to the Huns.
29:47For the Germans,
29:48it was just a pleasant
29:49promenade
29:50through the continent.
29:54Here we see them
30:02entering betrayed
30:02parrots,
30:03betrayed by Renaud
30:04and Deladier.
30:06The sufferings
30:07of German-occupied
30:08France
30:08were recounted
30:09by the French
30:10prosecutor.
30:17Can the nations
30:18of the world
30:19forget this lesson?
30:20The German marauders
30:25were active
30:25on the high seas
30:26as well as on land.
30:28The British prosecutor,
30:30Sir Hardley Shawcross,
30:31told of this in detail.
30:38Dernis' men
30:39were known
30:39to the world
30:40as pirates.
30:41His U-boats
30:48began applying
30:49their wolf-pec tactics.
30:51They carried
30:52their erratical activities
30:53even into neutral waters.
31:06They attacked
31:07unarmed vessels
31:08and hospital ships.
31:11And here is
31:12a torpedoed
31:12ocean steamer
31:13and not a man
31:15of the crew
31:15will escape.
31:17For Dernis' orders
31:18are not to pick up
31:20survivors
31:20and the drowning
31:22are left
31:23to their fate.
31:31Dernis'
31:32spanking
31:32his pirates.
31:33Your Worship,
31:39I shall now
31:40proceed to the crimes
31:42committed by the
31:43Nazi aggressors
31:43against my country,
31:45against the Union
31:46of Soviet Socialist
31:47Republics.
31:52On June 22nd, 1941,
31:55Hitler, Germany
31:57treacherously
31:57attacked the USSR.
31:59But this date
32:01does not mark
32:01the beginning
32:02of the realization
32:03of Hitler-Germany's
32:04aggressive plans
32:05against the Soviet Union.
32:09The accused Keitel
32:11has testified
32:12that Hitler
32:13intended to attack
32:14the USSR
32:15at the end
32:16of 1940.
32:19And the plan
32:19for the attack
32:20had been worked out
32:21even earlier
32:22in the spring
32:23of 1940.
32:25This is confirmed
32:27by the testimony
32:28of the accused Yodel,
32:29who during
32:30his interrogation
32:31stated that
32:32the plans
32:32for the attack
32:33on the USSR
32:33were given
32:34concrete and
32:35detailed form
32:36in November
32:37and December
32:381940.
32:45Yodel is
32:46referring to
32:46the document
32:47known as
32:47Case Barbarossa.
32:49This document
32:50is signed
32:51by Hitler,
32:52Yodel,
32:52and Keitel.
32:56The Barbarossa plan
32:57envisaged the
32:58lightning destruction
32:59of the Soviet armies
32:59in the very first week
33:01of hostilities.
33:02The main blows
33:03were to be delivered
33:04against Leningrad,
33:05Moscow,
33:06and Kiev.
33:07And the objective
33:07was the Archangel-Astrakhan line.
33:11As the German general
33:11staff conceived it,
33:13when the German armies
33:14had reached the Volga,
33:15the Soviet Union
33:16will have been
33:17completely demolished.
33:21The aggressors
33:22were tantalized
33:23by the unbounded
33:24expanses of our country.
33:26Their eyes
33:27had long been
33:28fixed on
33:29our land,
33:32our oil,
33:35our coal,
33:37our natural wealth.
33:38In the early hours
33:41of June the 22nd,
33:421941,
33:43without declaring war
33:45and without any
33:46excuse for war,
33:48the Nazis
33:48fell upon our country.
33:57Belarusian cottages
33:59went up in flames.
34:03Bombs rained down
34:04on Ukrainian towns.
34:05They thought they were
34:07taking an easy
34:08and pleasant promenade
34:09through Russia.
34:11That Russia,
34:11like Holland,
34:12would drop on her knees.
34:21Alfred Rosenberg
34:22had his plan ready
34:23for the dismemberment
34:24of the USSR.
34:26This is Rosenberg's
34:27signature.
34:29Hitler appointed Rosenberg
34:30Reich's minister
34:31of the occupied
34:32Eastern Territories.
34:34Rosenberg's plan
34:35was to liquidate
34:36the USSR
34:36as an independent state
34:38to deport the Russians
34:40to Siberia.
34:41The Baltic states
34:42were to be Germanized.
34:44Belarusia was to become
34:45a German province
34:45and Ukraine
34:46a German colony.
34:49The Germans
34:49were to lay their hands
34:50on the oil
34:51of the Caucasus.
34:53Rosenberg
34:54made the plans.
34:55Keitel sent the troops
35:05and then Himmela
35:07became to set up
35:09the new order.
35:12Himmela in Minsk.
35:18Himmela visits a
35:19concentration camp.
35:22Those are all people
35:23behind the barbed wire.
35:25Russians,
35:25Belarusians,
35:26Ukrainians.
35:28Himmela is satisfied.
35:31The wild beast
35:31has driven
35:32man into a cage.
35:41Himmela gloating
35:42over the ruins.
35:43This was Minsk before the war,
35:48before Himmela came.
35:51Those were our towns
35:52in which our gay
35:53and intelligent youth
35:55lived, studied,
35:57laughed,
35:57and played.
35:58Where are these girls
36:08in the wreaths
36:08and garlands
36:09of blue cornflowers now?
36:11What fate
36:12has overtaken them?
36:14That is a question
36:15for Zolkal
36:15to answer.
36:21Soviet prosecutor
36:22Alexandrov
36:23questions Zolkal.
36:24Will you tell us
36:31definitely
36:31how many people
36:33from the occupied territories
36:34were carried off
36:35to slavery in Germany?
36:37I will name the figure
36:39gathered from
36:40your own documents.
36:41Nine million.
36:43Do you admit
36:44that figure?
36:44Zolkal twists and squirt,
36:55lies and contradicts himself.
36:57But here are the facts
36:58taken from
36:59German documentary films.
37:01Hitler said,
37:02Germany needs slaves,
37:04many slaves.
37:05And the slave creator
37:06came for the good.
37:07Wailing and lamentation
37:15rovers over Belorussia.
37:18Families were broken up.
37:21People were seized
37:22in the streets.
37:24It was a colossal manhunt.
37:27Men, women, and children
37:28were driven along the roads,
37:31packed into railway trucks,
37:33and flowed in a never-ending stream
37:35to the slave markets of Germany,
37:38to unbearable toil
37:39and early death.
37:43This was the appalling fate
37:45the Germans had planned
37:47for all mankind.
37:48The story of the way
38:00the Nazi invaders
38:01plundered the occupied territories
38:02was told by the Soviet prosecutor
38:04Shainin.
38:05Gering, by virtue of the position
38:13he held in the Nazi government
38:15as vice-marshal
38:17and director of the four-year plan,
38:20was the man who headed
38:22the whole criminal system
38:23of plundering the occupied territory.
38:28This document is entitled
38:31Instructions for Economic Direction,
38:33otherwise known as
38:34the Green Folder.
38:37Parts of this Green Folder
38:39have already been submitted
38:40by my American colleagues.
38:42The Soviet prosecution submitted
38:44as Soviet Document Number 10.
38:48It is a plan methodically worked off
38:51by the Germans in advance
38:52for the spoliation
38:53of the occupied territories.
38:56Here is the Green Folder in action.
38:58I intend to rob
39:00and to rob effectively,
39:02Gering said.
39:03And he did rob everything
39:05he could lay his hands on.
39:06Coal, oil,
39:08boars, grain, raw materials.
39:12Trade loads of stolen property
39:13flowed in a constant stream
39:15to Germany.
39:16The Germans wanted food.
39:18They needed meat, bacon, bread.
39:21They had colossal appetites.
39:23They would have defiled
39:24the whole world
39:25if the Soviet and Allied armies
39:27had not plunged a bayonet
39:29into the monstrous belly
39:30of fascism in time.
39:31I asked you,
39:55said Rodenko to Gary,
39:56Were the instructions
39:59you gave at this conference
40:00anything else
40:01but a demand
40:02for the ruthless plunder
40:04of the occupied territories?
40:10What you said
40:12at this conference
40:13was only a development
40:15of ideas
40:16you had expressed earlier.
40:18There have been handed
40:20a document.
40:22On page 119
40:24of the German text
40:25you will find a paragraph
40:26marked with a red pencil.
40:27Have you found it?
40:29Very good.
40:30Now follow me.
40:33Is this the style
40:34in which you spoke?
40:35You must be regular hounds.
40:38Wherever you find still
40:39anything that the German people need,
40:42it must be ferreted out
40:43instantaneously
40:44from the storehouses
40:45and consigned to Germany.
40:48Did you say that?
40:50Yes,
40:52Goering answered.
40:53They wanted to devour
40:55Leningrad.
40:59Here is a document.
41:01The Fuhrer had decided
41:02to wipe Leningrad
41:04from the face of the earth.
41:05Now, Yodel,
41:06don't try to back out of it
41:08like a coward.
41:09This is your signature.
41:12Yodel is questioned
41:13by the British prosecutor
41:14David Maxwell Fife.
41:16Like all the criminals,
41:18Yodel tries to deny his guilt
41:19and to blame it all
41:20on the Fuhrer.
41:22But he cannot deny
41:23that he and Hitler
41:24wanted to grip Leningrad
41:26by the throat
41:27and strangle it.
41:33Leningrad.
41:35Our glory,
41:36our pride,
41:38and our treasure.
41:38The Nazis failed
41:41to force the heroic city
41:43on its knees.
41:45And so they conceived
41:46the idea
41:46of besieging it
41:48and strifling it
41:50in the news of famine.
42:02The torments of Leningrad
42:04are one of the gravest counts
42:06in our indictment
42:07of the Bushes.
42:13Soviet prosecutor
42:13Roginski charged
42:15the Nazis
42:15with vandalism.
42:17The Germans wantonly
42:18destroyed priceless
42:19cultural memorials,
42:21ancient churches.
42:27They shelved the Hermitage,
42:29one of the world's
42:29treasure stores of art.
42:37The exquisite palace
42:39of Peterhof
42:40as it looked
42:40before the war.
42:46This is what
42:47the Germans did to it.
42:48They would have reduced
43:10the whole world
43:10to ruins,
43:11these barbarians,
43:13to whom nothing
43:13was sacred
43:14or precious.
43:15here is a documentary film
43:23made by the Germans
43:24themselves.
43:25They were bragging then
43:26of the way
43:27they destroyed towns,
43:28homes,
43:29hospitals,
43:30factories,
43:31power stations.
43:31They were certain then
43:33that they would not
43:34be called to account.
43:36Now in court
43:37they were denied all
43:39but the evidence
43:40is too damning.
43:42Wherever the Germans
43:43passed,
43:44they left a trail
43:44of ruin,
43:45misery and death
43:46behind them.
43:47They felt sure
43:48they would not be
43:49called to both.
43:50kill everyone
44:03who is opposed
44:04to us,
44:05Goering cried.
44:07Kill, kill.
44:09Not you will answer
44:10for this,
44:11but I.
44:14Oh-ho,
44:15you're feeling the rope
44:16around your neck already,
44:17Goering.
44:17Yes,
44:19you will answer
44:19for this.
44:24Goering snorted
44:25and grew rich.
44:27These are some
44:28of the Helmand-Goering
44:29factories.
44:33This is one
44:34of his estates.
44:36He was monstrously
44:37bloated then,
44:38bloated with blood.
44:39Soviet prosecutor
44:46Pokrovsky spoke
44:47of the German
44:47atrocities.
44:51Tens of thousands
44:54of witnesses
44:55will pass
44:56before our eyes.
44:59They have been
44:59summoned
45:00to give evidence
45:00in this trial.
45:02I cannot give
45:03their names
45:03and you will not
45:04administer the oath
45:05to them.
45:06But their testimony
45:08compels belief
45:09for the dead
45:10never lie.
45:11They are the martyrs
45:12of Rostov
45:13and Karakoff,
45:14the victims
45:14of the Nazi
45:15camps of extermination.
45:18The hands
45:18of the accused
45:19are stained
45:20with their blood.
45:23For all these martyrdoms,
45:25for all these
45:26indescribable
45:27atrocities
45:27which you will see
45:28and for many others
45:30which will probably
45:31never come to light,
45:34the chief instigators
45:35of the Nazi
45:36felonies
45:36and major
45:38walk-in-laws
45:39must be made
45:40to answer
45:40with all the
45:41severity of the law
45:42of international
45:44justice.
45:51Corpses,
45:53corpses,
45:55and corpses.
45:56The pestilential
46:03exhalations
46:04of the fascist
46:05channel houses
46:05poison the world.
46:10They slaughtered
46:11old folk and children,
46:13men and women,
46:14Russians and Poles,
46:16Norwegians and Frenchmen,
46:18defenseless civilians,
46:20and prisoners of war.
46:22They hanged,
46:23shot,
46:23burned,
46:25and asphyxiated.
46:26Death and extermination
46:28was their motto.
46:32I ask you,
46:35in connection
46:36with this resolution,
46:38did you,
46:39Keitel,
46:40who held the rank
46:41of field marshal
46:42and who repeatedly
46:43in this courtroom
46:44called yourself
46:45a soldier,
46:46did you,
46:47in September 1941,
46:50by this
46:50bloodthirsty resolution,
46:53sanction the
46:53slaughter of
46:54thousands of
46:54unarmed soldiers
46:55taken prisoner
46:56by your armies?
47:01Is this true?
47:04Yes,
47:05this is my signature,
47:07Keitel was
47:08compelled to admit.
47:10Yes,
47:12it was his
47:13bloodstained signature.
47:18The Nazis
47:20slaughtered people
47:20from all countries
47:21of Europe
47:22of Europe
47:22in their death
47:22factories.
47:26They would have
47:27turned the whole
47:28world into a
47:29Maidonic.
47:30Britain and Mexico
47:31and Canada
47:33would have become
47:34Dachau's
47:34if Hitler's hordes
47:36had not been
47:36stemmed and routed.
47:43Let the nations
47:44of the world
47:45remember this.
47:47Murder was a
47:48profession
47:48profession
47:48and an industry
47:49with their Nazis.
47:51They even
47:52turned death
47:52into a commercial
47:53enterprise.
47:55They did not leave
47:56even the corpses
47:57of their victims
47:57in peace,
47:58but cold-bloodedly
48:00turned them
48:00to account.
48:02They cut their hair
48:03from their scalps
48:03and sent it to
48:04Germany to be
48:05made into mattresses.
48:07See the
48:07sacks and bales
48:08filling these
48:09warehouses?
48:11How many women
48:12must have been
48:13slaughtered and
48:14scalped
48:15to fill them?
48:28They pulled the
48:29gold teeth and
48:30dentures from the
48:30dead.
48:31The gold was sent
48:32to the bolts of
48:33the rice bank,
48:34into the treasure
48:35chests of
48:36shaft and bunk.
48:45Here are some
48:50of these
48:50dangers.
49:01And here are
49:02gold teeth
49:03already melted
49:04down into
49:04ingots.
49:06The Germans
49:06turned
49:07bloody to
49:07gold and
49:09used the
49:09gold for
49:10the shedding
49:11of more
49:11blood.
49:15Here are
49:19rings taken
49:19from the
49:20fingers of
49:20the massacred.
49:24The Germans
49:25had a factory
49:25in Danzig
49:26where they
49:27extracted soap
49:28from dead
49:28bodies.
49:30This is the
49:30factory,
49:32the raw
49:32material.
49:36The soap
49:36made from
49:37human beings.
49:39This ghastly
49:40and damning
49:40evidence was
49:41presented by
49:41Soviet
49:42Prosecutor
49:43Smirnoff.
49:55Here is
49:56human skin
49:57dressed and
49:58tanned at the
49:59factory.
50:00From it the
50:01Germans made
50:01gloves, ladies
50:02bags and
50:03briefcases.
50:06What manner
50:06of creatures
50:07are they then,
50:08these bipeds
50:09in the
50:09prisoner's dock?
50:10Is there
50:12any punishment
50:12commensurable
50:13to their
50:14crimes?
50:15No, no
50:16punishment is
50:17fit enough
50:18for them.
50:20In their
50:21final speeches,
50:23the prosecutors
50:23demanded stern
50:24retribution.
50:27The American
50:27prosecutor said,
50:29if these men
50:30are to be
50:30declared innocent,
50:32then there
50:32was no war,
50:33no massacres,
50:34and no crimes.
50:37The British
50:37prosecutor said,
50:38they slaughtered
50:4012 million
50:41people for
50:42such a crime
50:43they might
50:44with every
50:44justice have
50:45been executed
50:46without trial
50:47or investigation.
50:49The French
50:50prosecutor said,
50:52when messieurs,
50:52the judges,
50:53retire to
50:54consider their
50:54verdict,
50:55they must,
50:56in their silent
50:57deliberations,
50:58hearken to
50:58the blood of
50:59the innocent
51:00crying for
51:01retribution.
51:01election.
51:03The Soviet
51:03prosecutor said,
51:06I appeal to
51:07the court to
51:08pronounce on
51:09all the
51:09accused without
51:10exception the
51:11supreme penalty,
51:14death.
51:15Such a verdict
51:16will be hailed
51:17with satisfaction
51:18by all
51:19progressive
51:20mankind.
51:24All the
51:25speeches have
51:26been made,
51:27all the
51:27witnesses have
51:28been heard,
51:29all the pros
51:30and cons have
51:31been argued.
51:33The judges
51:33retire to
51:35consider their
51:35verdict.
51:44Ten months
51:45the International
51:46Military Tribunal
51:47set.
51:48It carefully
51:48studied the
51:49countless evidence,
51:50it attentively
51:51listened to the
51:52numerous witnesses,
51:53it weighed the
51:54guilt of each of
51:54the accused in the
51:55scales of justice,
51:57and after mature
51:58deliberation,
51:59the judges
52:00pronounced their
52:01verdict.
52:25Fascism stands
52:26exposed and
52:27convicted.
52:28The fascist
52:29aggressors are
52:30condemned as
52:30malignant foes of
52:31humanity, peace,
52:33and progress.
52:34Such is the
52:35verdict of history.
52:37Such is the
52:37faith that awaits
52:38all that take up
52:39the sword against
52:40the peace and
52:41tranquility of
52:42mankind.
52:42The court
52:50passed sentence of
52:51death by
52:51hanging on
52:52Goering,
52:54Ribbentrop,
52:57Keitel,
52:58Rosenberg,
53:00Kaltenbrunner,
53:01Yodel,
53:02Frank,
53:03Frick,
53:05Salkel,
53:06Stryker,
53:08Sisingquart,
53:08and in
53:09Abstenzio,
53:10Bormann.
53:12Sentence of
53:13lifelong imprisonment
53:14on Hess,
53:16Frunk,
53:17and Räder.
53:18Twenty years
53:19imprisonment on
53:20Schirach and
53:21Speer.
53:22Fifteen years
53:23imprisonment on
53:24Neurath.
53:26Ten years
53:26imprisonment on
53:27Dönitz.
53:29Acquitted were
53:30Schacht,
53:31Papen,
53:32and Fritsche.
53:34The SS,
53:35SD,
53:35and Gestapo
53:36were declared
53:37criminal
53:37organizations.
53:39The Soviet
53:40member of the
53:40tribunal,
53:41General Nikitschenko,
53:42entered a
53:43dissenting opinion.
53:45He requested
53:45it to be
53:45recorded in
53:46the protocol
53:47that he
53:47disagreed with
53:48a verdict
53:49passed on
53:49Schacht,
53:50Papen,
53:50and Fritsche.
53:51They should
53:52be condemned,
53:53not acquitted.
53:55He disagreed
53:55with a sentence
53:56passed on
53:56Hess.
53:57It should
53:58be death,
53:58not life
53:59imprisonment.
54:01General Nikitschenko
54:02also disagreed
54:03with a
54:03tribunal's
54:03decision
54:04regarding
54:05the Reich's
54:05government,
54:06the general
54:07staff,
54:08and the
54:08high command.
54:09They should
54:10be declared
54:11criminal
54:11organization.
54:20This opinion
54:21of the
54:21Soviet
54:21representative
54:22was shared
54:23by progressive
54:24men and
54:25women the
54:25world over.
54:27So ended
54:28the labors
54:29of the
54:29tribunal
54:29of the
54:30nations,
54:31the
54:31tribunal
54:31of history.
54:33The
54:33sword of
54:34justice
54:34descended
54:34on the
54:35heads
54:35of the
54:35warmongers.
54:44On the
54:44night of
54:45October
54:45the
54:4515th
54:46to 16th
54:461946,
54:47in the
54:48prison of
54:48Nuremberg,
54:49the
54:50sentence
54:50was carried
54:51into
54:51effect.
54:51This act
54:59was drawn
55:00up by the
55:00representatives
55:01of the
55:01four-power
55:02commission
55:02and the
55:03medical
55:03experts
55:04who
55:04witnessed
55:04the
55:05execution.
55:06It was
55:06signed by
55:07the
55:07representatives
55:07of
55:08America,
55:09the
55:09United
55:09Kingdom,
55:10the
55:10USSR,
55:11and
55:11France.
55:12justice
55:22has been
55:23done.
55:25The
55:25sentence
55:25of the
55:26nations
55:26has been
55:27carried out.
55:29The
55:29miscreants
55:29have been
55:30hanged.
55:31Now they
55:32are nothing
55:32but lifeless
55:33corpses.
55:34Rippentrop,
55:35Keitel,
55:36Kaltenbrunner,
55:42Jogel,
55:45Franz,
55:48Frick,
55:51Rosenberg,
55:55Belker,
55:58Streicher,
56:01Seisinger.
56:04Herman Goering
56:05committed suicide
56:06by poisoning
56:07two hours
56:08before the
56:08execution.
56:10The bodies
56:11of the
56:11executed men
56:12together with
56:13the body
56:13of Goering
56:14were cremated
56:15and their
56:16ashes
56:16secretly
56:17dispersed
56:18to the
56:18winds.
56:20Their
56:21ashes
56:21have been
56:22dispersed
56:23to the
56:24winds.
56:27Mankind
56:27may now
56:29breathe
56:29more
56:30freely.
56:30let the
56:35Nuremberg
56:36trial
56:36be a
56:38stern
56:38warning
56:39to all
56:40warmongers.
56:43Let it
56:43serve the
56:44cause
56:44of
56:45worldwide
56:46peace,
56:47of an
56:48enduring
56:49and
56:50democratic
56:50peace.
56:51God
56:52me
56:52can
56:52make
56:53a
56:54m
56:56a
56:56m
56:56m
56:58a
56:58m
56:59a
57:00m
57:00m
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