I look forward to hearing from him. Waffen-SS Soldiers Guarded the Nuremberg Trials Mark Felton Productions 1.82M subscribers Subscribe 81K 4.3M views 2 years ago Unbelievable but true - an entire unit of former Waffen-SS. [69][37], The defendants, who were largely unrepentant,[70] included former cabinet ministers: Franz von Papen (who had brought Hitler to power); Joachim von Ribbentrop (foreign minister), Wilhelm Frick (interior minister), and Alfred Rosenberg, minister for the occupied eastern territories. The United States delegation outlined the overall Nazi conspiracy and criminality of Nazi organizations. By. Jobs People Learning . my father david c bergeron was a 1st LT with the guards at the war trials. He guarded the prisoners in their cells and also stood guard in the court room. During the Nuremberg Trial, American guards maintain constant surveillance over the major Nazi war criminals in the prisonattached to the Palace of Justice. [36][35] On 8 August, the Nuremberg Charter was signed in London. The seventh series of Ravensbrck trials was held between July 2nd and July 21st, 1948 to hear the cases of Aufseherin accused of maltreatment of prisoners and making selections for the gas chambers. They saw the horrible films the NAZIs took and heard the case the prosecution presented with all the evidence and saw the brutal photos, It was very hard on these young women, but they did their job they were asked to do. [37] Nineteen states ratified the charter and were admitted as observers. [234][235] Further developments in international criminal law in the aftermath of the trials included the Genocide Convention (1948) and the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949). In the prison cellblock, each single-occupant cell had two parallel heating pipes beneath a single, heavily scratched, plastic-covered window, the top half of which could be tilted open for limited ventilation. I played checkers with him on a number of occasions, Prestianni revealed. Most of the time the prison was dank, uncomfortably cold, and forbidding, especially during the winter months. Omissions? Today I found out that most of the soldiers who guarded the high ranking Nazi prisoners during the Nuremberg trials were in fact former members of Baltic SS . They [the prisoners] were to always be considered innocent until proven guilty. [41][42], The United States' chief prosecutor was Supreme Court justice Robert H. I have been searching for evidence that my Dad was a guard, so that the stories I have been told since I was a child could be documented. All I can recall is that he was standing to the left in the court room. Courtroom MPs wore stylish white MP-emblazoned helmet liners and similarly labeled brassards. Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death (Gring, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss-Inquart, and Bormann). Proposals for how to punish the defeated Nazi leaders ranged from a . His name was David C. Porter from Pennsylvania. Institutional rivalries hampered the search. Pre-war president of the. [228] The most controversial charge was crimes against peace. Another favorite was Alfred Jodl, former chief of the operations staff of the Army high command, who was found guilty and executed. What was the name of that individual? His name was Raymond J Arsenault. My father Paul Davis Smith served at a guard at Nuremberg though he never really talked much about it so I dont know in what capacity. [6] The Soviet Union wanted to hold a show trial similar to the 1930s Moscow trials, in order to demonstrate the Nazi leaders' guilt and build a case for war reparations to rebuild the Soviet economy, which had been devastated by the war. The tribunal consisted of a member plus an alternate selected by each of the four signatory countries. Prestianni, the guard contingent, and supervisors under the command of Colonel B.C. He was a physical fitness fanatic who threw his cell window open in mid-winter and splashed toilet water over his bare chest and then did pushups, before meals, after meals, most any time, over and over. After his release from prison in Nuremberg, a Stuttgart court sentenced him to eight years in a work camp. [116] In contrast to the other prosecution teams, the French prosecution emphasized how Nazi ideology and pan-Germanism had led to the Nazis' crimes, and delved into the Sonderweg theory of Germany's development in the nineteenth century. Keitel was one of ten defendants hanged in the Palace of Justice in the early morning hours of October 16, 1946. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Today these sketches are highly prized. Strict attention was always paid to the prisoners. BAY CITY . [180][172] On 16 October, ten were hanged, with Gring committing suicide the day before. It was always a battle of authority. The duty roster for guards was revised daily in an attempt to prevent the development of unauthorized relationships with prisoners. List of Judges Francis Biddle (American) John J Parker (American) Edward Francis Carter (American) Colonel Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, Lord Justice (British, President of the Tribunal) Sir Norman Birkett (British) Henri Donnedieu de Vabres (French) Robert Falco (French) Major General Iona Nikitchenko (Soviet) In return, he often was rewarded with cigarettes, pipe tobacco, or other small items he coveted. Most certainly. [5] Soviet jurist Aron Trainin developed the concept of crimes against peace (waging aggressive war) which would later be central to the proceedings at Nuremberg. Courtroom 600 in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice was the site of the famous Nuremberg trials, a series of military tribunals that took place between November 20, 1945 and October 1, 1946. Guards gradually learned through everyday observation, however, that the prisoners collective makeup truly spanned a psychologically intricate cross-section of those who had served Hitler. Where the convicted were housed on the ground floor, lower-tier cellblock, the main corridor was 60 meters (195 feet) long, lined by 16 cells on each side, and constantly patrolled by 1st Division guards. He guarded Goehring. One was sentenced in absentia. He was the first of 10 hanged on October 16, 1946. [28] The charter limited the jurisdiction of the court to Germany's actions because the Allies did not want to answer to an international court for their own actions;[29] only Germans could be tried. These visits usually were brief, and participants were separated by a screen. [27] Especially the United States wanted to avoid countenancing any rule that would give an international court jurisdiction over a government's treatment of its own citizens. [34][35] Located in the American occupation zone, Nuremberg was a symbolic location as the site of Nazi rallies. [211] The educational purpose of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals was a failure, in part because of the resistance to war crimes trials in German society, but also because of the United States Army's refusal to publish the trial record in German for fear it would undermine the fight against communism. I tried to treat each prisoner without rancor.. April 22, 2020. The night Gring pulled that off on October 16, 1946, now that was quite a night, he recalled. However, one thread of similarity was woven among them. The toilet was the single source of water. [155] In the context of the brewing Cold War, the trial became a means of condemning not only Germany but also the Soviet Union. Because of the tragic manner in which my father died, we did not often speak of the trials. Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi Germanys foreign minister beginning in 1938, was amiable, Prestianni said. Updated on January 22, 2020. The door was opened just enough to allow Streicher to enter. In 2019, Bruno Day, who served as a SS camp guard at the Stutthof Concentration Camp, was brought to trial accused of contributing to the murder of 5230 people at the camp. The most frequently offered scenario, after intensive investigations, has been that the capsule was retrieved from Grings luggage in a storage room and was given to him by an American, Lieutenant Jack Tex Wheelis. Gifts, usually clothing, soap, tobacco, and family photos, could be given to prisoners after inspection by a guard. Only Speer stood in the courtroom showing some remorse and, in an act of contrition, admitted his guilt and knowledge of the camps. Thank you so much for your time and I am looking forward to getting into many discussions. [189], One set of trials focused on the actions of German professionals: the Doctors' trial focused on human experimentation and euthanasia murders, the Judges' trial on the role of the judiciary in Nazi crimes, and the Ministries trial on the culpability of bureaucrats of German government ministries, especially the Foreign Office. [119] Unlike the British and American prosecution strategy, which focused on using German documents to make their case, the French prosecutors took the perspective of the victims, submitting postwar police reports and calling eleven witnesses. My mother had pointed his photo out to me on several occasions but I was too young to remember. [207][208] In a 1946 poll, 78 percent of Germans assessed the trial as fair, but four years later that had fallen to 38 percent, with 30 percent considering it unfair. Emilio DiPalma (right) stands on guard at the Nuremberg Trials in 1945. [1] Most of the defendants were also charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. [99] Nevertheless, defense lawyers (although not most of the defendants) often argued that the prosecution was trying to promote German collective guilt and forcefully countered this as a strawman argument. Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. Following the Second World War, many concentration camps such as Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz were liberated. My dad was a guard at the trials he had a Picture of himself standing behind the prisoners he died at 86 in 2015 the picture is gone and he never wanted to talk about he was a sgt and received a purple heart. Epidemic jaundice experiments High . Before his execution, he aligned himself with Jodl and, to a lesser extent, Raeder and Dnitz, the military clique. Those men who liberated the camps of the Holocau. The two men were deep in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany, venue for the Nuremberg War Crimes trials of Germany's Nazi leaders. Only Speer occasionally tried to befriend him or penetrate his deep solitude with a few words of encouragement. Schacht had been imprisoned in July 1944, under suspicion of being part of an assassination conspiracy against Hitler. Dnitz, who was named successor to Hitler during the waning days of the war and served 10 years in prison, remained aloof. [153] Midway through the trial, Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech denouncing the Soviet threat delighted the defense. All guards were forced to stand practically motionless at parade rest behind their assigned prisoner seated before them in the dock. Before and during the war crimes trial, they were to be considered still innocent, Andrus drummed into the military personnel under his command. Answer (1 of 3): Yes, he was a German lawyer named Otto Stahmer from Kiel. [12] The United States insisted on a fair trial as a means of reforming Germany. [202] All four powers later fought independence movements using methods that had been ruled illegal at Nuremberg. Nrnberg trials, Nrnberg also spelled Nuremberg, series of trials held in Nrnberg, Germany, in 194546, in which former Nazi leaders were indicted and tried as war criminals by the International Military Tribunal. I wish peace to the world. The verdict was drafted by British alternate judge Norman Birkett. He died about five years ago and I wished I would have asked questions. [87] In France, some verdicts were met with outrage from the media and especially from organizations for deportees and resistance fighters, as they were perceived as too lenient. [235] In the 1990s, a revival of international criminal law included the establishment of ad hoc international criminal tribunals for Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR), which were widely seen as part of the legacy of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials. He was released in 1966. Prestianni never served in the trial courtroom, only in the cellblock. [221] The IMT defendants required Soviet permission for release; Speer was not successful in obtaining early release, and Hess remained in prison until his death in 1987. He was quiet by nature and spent much of his time writing his memoirs. events, and resources, Michael Prestianni: Guarding the War Criminals at Nuremberg. I inherited all of it. [84][85] The American prosecution drew on reports of the Office of Strategic Services and information provided by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the American Jewish Committee. [194] Luftwaffe general Erhard Milch was tried for using slave labor and deporting civilians. [206], Many Germans at the time of the trials focused on finding food and shelter; few followed the trial closely. [175][176], Four organizations were ruled to be criminal: the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the SS, the Gestapo, and the SD, although some lower ranks and subgroups were excluded. (Robert Ley committed suicide while in prison, and Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbachs mental and physical condition prevented his being tried.) Sixteen of these captives were guarded by Pfc. When he failed to respond to the periodic shouted challenges from the sergeant-of-the-guard, Prestianni was taken to a hospital in Nuremberg where he remained for two weeks before returning to duty. If an organization was found to be criminal, the prosecution could bring individuals to trial for having been members, and the criminal nature of the group or organization could no longer be questioned. My father, Jack J. Although controversial at the time for their use of ex post facto law, the trials' innovation of holding individuals responsible for violations of international law established international criminal law. tags: abraham , abrahamism , child-sacrifice , christianity , god , isaac , nazi . I do have a photo of my Dad standing behind the German prisoners. False accusations of rape, abuse, or other misconduct by guards were commonplace. Prestianni said of von Neurath, He looked like the movie version of a Prussian general with his mop of white hair and erect bearing. [174] The judges interpreted crimes against humanity narrowly; they determined that crimes against German Jews before 1939 were not under the court's jurisdiction because the prosecution had not proven a connection to aggressive war. [24][25] Although a novel construct, "crimes against humanity" covered acts that were already prohibited by the laws of most countries. Later. [59] The conspiracy charge was used to charge the top Nazi leaders, as well as bureaucrats who had never killed anyone or perhaps even directly ordered killing. [160] On 2 September, the court recessed; and the judges retreated into seclusion to decide the verdict and sentences, which had been under discussion since June. Two of the six were acquitted, two given prison terms and two sentenced to death. [13] Planners in the United States Department of War were drawing up plans for an international tribunal in late 1944 and early 1945. Two and a quarter hours before he was to be executed he took poison under the. Prestianni and another guard handcuffed Streicher and walked him silently to the gallows chamber, where they rapped on the door with their truncheons. He did mention seeing the prisoners in their cells. The first of the trials was the Major War Crimes Trial, in which 22 high-ranking Nazis stood trial in the Palace of Justice. The following is a brief . Four were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years: Karl Dnitz, Baldur von Schirach, Albert Speer, and Konstantin von Neurath. , That used to shut him up but usually only for a few minutes, and then he would start up again with the jokes. These were the intellectuals; the ramrod-stiff military officers; the cunning politicians; the worlds most vicious, depraved, notorious mass murderers; an architect; a filthy-minded and sex-obsessed anti-Semitic newspaper publisher; a gentle writer of poetry; the bombastic bullies; an unrepentant, ghost-like figure; the subservient military lackeys; and even their self-appointed leader, a bloated, drug-addicted former war hero. [49][48] The French government tried to appoint staff who were not tainted by collaboration with the Vichy regime; some appointments were of those who had been in the French resistance. Some were gassed. During our conversations, he often asked questions about the United States, a subject in which he appeared to be quite interested, Prestianni added. Minister of Foreign Affairs (until 1938), then Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia. [219][220] The German public took the early releases as confirmation of what they saw as the illegitimacy of the trials. [63] Jackson also rewrote the indictment with the intent of keeping the proceedings under American control by separating out an overall conspiracy charge from the other three charges. [76] Of the 24 men indicted, Martin Bormann was tried in absentia, as the Allies were unaware of his death; Krupp was too ill to stand trial; and Robert Ley committed suicide. Generally, due to rivalries and animosity toward each other during their glory years, most adhered to this policy and opted to walk, stand, or sit alone, not engaged in conversations to any degree. Soldiers in tank stand guard in front of the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg where the International Military Tribunal . The tribunal was given the authority to find any individual guilty of the commission of war crimes (counts 13 listed above) and to declare any group or organization to be criminal in character. This page was last edited on 8 October 2022, at 21:33. Twelve paid with their lives. He was the popular picture court room scene the second on the left of the door. [61], The problem of translating the indictment and evidence into the three official languages of the tribunal, as well as German, was severe due to the scale of the task and difficulty in recruiting interpreters, especially in the Soviet Union. By creating an Aryan nation, the world would look up to and envy Germany for its racial purity.. The crew (left to right) Private (1st Class) Carl E McCray (Salem, Va.) and Sergeant E Wilson (Texas.)'. [33], The negotiators decided that the tribunal's permanent seat would be in Berlin, while the trial would be held at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg. View full size Courtesy, U.S. Army The Military Tribunal proceedings in Nuremberg, Germany, Herman Goering sits between two guards, the left one being Andrew Wendland of Bay City. Sykes supervised guards, including the iconic. It was difficult and tiring duty. Other than that, Hess had no social interaction with the other prisoners. Hess, former deputy fhrer of the Nazi party and Hitlers private secretary during the early years of the National Socialist movement, was sentenced to life imprisonment and served every day of it to the age of 92 when he died in 1987 under mysterious circumstances in Berlins Spandau Prison. All were destined for incarceration, at least during their trials, in two of Germanys most feared prisons: the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg and Spandau Prison on the western outskirts of Berlin. Dnitz remained an unrepentant Nazi until his death in 1980. Nuremberg Trials Nuremberg Trials after WWII Nuremberg Trials post Second World War Categories: General news, War and unrest, Government and politics, Military and defense, Social affairs; Location: Germany Display: All Displaying 1 - 124 of 124 Results < Prev | 1 | Next > 4508300110 4508301118 4508310176 4508310168 451007142 490414058 490414049 The guards at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials The guards at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials Accession Number 72-850 7.25x9.5 inches Black & White Printer-Friendly Version Order This Image Keywords Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946 Soldiers HST Keywords Nurnberg Trials; Germany - Nurnberg He was a true Nazi all the way in every way, Prestianni recalled. Other absent and dead men including Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, Adolf Eichmann, and Bormann were also blamed. He could never understand why he had been tried for war crimes. You can contact me via email at RebeccaLeuchter@aol.com. Efficiency Report for Henry F. Gerecke, 7/1/1945, NAID 6016856. We were given strict orders to have no contact whatsoever with these women, no conversation, no nothing and to stay well away from them, noted Prestianni. Several were militaristically aloof and looked down upon those they considered to be the mere political element. The speech was favorably received by the prosecution, the tribunal, the audience, historians, and even the defendants. Joined: Oct 14, 2007 Messages: 2,804 He considered himself the senior member of the prison military fraternity., Former president of the Reichsbank Hjalmar Schacht was one of three war crimes defendants who were found innocent of all charges against them. [100], On 21 November, Jackson gave the opening speech for the prosecution. The same routine was followed for each of the condemned prisoners. When asked how the individual personalities, habits, and mannerisms differed, Prestianni responded that they were varied. These were 60 year old Emma Zimmer, nee Mezel, and 36 year old . Later 19 other nations accepted the provisions of this agreement. The defendants included some of the most famous Nazis, including Hermann Gring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Wilhelm Keitel. First, it rejected the contention that only a state, and not individuals, could be found guilty of war crimes; the tribunal held that crimes of international law are committed by men and that only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced. Speer spent much of his time drawing exquisite pencil sketches ranging from landscapes to magnificent buildings to quaint German villages. [169][170] The judges did not agree that the conspiracy extended to anyone who participated in the affairs of the Nazi government, only taking being present at the high-level meetings discussing war plans in 1937 and 1939 as evidence of belonging to the conspiracy. In the Hostages case, several generals were tried for executing thousands of hostages and prisoners of war, looting, using forced labor, and deporting civilians in the Balkans. He was good, real sharp, Prestianni related. The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Some passively resigned themselves to their futures while others fought it off and never fully accepted their fates. [106] Although these aspects had already been covered by the American prosecution, Soviet prosecutors introduced new evidence from Extraordinary State Commission reports and interrogations of senior enemy officers. . [89] Because of the loose evidentiary rules, photographs, charts, maps, and films played an important role in making incredible crimes believable. Unbelievable but true - an entire unit of former Waffen-SS Grenadiers were retrained and deployed by the Americans to help guard the Nuremberg Trials in 1946-49. [146][147] Defense lawyer Alfred Seidl[de] repeatedly tried to disclose the secret protocols of the GermanSoviet pact. [132][169] Through a compromise among the judges, the charge of conspiracy was narrowed to a conspiracy to wage aggressive war. This is evidenced by the change of the guards uniforms back and forth from the heavier, darker, winter uniform to the lighter colored summer uniform. [133], Inspired by the films shown by the American prosecution, the Soviet Union commissioned three films for the trial: The German Fascist Destruction of the Cultural Treasures of the Peoples of the USSR, Atrocities Committed by the German Fascist Invaders in the USSR, and The German Fascist Destruction of Soviet Cities, using footage from Soviet filmmakers as well as shots from German newsreels. Tags International Military TribunalNurembergGermanywar crimes trialstrials National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD All sessions of the tribunal were held in Nrnberg, Germany, under the presidency of Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence. Schirach, who had been replaced by Hitler as head of the youth movement in 1940 and drafted into Army service where he saw considerable combat on the Eastern Front, maintained his decorum and seldom responded to the teasing. U.S. veteran Gerald M. Boe, the guard for Hermann Gring during the Nuremberg Trials, shares his memories of that time. They were not to be shown disrespect. All war crimes prisoners ate from a single German menu. And when he spoke, it was to lash out violently at anyone close to him at the time, even the guards.. ;"God protect Germany. 1. Three days on and three days off with shifts of four hours on, four hours off each day was the standard work assignment for guards. Your Moms birthday and maiden name. The tribunal responded that such acts had been regarded as criminal prior to World War II. Of course he was amongst other guards to his left and right. [30] Article 7 prevented the defendants from claiming immunity for their actions under the act of state doctrine,[31] and the plea of acting under superior orders was left for the judges to decide. Guards occasionally retaliated against unpopular, troublesome prisoners by rapping on the cell doors with their night sticks to disturb the occupants sleep. For the subsequent trials held by the United States, see, "International Military Tribunal" redirects here. This brass pot held the holy water that an attending priest sprinkled on the condemned immediately before their execution. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Martin Bormann was tried and condemned to death in absentia, and Hermann Gring committed suicide before he could be executed. Batya. Prestianni particularly liked Speer, Hitlers architect and the designer of many of Berlins most spectacular buildings and later minister of armament and munitions. [152] The defendants' witnesses sometimes managed to exculpate them, but other witnessesincluding Rudolf Hss, the former commandant of Auschwitz, and Hans Bernd Gisevius, a member of the German resistanceeffectively incriminated the defendants. [106][107] The Americans summoned Einsatzgruppen commander Otto Ohlendorf, who testified about the murder of 80,000 people by those under his command, and SS general Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who admitted that German anti-partisan warfare was little more than a cover for the mass murder of Jews.