LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE EXECUTION OF THE PLAN TO INVADE CZECHOSLOVAKIA
| Document | Description | Vol. | Page |
| Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Article 6 (a). | I | 5 | |
| International Military Tribunal, Indictment Number 1, Sections IV (F) 3 (a, c); V. | I | 22, 29 | |
| ————— | |||
| Note: A single asterisk (*) before a document indicates that the document was received in evidence at the Nurnberg trial. A double asterisk (**) before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. The USA series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document, is the official exhibit number assigned by the court. | |||
| ————— | |||
| *375-PS | Case Green with wider implications, report of Intelligence Division, Luftwaffe General Staff, 25 August 1938. (USA 84) | III | 280 |
| *386-PS | Notes on a conference with Hitler in the Reich Chancellery, Berlin, 5 November 1937, signed by Hitler’s adjutant, Hossbach, and dated 10 November 1937. (USA 25) | III | 295 |
| *388-PS | File of papers on Case Green (the plan for the attack on Czechoslovakia), kept by Schmundt, Hitler’s adjutant, April-October 1938. (USA 26) | III | 305 |
| *789-PS | Speech of the Fuehrer at a conference, 23 November 1939, to which all Supreme Commanders were ordered. (USA 23) | III | 572 |
| *998-PS | “German Crimes Against Czechoslovakia”. Excerpts from Czechoslovak Official Report for the prosecution and trial of the German Major War Criminals by the International Military Tribunal established according to Agreement of four Great Powers of 8 August 1945. (USA 91) | III | 656 |
| *1301-PS | File relating to financing of armament including minutes of conference with Goering at the Air Ministry, 14 October 1938, concerning acceleration of rearmament. (USA 123) | III | 868 |
| *1439-PS | Treaty of Protection between Slovakia and the Reich, signed in Vienna 18 March and in Berlin 23 March 1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 606. (GB 135) | IV | 18 |
| *1536-PS | Report of Luftwaffe General Staff, Intelligence Division, 12 August 1938, on reconnaissance by German Air Attache at Prague for airfields in Czechoslovakia, enclosing report of the Air Attache, Major Moericke, 4 August 1938. (USA 83) | IV | 96 |
| *1780-PS | Excerpts from diary kept by General Jodl, January 1937 to August 1939. (USA 72) | IV | 360 |
| *1874-PS | Notes on conference between Goering, Mussolini and Ciano, 15 April 1939. (USA 125) | IV | 518 |
| 2358-PS | Speech by Hitler in Sportspalast, Berlin, 26 September 1938, from Voelkischer Beobachter, Munich Edition, 27 September 1938. | IV | 1100 |
| *2360-PS | Speech by Hitler before Reichstag, 30 January 1939, from Voelkischer Beobachter, Munich Edition, 31 January 1939. (GB 134) | IV | 1101 |
| *2786-PS | Letter from Ribbentrop to Keitel, 4 March 1938. (USA 81) | V | 419 |
| *2788-PS | Notes of conference in the Foreign Office between Ribbentrop, Konrad Henlein, K. H. Frank and others on program for Sudeten agitation, 29 March 1938. (USA 95) | V | 422 |
| *2789-PS | Letter from Konrad Henlein to Ribbentrop, 17 March 1938. (USA 94) | V | 424 |
| *2790-PS | German Foreign Office minutes of conference between Hitler, Ribbentrop, Tuca and Karmasin, 12 February 1939. (USA 110) | V | 425 |
| *2791-PS | German Foreign Office minutes of conversation between Ribbentrop and Attolico, the Italian Ambassador, 23 August 1938. (USA 86) | V | 426 |
| *2792-PS | German Foreign Office minutes of conversations between Ribbentrop and Attolico, 27 August 1938 and 2 September 1938. (USA 87) | V | 426 |
| *2793-PS | Confidential protocol concerning economic and financial collaboration between the German Reich and State of Slovakia. (USA 120) | V | 427 |
| *2794-PS | German Foreign Office memorandum on payments to Karmasin, 29 November 1939. (USA 108) | V | 429 |
| *2795-PS | Handwritten postscript by Ribbentrop to German Foreign Office notes of Ribbentrop-Chvalkovsky conversation, 21 January 1939. (USA 106) | V | 430 |
| *2796-PS | German Foreign Office notes on conversations between Hitler, Ribbentrop and von Weizsäcker and the Hungarian Ministers Imredy and von Kanya, 23 August 1938. (USA 88) | V | 430 |
| *2797-PS | German Foreign Office memorandum of conversation between Ribbentrop and von Kanya, 25 August 1938. (USA 89) | V | 432 |
| *2798-PS | German Foreign Office minutes of the meeting between Hitler and President Hacha of Czechoslovakia, 15 March 1939. (USA 118; GB 5) | V | 433 |
| *2800-PS | German Foreign Office notes of a conversation with Attolico, the Italian Ambassador, 18 July 1938. (USA 85) | V | 442 |
| *2801-PS | Minutes of conversation between Goering and Slovak Minister Durkansky (probably late fall or early winter 1938-39). (USA 109) | V | 442 |
| *2802-PS | German Foreign Office notes of conference on 13 March 1939 between Hitler and Monsignor Tiso, Prime Minister of Slovakia. (USA 117) | V | 443 |
| *2815-PS | Telegram from Ribbentrop to the German Minister in Prague, 13 March 1939. (USA 116) | V | 451 |
| *2816-PS | Letter from Horthy, the Hungarian Regent, to Hitler, dated Budapest, 13 March 1939. (USA 115) | V | 451 |
| *2826-PS | The SS on March 15, 1939, an article by SS-Gruppenfuehrer K. H. Frank, in magazine Bohemia and Moravia, May 1941, p. 179. (USA 111) | V | 472 |
| *2853-PS | Telegram from German Foreign Office to German Legation in Prague, 24 September 1938. (USA 100) | V | 521 |
| *2854-PS | Telegram from German Foreign Office to German Legation in Prague, 17 September 1938. (USA 99) | V | 521 |
| *2855-PS | Telegram from German Foreign Office to German Legation in Prague, 16 September 1938. (USA 98) | V | 522 |
| *2856-PS | Telegram from German Foreign Office to German Legation in Prague, 24 September 1938. (USA 101) | V | 522 |
| *2858-PS | Telegram from German Foreign Office to German Legation in Prague, 19 September 1938. (USA 97) | V | 523 |
| *2859-PS | Telegram from German Legation, Prague, to Consulate at Bratislava, 22 November 1938. (USA 107) | V | 523 |
| *2860-PS | Document No. 10 in the British Blue Book. Speech by Lord Halifax in the House of Lords, 20 March 1939. (USA 119) | V | 523 |
| *2861-PS | Document No. 12 in the British Blue Book. Dispatch from Sir Nevile Henderson to British Foreign Office, 28 May 1939, relating details of conversation with Goering. (USA 119) | V | 524 |
| *2862-PS | Document No. 126 in Peace and War. Statement by Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles, 17 March 1939. (USA 122) | V | 525 |
| **2863-PS | Lecture by Konrad Henlein, delivered in Vienna, 4 March 1941. Quoted in “Four Fighting Years”, Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, London, 1943, pp. 29-30. (Referred to but not offered in evidence.) (USA 92) | V | 525 |
| 2906-PS | German Foreign Office minutes of meeting between Hitler and Chvalkovsky, the Czechoslovak Foreign Minister, 21 January 1939. | V | 571 |
| *2943-PS | Documents Numbers 55, 57, 62, 65, 66, 73, 77 and 79 in the French Yellow Book. Excerpts from eight dispatches from M. Coulondre, the French Ambassador in Berlin, to the French Foreign Office, between 13 and 18 March 1939. (USA 114) | V | 608 |
| **3029-PS | Affidavit of Alfred Naujocks, 20 November 1945, on activities of the SD along the Czechoslovak border during September 1938. (USA 103) (Objection to admission in evidence upheld.) | V | 738 |
| 3030-PS | Affidavit of Alfred Naujocks, 20 November 1945, on relationship between the SD and pro-Nazi Slovak groups in March 1939. | V | 739 |
| **3036-PS | Affidavit of Gottlob Berger on the composition and activity of the Henlein Free Corps in September 1938. (Objection to admission in evidence upheld.) (USA 102) | V | 742 |
| 3037-PS | Affidavit of Fritz Wiedemann, 21 November 1945, on the meeting between Hitler and his principal advisers in Reichs Chancellery on 28 May 1938. | V | 743 |
| *3054-PS | “The Nazi Plan”, script of a motion picture composed of captured German film. (USA 167) | V | 801 |
| *3059-PS | German Foreign Office memorandum, 19 August 1938, on payments to Henlein’s Sudeten-German Party between 1935 and 1938. (USA 96) | V | 855 |
| *3060-PS | Dispatch from German Minister in Prague to Foreign Office in Berlin about policy arrangements with Henlein, 16 March 1938. (USA 93) | V | 856 |
| *3061-PS | Supplement No. 2 to the Official Czechoslovak Report entitled German Crimes Against Czechoslovakia” (document 998-PS). (USA 126) | V | 857 |
| 3571-PS | Report of U. S. Military Attache, Berlin, including an article in magazine Wehrmacht, 29 March 1939, describing occupation of Bohemia and Moravia by German troops. | VI | 264 |
| 3618-PS | Report of U. S. Military Attache in Berlin, 20 March 1939, concerning occupation of Czechoslovakia. | VI | 389 |
| 3619-PS | Report of U. S. Military Attache in Berlin, 19 April 1939, concerning occupation of Czechoslovakia. | VI | 398 |
| 3638-PS | Memorandum of Ribbentrop, 1 October 1938, concerning his conversation with Ciano about the Polish demands made on Czechoslovakia. | VI | 400 |
| *3842-PS | Statement of Fritz Mundhenke, 7 March 1946, concerning the activities of Kaltenbrunner and SS in preparation for occupation of Czechoslovakia. (USA 805) | VI | 778 |
| *C-2 | Examples of violations of International Law and proposed counter-propaganda, issued by OKW, 1 October 1938. (USA 90) | VI | 799 |
| *C-136 | OKW Order on preparations for war, 21 October 1938, signed by Hitler and initialled by Keitel. (USA 104) | VI | 947 |
| *C-138 | Supplement of 17 December 1938, signed by Keitel, to 21 October Order of the OKW. (USA 105) | VI | 950 |
| *C-175 | OKW Directive for Unified Preparation for War 1937-1938, with covering letter from von Blomberg, 24 June 1937. (USA 69) | VI | 1006 |
| *D-571 | Official report of British Minister in Prague to Viscount Halifax, 21 March 1939. (USA 112) | VII | 88 |
| *D-572 | Dispatch from Mr. Pares, British Consul in Bratislava to Mr. Newton, 20 March 1939, describing German support of Slovak separatists. (USA 113) | VII | 90 |
| *L-79 | Minutes of conference, 23 May 1939, “Indoctrination on the political situation and future aims”. (USA 27) | VII | 847 |
| *L-172 | “The Strategic Position at the Beginning of the 5th Year of War”, a lecture delivered by Jodl on 7 November 1943 at Munich to Reich and Gauleiters. (USA 34) | VII | 920 |
| *R-100 | Minutes of instructions given by Hitler to General von Brauchitsch on 25 March 1939. (USA 121) | VIII | 83 |
| *R-133 | Notes on conference with Goering in Westerland on 25 July 1939, signed Mueller, dated Berlin 27 July 1939. (USA 124) | VIII | 202 |
| *R-150 | Extracts from Luftwaffe Group Command Three Study on Instruction for Deployment and Combat “Case Red”, 2 June 1938. (USA 82) | VIII | 268 |
| *TC-14 | Arbitration Treaty between Germany and Czechoslovakia, signed at Locarno, 16 October 1925. (GB 14) | VIII | 325 |
| *TC-23 | Agreement between Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy, 29 September 1938. (GB 23) | VIII | 370 |
| *TC-27 | German assurances to Czechoslovakia, 11 and 12 March 1938, as reported by M. Masaryk, the Czechoslovak Minister to London to Viscount Halifax. (GB 21) | VIII | 377 |
| *TC-49 | Agreement with Czechoslovakia, 15 March 1939, signed by Hitler, von Ribbentrop, Hacha and Chvalkovsky, from Documents of German Politics, Part VII, pp. 498-499. (GB 6) | VIII | 402 |
| *TC-50 | Proclamation of the Fuehrer to the German people and Order of the Fuehrer to the Wehrmacht, 15 March 1939, from Documents of German Politics, Part VII, pp. 499-501. (GB 7) | VIII | 402 |
| *TC-51 | Decree establishing the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, 16 March 1939. (GB 8) | VIII | 404 |
| *TC-52 | Formal British protest against the annexation of Czechoslovakia in violation of the Munich Agreement, 17 March 1939. (GB 9) | VIII | 407 |
| *TC-53 | Formal French protest against the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia in violation of the Munich Agreement, 17 March 1939. (GB 10) | VIII | 407 |
| Affidavit H | Affidavit of Franz Halder, 22 November 1945. | VIII | 643 |
| **Chart No. 11 | Aggressive Action 1938-39. (Enlargement displayed to Tribunal.) | VIII | 780 |
| **Chart No. 12 | German Aggression. (Enlargement displayed to Tribunal.) | VIII | 781 |
| **Chart No. 13 | Violations of Treaties, Agreements and Assurances. (Enlargement displayed to Tribunal.) | VIII | 782 |
5. OPENING ADDRESS FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM
The following address, opening the British presentation of the case under Count II of the Indictment, was delivered by Sir Hartley Shawcross, K.C., M.P., British Attorney General and Chief Prosecutor for the United Kingdom, before the Tribunal on 4 December 1945.
PART I
On an occasion to which reference has already been made Hitler, the Leader of the Nazi Conspirators who are now on trial before you, said in reference to their warlike plans:
“I shall give a propagandist cause for starting the war, never mind whether it be true or not. The victor shall not be asked later on whether we tell the truth or not. In starting and making a war not the right is what matters but victory—the strongest has the right.” (1014-PS)
The British Empire has twice been victorious in wars which have been forced upon it within the space of one generation but it is precisely because we realize that victory is not enough; that might is not necessarily right; that lasting peace and the rule of International Law is not to be achieved by the strong arm alone, that the British Nation is taking part in this trial. There are those who would perhaps say that these wretched men should have been dealt with summarily without trial by “executive action”; that their personal power for evil broken, they should be swept aside into oblivion without this elaborate and careful investigation as to the part they played in plunging the world in war. Vae Victis. Let them pay the penalty of defeat. But that is not the view of the British Empire or of the British Government. Not so would the Rule of Law be raised and strengthened on the international as well as the municipal plane; not so would future generations realize that right is not always on the side of the big battalions; not so would the world be made aware that the waging of aggressive war is not only a dangerous venture but a criminal one. Human memory is short. Apologists for defeated nations are sometimes able to play upon the sympathy and magnanimity of their victors so that the true facts, never authoritatively recorded, become obscured and forgotten. One has only to recall the circumstances following the last world war to see the dangers to which, in the absence of any authoritative judicial pronouncement a tolerant or a credulous people is exposed. With the passage of time the former tend to discount, perhaps because of their very horror, the stories of aggression and atrocity which may be handed down; the latter, misled by fanatical and dishonest propagandists, come to believe that it was not they but their opponents who were guilty of what they would themselves condemn. And so we believe that this Tribunal, acting, as we know it will act notwithstanding its appointment by the victorious powers, with complete and judicial objectivity, will provide a contemporary touchstone and an authoritative and impartial record to which future historians may turn for truth and future politicians for warning. From this record all generations shall know not only what our generation suffered but also that our suffering was the result of crimes against the laws of peoples which the peoples of the world enforced and will continue in the future to uphold by international cooperation, not based merely on military alliances but firmly grounded in the rule of law.
Nor, though this procedure and this Indictment of individuals may be novel, is there anything new in the principles which by this prosecution we seek to enforce. Ineffective though, alas, the sanctions proved themselves to be, the Nations of the world had, as it will be my purpose to show, sought to make aggressive war an international crime, and although previous tradition has sought to punish States rather than individuals, it is both logical and right that if the act of waging war is itself an offense against International Law those individuals who shared personal responsibility for bringing such wars about should answer personally for the course into which they lead their states. Again, individual war crimes have long been regarded by International Law as triable by the Courts of those States whose nationals have been outraged at least so long as a state of war persists. It would indeed be illogical in the extreme if those who, although they may not with their own hands have committed individual crimes, were responsible for systematic breaches of the laws of war affecting the nationals of many States should escape. So also in regard to crimes against humanity. The right of humanitarian intervention on behalf of the rights of man trampled upon by the State in a manner shocking the sense of mankind has long been considered to form part of the law of Nations. Here, too, the Charter merely develops a pre-existing principle. If murder, raping and robbery are indictable under the ordinary municipal laws of our countries shall those who differ only from the common criminal by the extent and systematic nature of their offenses escape accusation?
It is, as I shall show, the view of the British Government that in these matters the Tribunal will apply to individuals not the law of the victor but the accepted principles of international usage in a way which will, if anything can, promote and fortify the rule of International Law and safeguard the future peace and security of this war-stricken world.