Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremburg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, Volume 02

by Various

SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: If your Lordship pleases, the reading will be resumed by a representative of the French Republic.

[A recess was taken.]

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal understands that the Defendant Ernst Kaltenbrunner is temporarily ill. The Trial will continue in his absence. I call upon the Chief Prosecutor for the Provisional Government of the French Republic.

M. PIERRE MOUNIER (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic):

COUNT THREE—WAR CRIMES. Charter, Article 6, especially 6 (b).

VIII. Statement of the Offense.

All the defendants committed War Crimes between 1 September 1939 and 8 May 1945, in Germany and in all those countries and territories occupied by the German Armed Forces since 1 September 1939, and in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Italy, and on the High Seas.

All the defendants, acting in concert with others, formulated and executed a Common Plan or Conspiracy to commit War Crimes as defined in Article 6 (b) of the Charter. This plan involved, among other things, the practice of “total war” including methods of combat and of military occupation in direct conflict with the laws and customs of war, and the perpetration of crimes committed on the field of battle during encounters with enemy armies, against prisoners of war, and in occupied territories against the civilian population of such territories.

The said War Crimes were committed by the defendants and by other persons for whose acts the defendants are responsible (under Article 6 of the Charter) as such other persons when committing the said War Crimes performed their acts in execution of a Common Plan and Conspiracy to commit the said War Crimes, in the formulation and execution of which plan and conspiracy all the defendants participated as leaders, organizers, instigators, and accomplices.

These methods and crimes constituted violations of international conventions, of internal penal laws, and of the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal law of all civilized nations, and were involved in and part of a systematic course of conduct.