“A. Political Principles
“1. In accordance with the agreement, * * * supreme authority in Germany is exercised, on instructions from their respective governments, by the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces (of the governments concerned) each in his own zone of occupation and also jointly, in matters affecting Germany as a whole, in their capacity as member of the Control Council.
“2. So far as practicable, there shall be uniformity of treatment of the German population throughout Germany.
“3. The purposes of the occupation of Germany by which the Control Council shall be guided are:
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“(III) To destroy the National Socialist Party and its affiliated and supervised organizations, to dissolve all Nazi institutions, to insure they are not revived in any form, * * *.
“(IV) To prepare for the eventual reconstruction of German political life on a democratic basis and for eventual peaceful cooperation in international life in Germany.”
On 8 August 1945 the powers which were represented at Potsdam, through their equally accredited representatives, brought forth at London an agreement which in its preamble refers to “major war criminals,” and in article I, to “war criminals.” The agreement also contemplated an International Military Tribunal for the trial of such criminals and for a charter to define the constitution, jurisdiction, and functions of that Tribunal, which charter was in fact made a part of said agreement on the same day. Two things deserve our attention at this point. The charter defined crimes and thus fixed an objective standard by which “war criminals” were to be identified. The adjective “major” was thereupon immediately relegated to the role of superficial invective or at most to that of fixing a comparative standard of criminal importance, measured solely by the judgment of the committee of chief prosecutors or the practical and mechanical necessities of the actual trial. The crimes of most of these defendants are so great that if they choose, they may consider themselves slighted by the committee of chief prosecutors. The prosecution in this case shall do its ethical best to see that they were not fortunate.
On 20 December 1945, the same three Allied Powers which had issued the Moscow Declaration, and the same four Powers which had reached the Potsdam Agreements and entered into the London Agreement and created the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, also enacted Law No. 10 of the Control Council for Germany.
Law No. 10 provided for this Tribunal and the method by which it was thereafter to be brought into existence; defined the crimes over which it exercises jurisdiction, and adequately described the persons it had jurisdiction to try and punish and the punishment it was authorized to impose. The preamble clearly discloses that Law No. 10 was enacted and therefore this Court was created to accomplish two purposes, first—