German or International Law?
SEGER, GERHART H.
German or International Law? Nazis Can Be Prosecuted Under Weimar Laws By Gerhart H. Seger Editor, Neue Volkszeitung; one of the witnesses of the prosecution against Goering ami Frick at...
...We have already recognized that fact by establishing the council of the four powers administering all German affairs...
...Besides, there are persons on the recently published list of defendants who may be able to wriggle out of their tight spot because they will justify their governmental activity in ?? many as the performance of ordinary administrative service...
...For instance, Dr...
...Dimitri l.az.a rev itch, former editor of Yugoslsv Underground anti-Nazi papers, left Yugoslavia on Aug...
...the innumerable misdeeds in concentration camps and torture houses of the Gestapo, and so forth...
...We thereby expect the Nuremberg trials to contribute very much to the re-education ef the German people...
...began his ragiata by taking his oath en the Weisser Constitution «nd he solemnly swore to uphold all tier mm...
...In addition, all other crimes against German laws could likewise be prosecuted: the murders of innocent politics...
...American policy In our sans appears to be surprisingly vigorous...
...J. C. Rich...
...laws...
...he intends to prove that the entire German military, the industrialists, and the Nazi party, conspired to prepare for that illegal aggressive war...
...tin ami after June 30th, 1!K14, Hitler instigated the mass murder known as the "blood purge," during which, in three days and four nights, 1,186 persons were killed upon personal orders of Hitler...
...Unfortunately in my judgment there is none...
...It will impress the average German immeasurably if we prove in court that the entire Nazi regime constituted a continuous chain of violations of German law, still in effect because the Mesie forget er-aeglacted to Invalidate it, i.e...
...or religion is driven from our educational institutions...
...Justice Jackson did introduce, in support of his basic contention, the Anglo-Sax*on conception of "conspiracy...
...The German people, as a result of Iheir history, sre peculiarly legal-minded...
...President Hopkins says aloud what many of his coileagae* say in private...
...exists now...
...AN agf cement was signed in London by England, France, Russia and VatfMjfefa>r* AU,Mt 8' l»«>UWi«huit International Military 'jfrAA^aAl*'*" to Wf the Gar-man Nazis tod war ? ? iminaU at Nuremberg...
...Consequently, with equal justification, we can assume another task of the non-existing German government: to prosecute all violations of German law...
...Academic Prejudice Persists By GEORGE S. COUNTS I'lofrinot at Teachers College, Columbia linivtruty All who believe in democracy and even in common decency will welcome Ike excellent article by Mr...
...Both these countries violated the pact...
...That would, of course, include crimes against German nationals, Jews as well as non-Jews, committed in violation of the German penal code of the Weimar Republic which, by the way, was never voided by the Nazi regime...
...Russia con-dusted aggressive warfare against Finland, and Italy started four aggressive wars against Ethiopia, Albania, Greece and France...
...For this perhaps we should thsnk him...
...The four occupation powers, for all practical purposes, constitute the only government of Germany existing at the present time...
...In the meantime, Soviet Russia has withdrawn her prosecutor General I. T. Nikitrhenko...
...All Nasi crimes were perpetrai ed in clear dotation of their oaths of office...
...the penal code ef the Weimar Republic...
...Article 6-C of that agreement lists •Oitnes Against Humanity," for which the defendants will be prosecuted hie ¦isetive of the law of the country where the crimes had been perpetrated...
...That is precisely where it should be until it Is thoroughly eradicated from our life end institutions...
...consequently in sharing Hitler's responsibility he became an accessory after the fact of one of the biggest mass murders...
...but with a peculiar attempt to appear legal he added that his entire Cabinet had concurred in his decisions...
...On July 7, 1934, Hitler appeared before the assembly he then still chose to call the "Reichstag" and explained that he had acted as the "supreme justice" of the German people...
...With the unconditional surrender of the tierman armed forces, with the dissppearance of any German government as a result of the complete breakdown of the Nazi regime, no German governmental au- . ilioni...
...It is time thst sll of our colleges snd universities became true citsdels of learning rather than snobbish social clubs...
...The 9riand-Kellogg Pact, originally Shawn up by a Chicago lawyer, Salomon O. Levinson, wss signed by no less than 17 nations, which thereby agreed never te .use aggressive warfare again, (lei many, then still a republic, signed it but so did Italy and Russia...
...Unwittingly he has brought into the open s monstrous snd widespread violation of the purposes for which we professedly fought the terrible war just concluded...
...Therefore, the London agreement essM perhaps be augmented in order to ¦sake the indictment more water tight...
...they are heading the German departments of finances, lines, communications, transportation and so forth...
...1 wish that I could propose some simple remedy for this evil...
...Iljalmar Horace Greeley Schacht: he is likely to say that he merely collected taxes for the German government exactly as Henry Morgenthou, Jr., did for the United States Treasury...
...If we resort to German law we not only would strenghen the legal basis of the Nuremberg trials and insure the validity of the indictments, we would also achieve a political effect of no mean proportions...
...prisoners, of Jews, of countless anti-Nazi Germans against whom no prosecution—no matter how faked— was conducted...
...But we sre not yst utilizing fully the best forces available for the job Of dens/.i flcation and reeducation—-the German Social Democrats exiled or thrown into concentration camps by Hitler...
...Schacht at that time bad been a member of the Reichs Cabinet...
...It ssys Just whst must be ssld over and over again until all discrimination based on race, nsllonsllt...
...Invoking German law naturally would tend to promote this effect—any international law will not be half as impressive to the ordinary German people as will be the spplication of the German penal code...
...would go ahead with the trial alone...
...the robbery of the property of the German trade union and Socialist movement...
...one of the witnesses of the prosecution against Goering ami Frick at Nuremberg...
...If we do that, we are in a far better position to get at the Nazi criminals, and «gaiii the case of Dr...
...Even the Nazis frequently went to considerable length to find a pseudo-legal justification for their sc lions...
...The agi eriiient ereates a new international Taw by itself...
...Perhsps some good would come from a conference of responsible educational leaders called to discuss the question before the press snd the public...
...3. He states that the new Underground opposition to Tito is growing, • Genersl Eisenhower seems to be determined to really denazify and demilitarize the Reich, including the industrialists and business . men who supported Hitler...
...Associate Justice Jackson announced that if need be, the U.S...
...After all, Hille...
...Therefore it appears that Justice Jackson's basic legsl contention exposes itself to an impressive argument which the defense counsel of the German defendants no doubt will put forward: the moral strength as well as the legal validity Of an od hor, created international law rests with its application against everyone guilty of its violation, without fear or favor...
...This paragraph of Article 6 of the London agreement offers a better way of prosecuting the Nazis...
...Knowing how interested the United States is in avoiding any further delay of the Nuremberg trial, it seems obvious that Russia made that move to use it as a bargaining point at the London conference of the Foreign Ministers...
...Diserimlnstion In our colleges expresses deep and persisting fears, prejudices, snd hatreds in our society...
...Justice Jackson contends our main grievance against the Nazi regime is the fact that they started World War II, and everything else follows from that major crime...
...after surmount -iag considerable obstacles the American Chief Counsel for the Prosecution of Alis Crimes, Justice Robert Jackson, succeeded in selling his idea to the other three powers that the indictment of the accused should be based on the Kellogg Pact of 1928' outlawing aggressive warfare...
...moreover, we have appointed officers of the four occupational powers to conduct the various administrative affairs according to the former German governmental setup...
...Schacht may serve as an example...
...Obviously we do not only want tc prosecute the Nazi and war criminals for what they did to nationals of other countries but for what they did to Germans as well...
Vol. 28 • September 1945 • No. 38
