Reflections on the Nuremberg Trial

...Failure to carry out this measure, one can safely predict, will lead to embarrassment for the Nnremburg court, Therefore, it seems to me preferable at...

...Dr...

...Psychologists can tell ua a great deal about the unhealthy reactions to protracted accounts of cruelty...

...Far from being ef no great matter what th* instrument is called, it is ,1 great import*nr* If it suggests that the Nazi criminals art being "fairly tried...

...True revenge on a Nasi who has slaughtered Jevriak children calls, for the slaughter of hh own children—but I am confident that Mr...

...No democrat meurned Ma fat*, for it «U richly deserved...

...Hboeld tbey he triad aeearasag to the law* ef the Weiea.r Republic...

...What if Ban tries to summon some of tha official, of the British'Foreign Office...

...But be also believes that "through the trial of the Nasis the human conscience should be aroused...

...We cannot conscript err:-tores from Mars to sit in judgment on them...

...Some of the charges in the indictment, particularly plotting...

...A court that exonerated these men would itself be tried before the court of public opinio...

...The moral issue: will be obscured by the procedural inequity...

...It is impossible to i aid them as innocent until proved "legally" guilty...

...What If Ribbentrop, charged with the crime of plotting war against Poland, insists upon calling Stalin or Molotov as a witness of a pact mads between'Germany and Russia for the division of Poland, and introduces Molotov'a speech regarding "the imperialist war" as well as the famous 9to^P*y<te&&*M their eeavMsl accord...

...They may, therefore, claim they have I < " judged in advance, exploit the occasion to denounce the democracies, dress up their atrocities as measures ef defense, pretend to ignorance of the massacre of Allied prisoners and civilian • ..dilations, and pose once more aa saviors of Western civilization...

...Sentence should then be pronounced and carried out We cannot free these men, we cannot give them a "fair trial" according te our civilized code, we cannot descend te their bestial level of lynehing revenge-but we can in this way do justice...

...The Nazi civilian leaders shonld be brought before representatives of all the nations with whom they have been at war, including representatives of the underground, of surviving Jewish communities, snd of former German anti-Nazi inmates of concentration camps...

...This was originally the position the Russians favored but abandoned for soma mysterious reason that may soon be revealed...

...If this sentiment Is valid and morally outrageous acta should b* punished, the existence or non-existence of a world state 1* irrelevant On the other hand, it ia a matter of momentous relevance whether or not the Instrumentality which allegedly represents the conscience of the world, does in fact apeak with full moral authority...

...The world is well aware ef tlie bestiality of Goerins and all his trit...

...The chief Nasi criminal* know (hat they will die...

...arsWsd cM.Uer.ble alseeamsa Hheala they be treated SS they treated their victims...

...One would imagine that it was precisely because in the absence of a general standard of conduct not all -who killed or robbed were properly punished, precisely because ordinary common sense could not always reliably determine when killing was murder and when taking was robbing, that the community sought to supplant the vagaries of custom and ill defined traditions by judicial statute and decision...

...They sre mors interested in having the gates of Palestine opened to them than in revenging thmselves or their martyred'kin...

...They would have been, "hot with clean hands...

...A formal statement should be read of the horrible crimes committed by the Nazis throughout Europe...

...they would still fall far short of...

...Thar* would have been no need for a fiction about a fair trial...

...Long before penal codes were adopted, he writes, "those who killed and robbed were punished because ordinary common aense and a general standard of conduct made their acts wrongful and dangerous and ths perpetrators were, not heard to say that they did not know the character of their acta because no law had specifically prohibited them...

...Beyond a certain point, the piling up of evidence of horrible outrage defeat* itself...

...Are we so sure of the emotional stability - ef the anti-Semites, the anti-Catholics, the anti-democrats in our midat that w« can safely expose them to this mounting crescendo of abominations...

...Nonetheless, there were many who felt that the court procedure was a mockery ef a "fair trial," that actions which narrowed the moral abyss between the heroic resist-sme movement and ita betrayers should have been avoided...

...Rabbinical wisdom should have taught Mr...

...srn in fact they casuist be, it not only weaketM the guarantee ef fair trikl hs oar awn tradition, it pre paves tbe ground far futare pre* gaadiata to distort, the actual trsth abaert the aae*ral eMeejwy ef the asea-aters on trial What, then, is the alternative...

...It ia obvious that Professor Radin is borrowing trouble with the assumption that trje instrument which tries the Nasis speaka wih "full authority for tha conscience of the world" independently ef its procedures...

...against peace and preparing for war, violate our fundamental principles against retroactive legislation...

...The interests of both justice mud national safety neces-sitated his punishment...

...No change ef venue would alter matters...

...His contribution* im The New Leader have always prsrveked wlsVatsrcsd discussion...

...responded yesterday no longer reach the threshold of sensation...

...All the military personnel should be turned ever to the Allied high command for a summary or drumhead court-martial...

...I'ro feeae* ef Philosophy at New York University, ia the asther ef "The Hero in History: A Study la l.iaaitetieu aad IWbility" and ether waste ef a ahiW-ssphleal and aerial character...

...the present time to do the following: Divide the Nuremburg defendants into two classes, military and civilian...

...If/2s judges |K.se as representatives of "th, conscience of the world," when so toe ef them, who are also acting as accusers, are open to acusalions under the very terms of the indictment, "cynics* Btty say that the only "full authority" the judges ¦possess is that of power...

...But you cannot at the same time firmly believe, as we all do, that Goering is guilty and give him a fab* trial to di i inline his innocence or guilt...

...As th* . downpour of rain relieve* the humidity Of a hot day, so revenge washes from the face of the World the bloody Nasi filth," Whether revenge which like rsis i fall* indiscriminately on guilty and innocent alike, can ever wash the world clean of ita tilth, is doubtful...

...There is no reason whatever," Professor Radin goes on to say, "why in the nascent world-community—which is admittedly far from being as yet a world state, or even a world federation —we cannot declare that acts which, when committed, shock the conscience of the world, are punishable by instrumentalities that can with full authority represent that conscience...

...In his original article Dr...

...Certainly not the one sketched by Jacob Pat in his rejoinder to Chamber!in ia The New Loader at last week...

...What good' can come from trials of this kind...

...What if Goering, charged with the trim*' of forcible deportation, et I'olee to slavery or death in Gertsa*» points out tha...

...It is not for nothing that even in ordinary criminal trials the public is excluded from the recital of gruesome crimes...

...Does he not see that an unfair and indecent trial cannot arouse the conscience of the world...

...No one would havt protested punishment meted out to th* Nasi* under this procedure...

...MILTON k. M>NV lTit, in a seriea of striding articles in The Sew Leader, was the first to call attention to the danger of formulating legal charges against the Nazi criminals and 'adopting procedures which would involve a departure from our own' conception of what constitutes a fair trial...

...Nor do 1 see that anything can be gained by a further rehearsing of the bloody details of Nasi crimes...

...Laval himself seiaed upon the fact that the judge arid jurors were committed to a verdict of guilty before the trial began to throw himself upon the morhl sensibilities of French prtblicoplaj...

...SwoaU they he tried at ail...

...The Nasi* themselves expected this treatment and were surprised not to receive it...

...The Moscow deelarxtien of 194.3 assured them of that...

...4 , There Is danger that a* the Nuiem-burg trials develop, something similar will result...

...The injustices and cruelties to which we...

...Pat that an act carried out in a spirit of revenge leaves some of that filth in the heart of those gripped by it...

...Shouk* they he areorded th* privileges ef -decent" criminals...

...Since he demands revenge, he does not care how unfair and indecent a trial they get...

...Either he wanti * trial for the Nazis or not...

...Justice Jackson tells us that the purpose of the trial ia "to determine the innocence or guilt of the accused after a hearing aa dispassionate as the times a. (1 the horror we deal with will permit...

...The record of the torture and massacre of prisoners of war is sufficient to justify speedy convictions...

...Written in the white heat of under.-tanUsble emotion, he cells for revenge...

...Th* w intake •/ th* iaiter e* ttUrr failure I* understand that the .Vn_-ea cannot bt given B fair trial by decent, et eivilhei people...

...THE Trials of the War Cranrknals esmn at Macwalmrg en Nee.lt, Th* prstlisa of hew to trout the Nsxia as assets a way laealB Of a "fair trial- ha...

...How, then, should the Nazi criminals be-treated...

...r| This tangled knot ef quest ions is cat by an interest i.g peapaaal by Sidney Heak an th* berate at earlier article* ¦>«•- . baaed by The New Leader an this theme Sidney Hook...

...It is significant that the Jewi who have suffered most at Nasi hands have not cried out for revenge—although they demand just punishment for their tormentors...

...That is why, even if the demands for procedural' amenities listed by William Henry Chamberlain in a recent issue of The New Leader were met...

...Since these members of the Nsxi party are key elements in German military potential, their punishment is justified under the declared objective of destroying Germany's capacity to make war...

...Pat criticizes Chambcrlin (and by ths same logic, Justice Jackson, too) for requesting a "fair" and "decent" trial for the Nasis...

...As if he were specifically arguing againatthi "- "in in the current Virginia Quarterly contends thst there is nothing ex post-facto in punishing Nazi act* which before their' commission were not oUthawed by a, specific legal statute...

...The times and the horrors involved are such that nothing comparable to the preconditions of a "fair trial," as understood in ordinary criminal matters, exist...

...guaranteeing a legally "fair" trial...

...Pat would never advocate suck bestiality...

...The normal human mind cannot absorb it: to preserve Its sanity, it becomes incredulous or, what is worse, indifferent...

...he is no mors guilty as this count than the Hussian rashes which forcibly deported a milium Poles to the wastes of Siberia...

...For our own protection we must preserve the iningrity of the judicial, process whenever a trial ia conducted...

...Konvits urged that In conformity with the Moscow declaration ef 1943, to* leading Nasis be punished by tbe Allies military authorities immediately upoa capture...

...If he does, he cannot' intelligently criticize those like Chamberlin and Justice Jackson who want to make it a fair trial...

...The Moscow declaration already passed judgment of guilt on the chief Nasi defendants...

...The n«rv« of moral indignation is so stretched that only a continually stronger stimulus of Infamy will cause it to quiver again...

...And if a man could be found on earth who confessed himself neutral on the question of whether the Nazis were guilty of wholesale and systematic extermination of human beings, - he would thereby reveal himself deficient in moral sense...

...It promised punishment, net a trial to • • ¦ lm„ guilt...

...And one of the decisive tests of that moral authority is the quality of its procedures...

...It is no great matter whether those instrumentalities are celled courts or commissions or special tribunals...

...By violating the whole spirit of fair legal procedure, as we understand it in Anglo-Saxon countries, a dangerous precedent may be established that might be extended to other cases involving ordinary human beings and not Nazis...

...Only those crimes should be listed, and they are many, which do not involve any other nation represented...

...In sdditton the grounds of military necessity may be invoked...