On October 1, 1946, the verdicts on 22 of the original 24 defendants were handed down for the Nrnberg trials. 1,148 Nuremberg Trials Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Images Creative Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 1,148 Nuremberg Trials Premium High Res Photos Browse 1,148 nuremberg trials stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. We used to argue democracy versus dictatorship, the free versus the suppressed. The trial, which had lasted nearly 10. 18008 Bothell Everett Hwy SE # F, Bothell, WA 98012. All I can recall is that he was standing to the left in the court room. These citations refer to documents at "The International Military Tribunal for Germany". He was sent to Nuremburg and stood guard at the Judges quarters. Prisoners and guards were forced to wear heavy scarves to ward off the penetrating cold. Omissions? The 3rd Battalion of the 26th Infantry Reg., "Blue Spaders," of the 1st Infantry Division were chosen to secure the historic Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. [94] All defendants pleaded not guilty. [133], Inspired by the films shown by the American prosecution, the Soviet Union commissioned three films for the trial: The German Fascist Destruction of the Cultural Treasures of the Peoples of the USSR, Atrocities Committed by the German Fascist Invaders in the USSR, and The German Fascist Destruction of Soviet Cities, using footage from Soviet filmmakers as well as shots from German newsreels. Series of military trials at the end of World War II, This article is about the series of international trials. Through these openings, aluminum food trays could be placed within reach of the prisoners. As well as the tank three Military Policemen can be seen on duty. During watch on one bitter cold night, Prestianni contracted pneumonia and collapsed, unconscious. [187] Pursuant to this law, United States forces had arrested almost 100,000 Germans as war criminals. Answer (1 of 3): Yes, he was a German lawyer named Otto Stahmer from Kiel. [138], From March to July 1946, the defense presented its counterarguments. events, and resources, Michael Prestianni: Guarding the War Criminals at Nuremberg. Even before this decision, around 1,000 former Latvian Legion soldiers had served as guards at the Nuremberg trials, guarding Nazi war criminals. Gring was one of the surviving leaders of the Third Reich and the highest-ranking Nazi to be tried at the Nuremberg Trials where he was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death. Without fanfare or advance warning, on July 18, 1947, the remaining prisoners at Nuremberg were told to assemble their meager belongings. [81] Senior American officials believed that convicting organizations was a good way of showing that not just the top German leaders were responsible for crimes, without condemning the entire German people. Minister of Foreign Affairs (until 1938), then Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia. [161][162], The International Military Tribunal agreed with the prosecution that aggression was the gravest charge against the accused, stating in its judgement that because war in general is evil, "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole. [222] By the late 1950s, the West German consensus on release began to erode, due to greater openness in political culture and new revelations of Nazi criminality, including the first trials of Nazi perpetrators in West German courts. My father was a guard in the courtroom (Palace of Justice) at the Nuremberg trials in 1946. Three were sentenced to life imprisonment: Rudolf Hess, Walther Funk, and Erich Raeder. Postal Service. 1. Once the IMT established the criminality of aggressive war, war . To maintain the steady flow of Speer pencil sketches, guards always provided him with an adequate supply of paper and sharpened pencils. Despite being accused of the same crimes, Sauckel was sentenced to death, while Speer was given a prison sentence because the judges considered that he could reform. By far the most attention--not surprisingly, given the figures involved--has focused on the first Nuremberg trial of twenty-one major war criminals. Prestianni never served in the trial courtroom, only in the cellblock. Batya. Considered by some as the most intelligent and talented prisoner, he was the quintessential gentleman. He looked like a gaunt corpse, like a ghost. [111][112] The British case covered invasions, from that of Poland to that of the Soviet Union, which Shawcross covered in the second part of his speech;[113] these charges took three days to present, with Maxwell Fyfe detailing 15 treaties broken by Germany. my father david c bergeron was a 1st LT with the guards at the war trials. Today I found out that most of the soldiers who guarded the high ranking Nazi prisoners during the Nuremberg trials were in fact former members of Baltic SS . I had no idea of the magnitude of what they had done. Schacht had been imprisoned in July 1944, under suspicion of being part of an assassination conspiracy against Hitler. [231], The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Trial) borrowed many of its ideas from the IMT, including all four charges. Streicher, for reasons never made known, was photographed clothed and then naked and again in death. [185] Twelve military trials were convened solely by the United States in the same courtroom that had hosted the International Military Tribunal. [9] The prosecutors attempted to substitute his son in the indictment, but the judges rejected this due to proximity to trial. My father was an MP at The Nuremberg Trails. I do remember that Schacht, like most of the others, steadfastly maintained his innocence, never admitting to guilt in any form. Still others displayed docile and taciturn mannerisms and personalities. His name was David C. Porter from Pennsylvania. [205] Where the prosecution was disappointed by some of the verdicts, the defense could take satisfaction. Guards occasionally retaliated against unpopular, troublesome prisoners by rapping on the cell doors with their night sticks to disturb the occupants sleep. [34][35] Located in the American occupation zone, Nuremberg was a symbolic location as the site of Nazi rallies. In the Hostages case, several generals were tried for executing thousands of hostages and prisoners of war, looting, using forced labor, and deporting civilians in the Balkans. I never treated him differently than I did the others I guarded.. The film, compiled from footage of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, shocked both the defendants and the judges, who adjourned the trial. My dad, Frederick M. Bencriscutto, was in the field artillery in the 1st Infantry Division during WWII. Hess, former deputy fhrer of the Nazi party and Hitlers private secretary during the early years of the National Socialist movement, was sentenced to life imprisonment and served every day of it to the age of 92 when he died in 1987 under mysterious circumstances in Berlins Spandau Prison. Boy I wish I asked more questions of the trials. In an attempt to further depersonalize them, prisoners were designated by numbers rather than by their familial surnames. The same routine was followed for each of the condemned prisoners. I wish I would have ask more questions about his experience there. The British worked on putting together the aggressive war charge; the French and Soviet delegations were assigned the task of covering crimes against humanity and war crimes committed on the Western Front and the Eastern Front, respectively. At this time, 24 former Nazi leaders were charged with the perpetration of war crimes, and various groups (such as the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police) were charged with being criminal in character. The defendants at Nuremberg. I do have a photo of my Dad standing behind the German prisoners. Efficiency Report for Henry F. Gerecke, 7/1/1945, NAID 6016856. His daily diary notes culminated in a book after his release. I had a chance to meet Mr. Christian Delage at a workshop on the . [174] The judges interpreted crimes against humanity narrowly; they determined that crimes against German Jews before 1939 were not under the court's jurisdiction because the prosecution had not proven a connection to aggressive war. He remained bombastic and arrogant right up to the end, all the while looking upon the other prisoners as inferior beings., Ribbentrop, another of Prestiannis checker opponents, was vainglorious, almost constantly given to pompous bragging and considered stupid by the other prisoners. Gerald lives in MN. [227] The main legal criticisms of the trial focused on questions of retroactivity, selectivity, and jurisdiction. An anti-Semite to the end, and proclaiming that his death was a victory for world Jewry, Streichers final shouted words as he dropped through the trap door to his death were, This is the Purim Festival for 1946. I sure would like to find out more about his service. Adam Weishaupt, Abraham: The World's First Psychopath. [52] Initially, it was planned that Iona Nikitchenko, who had presided over the Moscow trials, would serve as the chief prosecutor, but he was appointed as a judge and replaced by Roman Rudenko, a show trial prosecutor[53] chosen for his skill as an orator. [160] On 2 September, the court recessed; and the judges retreated into seclusion to decide the verdict and sentences, which had been under discussion since June. When the needling did not abate and became somewhat annoying, Prestianni said he used to give the former World War I ace his own version of a little dig in return. FRD provides custom research services to federal agencies, the District of Columbia government, and authorized federal contractors. He considered himself the senior member of the prison military fraternity., Former president of the Reichsbank Hjalmar Schacht was one of three war crimes defendants who were found innocent of all charges against them. What were the verdicts of Nrnberg trials? Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi Germanys foreign minister beginning in 1938, was amiable, Prestianni said. Dnitz, who was named successor to Hitler during the waning days of the war and served 10 years in prison, remained aloof. [114], In mid-December the Americans switched to presenting the case against the indicted organizations, while in January both the British and Americans presented evidence against individual defendants. Gifts, usually clothing, soap, tobacco, and family photos, could be given to prisoners after inspection by a guard. That was until he took his own life by biting down on a cyanide capsule a few hours before he was scheduled to be hanged., Prestianni remembered vividly the night of the executions and Grings suicide. He was released in 1966. He was found innocent and released but sentenced in 1949 by a German court to nine years in prison. She was given the nickname "Bloody Brigette" by the camp . [223], The International Military Tribunal, and the drafters of its charter, invented international criminal law essentially from nothing. Ten condemned Nazi ringleaders died on the gallows in the Nuernberg jail early today but Herman Goering, Adolf . [101] He described the fact that the defeated Nazis received a trial as "one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason". After one of those accused, Robert Ley, former director of the nations Labor Front, hanged himself from a drain pipe with a torn towel, prisoners were kept under constant visual surveillance by guards, and while sleeping were forced to do so with their faces and hands exposed above their blankets at all times. I believe her rank was a corporal. [240] The IMT is one of the most well-studied trials in history, and it has also been the subject of an abundance of books and scholarly publications, along with motion pictures such as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Memory of Justice (1976). Ribbentrop, Prestianni related, was a man without humor. It would be so greatly appreciated. Had been imprisoned since then. In mid-1945, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed to convene a joint tribunal in Nuremberg, with the Nuremberg Charter as its legal instrument. Friedrich Jeckeln was found guilty and was executed in Riga, Latvia. He is in several pictures standing at Hans Franks left. [69][37], The defendants, who were largely unrepentant,[70] included former cabinet ministers: Franz von Papen (who had brought Hitler to power); Joachim von Ribbentrop (foreign minister), Wilhelm Frick (interior minister), and Alfred Rosenberg, minister for the occupied eastern territories. Movement was extremely restricted and closely monitored, even for the guards. My father was also a guard, but he said he always was on the outside guarding. Of course he was amongst other guards to his left and right. [74], Although the list of defendants was finalized on 29 August,[75] as late as October, Jackson demanded changes and expansion of the defendants list, but this was rejected. The trial started in November 1945. Guards were randomly assigned to prisoners, and the assignments were generally not known by the guards until the duty roster was posted or announced each morning during roll call. Before his execution, he aligned himself with Jodl and, to a lesser extent, Raeder and Dnitz, the military clique. [204] In the United Kingdom, although a variety of responses were reported, it was difficult to sustain interest in a long trial.