list of guards at nuremberg trials

[228] The most controversial charge was crimes against peace. By special arrangement with a guard or prison official, he gave his handwritten notes to be mimeographed and returned to him. Speer spent much of his time drawing exquisite pencil sketches ranging from landscapes to magnificent buildings to quaint German villages. Three of those accused were acquitted and upon their release soon faded into obscurity. . Prestianni particularly liked Speer, Hitlers architect and the designer of many of Berlins most spectacular buildings and later minister of armament and munitions. His name was David C. Porter from Pennsylvania. [232] On 11 December 1946, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution affirming "the principles of international law recognized by the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and the judgment of the Tribunal". [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. 23rd September 2021 at 5:18pm. If he is American it will be easier to find some kind of information about him. . Waffen-SS Soldiers Guarded the Nuremberg Trials Mark Felton Productions 1.82M subscribers Subscribe 81K 4.3M views 2 years ago Unbelievable but true - an entire unit of former Waffen-SS. During his three-month tour of duty at Nuremberg prison, Prestianni was assigned to 16 different prisoners. The Wiener Holocaust Library's holdings on war crime trials largely pertain to those crimes committed by the Nazis and their allies during the Second World War. events, and resources, Michael Prestianni: Guarding the War Criminals at Nuremberg. By far the most attention--not surprisingly, given the figures involved--has focused on the first Nuremberg trial of twenty-one major war criminals. Soviet prosecutors in Nrnberg, Germany brought out Friedrich Paulus and Erich Buschenhagen by surprise as witnesses in the war crimes trials. My Dad Arthur Tacopino was a guard at The Nuremberg Trials. Speer managed to distinguish himself from other defendants, giving the impression of apologizing, although without assuming personal guilt or naming any victims other than the German people. The Nuremberg Trials ended on October 1, 1946. He didnt really talk to me very much. Bragging of his ability to mass murder millions of Jews, Frank never admitted to his brutal inhumanity during the war crimes trial but was sentenced nonetheless to hang. The purpose of the trial was not just to convict the defendants but also to assemble irrefutable evidence of Nazi crimes, offer a history lesson to the defeated Germans, and delegitimize the traditional German elite. His face had an animal look to it, Prestianni stated. The Nuremberg prison was a Bastille-like affair. Some were gassed. [180][172] On 16 October, ten were hanged, with Gring committing suicide the day before. The Estonian Guard Co. 4221 was formed to answer the need to guard the Nuremberg courthouse and the prison where accused Nazi War Criminals were held. He guarded top Nazis at Nuremberg trials; now he'll share his story By CAROL SMITH, P-I REPORTER Updated Nov 7, 2007 Jack Carver holds a portrait of top-ranking Nazi Hermann Goering, whom he met. The second-level tier housed high-ranking SS (Schutzstaffel) officers and many of the infamous doctors who had conducted ghastly medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners. Even before this decision, around 1,000 former Latvian Legion soldiers had served as guards at the Nuremberg trials, guarding Nazi war criminals. He had actually tried to usurp Hitlers authority during the last days of the Reich but remained an ardent supporter of the Nazi regime during the trial, often proving himself a skilled debater. [48] The French judges were Henri Donnedieu de Vabres, a professor of criminal law, and alternate Robert Falco, who had represented France at the London Conference. Twelve sets of trials, involving over a hundred defendants and several different courts, took place in Nuremberg from 1945 to 1949. The prisons concrete walls, most of which were more than three feet thick, encased the solitary cell window that offered the prisoners no view of the outside world. The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Her guards were repulsed, and some requested reassignment to another cellblock. Joined: Oct 14, 2007 Messages: 2,804 [1] The defendants included some of the most famous Nazis, including Hermann Gring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Wilhelm Keitel. [79] Initially, the Americans had planned to try fourteen organizations and their leaders, but this was narrowed to six: the Reich Cabinet, the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the Gestapo, the SA, the SS and the SD, and the General Staff and High Command of the Wehrmacht. That was enough. While he was held at Nuremberg, he portrayed himself in a quiet, unassuming demeanor. [224][225][226] During the two decades after the trial, opinions were predominantly negative. Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. All war crimes prisoners ate from a single German menu. Streicher had published Der Sturmer, a widely read newspaper filled with pornography, ethnic hate, and anti-Jewish cartoons to enflame the German population. A further 12. The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.. [136][137] The Soviet prosecution case was generally well received and presented compelling evidence about the suffering of the Soviet people and the Soviet contribution to victory. Frick, one of Hitlers closest advisers during the early years of the Nazi regime, was one of those hanged. The tribunal responded that such acts had been regarded as criminal prior to World War II. 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. Three were sentenced to life imprisonment: Rudolf Hess, Walther Funk, and Erich Raeder. The British government was still opposed, unable to see the benefit of such a trial and preferring summary execution of Nazi leaders. Between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) tried 24 of the most important political and military leaders of Nazi Germany. 1. Series of military trials at the end of World War II, This article is about the series of international trials. [65], Some of the most prominent NazisAdolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbelshad committed suicide and therefore could not be tried. 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. Former field marshal Keitel, another prisoner who was eventually executed, gradually alienated himself from the other prisoners. [14][15] The exact form that retribution would take was left unresolved at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. Their trial was held before an International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg, Germany. [183][184] The judges proved their independence from the governments that appointed them, the defendants were seen as receiving due process, and the evidence of guilt amassed by the prosecution was overwhelming. After the first trial ended in October 1946, the United States held 12 other trials at Nuremberg under the authority of the International Military Tribunal. Long live Germany.. 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. [45] At Jackson's recommendation, the United States appointed judges Francis Biddle and John Parker. Recently one of our readers in the US contacted us with a photo of a pair of sunglasses that were in a box in his grandfather's garage. One of the new USA light tanks (M24) on guard outside the courthouse at Nuremberg. [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. 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. My father Ed Rossi was also a guard at the Nuremberg trials. I never really got to know him very well during the few months before he was released, commented Prestianni, but at one time he tried to teach me an intricate German card game, but I never could catch on to it. [103], Much of the American case focused on the development of the Nazi conspiracy before the outbreak of war. My father Gordon Fitzgerald also spent several months as a guard there. 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. 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. How long did it take you to learn what you are doing? he often asked. Dnitz, who was named successor to Hitler during the waning days of the war and served 10 years in prison, remained aloof. I look forward to hearing from him. At least 30,000 women died here. [84][85] The American prosecution drew on reports of the Office of Strategic Services and information provided by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the American Jewish Committee. These once powerful leaders of Nazi Germany were the accused of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. The judgement argued that aggressive war had already been illegal, even if no one had been punished for it, and therefore the German leaders could not count on immunity from prosecution. Ambassador to the United Kingdom 193638. [127] Evidence was presented on the murder of children, attempts to cover up atrocities,[128] systematic plunder of occupied territories, and confiscation or destruction of cultural heritage. [17] On 8 May, Germany surrendered unconditionally. Give me information about your Dad and I will help you research about your fathers deployment to Germany. William L Shierer "the Rise and Fall of the third Reich", part IV, Nuremberg-chapter, the United States committed the same breach, Last and Near-Last Words of the Famous, Infamous and Those In-Between, "The International Military Tribunal for Germany", The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_defendants_at_the_International_Military_Tribunal&oldid=1114903079, Successor to Hess as Nazi Party Secretary. [173] The war crimes and crimes-against-humanity charges held up the best, with only two defendants who were charged being acquitted on those charges. On 17 September, the various delegations met to discuss the indictment. [60] The American prosecution became derailed during attempts to provide evidence of the German annexation of Austria. Some, over time, even grew to despise him. However, fraternization did occur on a regular basis and, for the most part, went unpunished by the prison administration. [238][239] The Palace of Justice houses a museum on the trial and the courtroom became a tourist attraction, drawing 13,138 visitors in 2005. Courtroom 600 in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice was the site of the famous Nuremberg trials, a series of military tribunals that took place between November 20, 1945 and October 1, 1946. He was usually confrontational and argumentative with the other prisoners. The 24 accused were, with respect to each charge, either indicted but not convicted (I), indicted and found guilty (G), or not charged (), as listed below by defendant, charge, and eventual outcome: Gustav was selected for indictment in error, instead of his son Alfried, who ran Krupp during most of the war. On October 15, 1946, guards and prisoners listened to the pounding of the gallows being constructed. Seven defendants (Hess, Funk, Raeder, Dnitz, Schirach, Speer, and Neurath) were sent to Spandau Prison to serve their sentences. He, like the others, was always bumming cigarettes or cans of Prince Albert tobacco for his pipe. --. One passing recollection I have of Schirach, said Prestianni, was teasing him about how much the prison guards were enjoying his former girls and how pretty we considered them. Because of his moral corruption, the other prisoners shunned him. It was an appointment that, when coupled with his Baltic origin, brought him into sharp conflict with most of those in Hitlers entourage. Schirach, who had been replaced by Hitler as head of the youth movement in 1940 and drafted into Army service where he saw considerable combat on the Eastern Front, maintained his decorum and seldom responded to the teasing. [179], The exact sentences to be given each defendant were debated at length by the judges. . Martin Bormann was tried and condemned to death in absentia, and Hermann Gring committed suicide before he could be executed. [123] The next week, the Soviet prosecution suddenly produced former field marshal Friedrich von Paulus, captured after the Battle of Stalingrad, as a witness and questioned him about the preparations for the invasion of the Soviet Union. [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. The first of the trials was the Major War Crimes Trial, in . [146][148] Six defendants were charged with the German invasion of Norway, and their lawyers argued that this invasion was undertaken to prevent a British invasion; a cover-up prevented the defense from capitalizing on this argument. [50][51] Because the Soviet Union expected a show trial, its appointees were familiar with this form. Eighteen-inch rectangular holes were cut from the heavy, oaken cell doors, slightly below eye level. The defense lawyers saw themselves as acting on behalf of their clients, but also the German nation;[78] they prioritized the Wehrmacht's reputation over the lives of the generals on trial. When asked how the individual personalities, habits, and mannerisms differed, Prestianni responded that they were varied. [212], The German churches, both Catholic and Protestant, were vociferous proponents of amnesty,[213] which had cross-party support in West Germany, which was established in 1949. Nuremberg Trials On November 20, 1945, six months after the surrender of Nazi Germany to allied forces, twenty-one military, political, media, and business leaders of the Third Reich filed into the dock of the Palace of Justice in the devastated and occupied German city of Nuremberg. Frick was rather taciturn, not given to talking. [64] The division of labor, and the haste with which the indictment was prepared, resulted in duplication, imprecise language, and lack of attribution of specific charges to individual defendants. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded many countries across Europe, inflicting 27 million deaths in the Soviet Union alone. Johann Georg Richert was found guilty and was executed in Minsk, Byelorussia. SS members were generally frowned upon and can't imagine them having anything to do with the trials except sit in the dock. [145], Despite the fact that the charter did not recognize a tu quoque defense, such arguments were repeatedly raised during the trial. The seventh series of Ravensbrck trials was held between July 2nd and July 21st, 1948 to hear the cases of Aufseherin accused of maltreatment of prisoners and making selections for the gas chambers. [82], Over the summer, all of the national delegations struggled to gather evidence for the upcoming trial. [10] The declaration also stated that those high-ranking Nazis who had committed crimes in several countries would be dealt with jointly. Uncover the topics related to the Nuremberg trials. April 22, 2020. They were told they would be part of history. Many of the worst offenders were not prosecuted, for logistical or financial reasons.