Nuremberg Trial Proceedings - Indictment: Count One
COUNT ONE: THE COMMON PLAN OR CONSPIRACY
III. Statement of the Offense
All the defendants, with divers other persons, during a period of years preceding 8 May 1945, participated as leaders, organizers, instigators, or accomplices in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit, or which involved the commission of, Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity, as defined in the Charter of this Tribunal, and, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter, are individually responsible for their own acts and for all acts committed by any persons in the execution of such plan or conspiracy. The common plan or conspiracy embraced the commission of Crimes against Peace, in that the defendants planned, prepared, initiated, and waged wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances. In the development and course of the common plan or conspiracy it came to embrace the commission of War Crimes, in that it contemplated, and the defendants determined upon and carried out, ruthless wars against countries and populations, in violation of the rules and customs of war, including as typical and systematic means by which the wars were prosecuted, murder, ill-treatment, deportation for slave labor and for other purposes of civilian populations of occupied territories, murder and ill-treatment of prisoners of war and of persons on the high seas, the taking and killing of hostages, the plunder of public and private property, the indiscriminate destruction of cities, towns, and villages, and devastation not justified by military necessity. The common plan or conspiracy contemplated and came to embrace as typical and systematic means, and the defendants determined upon and committed, Crimes against Humanity, both within Germany and within occupied territories, including murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against civilian populations before and during the war, and persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, in execution of the plan for preparing and prosecuting aggressive or illegal wars, many of such acts and persecutions being violations of the domestic laws of the countries where perpetrated.
IV. Particulars of the Nature
and Development of the Common Plan or Conspiracy
(A) NAZI PARTY AS THE CENTRAL
CORE OF THE COMMON PLAN OR CONSPIRACY
In 1921 Adolf Hitler became the supreme leader or
Fuehrer of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National
Socialist German Workers Party), also known as the Nazi Party, which
had been founded in Germany in 1920. He continued as such throughout
the period covered by this Indictment. The Nazi Party, together with
certain of its subsidiary organizations, became the instrument of cohesion
among the defendants and their co-conspirators and an instrument for
the carrying out of the aims and purposes of their conspiracy. Each
defendant became a member of the Nazi Party and of the conspiracy, with
knowledge of their aims and purposes, or, with such knowledge, became
an accessory to their aims and purposes at some stage of the development
of the conspiracy.
(B) COMMON OBJECTIVES AND METHODS
OF CONSPIRACY
The aims and purposes of the Nazi Party and of the
defendants and divers other persons from time to time associated as
leaders, members, supporters, or adherents of the Nazi Party (hereinafter
called collectively the "Nazi conspirators") were, or came
to be, to accomplish the following by any means deemed opportune, including
unlawful means, and contemplating ultimate resort to threat of force,
force, and aggressive war: (i) to abrogate and overthrow the Treaty
of Versailles and its restrictions upon the military armament and activity
of Germany; (ii) to acquire the territories lost by Germany as the result
of the World War of 1914-18 and other territories in Europe asserted
by the Nazi conspirators to be occupied principally by so-called "racial
Germans"; (iii) to acquire still further territories in continental
Europe and elsewhere claimed by the Nazi conspirators to be required
by the "racial Germans" as "Lebensraum," or living
space, all at the expense of neighboring and other countries. The aims
and purposes of the Nazi conspirators were not fixed or static but-evolved
and expanded as they acquired progressively greater power and became
able to make more effective application of threats of force and threats
of aggressive war. When their expanding aims and purposes became finally
so great as to provoke such strength of resistance as could be overthrown
only by armed force and aggressive war, and not simply by the opportunistic
methods theretofore used, such as fraud, deceit, threats, intimidation,
fifth column activities, and propaganda, the Nazi conspirators deliberately
planned, determined upon, and launched their aggressive wars and wars
in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances by
the phases and steps hereinafter more particularly described.
(C) DOCTRINAL TECHNIQUES OF THE
COMMON PLAN OR CONSPIRACY
To incite others to join in the common plan or conspiracy,
and as a means of securing for the Nazi conspirators the highest degree
of control over the German community, they put forth, disseminated,
and exploited certain doctrines, among others, as follows:
1. That persons of so-called "German blood"
(as specified by the Nazi conspirators) were a "master race"
and were accordingly entitled to subjugate, dominate, or exterminate
other "races" and peoples;
2. That the German people should be ruled under the
Fuehrerprinzip (Leadership Principle) according to which power was to
reside in a Fuehrer from whom sub-leaders were to derive authority in
a hierarchical order, each sub-leader to owe unconditional obedience
to his immediate superior but to be absolute in his own sphere of jurisdiction;
and the power of the leadership was to be unlimited, extending to all
phases of public and private life;
3. That war was a noble and necessary activity of Germans;
4. That the leadership of the Nazi Party, as the sole
bearer of the foregoing and other doctrines of the Nazi Party, was entitled
to shape the structure, policies, and practices of the German State
and all related institutions, to direct and supervise the activities
of all individuals within the State, and to destroy all opponents.
(D) THE ACQUIRING OF TOTALITARIAN
CONTROL OF GERMANY: POLITICAL
1. First steps in acquisition of control of State
machinery.
In order to accomplish their aims and purposes, the
Nazi conspirators prepared to seize totalitarian control over Germany
to assure that no effective resistance against them could arise within
Germany itself. After the failure of the Munich Putsch of 1923 aimed
at the overthrow of the Weimar Republic by direct action, the Nazi conspirators
set out through the Nazi Party to undermine and overthrow the German
Government by "legal" forms supported by terrorism. They created
and utilized, as a Party formation, Die Sturmabteilungen (SA), a semi-military,
voluntary organization of young men trained for and committed to the
use of violence; whose mission was to make the Party the master of the
streets
2. Control acquired.
On 30 January 1933 Hitler became Chancellor of
the German Republic. After the Reichstag fire of 28 February 1933, clauses
of the Weimar constitution guaranteeing personal liberty, freedom of
speech, of the press, of association and assembly were suspended. The
Nazi conspirators secured the passage by the Reichstag of a "Law
for the Protection of the People and the Reich" giving Hitler and
the members of his then cabinet plenary powers of legislation. The Nazi
conspirators retained such powers after having changed the members of
the cabinet. The conspirators caused all political parties except the
Nazi Party to be prohibited. They caused the Nazi Party to be established
as a paragovernmental organization with extensive and extraordinary
privileges.
3. Consolidation of control.
Thus possessed of the machinery of the German State,
the Nazi conspirators set about the consolidation of their position
of power within Germany, the extermination of potential internal resistance,
and the placing of the German Nation on a military footing.
(a) The Nazi conspirators reduced the Reichstag to
a body of their own nominees and curtailed the freedom of popular elections
throughout the country. They transformed the several states, provinces,
and municipalities, which had formerly exercised semi-autonomous powers,
into hardly more than administrative organs of the central Government.
They united the offices of the President and the Chancellor in the person
of Hitler; instituted a widespread purge of civil servants; and severely
restricted the independence of the judiciary and rendered it subservient
to Nazi ends. The conspirators greatly enlarged existing State and Party
organizations; established a network of new State and Party organizations;
and "co-ordinated" State agencies with the Nazi Party and
its branches and affiliates, with the result that German life was dominated
by Nazi doctrine and practice and progressively mobilized for the accomplishment
of their aims.
(b) In order to make their rule secure from attack
and to instill fear in the hearts of the German people, the Nazi conspirators
established and extended a system of terror against opponents and supposed
or suspected opponents of the regime. They imprisoned such persons without
judicial process, holding them in "protective custody" and
concentration camps, and subjected them to persecution, degradation,
despoilment, enslavement, torture, and murder. These concentration camps
were established early in 1933 under the direction of the Defendant
Goering and expanded as a fixed part of the terroristic policy and method
of the conspirators and used by them for the commission of the Crimes
against Humanity hereinafter alleged. Among the principal agencies utilized
in the perpetration of these crimes were the SS and the GESTAPO, which,
together with other favored branches or agencies of the State and Party,
were permitted to operate without restraint of law.
(c) The Nazi conspirators conceived that, in addition
to the suppression of distinctively political opposition, it was necessary
to suppress or exterminate certain other movements or groups which they
regarded as obstacles to their retention of total control in Germany
and to the aggressive aims of the conspiracy abroad. Accordingly:
(1) The Nazi conspirators destroyed the free trade
unions in Germany by confiscating their funds and properties, persecuting
their leaders, prohibiting their activities, and supplanting them by
an affiliated Party organization. The Leadership Principle was introduced
into industrial relations, the entrepreneur becoming the leader and
the workers becoming his followers. Thus any potential resistance of
the workers was frustrated and the productive labor capacity of the
German Nation was brought under the effective control of the conspirators.
(2) The Nazi conspirators, by promoting beliefs and
practices incompatible with Christian teaching, sought to subvert the
influence of the churches over the people and in particular over the
youth of Germany. They avowed their aim to eliminate the Christian churches
in Germany and sought to substitute therefor Nazi institutions and Nazi
beliefs, and pursued a program of persecution of priests, clergy, and
members of monastic orders whom they deemed opposed to their purposes,
and confiscated church property.
(3) The persecution by the Nazi conspirators of pacifist
groups, including religious movements dedicated to pacifism, was particularly
relentless and cruel.
(4) Implementing their "master race" policy,
the conspirators joined in a program of relentless persecution of the
Jews, designed to exterminate them. Annihilation of the Jews became
an official State policy, carried out both by official action and by
incitements to mob and individual violence. The conspirators openly
avowed their purpose. For example, the Defendant Rosenberg stated: "Anti-Semitism
is the unifying element of the reconstruction of Germany." On another
occasion he also stated: "Germany will regard the Jewish question
as solved only after the very last Jew has left the greater German living
space ... Europe will have its Jewish question solved only after the
very last Jew has left the Continent." The Defendant LEY declared:
"We swear we are not going to abandon the struggle until the last
Jew in Europe has been exterminated and is actually dead. It is not
enough to isolate the Jewish enemy of mankind-the Jew has got to be
exterminated." On another occasion he also declared: "The
second German secret weapon is anti-Semitism because if it is consistently
pursued by Germany, it will become a universal problem which all nations
will be forced to consider." The Defendant Streicher declared:
"The sun will not shine on the nations of the earth until the last
Jew is dead." These avowals and incitements were typical of the
declarations of the Nazi conspirators throughout the course of their
conspiracy. The program of action against the Jews included disfranchisement,
stigmatization, denial of civil rights, subjecting their persons and
property to violence, deportation, enslavement, enforced labor, starvation,
murder, and mass extermination. The extent to which the conspirators
succeeded in their purpose can only be estimated, but the annihilation
was substantially complete in many localities of Europe. Of the 9,600,000
Jews who lived in the parts of Europe under Nazi domination, it is conservatively
estimated that 5,700,000 have disappeared, most of them deliberately
put to death by the Nazi conspirators. Only remnants of the Jewish population
of Europe remain.
(5) In order to make the German people amenable to
their will, and to prepare them psychologically for war, the Nazi conspirators
reshaped the educational system and particularly the education and training
of the German youth. The Leadership Principle was introduced into the
schools and the Party and affiliated organizations were given wide supervisory
powers over education. The Nazi conspirators imposed a supervision of
all cultural activities, controlled the dissemination of information
and the expression of opinion within Germany as well as the movement
of intelligence of all kinds from and into Germany, and created vast
propaganda machines.
(6) The Nazi conspirators placed a considerable number
of their dominated organizations on a progressively militarized footing
with a view to the rapid transformation and use of such organizations
whenever necessary as instruments of war.
(E) THE ACQUIRING OF TOTALITARIAN
CONTROL IN GERMANY: ECONOMIC; AND THE ECONOMIC PLANNING AND MOBILIZATION
FOR AGGRESSIVE WAR
Having gained political power the conspirators organized
Germany's economy to give effect to their political aims.
1. In order to eliminate the possibility of resistance
in the economic sphere, they deprived labor of its rights of free industrial
and political association as particularized in paragraph (D) 3 (c) (1)
herein.
2. They used organizations of German business as instruments
of economic mobilization for war.
3. They directed Germany's economy towards preparation
and equipment of the military machine. To this end they directed finance,
capital investment, and foreign trade.
4. The Nazi conspirators, and in particular the industrialists
among them, embarked upon a huge re-armament program and set out to
produce and develop huge quantities of materials of war and to create
a powerful military potential.
5. With the object of carrying through the preparation
for war the Nazi conspirators set up a series of administrative agencies
and authorities. For example, in 1936 they established for this purpose
the office of the Four Year Plan with the Defendant Goering as Plenipotentiary,
vesting it with overriding control over Germany's economy. Furthermore,
on 28 August 1939, immediately before launching their aggression against
Poland, they appointed the Defendant FUNK Plenipotentiary for Economics;
and on 30 August 1939, they set up the Ministerial Council for the Defense
of the Reich to act as a War Cabinet.
(F) UTILIZATION OF NAZI CONTROL
FOR FOREIGN AGGRESSION
1. Status of the conspiracy by the middle of 1933
and projected plans.
By the middle of the year 1933 the Nazi conspirators,
having acquired governmental control over Germany, were in a position
to enter upon further and more detailed planning with particular relationship
to foreign policy. Their plan was to re-arm and to re-occupy and fortify
the Rhineland, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles and other treaties,
in order to acquire military strength and political bargaining power
to be used against other nations.
2. The Nazi conspirators decided that for their purpose
the Treaty of Versailles must definitely be abrogated and specific plans
were made by them and put into operation by 7 March 1936, all of which
opened the way for the major aggressive steps to follow, as hereinafter
set forth. In the execution of this phase of the conspiracy the Nazi
conspirators did the following acts:
(a) They led Germany to enter upon a course of secret
rearmament from 1933 to March 1935, including the training of military
personnel and the production of munitions of war, and the building of
an air force.
(b) On 14 October 1933, they led Germany to leave the
International Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations.
(c) On 10 March 1935, the Defendant Goering announced
that Germany was building a military air force.
(d) On 16 March 1935, the Nazi conspirators promulgated
a law for universal military service, in which they stated the peace-time
strength of the German Army would be fixed at 500,000 men.
(e) On 21 May 1935, they falsely announced to the world,
with intent to deceive and allay fears of aggressive intentions, that
they would respect the territorial limitations of the Versailles Treaty
and comply with the Locarno Pacts.
(f) On 7 March 1936, they reoccupied and fortified
the Rhineland, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles and the Rhine
Pact of Locarno of 16 October 1925, and falsely announced to the world
that "we have no territorial demands to make on Europe.
3. Aggressive action against Austria and Czechoslovakia.
(a) The 1936-1938 phase of the plan: planning for
the assault on Austria and Czechoslovakia.
The Nazi conspirators next entered upon the specific
planning for the acquisition of Austria and Czechoslovakia, realizing
it would be necessary, for military reasons, first to seize Austria
before assaulting Czechoslovakia. On 21 May 1935, in a speech to the
Reichstag, Hitler stated that: "Germany neither intends nor wishes
to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria, or
to conclude an Anschluss." On 1 May 1936, within two months after
the reoccupation of the Rhineland, Hitler stated: "The lie goes
forth again that Germany tomorrow or the day after will fall upon Austria
or Czechoslovakia." Thereafter, the Nazi conspirators caused a
treaty to be entered into between Austria and Germany on 11 July 1936,
Article 1 of which stated that "The German Government recognizes
the full sovereignty of the Federated State of Austria in the spirit
of the pronouncements of the German Fuehrer and Chancellor of 21 May
1935." Meanwhile, plans for aggression in violation of that treaty
were being made. By the autumn of 1937, all noteworthy opposition within
the Reich had been crushed. Military preparation for the Austrian action
was virtually concluded. An influential group of the Nazi conspirators
met with Hitler on 5 November 1937, to review the situation. It was
reaffirmed that Nazi Germany must have "Lebensraum" in central
Europe. It was recognized that such conquest would probably meet resistance
which would have to be crushed by force and that their decision might
lead to a general war, but this prospect was discounted as a risk worth
taking. There emerged from this meeting three possible plans for the
conquest of Austria and Czechoslovakia. Which of the three was to be
used was to depend upon the developments in the political and military
situation in Europe. It was contemplated that the conquest of Austria
and Czechoslovakia would, through compulsory emigration of 2,000,000
persons from Czechoslovakia and 1,000,000 persons from Austria, provide
additional food to the Reich for 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 people, strengthen
it militarily by providing shorter and better frontiers, and make possible
the constituting of new armies up to about twelve divisions. Thus, the
aim of the plan against Austria and Czechoslovakia was conceived of
not as an end in itself but as a preparatory measure toward the next
aggressive steps in the Nazi conspiracy.
(b) The execution of the plan to invade Austria: November
1937 to March 1938.
Hitler, on 8 February 1938, called Chancellor Schuschnigg
to a conference at Berchtesgaden. At the meeting of 12 February 1938,
under threat of invasion, Schuschnigg yielded a promise of amnesty to
imprisoned Nazis and appointment of Nazis to ministerial posts. He agreed
to remain silent until Hitler's 20 February speech in which Austria's
independence was to be reaffirmed, but Hitler in his speech, instead
of affirming Austrian independence, declared himself protector of all
Germans. Meanwhile, underground activities of Nazis in Austria increased.
Schuschnigg, on 9 March 1938, announced a plebiscite on the question
of Austrian independence. On 11 March Hitler sent an ultimatum, demanding
that the plebiscite be called off or that Germany would invade Austria.
Later the same day a second ultimatum threatened invasion unless Schuschnigg
should resign in three hours. Schuschnigg resigned. The Defendant Seyss-Inquart,
who was appointed Chancellor, immediately invited Hitler to send German
troops into Austria to "preserve order". The invasion began
on 12 March 1938. On 13 March, Hitler by proclamation assumed office
as Chief of State of Austria and took command of its armed forces. By
a law of the same date Austria was annexed to Germany.
(c) The execution of the plan to invade Czechoslovakia:
April 1938 to March 1939.
(1). Simultaneously with their annexation of Austria
the Nazi conspirators gave false assurances to the Czechoslovak Government
that they would not attack that country. But within a month they met
to plan specific ways and means of attacking Czechoslovakia, and to
revise, in the light of the acquisition of Austria, the previous plans
for aggression against Czechoslovakia.
(2) On 21 April 1938, the Nazi conspirators met and
prepared to launch an attack on Czechoslovakia not later than 1 October
1938. They planned specifically to create an "incident" to
"justify" the attack. They decided to launch a military attack
only after a period of diplomatic squabbling which, growing more serious,
would lead to the excuse for war, or, in the alternative, to unleash
a lightning attack as a result of an "incident" of their own
creation. Consideration was given to assassinating the German Ambassador
at Prague to create the requisite incident. From and after 21 April
1938, the Nazi conspirators caused to be prepared detailed and precise
military plans designed to carry out such an attack at any opportune
moment and calculated to overcome all Czechoslovak resistance within
four days, thus presenting the world with a fait accompli, and so forestalling
outside resistance. Throughout the months of May, June, July, August,
and September, these plans were made more specific and detailed, and
by 3 September 1938, it was decided that all troops were to be ready
for action on 28 September 1938.
(3) Throughout this same period, the Nazi conspirators
were agitating the minorities question in Czechoslovakia, and particularly
in the Sudetenland, leading to a diplomatic crisis in August and September
1938. After the Nazi conspirators threatened war, the United Kingdom
and France concluded a pact with Germany and Italy at Munich on 29 September
1938, involving the cession of the Sudetenland by Czechoslovakia to
Germany. Czechoslovakia was required to acquiesce. On 1 October 1938,
German troops occupied the Sudetenland.
(4) On 15 March 1939, contrary to the provisions of the
Munich Pact itself, the Nazi conspirators caused the completion of their
plan by seizing and occupying the major part of Czechoslovakia not ceded
to Germany by the Munich Pact.
(5) Formulation of the plan to attack Poland: preparation
and initiation of aggressive war: March 1939 to September 1939.
i. With these aggressions successfully consummated,
the conspirators had obtained much desired resources and bases and were
ready to undertake further aggressions by means of war. Following assurances
to the world of peaceful intentions, an influential group of the conspirators
met on 23 May 1939, to consider the further implementation of their
plan. The situation was reviewed and it was observed that "the
past six years have been put to good use and all measures have been
taken in correct sequence and in accordance with our aims"; that
the national-political unity of the Germans had been substantially achieved;
and that further successes could not be achieved without war and bloodshed.
It was decided nevertheless next to attack Poland at the first suitable
opportunity. It was admitted that the questions concerning Danzig which
they had agitated with Poland were not true questions, but rather that
the question was one of aggressive expansion for food and "Lebensraum".
It was recognized that Poland would fight if attacked and that a repetition
of the Nazi success against Czechoslovakia without war could not be
expected. Accordingly, it was determined that the problem was to isolate
Poland and, if possible, prevent a simultaneous conflict with the Western
Powers. Nevertheless, it was agreed that England was an enemy to their
aspirations, and that war with England and her ally France must eventually
result, and therefore that in that war every attempt must be made to
overwhelm England with a "Blitzkrieg". It was thereupon determined
immediately to prepare detailed plans for an attack on Poland at the
first suitable opportunity and thereafter for an attack on England and
France, together with plans for the simultaneous occupation by armed
force of air bases in the Netherlands and Belgium.
ii. Accordingly, after having denounced the German-Polish
Pact of 1934 on false grounds, the Nazi conspirators proceeded to stir
up the Danzig issue, to prepare frontier "incidents" to "justify"
the attack, and to make demands for the cession of Polish territory.
Upon refusal by Poland to yield, they caused German armed forces to
invade Poland on 1 September 1939, thus precipitating war also with
the United Kingdom and France.
(6) Expansion of the war into a general war of aggression:
planning and execution of attacks on Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands,
Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, and Greece: 1939 to April 1941.
Thus the aggressive war prepared for by the Nazi conspirators
through their attacks on Austria and Czechoslovakia was actively launched
by their attack on Poland. After the total defeat of Poland, in order
to facilitate the carrying out of their military operations against
France and the United Kingdom, the Nazi conspirators made active preparations
for an extension of the war in Europe. In accordance with those plans,
they caused the German armed forces to invade Denmark and Norway on
9 April 1940; Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on 10 May 1940;
Yugoslavia and Greece on 6 April 1941. All these invasions had been
specifically planned in advance, in violation of the terms of the Kellogg-Briand
Pact of 1928.
(7) German invasion on 22 June 1941, of the U.S.S.R.
territory in violation of Non-Aggression Pact of 23 August 1939.
On 22 June 1941 the Nazi conspirators deceitfully
denounced the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the U.S.S.R. and
without any declaration of war invaded Soviet territory thereby beginning
a War of Aggression against the U.S.S.R.
From the first day of launching their attack on Soviet
territory the Nazi conspirators, in accordance with their detailed plans,
began to carry out the destruction of cities, towns, and villages, the
demolition of factories, collective farms, electric stations, and railroads,
the robbery and barbaric devastation of the natural cultural institutions
of the peoples of the U.S.S.R., the devastation of museums, schools,
hospitals, churches, and historic monuments, the mass deportation of
the Soviet citizens for slave labor to Germany, as well as the annihilation
of adults, old people, women and children, especially Beilorussians
and Ukrainians, and the extermination of Jews committed throughout the
occupied territory of the Soviet Union.
The above mentioned criminal offenses were perpetrated
by the German troops in accordance with the orders of the Nazi Government
and the General Staff and High Command of the German armed forces.
(8) Collaboration with Italy and Japan and aggressive
war against the United States: November 1936 to December 1941.
After the initiation of the Nazi wars of aggression
the Nazi conspirators brought about a German-Italian-Japanese 10-year
military-economic alliance signed at Berlin on 27 September 1940. This
agreement, representing a strengthening of the bonds among those three
nations established by the earlier but more limited pact of 25 November
1936, stated: "The Governments of Germany, Italy, and Japan, considering
it as a condition precedent of any lasting peace that all nations of
the world be given each its own proper place, have decided to stand
by and co-operate with one another in regard to their efforts in Greater
East Asia and regions of Europe respectively wherein it is their prime
purpose to establish and maintain a new order of things calculated to
promote the mutual prosperity and welfare of the peoples concerned."
The Nazi conspirators conceived that Japanese aggression would weaken
and handicap those nations with whom they were at war, and those with
whom they contemplated war. Accordingly, the Nazi conspirators exhorted
Japan to seek "a new order of things." Taking advantage of
the wars of aggression then being waged by the Nazi conspirators, Japan
commenced an attack on 7 December 1941, against the United States of
America at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, and against the British
Commonwealth of Nations, French Indo-China, and the Netherlands in the
southwest Pacific. Germany declared war against the United States on
11 December 1941.
(G) WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST
HUMANITY COMMITTED IN THE COURSE OF EXECUTING THE CONSPIRACY FOR WHICH
THE CONSPIRATORS ARE RESPONSIBLE.
1. Beginning with the initiation of the aggressive
war on 1 September 1939, and throughout its extension into wars involving
almost the entire world, the Nazi conspirators carried out their common
plan or conspiracy to wage war in ruthless and complete disregard and
violation of the laws and customs of war. In the course of executing
the common plan or conspiracy there were committed the War Crimes detailed
hereinafter in Count Three of this Indictment.
2. Beginning with 'the initiation of their plan to
seize and retain total control of the German State, and thereafter throughout
their utilization of that control for foreign aggression, the Nazi conspira1ors
carried out their common plan or conspiracy in ruthless and complete
disregard and violation of the laws of humanity. In the course of executing
the common plan or conspiracy there were committed the Crimes against
Humanity detailed hereinafter in Count Four of this Indictment.
3. By reason of all the foregoing, the defendants with
divers other persons are guilty of a common plan or conspiracy for the
accomplishment of Crimes against Peace; of a conspiracy to commit Crimes
against Humanity in the course of preparation for war and in the course
of prosecution of war; and of a conspiracy to commit War Crimes not
only against the armed forces of their enemies but also against non-belligerent
civilian populations.
(H) INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND ORGANIZATION
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE OFFENSE STATED IN COUNT ONE
Reference is hereby made to Appendix A of this Indictment
for a statement of the responsibility of the individual defendants for
the offense set forth in this Count One of the Indictment. Reference
is hereby made to Appendix B of this Indictment for a statement of the
responsibility of the groups and organizations named herein as criminal
groups and organizations for the offense set forth in this Count One
of the Indictment.
Source: The
Avalon Project
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