STEP 1: JACKSON'S OPENING STATEMENT AT NUREMBERG
DIRECTIONS: Robert H. Jackson's Opening Statement during the Nuremberg Trial is considered to be grundbreaking in several ways. View the following video which includes excerpts of his statement and answer the questions on the attached sheet. When listening, follow along with the transcript below. Understanding the Holocaust is essential for completing this activity: please click here for the basics of the Holocaust. When finished, continue to STEP 2.
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Excerpts from the Nuremberg Opening Statement
Robert H. Jackson
Chief of Counsel for the United States
Nuremberg, Germany
November 21, 1945
May it please Your Honors:
The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.
This Tribunal, while it is novel and experimental, is not the product of abstract speculations nor is it created to vindicate legalistic theories. This inquest represents the practical effort of four of the most mighty of nations, with the support of 17 more, to utilize international law.........
There is no count in the Indictment that cannot be proved by books and records. The Germans were always meticulous record keepers, and these defendants had their share of the Teutonic passion for thoroughness in putting things on paper. Nor were they without vanity. They arranged frequently to be photographed in action. We will show you their own films. You will see their own conduct and hear their own voices as these defendants re-enact for you, from the screen, some of the events in the course of the conspiracy. We would also make clear that we have no purpose to incriminate the whole German people.......
I will now take up the subject of "Crimes in the Conduct of War". Even the most warlike of peoples have recognized in the name of humanity some
limitations on the savagery of warfare. Rules to that end have been embodied in international conventions to which Germany became a party. This code had
prescribed certain restraints as to the treatment of belligerents. The enemy was entitled to surrender and to receive quarter and good treatment as a prisoner of
war. We will show by German documents that these rights were denied, that prisoners of war were given brutal treatment and often murdered. This was
particularly true in the case of captured airmen, often my countrymen.........
They led their people on a mad gamble for domination. They diverted social energies and resources to the creation of what they thought to be an invincible
war machine. They overran their neighbors. To sustain the "master race" in its war-making, they enslaved millions of human beings and brought them into
Germany, where these hapless creatures now wander as "displaced persons". At length bestiality and bad faith reached such excess that they aroused the
sleeping strength of imperiled Civilization. Its united efforts have ground the German war machine to fragments. But the struggle has left Europe a liberated
yet prostrate land where a demoralized society struggles to survive. These are the fruits of the sinister forces that sit with these defendants in the
prisoners' dock. In justice to the nations and the men associated in this prosecution, I must
remind you of certain difficulties which may leave their mark on this case. Never before in legal history has an effort been made to bring within the scope of a single litigation the developments of a decade, covering a whole continent, and involving a score of nations, countless individuals, and innumerable events.
Despite the magnitude of the task, the world has demanded immediate action. This demand has had to be met, though perhaps at the cost of finished
craftsmanship......
and the four prosecuting powers had not yet joined in common cause to try them. I should be the last to deny that the case may well suffer from incomplete
researches and quite likely will not be the example of professional work which any of the prosecuting nations would normally wish to sponsor. It is, however, a
completely adequate case to the judgment we shall ask you to render, and its full development we shall be obliged to leave to historians.
Before I discuss particulars of evidence, some general considerations which may affect the credit of this trial in the eyes of the world should be candidly
faced. There is a dramatic disparity between the circumstances of the accusers and of the accused that might discredit our work if we should falter, in even
minor matters, in being fair and temperate.............................................
COMPLETE TRANSCIPT
Chief of Counsel for the United States
Nuremberg, Germany
November 21, 1945
May it please Your Honors:
The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.
This Tribunal, while it is novel and experimental, is not the product of abstract speculations nor is it created to vindicate legalistic theories. This inquest represents the practical effort of four of the most mighty of nations, with the support of 17 more, to utilize international law.........
There is no count in the Indictment that cannot be proved by books and records. The Germans were always meticulous record keepers, and these defendants had their share of the Teutonic passion for thoroughness in putting things on paper. Nor were they without vanity. They arranged frequently to be photographed in action. We will show you their own films. You will see their own conduct and hear their own voices as these defendants re-enact for you, from the screen, some of the events in the course of the conspiracy. We would also make clear that we have no purpose to incriminate the whole German people.......
I will now take up the subject of "Crimes in the Conduct of War". Even the most warlike of peoples have recognized in the name of humanity some
limitations on the savagery of warfare. Rules to that end have been embodied in international conventions to which Germany became a party. This code had
prescribed certain restraints as to the treatment of belligerents. The enemy was entitled to surrender and to receive quarter and good treatment as a prisoner of
war. We will show by German documents that these rights were denied, that prisoners of war were given brutal treatment and often murdered. This was
particularly true in the case of captured airmen, often my countrymen.........
They led their people on a mad gamble for domination. They diverted social energies and resources to the creation of what they thought to be an invincible
war machine. They overran their neighbors. To sustain the "master race" in its war-making, they enslaved millions of human beings and brought them into
Germany, where these hapless creatures now wander as "displaced persons". At length bestiality and bad faith reached such excess that they aroused the
sleeping strength of imperiled Civilization. Its united efforts have ground the German war machine to fragments. But the struggle has left Europe a liberated
yet prostrate land where a demoralized society struggles to survive. These are the fruits of the sinister forces that sit with these defendants in the
prisoners' dock. In justice to the nations and the men associated in this prosecution, I must
remind you of certain difficulties which may leave their mark on this case. Never before in legal history has an effort been made to bring within the scope of a single litigation the developments of a decade, covering a whole continent, and involving a score of nations, countless individuals, and innumerable events.
Despite the magnitude of the task, the world has demanded immediate action. This demand has had to be met, though perhaps at the cost of finished
craftsmanship......
and the four prosecuting powers had not yet joined in common cause to try them. I should be the last to deny that the case may well suffer from incomplete
researches and quite likely will not be the example of professional work which any of the prosecuting nations would normally wish to sponsor. It is, however, a
completely adequate case to the judgment we shall ask you to render, and its full development we shall be obliged to leave to historians.
Before I discuss particulars of evidence, some general considerations which may affect the credit of this trial in the eyes of the world should be candidly
faced. There is a dramatic disparity between the circumstances of the accusers and of the accused that might discredit our work if we should falter, in even
minor matters, in being fair and temperate.............................................
COMPLETE TRANSCIPT