Treaty of Versailles. On 7 March 1936, in defiance of
that Treaty, the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland was entered by
German troops. In announcing this action to the German Reichstag,
Hitler endeavored to justify the re-entry by references to the
recently concluded alliances between France and the Soviet Union, and
between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. He also tried to meet
the hostile reaction which he no doubt expected to follow this
violation of the Treaty by saying:
"We have no territorial claims
to make in Europe."
The Common Plan of Conspiracy and
Aggressive War
The Tribunal now turns to the consideration of
the Crimes against Peace charged in the Indictment. Count One of the
Indictment charges the defendants with conspiring or having a common
plan to commit crimes against peace. Count Two of the Indictment
charges the defendants with committing specific crimes against peace
by planning, preparing, initiating, and waging wars of aggression
against a number of other States. It will be convenient to consider
the question of the existence of a common plan and the question of
aggressive war together, and to deal later in this Judgment with the
question of the individual responsibility of the defendants.
The charges in the Indictment that the defendants planned and
waged aggressive wars are charges of the utmost gravity. War is
essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the
belligerent States alone, but affect the whole world.
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.
The first acts of aggression referred to in the Indictment are
the seizure of Austria and Czechoslovakia; and the first war of
aggression charged in the Indictment is the war against Poland begun
on 1 September 1939.
Before examining that charge it is necessary to look more closely
at some of the events which preceded these acts of aggression. The
war against Poland did not come suddenly out of an otherwise clear
sky; the evidence has made it plain that this war of aggression, as
well as the seizure of Austria and Czechoslovakia, was premeditated
and carefully prepared, and was not undertaken until the moment was
thought opportune for it to be carried through as a definite part of
the pre-ordained scheme and plan. For the aggressive designs of the
Nazi Government were not accidents arising out of the immediate
political situation in Europe and the world; they were a deliberate
and essential part of Nazi foreign policy.