policy pursued resulted in the killing of 6 million
Jews, of which 4 million were killed in the extermination
institutions.
The Law Relating to War Crimes and Crimes
against Humanity
Article 6 of the Charter provides:
"(b) War Crimes: namely, violations
of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not
be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or
for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied
territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on
the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property,
wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not
justified by military necessity;
"(c) Crimes against Humanity: namely, murder, extermination,
enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against
any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on
political, racial, or religious grounds in execution of or in
connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal,
whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where
perpetrated."
As heretofore stated, the Charter does not define as
a separate crime any conspiracy except the one set out in Article 6
(a), dealing with Crimes against Peace.
The Tribunal is of course bound by the Charter, in the definition
which it gives both of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. With
respect to War Crimes, however, as has already been pointed out, the
crimes defined by Article 6, Section (b), of the Charter were already
recognized as War Crimes under international law. They were covered
by Articles 46, 50, 52, and 56 of the Hague Convention of 1907, and
Articles 2, 3, 4, 46, and 51 of the Geneva Convention of 1929. That
violation of these provisions constituted crimes for which the guilty
individuals were punishable is too well settled to admit of argument.
But it is argued that the Hague Convention does not apply in this
case. because of the "general participation" clause in
Article 2 of the Hague Convention of 1907. That clause provided:
"The provisions contained in the
regulations (Rules of Land Warfare) referred to in Article I as well
as in the present Convention do not apply except between contracting
powers, and then only if all the belligerents are parties to the
Convention."
Several of the belligerents in the recent war were
not parties to this Convention.
In the opinion of the Tribunal it is not necessary to decide this
question. The rules of land warfare expressed in the Convention
undoubtedly represented an advance over existing international