21 Nov. 45
Every member will have a chance to be heard in the subsequent
forum on his personal relation to the organization, but your finding
in this trial will conclusively establish the criminal character of
the organization as a whole.
We have also accused as criminal organizations the High Command
and the General Staff of the German Armed Forces. We recognize that
to plan warfare is the business of professional soldiers in all
countries. But it is one thing to plan strategic moves in the event
war comes, and it is another thing to plot and intrigue to bring on
that war. We will prove the leaders of the German General Staff and
of the High Command to have been guilty of just that. Military men
are not before you because they served their country. They are here
because they mastered it, along with these others, and drove it to
war. They are not here because they lost the war, but because they
started it. Politicians may have thought of them as soldiers, but
soldiers know they were politicians. We ask that the General Staff
and the High Command, as defined in the Indictment, be condemned as a
criminal group whose existence and tradition constitute a standing
menace to the peace of the world.
These individual defendants did not stand alone in crime and will
not stand alone in punishment. Your verdict of "guilty"
against these organizations will render prima facie guilty, as nearly
as we can learn, thousands upon thousands of members now in custody
of United States forces and of other armies.
The responsibility of this
Tribunal:
To apply the sanctions of the law to those whose
conduct is found criminal by the standards I have outlined, is the
responsibility committed to this Tribunal. It is the first court ever
to undertake the difficult task of overcoming the confusion of many
tongues and the conflicting concepts of just procedure among divers
systems of law, so as to reach a common judgment. The tasks of all of
us are such as to make heavy demands on patience and good will.
Although the need for prompt action has admittedly resulted in
imperfect work on the part of the Prosecution, four great nations
bring you their hurriedly assembled contributions of evidence. What
remains undiscovered we can only guess. We could, with witnesses'
testimony, prolong the recitals of crime for years-but to what avail.
We shall rest the case when we have offered what seems convincing and
adequate proof of the crimes charged without unnecessary cumulation
of evidence. We doubt very much whether it will be seriously denied
that the crimes I have outlined took place. The effort will
undoubtedly be to mitigate or escape personal responsibility.