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Volume III · Page 33
a vast scale. It is the purpose of this proceeding to hear these charges and to render judgement according to the evidence under law. The true purpose of this proceeding, therefore, are broader than the mere visiting of retribution on a few men for the death and suffering of many thousands. I have said that the defendants know, or should know, that a court is the house of law. But it is, I fear, many years since any of the defendants have dwelt therein. Great as was their crime against Germany was even more shameful. They defiled the German temple of justice, and delivered Germany into the dictatorship of the Third Reich, "with all its methods of terror, and its cynical and open denial of the rule of law."¹
The temple must be reconsecrated. This cannot be done in the twinkling of an eye or by any mere ritual. It cannot be done in any single proceeding or at any one place. It certainly cannot be done at Nuernberg alone. But we have here, I think, a special opportunity and grave responsibility to help achieve this goal. We have here the men who played a leading part in the destruction of law in Germany. They are about to be judged in accordance with the law. It is more than fitting that these men be judged under that which they, as jurists, denied to others. Judgement under law is the only just fate for the defendants; the prosecution asks no other.
There are fifteen defendants in the box, all of whom held high judicial office, and all but one of whom are trained lawyers. To understand this case, it is necessary to understand the general structure of the German judicial system and the places occupied by the several defendants within that system.
To assist the Court in this regard, the prosecution has prepared a short expository brief which is already in the hands of the Court and which has been made available to defense counsel in German and English. The brief includes a glossary of the more frequent German words or expressions which will occur during the trial -- most of them from the vocabulary of governmental and Judicial affairs. It includes a table of equivalent ranks between the American Army and the German Army and SS, and a table of the civilian ranks used in the German judicial system. It also includes two charts, showing respectively the structure of' the Reich Ministry and the hierarchy of German courts.² Finally, it
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¹Trial of the Major War Criminals, Nuremberg, 1947, volume I, page 181.
² These two charts are reproduced below in section IV C 2.
