 |
closed altogether. Raw materials and the finished products alike were
confiscated for the needs of the German industry."
In the general
summary, the IMT found:¹ |
| |
“ * * * war crimes were
committed on a vast scale, never before seen in the history of war. They were
perpetrated in all the countries occupied by Germany * *
*.” |
| It has been urged by the defense that the provisions of the Hague
Convention No. IV, and of the regulations annexed to it, do not apply in
“total war.” This doctrine must be emphatically rejected. This
Tribunal fully concurs with the judgment of the IMT that the Hague Convention
No. IV of 1907 to which Germany was a party had, by 1939, become customary law
and was, therefore, binding on Germany not only as treaty law but also as
customary law. With further reference to the contention that total war would
authorize a belligerent to disregard the laws and customs of warfare, the IMT
stated — and this Tribunal again fully concurs :² |
| |
“There can be no doubt that
the majority of them [war crimes] arose from the Nazi conception of ‘total
war’; with which the aggressive wars were waged. For in this conception of
‘total war,’ the moral ideas underlying the conventions which seek to
make war more humane are no longer regarded as having force or validity.
Everything is made subordinate to the overmastering dictates of war. Rules,
regulations, assurances and treaties, all alike, are of no moment; and so,
freed from the restraining influences of international law, the aggressive war
is conducted by the Nazi leaders in the most barbaric
way.” |
| With particular reference to Articles 45, 50, 52, and 56 of the Hague
Regulations, the IMT states: |
| |
"* * * that violations of these
provisions constituted crimes for which the guilty individuals were punishable
is too well settled to admit of argument * * *. |
| It must also be pointed out that in the preamble to the Hague
Convention No. IV, it is made abundantly clear that in cases not included in
the Regulations, the inhabitants and the belligerents remain under the
protection and the rule of the principles of the law of nations, as they result
from the usages established among civilized peoples, from the laws of humanity,
and dictates of the public conscience. |
__________
¹ Ibid., p. 226.
² Ibid.. p. 227.
1340 |
. 
