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Opening Statement at the Nuremberg Trial

Robert H. Jackson

21 November 1945 · Postwar Contemporary · Oratory · English

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Abstract

Written: 1945
Setting: After the Second World War; Nuremberg (Germany)
Author: Robert H. Jackson
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Courtroom oration
Form: A long opening statement
Recommended: Grades 9–12 (Describes genocide and war crimes; long speech best read in excerpts.)

Occasion. On the second day of the first international trial of national leaders, the American chief prosecutor, on leave from the Supreme Court, opened the case against twenty-one Nazi defendants. He had helped draft the London Charter that created the court that summer.

Law over vengeance. He argued that the crimes were too grave to ignore and that the victorious Allies honoured reason by giving their enemies a trial rather than revenge.

Fairness. Admitting that victors were judging the defeated, he insisted that the judges would themselves be judged by history.

Evidence. Relying chiefly on captured German documents, he traced the Party's seizure of power, its attacks on unions and churches, the persecution and murder of the Jews, wars of aggression and crimes in occupied lands. He also described the leadership principle that bound Party members to absolute obedience.

Legal argument. Aggressive war had been outlawed by treaty, he said, and neither state immunity nor obedience to orders excused the men who planned it. He cited the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, in which nations renounced war as an instrument of policy.

Outcome. Calling civilization the true accuser, he set the tone for a trial whose verdicts in 1946 established that leaders answer personally under international law. Twelve men were sentenced to death, seven to prison, and three were acquitted.

Key figures

Robert H. Jackson: U.S. Chief of Counsel
Hermann Göring: Leading defendant
Sir Geoffrey Lawrence: President of the Tribunal

Summary

Robert H. Jackson's opening statement at Nuremberg, delivered on 21 November 1945, the second day of the trial of the major German war criminals before the International Military Tribunal, is one of the great speeches in the history of law. Jackson, a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, had helped negotiate the London Charter of August 1945, by which the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union created the Tribunal. Twenty-one of the twenty-four men indicted sat in the dock, among them Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess and Joachim von Ribbentrop. Jackson opens by stating the stakes: the wrongs to be judged were so calculated, malignant and devastating that civilization could not tolerate their being ignored, because it could not survive their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury, should stay the hand of vengeance and submit their captive enemies to the judgment of law was, he said, one of the most significant tributes that power has ever paid to reason. He admits the difficulty of victors judging the vanquished and insists that the defendants must receive a fair trial, because the record on which they are judged today is the record on which history will judge the judges tomorrow. Most of the long speech lays out the evidence. Jackson explains that the prosecution will rely chiefly on the defendants' own documents, captured in vast quantities. He traces the rise of the Nazi Party, its seizure of power, the destruction of free trade unions and the persecution of the churches, the programme to exterminate the Jews, the plans for aggressive war against Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Soviet Union, and the war crimes committed against prisoners and civilians in occupied lands. He describes the leadership principle by which the Party organized absolute obedience. He then addresses the legal objections. He argues that aggressive war had already been condemned by treaties such as the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, that individuals who plan and wage it can be held responsible, and that neither the doctrine that a state cannot be sued nor the plea of superior orders can shield them. He closes by declaring that the real complaining party at the bar is civilization itself, which asks whether law is so laggard as to be helpless before crimes of this magnitude. The Tribunal delivered its judgment on 1 October 1946, sentencing twelve defendants to death, seven to prison and acquitting three. Jackson's speech helped establish the principle that leaders are personally accountable under international law.

Plot or Argument

The stakes
Civilization cannot survive the repetition of these crimes; the victors submit their enemies to law instead of vengeance.
A fair trial
Jackson acknowledges the difficulty of victors judging the vanquished and pledges fairness.
The evidence
The case will rest on the defendants' own captured documents.
The Nazi conspiracy
The Party's rise, seizure of power, attacks on unions and churches and the persecution of the Jews.
Aggressive war and war crimes
Plans and wars against Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Soviet Union, and crimes in occupied lands.
The law and the conclusion
Aggressive war is a crime; individuals are responsible; civilization is the true complaining party.

Lessons

Law instead of vengeance
Jackson praised the Allies for choosing trial over revenge. Justice restrains even the anger of victims.
- Why did Jackson call the trial a tribute that power paid to reason?
- Why is a fair trial important even for people accused of terrible crimes?
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Personal responsibility
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Judged by history
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Context

By 1945 the Allies had uncovered the extermination camps and vast documentation of German crimes. Some leaders proposed summary execution of Nazi leaders; the United States pressed for a trial.

Composition

The London Charter of 8 August 1945 established the Tribunal. The trial opened at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg on 20 November 1945, and Jackson gave his opening statement on the second day.

Reception

The speech was widely reported and admired. The Tribunal's judgment and principles shaped later international criminal law, the Genocide Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Justice Law War Violence Power / Politics Faith / Religion

Comparisons

The Nuremberg Code (Permissible Medical Experiments)
The Doctors' Trial that followed at Nuremberg produced the Nuremberg Code for medical research.
The Origins of Totalitarianism
Arendt analyses the totalitarian movements whose leaders were on trial.
The Hiding Place
Corrie ten Boom's memoir describes the camps from a prisoner's point of view.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of 1948 grew from the same postwar resolve.

Quotes

“That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to reason.”

— Robert H. Jackson, Opening Statement at the Nuremberg Trial, Opening paragraph.Quote card

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“We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow.”

— Robert H. Jackson, Opening Statement at the Nuremberg Trial, Opening section.Quote card

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“The real complaining party at your bar is Civilization.”

— Robert H. Jackson, Opening Statement at the Nuremberg Trial, Conclusion.Quote card

Chess, Dr B.'s narrative (isolation)
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Democracy in America, Medical lens
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Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Part IV (captivity chapters)
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Philosophy of Right, Lesson: Conscience is sacred, but not self-sufficient
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For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

How Jackson frames the purpose of the trial.
His use of the defendants' own documents.
His answers to legal objections.
His closing appeal to civilization.

Key terms and names

International Military Tribunal: The court created by the four Allied powers to try the major German war criminals.
Crimes against peace: Planning or waging aggressive war.
Crimes against humanity: Murder, extermination, enslavement and persecution of civilians.
Superior orders: The defence that one was only following commands.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension What four nations created the Tribunal?
Comprehension What kind of evidence did Jackson say the prosecution would rely on?
Interpretation Why did Jackson insist on a fair trial?
Interpretation How did Jackson answer the claim that individuals cannot be punished for acts of state?
Interpretation Can victors ever judge the defeated fairly?
Interpretation Why does Jackson describe civilization as the complaining party?
Big Question What is the difference between justice and vengeance?

Faith Connections

Romans 12:19 (Scripture)
"Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord": the case for restraining personal revenge.
Micah 6:8 (Scripture)
"Do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics (Great Conversation)
Bonhoeffer, executed by the Nazi regime, wrote on responsibility and resistance to tyranny.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The Nazi leaders must be tried, fairly and by law, for crimes against peace and humanity, because civilization cannot survive such crimes and power must submit to reason.

Rhetorical device: antithesis. "Civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated."

Debate: Resolved: that the Nuremberg trials were a just way to respond to the crimes of the Nazi regime.

Memory Work

That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to reason.
Opening paragraph. Jackson's famous statement of law over vengeance.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain how Jackson justified the Nuremberg trial and evaluate his argument.

Comparison with The Nuremberg Code (Permissible Medical Experiments): Compare the principles of the main Nuremberg trial with those of the Nuremberg Code.

Creative Prompts

Essay
Evaluate Jackson's answer to the objection that Nuremberg was victors' justice.
Classroom
Deliver the first three paragraphs of the speech aloud and discuss its rhetorical devices.
Dialogue
Write a conversation between two reporters at Nuremberg after hearing Jackson's statement.