Opening Statement at the Nuremberg Trial

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.

Top Lessons

• Law instead of vengeance

  Jackson praised the Allies for choosing trial over revenge. Justice restrains even the anger of victims.

• Personal responsibility

  Jackson argued that no one could hide behind the state or orders from above. Each person is accountable for the evil he does.

• Judged by history

  Jackson warned that the judges themselves would be judged by how fairly they acted. Those who judge others must hold themselves to the same standard.

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