United States' Nuremburg Chief Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz Speaks Out on Iraq

Of special interest was the case against the special extermination squads known as "SS Einsatzgruppen". Twenty-four high-ranking officers, including six Generals, were accused of slaughtering over a million Jews, Gypsies and others - men, women and children - as part of the Nazi "final solution" to eradicate perceived opposition to Hitler's Reich. The defendants were commanders of units, totaling about three thousand men, who followed behind the German advance into Poland and the Soviet Union where they rounded up helpless civilian victims for execution in ditches or gas vans. Their daily reports to higher headquarters and ministries tabulated the number of victims "eliminated," the location and identity of the units and the commanders in charge. Unfortunately for them, these official records, from about June 1941 to the middle of 1942, fell into the hands of US war crimes investigators.

Relying on the defendant's own reports. the Prosecution rested its case two days after its Opening Statement on September 29, 1947. The defense took 136 trial days. They challenged the authenticity of the documents, offered alibis, denials, excuses and purported justifications including the standard plea of "superior orders". Presiding Judge Michael Musmanno, of Pennsylvania, allowed the defendants to introduce any evidence they felt might save them. But they could not escape the damaging impact of the overwhelming proof against them. The judgment was comprehensive and devastating. On April 10, 1948, all of the defendants were convicted and 14 were sentenced to death. Executions were stayed pending appeals. The trial was widely publicized as "the biggest murder trial in history"

The defendants were well educated men. Eight of them were lawyers and most others had doctor's degrees. The lead defendant, an intellectual SS General Ohlendorf, freely admitted that his unit had killed about ninety-thousand Jews. He testified that he would do it again to answer his country's call. Even after he was sentenced to death he showed not the slightest remorse. The trial offered new insights into the mentality of fanatics who are so convinced of the righteousness of their cause that they remain willing to kill or be killed for their own perverted ideals.

The victims were killed because they did not share the race, religion or creed of their executioners. The Prosecution emphasized that no penalty could balance the enormity of the genocidal crime. The goal of the trial was not vengeance or merely justified retribution. It was a plea of humanity to law- that all people should have a legal right to live in peace and dignity regardless of their race or creed. The Opinion of the three American judges confirmed that genocide and crimes against humanity were crimes that could never be tolerated. The trial and judgment set significant landmarks to advance the evolution of international criminal and humanitarian law, click here http://www.benferencz.org/arts/72.html