Стенограмма Нюрнбергского процесса. Том XVIII.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-NINTH DAY
Tuesday: 16 July 1946
FLOTTENRICHTER OTTO KRANZBÜHLER (Counsel for the Defendant Dönitz): … According to classical international law the destruction of combatants constituted a legal aim of war actions, not however that of noncombatants.* In view of the development of the last wars one may be doubtful whether this classical theory still has any validity.
I am inclined to regard the hunger blockade as the first important infringement of this theory, which by cutting off all food supply was aimed at the civilian population, therefore the noncombatants of a country. The victims of this during the first World War were estimated at 700,000 people.** Although this blockade was frequently acknowledged to be inadmissible according to international law,*** it was nevertheless practiced, and therefore it amounts to an infringement of the principle of protection for noncombatants against
war measures.****
The second great infringement was brought on by aerial warfare. I do not wish to discuss the unsolvable question of who started it, but only to state the fact that war from the air, at least during the two final years, was aimed against the civilian population. If in dozens of attacks on residential quarters of German cities thousands or tens of thousands of civilians were among the victims while soldiers numbered only a few dozen or a few hundred, then nobody can assert that the civilian population was not included in the target of the attack. The mass dropping of explosives and incendiary bombs on entire areas does not permit of doubt, and the use of the atomic bomb has produced final evidence thereof.
In view of the hundreds of thousands of women and children who in this manner miserably perished in their houses by being buried, suffocated, or burnt to death, I am surprised at the indignation of the Prosecution about the loss of about 30,000 men who lost their lives in war areas on ships which were armed and carried war material, and often enough bombs destined for German cities. Moreover, most of these men died in combat, that is, by mines, aircraft action, and especially in attacks on convoys, all actions which according to British conception, too, were lawful.
* Not always acknowledged by English authors. Compare for instance A. C. Bell, A H i s t o r y o f t h e B l o c k a d e o f G e r m a n y, et cetera, London, 1937, Page 213: "The assertion that civilians and the Armed Forces have been treated only since 1914 as a uniform belligerent body is one of the most ridiculous ever made."
** Grenfell, T h e A r t o f t h e A d m i r a l, London, 1937, Page 45: "By the early part of 1918, the civil population of Germany was in a state of semistarvation, and it has been calculated that, as a result of the blockade, over 700,000 Germans died of malnutrition."
*** See also protest of the Soviet Government to the British Ambassador Of 25 October 1939, printed as Number 44 in "U r k u n d e n z u m S e e k r i e g s r e c h t," Volume I, edited by the High Command of the Navy.
**** See for instance W h e a t e n ' s I n t e r n a t i o n a l L a w, 5th Edition,
Page 727, Lidd
...All the more important is the question of the retroactive effects of joining the conspiracy, as has been illustrated by the British Prosecutor by the example of the perpetrators of railway sabotage. This idea of guilt, retroactive on past events, is very difficult for the German jurist to understand. The continental concept of law is reflected by the formulation of Hugo Grotius: "To participate in a crime a person must not only have knowledge of it but also the ability to prevent it."*
While the entire legal concept of the conspiracy in itself represents a special creation of Anglo-Saxon justice in our eyes, this applies even more to the retroaction of the so-called conspiracy.
* Hugo Grotius, D e j u r e p a c i s a c b e l l i, Book II, Chapter XXI.
...Now it has come to light here, through the statements of the Defendants Ribbentrop and Fritzsche, that apart from the action for, which he was preparing the ground during the discussion with the generals, Hitler had evidently at the same time planned a second action, in which only Goebbels and Himmler were to participate, and which by chance also came to Ribbentrop's knowledge. In this action the shooting of thousands of prisoners of war seems to have been contemplated as a reprisal against the air attack on Dresden. Hitler, very wisely, did not give the slightest indication of such a plan to the generals. This plan was not followed up and no reprisals were taken.
Tuesday: 16 July 1946
FLOTTENRICHTER OTTO KRANZBÜHLER (Counsel for the Defendant Dönitz): … According to classical international law the destruction of combatants constituted a legal aim of war actions, not however that of noncombatants.* In view of the development of the last wars one may be doubtful whether this classical theory still has any validity.
I am inclined to regard the hunger blockade as the first important infringement of this theory, which by cutting off all food supply was aimed at the civilian population, therefore the noncombatants of a country. The victims of this during the first World War were estimated at 700,000 people.** Although this blockade was frequently acknowledged to be inadmissible according to international law,*** it was nevertheless practiced, and therefore it amounts to an infringement of the principle of protection for noncombatants against
war measures.****
The second great infringement was brought on by aerial warfare. I do not wish to discuss the unsolvable question of who started it, but only to state the fact that war from the air, at least during the two final years, was aimed against the civilian population. If in dozens of attacks on residential quarters of German cities thousands or tens of thousands of civilians were among the victims while soldiers numbered only a few dozen or a few hundred, then nobody can assert that the civilian population was not included in the target of the attack. The mass dropping of explosives and incendiary bombs on entire areas does not permit of doubt, and the use of the atomic bomb has produced final evidence thereof.
In view of the hundreds of thousands of women and children who in this manner miserably perished in their houses by being buried, suffocated, or burnt to death, I am surprised at the indignation of the Prosecution about the loss of about 30,000 men who lost their lives in war areas on ships which were armed and carried war material, and often enough bombs destined for German cities. Moreover, most of these men died in combat, that is, by mines, aircraft action, and especially in attacks on convoys, all actions which according to British conception, too, were lawful.
* Not always acknowledged by English authors. Compare for instance A. C. Bell, A H i s t o r y o f t h e B l o c k a d e o f G e r m a n y, et cetera, London, 1937, Page 213: "The assertion that civilians and the Armed Forces have been treated only since 1914 as a uniform belligerent body is one of the most ridiculous ever made."
** Grenfell, T h e A r t o f t h e A d m i r a l, London, 1937, Page 45: "By the early part of 1918, the civil population of Germany was in a state of semistarvation, and it has been calculated that, as a result of the blockade, over 700,000 Germans died of malnutrition."
*** See also protest of the Soviet Government to the British Ambassador Of 25 October 1939, printed as Number 44 in "U r k u n d e n z u m S e e k r i e g s r e c h t," Volume I, edited by the High Command of the Navy.
**** See for instance W h e a t e n ' s I n t e r n a t i o n a l L a w, 5th Edition,
Page 727, Lidd
...All the more important is the question of the retroactive effects of joining the conspiracy, as has been illustrated by the British Prosecutor by the example of the perpetrators of railway sabotage. This idea of guilt, retroactive on past events, is very difficult for the German jurist to understand. The continental concept of law is reflected by the formulation of Hugo Grotius: "To participate in a crime a person must not only have knowledge of it but also the ability to prevent it."*
While the entire legal concept of the conspiracy in itself represents a special creation of Anglo-Saxon justice in our eyes, this applies even more to the retroaction of the so-called conspiracy.
* Hugo Grotius, D e j u r e p a c i s a c b e l l i, Book II, Chapter XXI.
...Now it has come to light here, through the statements of the Defendants Ribbentrop and Fritzsche, that apart from the action for, which he was preparing the ground during the discussion with the generals, Hitler had evidently at the same time planned a second action, in which only Goebbels and Himmler were to participate, and which by chance also came to Ribbentrop's knowledge. In this action the shooting of thousands of prisoners of war seems to have been contemplated as a reprisal against the air attack on Dresden. Hitler, very wisely, did not give the slightest indication of such a plan to the generals. This plan was not followed up and no reprisals were taken.