German Defendants Plead Not Guilty and the Opening Speech of the Nuremberg Trials
11/21/1945
Add to Favorites:
Add all page(s) of this document to activity:
This is an audio recording of the International Military Tribunal to prosecute war crimes in Nuremberg, Germany, at the end of World War II. The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals held to convict major Nazi German leaders on charges of crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit each of these crimes. It was the first time that international tribunals were used after a war to bring national leaders to justice.
The recording begins with the reading of the Nazi German defendants' names, who in turn plead not guilty. Next, American Chief Counsel Justice Robert H. Jackson (a U.S. Supreme Court Justice) begins his opening statement (7 minutes into the recording). Jackson explained the unique nature of the tribunal to bring Nazi leaders to justice while giving them opportunities to defend themselves. They are, he said, the "living symbols of racial hatred, terrorism, and of violence...fierce nationalisms, and militarism."
The Nuremberg trials were documented with film, photographs, and audio on a scale that had never been used in a trial.
The recording begins with the reading of the Nazi German defendants' names, who in turn plead not guilty. Next, American Chief Counsel Justice Robert H. Jackson (a U.S. Supreme Court Justice) begins his opening statement (7 minutes into the recording). Jackson explained the unique nature of the tribunal to bring Nazi leaders to justice while giving them opportunities to defend themselves. They are, he said, the "living symbols of racial hatred, terrorism, and of violence...fierce nationalisms, and militarism."
The Nuremberg trials were documented with film, photographs, and audio on a scale that had never been used in a trial.
Transcript
THE TRIBUNAL PRESIDENT: I will now call upon the defendants to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges against them. They will proceed in turn to a point in the dock opposite to the microphone.Hermann Wilhelm Goering.
HERMANN WILHELM GOERING: Before I answer the question of the Tribunal whether or not I am guilty...
THE PRESIDENT: I informed the Court that defendants were not entitled to make a statement. You must plead guilty or not guilty.
GOERING: I declare myself in the sense of the Indictment not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Rudolf Hess.
RUDOLF HESS: No.
THE PRESIDENT: That will be entered as a plea of not guilty. [Laughter.]
THE PRESIDENT: If there is any disturbance in court, those who make it will have to leave the court.
Joachim von Ribbentrop.
JOACHIM VON RIBBENTROP: I declare myself in the sense of the Indictment not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Wilhelm Keitel.
WILHELM KEITEL: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: In the absence of Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the Trial will proceed against him, but he will have an opportunity of pleading when he is sufficiently well to be brought back into court.
Alfred Rosenberg.
ALFRED ROSENBERG: I declare myself in the sense of the Indictment not guilty.
ASH: PRESIDENT: Hans Frank.
HANS FRANK: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Wilhelm Frick.
WILHELM FRICK: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Julius Streicher.
JULIUS STREICHER: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Walter Funk.
WALTER FUNK: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Hjalmar Schacht.
HJALMAR SCHACHT: I am not guilty in any respect.
THE PRESIDENT: Karl Doenitz.
KARL DÖNITZ: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Erich Raeder.
ERICH RAEDER: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Baldur von Schirach.
BALDUR VON SCHIRACH: I declare myself in the sense of the Indictment not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Fritz Sauckel.
FRITZ SAUCKEL: I declare myself in the sense of the Indictment, before God and the world and particularly before my people, not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Alfred Jodl.
ALFRED JODL: Not guilty. For what I have done or had to do, I have a pure conscience before God, before history and my people.
THE PRESIDENT: Franz von Papen.
FRANZ VON PAPEN: I declare myself in no way guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Arthur Seyss-Inquart.
ARTHUR SEYSS-INQUART: I declare myself not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Albert Speer.
ALBERT SPEER: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Constantin von Neurath.
CONSTANTIN VON NEURATH: I answer the question in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: Hans Fritzsche.
HANS FRITZSCHE: As regards this Indictment, not guilty.
[Defendant Goering stood and attempted to address the Tribunal.]
THE PRESIDENT: You are not entitled to address the Tribunal except through your counsel, at the present time.
I will now call upon the Chief Prosecutor for the United States of America.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: May it please Your Honors:
The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated. 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.
This Tribunal, while it is novel and experimental, is not the product of abstract speculations nor is it created to vindicate legalistic theories. This inquest represents the practical effort of four of the most mighty of nations, with the support of 17 more, to utilize international law to meet the greatest menace of our times-aggressive war. The common sense of mankind demands that law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people. It must also reach men who possess themselves of great power and make deliberate and concerted use of it to set in motion evils which. leave no home in the world untouched. It is a cause of that magnitude that the United Nations will lay before Your Honors.
In the prisoners' dock sit twenty-odd broken men. Reproached by the humiliation of those they have led almost as bitterly as by the desolation of those they have attacked, their personal capacity for evil is forever past. It is hard now to perceive in these men as captives the power by which as Nazi leaders they once dominated much of the world and terrified most of it. Merely as individuals their fate is of little consequence to the world.
What makes this inquest significant is that these prisoners represent sinister influences that will lurk in the world long after their bodies have returned to dust. We will show them to be living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence, and of the arrogance and cruelty of power. They are symbols of fierce nationalisms and of militarism, of intrigue and war-making which have embroiled Europe generation after generation, crushing its manhood, destroying its homes, and impoverishing its life. They have so identified themselves with the philosophies they conceived and with the forces they directed that any tenderness to them is a victory and an encouragement to all the evils which are attached to their names. Civilization can afford no compromise with the social forces which would gain renewed strength if we deal ambiguously or indecisively with the men in whom those forces now precariously survive.
What these men stand for we will patiently and temperately disclose. We will give you undeniable proofs of incredible events. The catalog of crimes will omit nothing that could be conceived by a pathological pride, cruelty, and lust for power. These men created in Germany, under the "Führerprinzip", a National Socialist despotism equalled only by the dynasties of the ancient East. They took from the German people all those dignities and freedoms that we hold natural and inalienable rights in every human being.
This primary source comes from the National Archives Collection of World War II War Crimes Records.
National Archives Identifier: 114279663
Full Citation: Sound Recording 238.24B; German Defendants Plead Not Guilty, American Chief Counsel Justice Robert H. Jackson Begins Opening Speech; 11/21/1945; Audio Recordings Relating to World War II War Crimes Trials, ca. 1946 - ca. 1947; National Archives Collection of World War II War Crimes Records, Record Group 238; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/opening-nuremberg-trials, April 23, 2025]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.
