Judgment at Nuremberg Page #2

before this tribunal?

I am represented.

How do you plead? Guilty or not guilty?

You may be seated.

Werner Lammpe?

Are you represented by counsel

before this tribunal?

Counsel?

Yes, of course. I am represented.

How do you plead to the charges?

Guilty or not guilty?

You may be seated.

Ernst Janning?

Are you represented by counsel

before this tribunal?

Are you represented by counsel

before this tribunal?

I represent the defendant, Your Honor.

How do you plead to the charges

and specifications set forth...

in the indictment against you?

Guilty or not guilty?

Your Honor, may I address the court?

The defendant does not recognize

the authority of this tribunal...

and wishes to lodge a formal protest

in lieu of pleading.

A plea of "not guilty" will be entered.

The prosecution

will begin its opening address.

Slow and easy, Junior.

The case is unusual...

in that the defendants

are charged with crimes...

committed in the name of the law.

These men, together with their deceased

or fugitive colleagues...

are the embodiment of what passed

for justice during the Third Reich.

The defendants served as judges

during the period of the Third Reich.

Therefore, you, Your Honors,

as judges on the bench...

will be sitting in judgment...

of judges in the dock.

And this is as it should be.

For only a judge knows

how much more a court is than a courtroom.

It is a process and a spirit.

It is the house of law.

The defendants knew this, too.

They knew courtrooms well.

They sat in their black robes...

and they distorted, they perverted,

they destroyed justice and law in Germany.

Will the prosecution please watch the light?

- The interpreter cannot follow you.

- I'm sorry, Your Honor.

They distorted, they perverted...

they destroyed justice and law in Germany.

Now, this in itself

is undoubtedly a great crime.

But the prosecution

is not calling the defendants...

to account for violating

constitutional guarantees...

or withholding due process of law.

The prosecution

is calling them to account...

for murder...

brutalities...

torture...

atrocities.

They share with all the leaders

of the Third Reich...

responsibility for the most malignant,

the most calculated...

the most devastating crimes

in the history of all mankind.

And they are perhaps more guilty

than some of the others.

For they had attained maturity

long before Hitler's rise to power.

Their minds weren't warped at an early age

by Nazi teachings.

They embraced the ideologies

of the Third Reich as educated adults...

when they, most of all...

should have valued justice.

Here they'll receive the justice

they denied others.

They'll be judged according to the evidence

presented in this courtroom.

The prosecution asks nothing more.

Herr Rolfe will make the opening statement

for the defense.

May it please the tribunal...

it is not only a great honor...

but also a great challenge...

for an advocate...

to aid this tribunal in its task.

The entire civilized world...

will follow closely what we do here.

For this is not an ordinary trial...

by any means

of the accepted, parochial sense.

The avowed purpose of this tribunal...

Is broader than the visiting of retribution

on a few men.

It is dedicated to the reconsecration...

of the temple of justice.

It is dedicated to finding a code of justice...

the whole world will be responsible to.

How will this code be established?

It will be established...

in a clear...

honest evaluation...

of the responsibility for the crimes

in the indictment stated by the prosecution.

In the words of the great American jurist,

Oliver Wendell Holmes:

"This responsibility will not be found

only in documents...

"that no one contests or denies.

"It will be found in considerations

of a political or social nature.

"It will be found, most of all...

"in the character of men."

What is the character of Ernst Janning?

Let us examine his life for a moment.

He was born in .

Received the degree

of Doctor of Law in .

Became a judge in East Prussia in .

Following WWI, he became one

of the leaders of the Weimar Republic...

and was one of the framers

of its democratic constitution.

In subsequent years

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