Judgment at Nuremberg Page #22

You know, Curtiss,

when I first became a judge...

I knew there were certain people in town

I wasn't supposed to touch.

I knew that if I was to remain a judge,

this was so.

But how in God's name

do you expect me to look the other way...

at the murder of six million people?

I'm sure he didn't mean that.

I'm not asking you

to look the other way at them.

I'm asking you, what good is it going to do

to pursue this policy?

Curtiss, you were saying that the men

are not responsible for their acts.

You're going to have to explain that to me.

You're going to have to explain it

very carefully.

The tribunal is now in session.

God bless the United States of America

and this honorable tribunal.

The trial conducted before this tribunal

began over eight months ago.

The record of evidence

is more than pages long...

and final arguments of counsel

have been concluded.

Simple murders and atrocities

do not constitute...

the gravamen of the charges

in this indictment.

Rather, the charge

is that of conscious participation...

in a nationwide,

government-organized system...

of cruelty and injustice...

in violation

of every moral and legal principle...

known to all civilized nations.

The tribunal

has carefully studied the record...

and found therein...

abundant evidence to support...

beyond a reasonable doubt...

the charges against these defendants.

Herr Rolfe...

in his very skillful defense...

has asserted that there are others...

who must share the ultimate responsibility...

for what happened here in Germany.

There is truth in this.

The real complaining party at the bar

in this courtroom...

is civilization.

But the tribunal does say...

that the men in the dock

are responsible for their actions.

Men who sat in black robes...

in judgment on other men.

Men who took part...

in the enactment of laws and decrees...

the purpose of which

was the extermination of human beings.

Men who, in executive positions...

actively participated

in the enforcement of these laws...

illegal even under German law.

The principle...

of criminal law in every civilized society...

has this in common:

Any person who sways another

to commit murder...

any person who furnishes...

the lethal weapon

for the purpose of the crime...

any person

who is an accessory to the crime...

is guilty.

Herr Rolfe...

further asserts that the defendant Janning...

was an extraordinary jurist...

and acted in what he thought

was the best interest of his country.

There is truth in this also.

Janning, to be sure...

is a tragic figure.

We believe he loathed the evil he did.

But compassion

for the present torture of his soul...

must not beget forgetfulness...

of the torture and the death of millions

by the government of which he was a part.

Janning's record and his fate...

illuminate the most shattering truth

that has emerged from this trial.

If he and all of the other defendants

had been degraded perverts...

if all of the leaders of the Third Reich...

had been sadistic monsters and maniacs...

then these events

would have no more moral significance...

than an earthquake,

or any other natural catastrophe.

But this trial has shown...

that under a national crisis...

ordinary, even able and extraordinary men...

can delude themselves

into the commission of crimes...

so vast and heinous

that they beggar the imagination.

No one who has sat through the trial

can ever forget them.

Men sterilized because of political belief.

A mockery made of friendship and faith.

The murder of children.

How easily it can happen.

There are those in our own country, too...

who today speak

of the protection of country...

of survival.

A decision must be made

in the life of every nation...

at the very moment

when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat.

Then it seems that the only way to survive

is to use the means of the enemy...

to rest survival upon what is expedient,

to look the other way.

The answer to that is: Survival as what?

A country isn't a rock.

It's not an extension of one's self.

It's what it stands for.

It's what it stands for when standing

for something is the most difficult.

Before the people of the world...

let it now be noted...

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