Monday October 3 International Human Rights Exam 2 What we are looking at in this section both in the notes and books How do we prosecute human right s violators What do we do when there are terrible human right violations and what do we do to prosecute these Stalin has a quote that says killing one or two people is a crime but killing millions is a statistic people Nuremburg Trials They had essentially conquered Germany it had an American zone a Russian zone and a French zone while they tried to figure out what to do with Germany They had a terrible dilemma on their hands what Patent had found in Buchenwald Germany people starving to death and thousands of bodies of those they had killed he realized that it was not only a concentration camp but also a crime scene They were determined that this would NEVER happen again they realized that they would need to complete some form of prosecution it was evident that millions of people had been killed over 12 million European Jews 100 000 Germans found people who were physically or mentally handicapped and would send them to concentration camps 3 5 million Russian prisoners of war subjected to horrendous scientific experiments 500 000 gypsies killed homosexuals seen as psychologically inferior they had to wear pink triangles to identify them as enemies Because of the rumors that had occurred in WWI they did not really believe this was going on until the Germans and the Americans liberated the camps Humanitarian Law the laws of war First time we ever hear about it was in 1474 First time a commander was tried took place in the Holy Roman Empire o He allowed his soldiers to run rampant in the cities towns o He was tried by 27 judges he was never committed of actually committing the raping or the pillaging but he knew about it and didn t stop it Command Control Theory lies at the heart of humanitarian laws o Commanders are responsible for the actions of their troops 1863 Union troops were already invading the South which was going to lead to the defeated of the Confederate o Lincoln enacted the Code of Conduct They were not to rape or pillage or do unnecessary damage 1899 Hague Convention 1st international treaty o Prohibited of civilians o Prohibited killing soldiers outside of combat 1918 Call to prosecute the Kaiser o Germany loses WWI o Britain and France wanted to prosecute him as a war criminal but the US and President Woodrow Wilson said they did not trust international law 1945 The US Great Britain Russia and France have to decide what to do with Nazi Germany Page 1 of 22 International Human Rights Exam 2 o How many people do you prosecute Do you prosecute the civilian leaders or the military leaders Or do you prosecute this like a normal crime and prosecute everyone who committed the crimes o Churchill Round up the biggest Nazi leaders and execute them without a trial publically execute them o Stalin Round up the 50 000 officers and execute them without trial o US we had to have an actual trial and try the Nazi leaders The US controlled the zone of Germany where most of the Nazi s were captured We also had the most money because we had not been devastated by the war France and GB were in near ruins What model of a trial should there be France Britain European Model o One judge who is both the judge and prosecutor o Didn t necessarily rely too much on eye witnesses o It was going to be shorter and more efficient US Adversarial System o Prosecuting attorney and defense attorney and they are adversaries in the courtroom o A judge is an independent 3rd party o Wanted cross examination Decided to have a hybrid model o Four judges Each of the countries would provide one judge o It would take votes to find someone guilty of a crime but that there would be prosecutors and defense attorneys o Each one of the countries would nominate one prosecutor 1945 1946 Nuremburg Trials About 22 different defendants There was a great advantage to the US in this system they were pretty much using our system the US focuses on cross examination while the other countries do not The US sent two people the chief prosecutor a supreme court justice Robert Jackson only completed one year of Law school but read the law and became one of the leading attorneys Francis Biddle sent to be the judge former attorney general o They did not have good chemistry Francis had a big Ego Called the most significant trial ever Established how we prosecute people who commit horrendous human rights violations 24 Nazis are tried both civilians and military leaders they felt people who were part of the civilian government were also equally responsible they also tried people who had been economic leaders because they made money off of these war time crimes November 1945 to October 1946 Film was used for the first time ever 200 witnesses that were called in US Model 300 000 affidavits o Used at an amazing moment in the trial when the prosecutors felt that the true gravity of what had happened in the concentration camps had really happened mainly the video used from Page 2 of 22 International Human Rights Exam 2 Patent the Nazi also kept meticulous records because they did not think that the third Reich would ever end IBM figures out a way to do simultaneous translation Basic Charge War Crimes o A crime that happens during a time of war by members of a military against the military or civilians of a hostile power came to us from 1474 Wednesday October 5 Crime committed during a time of war by members of a military against the military or civilians of a hostile power War Crimes Things that Justice Jackson could prosecute the Nazis for o Killing Civilians in occupied territories o Killing Prisoners of war not only the Russians but also American soldiers too o Enslaving civilians for forced labor o Killing apostates o Senseless destruction of population centers Justice Jackson realized that there were a lot of crimes that did not fall into the classic definitions of a war crime o Crimes committed against German Jews It was not a war crime because they were not at war with their own citizens o Killing civilians in countries that were allies of Germany Italy or Austria Germans would go in an kill especially Jews This definition did not fit because they had not declared war against them o Killings that happened before War was declared In order to fix these loop holes they needed to come up with something new to charge them with so they came up with Crimes Against Humanity Crime Against
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