Robert Jackson, US Prosecutor, at Nuremberg Trial

(Munich 16) War Crimes Trials, Nuremberg, Germany, February 28, 1946. MLS, front view, US Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson speaking. Jackson states in part that the six criminal organizations to be tried in these proceedings were not selected without considerable study by the prosecution. They were the most vicious and membership within them was entirely voluntary. Those to be indicted are: the Reich Cabinet; the top policy makers of the German Nazi Army; the military police elements of the Gestapo and SD; the Nazi party leaders; and their staff officers on a high level. MSs, Justices Biddle, Parker, de Vabre. MSs, Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Wilhelm Keitel in the prisoners' dock. HAS, Jackson continuing his speech stating that only the organizations that were directly responsible for the crimes committed in Germany and its occupied countries will be brought to trial. "It would be a greater catastrophe to acquit these organizations than it would be to acquit the defendants in the prisoners' dock. Should these organizations be acquitted, the German people will feel they did no wrong and will continue operating with these same organizations, but under new names...Failure to condemn these organizations under the terms of the charter can only mean that such Nazi aims and means cannot be considered criminal."