Hour of trial: Goering's case became one of the key ones in the Nuremberg trials

The Nuremberg Tribunal was the first international judicial process that gave a legal assessment of the crimes of Nazism and laid the foundation for modern international criminal law. Its meetings were held from November 1945 to October 1946. Dmitry Surzhik, chief specialist of the expert and analytical department of the National Center for Historical Memory under the President of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia that the meeting that took place from March 18 to 22, 1946, when the case of Herman Goering was being investigated, could be considered the watershed of the Nuremberg trials. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

The beginning of the Tribunal's work

The preparatory phase ended on November 20, 1945, when the first plenary session of the International Military Tribunal began in Nuremberg.

In the dock were senior leaders of the Third Reich, including Hermann Goering, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Rosenberg and others.

From the very first day, a key legal innovation was fixed: individual responsibility for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Presentation of charges

From November 1945 to February 1946, the Allied prosecutors presented evidence on each of the four counts in turn.

The American side focused on planning an aggressive war, the British side on systematic violations of the laws of war, the Soviet side on mass crimes against civilians and prisoners, and the French side on crimes against humanity in the occupied European countries.

The evidence base included official documents, minutes of meetings, photographs, newsreels, transcripts of interrogations, and eyewitness accounts.

Hearing of witnesses and interrogation of defendants

From February to the summer of 1946, the court heard witnesses for the prosecution and defense. The speakers included prisoners of concentration camps, employees of the occupation administrations, Wehrmacht officers, diplomats, and experts. Of particular importance were the testimonies confirming the systematic nature of mass crimes, including the Holocaust.

The defendants were given the right to give explanations; Goering was the most active, trying to present the actions of the Reich leadership as defensive.

Defense position

The lawyers who spoke between March and July 1946 based their arguments around several key points: the tribunal's lack of authority, the impossibility of retroactively judging crimes not described in international law, and the collective nature of decision-making in the Nazi state.

However, the court recognized that international law already included norms prohibiting aggressive war and mass crimes, and position and official position do not exempt from responsibility.

The turning point

Dmitry Surzhik, chief specialist of the expert and analytical Department of the National Center for Historical Memory under the President of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia that the meeting that took place from March 18 to 22, 1946, when the case of Herman Goering was being investigated, could be considered the watershed of the Nuremberg trials.

— Hermann Goering perked up during the Nuremberg trials against the background of the rest of the defendants, who drooped in spirit. He felt like a leader who could lead them forward, and regarded the beginning of the cold war as a possible precursor to an acquittal. In one conversation with American psychiatrist Gilbert, the Nazi even stated that he expected to live many years before the Nuremberg trials and after Churchill's Fulton speech in March 1946, and he also expects to live long after the tribunal," Surzhik explained.

On March 18, 1946, the first interrogation of the defendant Goering took place, which was conducted by the main American prosecutor Robert Jackson. According to Surzhik, while Jackson was trying to appeal to universal human values, Goering deftly took advantage of this.

— Firstly, he confessed that he was involved in the overthrow of the Weimar Republic and the destruction of parliamentary representation in Germany. As we remember, there was only one party in the Reichstag, and it was the NSDAP party, that is, the Nazi party. He said that he carried out the destruction of the democratic system and sought to concentrate all power in the hands of Hitler. However, he later stated that he did not support Hitler on the issue of attacking the Soviet Union, as he considered it untimely and even suggested postponing it. He denied involvement in the arson of the Reichstag and asked a lot of tricky questions that put the American accusation on the defensive, causing confusion," the historian explained.

Surzhik noted that Goering asked why the Americans were accusing Germany of genocide, even though it was on American territory that the genocide of Indians had been organized several centuries earlier. The American position has shaken and lost its confidence. On March 21-22, 1946, Goering was interrogated by Roman Rudenko, the chief prosecutor from the Soviet Union. Rudenko's questions were precise, the position was evidentiary, based on many documents, including the involvement of Friedrich Paulus, who became an ace up the sleeve of the Soviet side.

— No one expected him to appear. Friedrich Paulus was one of the developers of the Barbarossa plan, he was a member of the highest circles and thoroughly showed the role of each of the top Nazi officials in the attack on the Soviet Union," said Surzhik.

Under pressure from Rudenko and his precise, clear, evidentiary questions and accusations, Goering was forced to admit that for a long time he had been the closest person to the Fuhrer on a par with Goebbels. Today, this is no longer questioned, since after Hess fled to Britain in the spring of 1941, Goering was appointed Hitler's official successor.

— Goering was forced to admit that Hitler made the main foreign policy and military-strategic decisions, but at the same time Goebbels, Bormann, Himmler, and Goering himself were involved in the discussion. In particular, Goering admitted that with his participation, a plan of action for German aviation against the Soviet Union was developed and these actions consisted in an unlimited air war, that is, in violation of all traditions and customs of warfare," Dmitry Surzhik said.

In addition, the expert added, Roman Rudenko presented data on Hitler's July 16, 1941 meeting on the goals of the war, where the territories of the Soviet Union were specifically named the future colony of the Third Reich. At this point, Goering again tried to declare that he did not share Hitler's position, and said that in the war he was concerned only about practical things: ensuring the safety of communication routes, food supplies, as necessary. In response, Goering was presented with a "green" folder, and then the Nazi had nothing to say, because it was under his supervision that the plan to plunder the Soviet Union was being prepared.

In addition, Goering was reminded of his separate statement: "Currently, Germany owns from the Atlantic to the Volga and the Caucasus the most fertile lands available in Europe. Country after country, one richer and more fertile than the other, has been conquered by our troops. You were sent there not to work for the welfare of the peoples entrusted to you, but to pump out everything possible. You have to be like the police dogs! Where there is something else that the German people may need, everything must be taken out of the warehouses and brought here as quickly as possible."

The Soviet Union proved that Goering was not only in charge of the execution of the plan and headed the Vostok economic planning headquarters, whose goal was to plunder the Soviet Union, but also incited and directed the plundering of the Soviet economy and aerial terror against the population.

— Despite this evidence, which revealed the fullness of Goering's criminal actions, he tried to win back and said that he had never insisted on slave labor or ordered the killing of millions of innocent people, but this could be regarded as an attempt to save face when playing a bad game. All the evidence about his criminal orders, orders and participation in criminal meetings has already been proven," Surzhik said.

Completion of the hearing and transfer to the conference room

On September 2, 1946, the court adjourned the hearing and retired to make a decision. The discussion took almost two months.

The judges of the four Powers agreed on a common legal position, which was to become a precedent for future international trials.

The verdict and its meaning

From September 30 to October 1, 1946, the results were announced: 12 defendants were sentenced to death, three to life imprisonment, four to long terms, three acquitted.

Goering did not wait for the execution of the sentence: a day before the execution, he committed suicide by poisoning himself with cyanide. His death became one of the most high-profile incidents around the tribunal.

The most significant outcome of the Nuremberg trials was the recognition of crimes against humanity and aggressive war as international crimes for which a specific individual is responsible.

Historical heritage

The Nuremberg Tribunal became the basis for the formation of international courts and tribunals in the second half of the 20th century, including the trials of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as well as for the creation of the International Criminal Court. His decisions legalized the principle of individual responsibility, regardless of position.

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