Expert: Tom Barnes - 10/1/2010

Question
What were three Nazi practices during World War 2 that the Allies condemned as "atrocities"?

Answer
Eddie,

I am not sure what sort of detail you are looking for, so I will briefly outline the general charges as well as some of the more specific details for each.

The three primary charges against the Nazis as set forth in Section II, Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremburg, also known simply as the “Nuremburg Trials” or “the Tribunal,” included:

•   Crimes against peace
•   War crimes
•   Crimes against humanity

Crimes against peace involved, among other things, “waging of a war of aggression.”  This was extremely controversial since all wars, by definition, are aggressive.  Nazi Germany’s initial conquests (i.e. annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland) were done through peaceful, yet threatening, means, and, in the case of the Sudetenland, with the acquiescence of the British and French.  The primary evidence of Nazi aggression included the invasions of Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg.  This specific charge was quite controversial in that while the Nazis were charged with this as a crime because of their invasion of countries with whom, prior to the invasion, a state of war did not exist, the Soviet Union, who sat in judgment of the Nazis with the other Allies, had also waged aggressive war on Poland and on Finland as well.

The second charge, war crimes, is another controversial charge.  It includes “violations of the laws or customs of war,” specifically, “the wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.”  Both sides waged essentially unrestricted air warfare on the civilian populations of the other side through the use of area or carpet bombing as well as the use of incendiaries, of fire-bombing, with which to start fires and burn towns, such as happened in the German cities of Hamburg and Dresden and the Japanese cities of Kobe and Osaka.  Likewise, there were reports on both sides, especially on the Eastern Front, of the killing of prisoners of war.

The third, and I would argue best known, charge, crimes against humanity, included the “murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war” as well as “persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.”  It was under this charge that the Nazi atrocities concerning the wholesale murder of various religious and ethnic populations, the mass deportation and forced relocation of those not killed outright, and the general inhumane treatment of surviving religious, political, and ethnic minorities would fall.  While this charge was at the very heart of the Tribunal, and it is under this charge that the great majority of Nazi atrocities would fall, it was also the first time such a charge was leveled by one side against the other.

There was one additional charge, that for “leaders, organizers, instigators, and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes.”  In other words, even if an individual’s only role was in the formulation of certain acts under the above three crimes with others actually carrying out the act or plan, that individual could be charged with participating in a conspiracy or plan to commit a crime.  For example, though many of the most senior members of Hitler’s cabinet, such as Hermann Goering and Wilhelm Keitel, did not personally kill anyone, they participated in the formulation of various plans and strategies that directly or indirectly led to their subordinates killing others or committing some other crime that fell within the realm of the other three charges.    

The specific crimes were attributed to not only individuals, such as Goering, Hans Frank, and Wilhelm Frick, but also to entire organizations, such as the Schutzstaffel (SS), the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the Geheim Staatspolizei (Gestapo), and the Reich Cabinet; therefore, even if an individual did not actively participate in one of the crimes listed above, as a member of one of the listed organizations, he/she could still be tried.  

Of course, it was known then that the Soviets were guilty as well of crimes against humanity, as was the fact that almost all Allied powers were guilty of committing one or more of the crimes with which the Nazis were being charged at Nuremburg.  Not only did the then Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Harlan Stone, openly criticize the proceedings as being one-sided and unfair, so too, albeit in a more subtle way, did the U.S. Chief Prosecutor at Nuremburg, Robert Jackson.

Hope this helps.

-Tom