REVIEWS
| Date | 01 January 1948 |
| Published date | 01 January 1948 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1948.tb00077.x |
THE
TRIAL
OF GERMAN
MAJOR
WAR CRIMINALS. Proceedings
of the Intcrnational Military Tribunal sitting
at
Nurem-
berg, Germany. (London.: H.M.S.O. Part
4, 443
pp.,
6s.
Gd.
Part
5,
870
pp.,
5s.
Gd. Part
0,
340
pp.,
5s.
Part
7,
330
pp.,
5s.
Part
8,
807
pp.,
4s.
ad.)
Tm
five volumes now under review comprise thc official record
of the proceedings of the Nuremberg Trial for the period
January
7
to March
11,
1940.
During this pcriod the attention
of the court was taken up with the prosecution case against
each of the individual defendants, and the accounts read almost
like a German Dictionary of National Biography. In addition,
one finds here the case against aggressive war. In Part.
4,
M.
de Menthon argued the illegality of war, and it is
possible
to find in his argument the precursor of the portion in the
judgment which dealt with thc criminality of war under the
Pact of Paris, although that international instrument merely
declared that the High Contracting Parties
‘
solemnly declare
.
.
.
that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of
international controversies and renounce
it
as an ins,trumcnt
of ncitional policy
’.
Despite the absence of any mention of
criminality M. de Menthon declared that ‘since 1928 Inter-
national Law of war has emerged from its framework of
regulations.
It
has gonc beyond the empiricism of the Hague
Convention to qualify the legal foundation of recourse to force.
Every war of aggression is illegal, and the men who bear the
responsibility for bringing
it
about place themselves beyond
the pale of law. What does all this mean,
if
not that
all
acts,
committed as
a
consequence of this aggression, for the carrying
on of the struggle
thus
undertaken, will cease to have the
juridical chnracter of acts of war?
. .
.
Acts committed in
the execution
of
a war are assaults on persons and goods which
are themsclves prohibited, but are sanctioned in
all
legisla-
tions. Tlic state of war could make them legitimate only
if
the war itself was legitimate. Inasmuch as this is no longer
the case, since the ICellogg-J3riand Pact, thcse acts become
purely and simply coniinon law crimes.
.
;
.
Any recourse to
war
is
a
recourse to means which are in themselves criminal
’.
(pp.
350-851.)
There
is
some measure of false logic here,
however, for
it
does not follow that because a particular action
is
illegal, it
is
also criminal; thus a general restraint of trade
has constantly been held to be illegal, but it has not therefore
been held to be criminal, for, as Kenny points out, crimes
are
104
.I.\S.
I!)1X
R
KV
I
V.\VS
103
.’
wrongs
whose
s:inction
is
punitivc
’,
riiitl
tlicrc
is
no sanction
postriliitcti
‘in
I~ic
I’rivt
of
Pnris.
‘rhcsc volriiiic-s
also
iiic4ritlc tlir cvidcnw
roiincctctl
with
War Criiiicns
aiid
Criiiics
ngniiist
IIumaiiity
iind
in
Part
4,
p.
360,
tlic rittcwipt
is
nintlc
to provc tliiit Article
C,
of tlic
Tri1)iiiiaI’s Charter iiit.rocluret1.
no
iiinovritions into
tlic
con-
ception of t:riinc*s, cvcn in tlic iiit.rrntitiona1
sphcrc.
Thc
cvideiicic
given
I)y
kvi
t
n(:sscs
wlio
pnssctl
through tlic various
conceiitrntioii
cnni
ps
of
conditions
iii
tliosc
camps iiiakcs
nauscnting iwulitig,
riiicl
it
is
oftcn
tliflicrilt
to helicvc that
humnii Iwings
c:ould
hnvc sunk
so
low,
cspct*inlly wlicn reading
the ac*counts of cxpcriments on human 1)eings (see,
(!.g.,
Part
3,
pp.
182-280;
Part
7,
pp.
70-78;
Part
8,
pp.
7-21).
It
is
diflicult to renlise that military and
civilinn
prisoncrs
suffered such treatment and lived to givc evidence at
Nurembcrg.
The proceedings under rcvicw also
den1
with the
casc
against
the intlictcd organisntions
;
the aggression in the
East
and the
methods of terror employed against Slav and, particularly,
Russian personnel
;
tlic murder of
$0
R.A.F. oficers from
Stcilng
Z,?/./t
111
;
and tlic conclusion of the Prosecution
case.
Part
8
concludes in the middle of thc.cvidence for the defence
of Gocring and reproduces the testhony of General of the
Luftwaffe Karl von Bodenschatz and tlie incomplete evidence
of Field-Marslial
of
the Luftwaffe Erlia.rd Milch, whose memory
always appeared deficient concerning any mtttter which
might
hnve iiicriminatcd Goering.
Wlicn
this
series
of
reports
has
been
completed thev
will
constitute
a
very va1ual)le source
of
cfocuinent‘s and statcnients
connected with the risc and
fall
of
Hitler’s
Rcich,
and in con-
junction with the series of Law Reports of Trials of War
Crimitials now king published by H.M.S.O. will provide
material for
a
det,ailed and comprehensive study of war crimes
in
all
their aspects during the recent war. From the point
of view of the
gcncral
public
it
would be valuable if selected
pieces
of
the evicleiice could be publislied separately in small
and readable pamphlets, for the recent
Pcngiiin
by
Cooper
only dcals with the trial itself, while what is needed arc photo-
graphs to bring home to the public that in modern total wars
law
tends to givc wny to necessity, and necessity knows no
limitation. War today has rcvcrtcd to the old pre-humanist
conception of extermination, in the
process
of which any
.method,
however horrible,
is
to
be
expected
and
even enjoined.
L.
C.
GREEN.
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