Nazi Hearings
Following the conclusion of World War II, Nazis were charged in many different hearings. Important changes were made to the Control Council Law No. 10 by the Allies because “German jurists exerted pressure on the Allies to prevent national or district courts from using Control Council Law No. 10.” The changes allowed the Allies to deal with “war crimes, conspiracy to commit war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity”.
German law provided for crimes resulting in death other than murder. “Most mass killings in the Political Department at Auschwitz followed some sort of regulated procedure. The murder and torture of children would get a murder conviction due to ‘malicious intent’”. For a case to be a ‘murder case’ the only criteria that needed to be present was “thirst for blood, base motives, maliciousness, and brutality which come into question in connection with the prosecuting of Nazi war crimes”. Along with the criteria “lust for killing and sadism” were also needed for prosecution. In charging a person assumed to be responsible for murder, a common question the courts asked was whether excessive cruelty and the maltreatment of prisoners lead to death. If not, "the punishment of these people would not have a high priority" for the case to be pursued publicly.
"Defendants who had acted on their own initiative or shown base motives or excessive cruelty were murderers: many who had not exhibited such behavior (or against whom sufficient evidence of such behavior was lacking) were judged guilty of manslaughter according to the German Penal Code. Many people who murdered a Jew or Gypsy’s during the Holocaust were charged with “merely aiding and abetting murder”."
Read more about this topic: Nazi War Crimes
Famous quotes containing the words nazi and/or hearings:
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
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