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International Conference on Military Trials : London, 1945
Illustrative Draft of Indictment, Submitted by British Delegation, July 17, 1945
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DRAFT LIST OF DEFENDANTS AND INDICTMENT

GOERING, HESS, RIBBENTROP, LEY, KEITEL, KALTENBRUNNER, ROSENBERG, HANS FRANK, FRICK AND STREICHER.

[For consideration: Von Schirach, Sauckel.)

1. That between the 30th day of January, 1933 and the 8th day of May, 1945 the defendants unlawfully conspired together and with other persons to devise and carry out a common plan aimed at the establishment of complete German domination of Europe and other countries, which plan included and was intended to include and was reasonably calculated to involve the use of unlawful means for its accomplishment: TO wit

2. For the purpose and in pursuance of the common plan the defendants organised in Germany large forces for the terrorisation and elimination of dissent from or disagreement with the carrying out of the plan, and for the suppression of the Jews and in particular, the defendants established and maintained the Schutz Staffel, the Gestapo, the Hitler Youth Organisation and the system of concentration camps.

3. The defendants repudiated and broke Clause of the Treaty of Versailles by the establishment of a Luftwaffe of which establishment they gave official notice to foreign governments on the 9th March, 1935.

4. The defendants broke Clauses and of the said Treaty by reintroducing conscription in Germany and fixing the peacetime strength of the German Army at some 550,000 men by Reich Decree dated the 16th March, 1935.

5. That the defendants broke Clauses 42 to 44 of the said Treaty by sending Armed Forces marching into the demilitarised Rhineland zone of which notice was given to foreign Governments (namely, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Italy) on the said date.

6. That having entered into treaties, pacts and agreements and having given assurances in purported pursuance of the maintenance of peace with neighboring countries the defendants broke such treaties, pacts, agreements and assurances as hereinafter set out.

Treaty etc. Breach

(a) Agreement with Schuschnigg, 11th July, 1936.- Invasion of Austria, 11/12th March, 1938.

(b) Four Power Agreement concluded at Munich on the 8th March, 1939. Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 15th September, 1938.

(c) Non-aggression pact with Denmark, 31st May, 1939. Invasion of Denmark, 9th April, 1940.

(d) Non-aggression pact with Russia, 23rd August, 1939. Attack on Russia, 22nd June, 1941.

(e) Assurance of neutrality given to Yugoslavia. Attack on Yugoslavia, 6th April, 1941.

The Locarno Agreement of 10th May, 1925 and assurances given to Belgium on the 30th January 1937 and 26th August 1939. Invasion of Belgium 1940.

(g) Assurance given to Luxembourg on 26th August, 1939. Invasion of Luxembourg, 10th May, 1940.

(h) Assurances given to Holland on 26th August and 6th October, 1939. Invasion of Holland, 10th May, 1940.

(i) Poland]

7. In breach of Article 1 of Hague Convention No. III of 1907, in pursuance of the common plan and otherwise in breach of International Law, the defendants launched a war of aggression against and invaded the countries mentioned in paragraph 5 of this indictment on the dates set out in the column headed "Breach". 8. In the course of the wars commenced by the invasions mentioned in the two preceding paragraphs hereof, the defendants committed violations of the laws and usages of war contrary to article and of the Land Warfare Regulations attached to Hague Convention No. IV of 190 , and further carried on such wars in a manner which was necessarily calculated to involve wholesale and atrocious breaches of the said laws and usages of war by performing and doing acts of which the following are typical examples:

(a) The defendants imprisoned nationals of occupied countries in concentration camps and prisons and there used them for forced labour, ill-treated them and annihilated them: and in particular, at the establishments set up at Belsen, [Ravensbruck] Buchenwald, Maidanek, Auschwitz [Wught] [Gin Norway] and Natzweiler.

(b) The defendants used torture and in particular, at the establishments mentioned in the last preceding paragraph, and at Breendonck and at in Paris.

(c) The defendants deported civilian nationals from every occupied country for the purpose of forced labour and for other illegal purposes.

(d) The defendants ill-treated and murdered the civilian populations of occupied countries.

(e) The defendants inflicted general penalties on the nationals of occupied countries, including the destruction of civilian communities, towns and villages: and in particular, Lidice, Oradour-sur-Glane and Kraguevacs.

(f)The defendants adopted a policy of murder and ill-treatment of prisoners of war.

(g)The defendants adopted a policy of wholesale plunder of occupied countries.


Source:
International Conference on Military Trials : London, 1945
Report of Robert H. Jackson, United States Representative to the International Conference on Military Trials : London, 1945
International organization and conference series; II
European and British Commonwealth 1
Department of State Publication 3080
Washington, DC : Government Printing Office, 1949

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