Hermann Göring Makes Final Statement To The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg

Image size: 1600 x 1335 pixel. 275 KB
Date: Friday, 31 August 1945
Place: Nürnberg, Bavaria, Germany
Photographer: Unknown

Former Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring (January 12, 1893 - October 15, 1946), delivers his final statement to the International Military Tribunal. Göring denied any complicity in the Holocaust, saying, "I stand up for the things that I have done, but I deny most emphatically that my actions were dictated by the desire to subjugate foreign peoples by wars, to murder them, to rob them, or to enslave them, or to commit atrocities or crimes. The only motive which guided me was my ardent love for my people, its happiness, its freedom, and its life. And for this I call on the Almighty and my German people to witness." Göring, who had joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and risen to become Reichskanzler (Reichchancellor) Adolf Hitler's second in command, was convicted on October 1, 1946 of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; waging a war of aggression; war crimes; and crimes against humanity. Back row, left to right: Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Grossadmiral (Grand Admiral) Karl Dönitz (September 16, 1891 - December 24, 1980) sentenced to ten years; Grossadmiral Erich Raeder (April 24, 1876 - November 6, 1960), sentenced to life imprisonment and released due to ill health on September 26, 1955; head of the Hitler Jugend (HJ, Hitler Youth) Baldur von Schirach (May 9, 1907 - August 8, 1974), sentenced to 20 years in prison and released on September 30, 1966; Ernst "Fritz" Sauckel (October 27, 1894 – October 16, 1946), Generalbevollmachtigter fur den Arbeitseinsatz (General Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment), sentenced to death and hanged; Colonel General Alfred Jodl (May 10, 1890 – October 16, 1946), Chef des Wehrmachtsfuhrungsstabes, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Chief of Operation Staff, High Command of the Armed Forces) sentenced to death and hanged; Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Koningen (October 29, 1879 - May 2, 1969), Chancellor of Germany in 1932, Vice-Chancellor under Hitler in 1933-1934, acquitted but tried under new charges in 1947 and sentenced to eight years, released in 1949; Doctor Artur Seyss-Inquart (July 22, 1892 - October 16, 1946), Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of Austria, Deputy Governor of Occupied Poland and Reichkommissar during the occupation of the Netherlands, sentenced to death and hanged; and Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, (March 19, 1905 - September 1, 1981), architect, Minister of Armaments and Munitions, sentenced to twenty years, released September 30, 1966. Front row, left to right: Hermann Wilhelm Göring (January 12, 1893 - October 15, 1946), Reichsmarschall, Commander of the Luftwaffe 1935-1945, Chief of the 4-Year Plan 1936-1945, and several departments of the SS, committed suicide the night before his execution; Rudolf Hess (April 26, 1894 - August 17, 1987), Stellvertreter des Fuhrers (Deputy to Adolf Hitler), flew to Scotland on May 10, 1941, sentenced to life imprisonment and committed suicide (former Warden Eugene K. Bird and others say he was murdered) in Spandau Prison; Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (April 30, 1893 - October 16, 1946), sentenced to death and hanged; Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Wilhelm Keitel (September 22, 1882 - October 16, 1946), Commander in Chief, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, sentenced to death and hanged; Ernst Kaltenbrunner (October 4, 1903 - October 16, 1946), Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Head Office) Director, sentenced to death and hanged; Alfred Rosenberg (January 12, 1893 - October 16, 1946), Nazi racial theorist and after July 1941 Reichsministerium fur die besetzten Ostgebiete (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories), sentenced to death and hanged; Hans Frank (May 23, 1900 - October 16, 1946), lawyer and Generalgouverneur fur die besetzten polnischen Gebiete (Governor-General of the General Government for the occupied Polish territories), sentenced to death and hanged; Wilhelm Frick (March 12, 1877 - October 16, 1946), lawyer, Minister of the Interior 1933-1943, Reichsprotektorat Bohmen und Mahren (Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) 1943-1945, sentenced to death and hanged; Julius Streicher (February 12, 1885 - October 16, 1946), editor of Der Sturmer and Gauleiter (Shire-leader) of Franconia 1922-1945, sentenced to death and hanged; and Walter Funk (August 18, 1890 - May 31, 1960), Minister of Economics and head of the Reichsbank, sentenced to life imprisonment, released due to ill health on May 16, 1957. The official languages of the International Military Tribunal were nglish, Russian, French, and German. A simultaneous translation system designed by IBM and run by four teams of interpreters (Two teams for two shifts, a standby team, and a team for other languages like Polish and Yiddish) would translate the proceedings at the speed of sixty words per minute. Speakers were signaled by flags to speed up, stop, or slow down.

Source:

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii0096