Nuremberg Trials Quotes

“To paraphrase Hannah Arendt—as portrayed in the recently released movie of the same name—the Nazi war criminal’s actions stemmed from her well-known phrase “banality of evil,” not as a result of mental illness but as a result of a lack of thinking. Their greatest error was delegating the process of thinking and decision-making to their higher ups. In Rudolf Höss’s case, this would have been his superiors, particularly Heinrich Himmler.

To many this conclusion is troubling, for it suggests that if everyday, “normal,” sane men and women are capable of evil, then the atrocities perpetrated during the Holocaust and other genocides could be repeated today and into the future.

Yet, this is exactly the lesson we must learn from the war criminals at Nuremberg. We must be ever wary of those who do not take responsibility for their actions. And we ourselves must be extra vigilant, particularly in this day of accelerated technological power, heightened state surveillance, and global corporate reach, that we do not delegate our thinking to others.”
― Thomas Harding

“Thus, Dr. Curry's claims that much of the fanfare and propaganda we now attribute to the Hitler Youth and the Nuremberg rallies actually originated with American customs, are definitely sound.”
― A.E. Samaan, From a "Race of Masters" to a "Master Race": 1948 to 1848

“Of the tens of thousands of words spoken during the Nuremberg Nazi trial, the word "eugenics" was said only once.”
― A.E. Samaan, From a "Race of Masters" to a "Master Race": 1948 to 1848

“Lauterpacht's intellectual development coincided with this crucial moment. Engaged n Zionist activity, he nevertheless feared nationalism. The philosopher Martin Buber, who lectured and led in Lemberg became an intellectual influence, opposing Zionism as a form of abhorrent nationalism and holding to the view that a Jewish state in Palestine would inevitably oppress the Arab inhabitants. Lauterpacht attended Buber's lectures and found himself attracted to such ideas, identifying himself as a disciple of Buber's. This was an early fluting of skepticism about the power of the state.”
― Philippe Sands, East West Street: On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity"

“For the commission to do a great building, I would have sold my soul like Faust. Now I had found my Mephistopheles. He seemed no less engaging than Goethe's.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“When the English prosecuting attorney observes that “from Mein Kampf the road led straight to the gas chambers at Maidenek,” he touches on the real subject of the trial, that of the historic responsibilities of Western nihilism and the only one which, nevertheless, was not really discussed at Nuremberg, for reasons only too evident. A trial cannot be conducted by announcing the general culpability of a civilization. Only the actual deeds which, at least, stank in the nostrils of the entire world were brought to judgment.”
― Albert Camus, The Rebel

“We have absolutely no time for the monsters who try to defend Yahweh’s order to Abraham to kill his son, or Abraham’s agreement to do so. He was free to choose what was right or to “obey orders” like a Nazi. Like the Nazis, he was afraid (rightly) that his “God” would kill him if he refused. But the Nuremberg Trials showed contempt for the only-obeying-orders position, and we hold it in contempt too.”
― Adam Weishaupt, Abraham: The World's First Psychopath

“After Germany's collapse in 1918 Jewry became very powerful in Germany in all spheres of life, especially in the political, general intellectual and cultural, and, most particularly, the economic spheres. The men came back from the front, had nothing to look forward to, and found a large number of Jews who had come in during the war from Poland and the East, holding positions, particularly economic positions. It is known that, under the influence of the war and business concerned with it -- demobilization, which offered great possibilities for doing business, inflation, deflation -- enormous shifts and transfers took place in the propertied classes. There were many Jews who did not show the necessary restraint and who stood out more and more in public life, so that they actually invited certain comparisons because of their numbers and the position they controlled in contrast to the German people. In addition there was the fact that particularly those parties which were avoided by nationally minded people also had Jewish leadership out of proportion to the total number of Jews. That did not apply only to Germany, but also to Austria, which we have always considered a part of Germany. There the entire Social Democratic leadership was almost exclusively in Jewish hands. They played a very considerable part in politics, particularly in the left-wing parties, and they also became very prominent in the press in all political directions. (14 March 1946)”
― Hermann Göring, Trial of the Major war Criminals: before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946

“September 11, 1949 Another six weeks have passed. One month after another. Somewhere I have read that boredom is the one torment of hell that Dante forgot.”
― Albert Speer, Spandau: The Secret Diaries

“I did not want a war, nor did I bring it about. I did everything to prevent it by negotiations. After it had broken out, I did everything to assure victory. Since the three greatest powers on earth, together with many other nations, were fighting against us, we finally succumbed to their tremendous superiority. 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. (31 August 1946)”
― Hermann Göring, Trial of the Major war Criminals: before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946

“We didn't do a good enough job to make sure something like the Second World War could never happen again. We only looked at one side of the story. There were two monsters, Hitler and Stalin, and the regimes behind them, but in Nurmberg only the Nazis were tried. There was no justice for the Soviet regime.”
― Victoria Amelina

“Only in the hearts of those who knew him with all his qualities and all his faults and recognized that willingness to sacrifice himself for his country which no human weakness could entirely conceal, in the hearts of the soldiers and workers and peasants who still speak of “our Hermann” with a sense of personal loss, no order of the International Military Tribunal can cancel the belief that Hermann Göring has received from his Creator another justice and another mercy than those which he received at the hands of his fellow men.”
― Charles Bewley, Hermann Goring and the Third Reich; A Biography Based on Family and Official Records