The Defendants

In Berlin's high-ceilinged Kammergericht last week the International Military Tribunal formally indicted 24 top Nazis as war criminals. For 50 solemn minutes the session proceeded in English, Russian, French and German. The presiding judge, Russian Major General I. T. Nikitchenko, quoted from the 25,000 word indictment: the U.S., France, Britain and Russia "hereby accuse [the defendants] as guilty . . . of crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity and of a common plan or conspiracy to commit these crimes. . . ."

Next day Allied officers handed copies of the indictment to each of the defendants in the lightless cells of Nurnberg prison. Informed that they could choose their attorneys from prepared lists, the indicted reacted variously:

P: Slave-labor Boss Fritz Sauckel: "I would like to communicate with my family. Is it all right?"

P: Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop: "I would like to think this over before saying anything."

P: Chief of Staff Colonel General Alfred Jodl: "From what category does counsel come? Do I choose a criminal or an international lawyer?"

P: Ex-Minister of Economics and Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht, who had been highly indignant at being identified with the other criminals: "My son-in-law is a jurist, but not a lawyer. I would like to talk to him."

P: Jew-baiter Julius Streicher: "Is this list [of approved attorneys] for somebody who is antiSemitic? I could not ask a Jew to defend me."

P: Minister of Economics Walther Funk wept: "I can request counsel at once, can't I? I am trying to preserve my health. I have the greatest interest in the conclusion of this trial."

P: Reich Marshal Hermann Goering: "Of course, I want counsel. But it is even more important to have a good interpreter."

P: Ex-Deputy Fuehrer Rudolf Hess, just back from his four-year exile in Britain, professed a dull indifference to everything, seemed to be preparing to plead insanity.

P: Labor Front Leader Robert Ley: "I don't see how you can make laws after things have been done. Even God first made the Ten Commandments and judged people by them afterward."

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