Assessing Guilt: Nazi Crimes and Postwar Trials

"Nazism," as German Jewish writer Victor Klemperer wrote in 1946, had "permeated the flesh and blood of the people through single words, idioms, and sentence structures which were imposed on them in a million repetitions and taken on board mechanically and unconsciously."

Louis Solmitz, Hamburg schoolteacher, 1932

Is there really a direct link between words and actions? Can words and images inspire people to commit acts of genocide? When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, the Allies faced the daunting task of reforming German society and reeducating its population after twelve years of Nazi rule and a steady diet of hate propaganda. "Nazism," as German Jewish writer Victor Klemperer wrote in 1946, had "permeated the flesh and blood of the people." The Allies forced Germans to confront their recent past by exposing the criminality of the Nazi regime through prosecution of the nation’s leaders and by eradicating the vestiges of the Führer cult and Joseph Goebbels’s propaganda.

International Military Tribunal: An Unprecedented Trial

During the war, the Allies warned Germany and the other Axis powers of their intent to punish government, military, or Nazi Party officials responsible for criminal actions. The International Military Tribunal opened in Nuremberg on November 20, 1945. By publicizing the trial of top Nazi leaders to the German population, the Allies hoped to discredit the Hitler regime and expose the scope of aggression and mass murder. 250 journalists from across the globe were present at the Palace of Justice. To ensure that the German population received news of the trials, the Allied occupation authorities increased the newsprint allotment for the German press. Radio stations broadcast reports with commentary several times daily. From December 7, 1945, newsreels carried regular reports to the global movie-going audience.

Is There a Link Between Words and Actions?

The key challenge the prosecution faced in its cases against Julius Streicher and Hans Fritzsche was to prove a direct, causal link between the activities of Nazi propagandists and the implementation of a policy of aggression or mass murder. Once again, is there really a direct link between words and actions? The Streicher case proved the stronger of the two: the 22-year run of Der Stürmer provided ample evidence of Streicher's fanatical hatred for Jews and calls for action against them. The tribunal found Streicher guilty on the charge of crimes against humanity, concluding that 23 articles published in Der Stürmer between 1938 and 1941 had called for the extermination of the Jews.

Denazification

Long before the war ended, the Allies pledged to destroy German militarism and Nazism. Following Germany's defeat in May 1945, the occupation authorities began implementing that war aim. At the Potsdam Conference (July-August 1945), the victorious nations laid down the fundamental principles for Germany’s reformation: the nation was to be completely disarmed and demilitarized; its armed forces abolished, and its population "de-nazified" and re-educated. During the immediate postwar period in Allied-occupied Germany, "denazification" entailed renaming streets, parks, and buildings that had Nazi or militaristic associations; removing monuments, statues, signs, and emblems linked with Nazism or militarism; confiscating Nazi Party property; eliminating Nazi propaganda from education, the German media, and the many religious institutions which had pro-Nazi leaders and clergymen; and prohibiting Nazi or military parades, anthems, or the public display of Nazi symbols.

Accepting Guilt

Ordinary Germans following postwar trials of propagandists saw how media figures like Julius Streicher, in order to avoid the hangman’s noose, or filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, in order to save her career and reputation, failed to take responsibility for their involvement in Nazi crimes and demonstrated little remorse. Hans Fritzsche's statement as a defendant at Nuremberg was the exception: "After the totalitarian form of government has brought about the catastrophe of the murder of 5 millions, I consider this form of government wrong even in times of emergency. I believe any kind of democratic control, even a restricted democratic control, would have made such a catastrophe impossible." The former radio broadcaster concluded, "He who, after Auschwitz, still clings to racial politics has rendered himself guilty." It would take new generations of Germans, including scholars, born after the war and active in the last three decades of the twentieth century, to raise questions about the behavior of their parents and grandparents during the Nazi years.

Additional Propagandists on Trial

Postwar Allied prosecutions of Nazi propagandists continued after the International Military Tribunal, but the mixed results of the subsequent trials did little to clarify the legal problem of linking words and actions. In addition to the U.S. Military Tribunal conviction of former Reich Press Chief Otto Dietrich, German "denazification" courts tried and convicted Nazi press baron Max Amann, film director (Der ewige Jude) Fritz Hippler, and Der Stürmer cartoonist Philipp Ruprecht (known to readers as "Fips"). Other propagandists were acquitted, including film director (Triumph of the Will) Leni Riefenstahl. A British court convicted U.S.-born William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) of treason for his broadcasts of Nazi propaganda and he was executed. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husayni, who had broadcast pro-Axis propaganda on the radio from Berlin to the Arab world, was arrested in 1945 in the French occupied zone of Germany. He fled to Egypt, where he continued to produce and disseminate anti-Zionist, anti-Jewish, and anti-Israel propaganda.

For the First Time in History

For the first time in history, war crimes courts tried propagandists—individuals whose spoken words, images, and writings had contributed to Nazi aggression, persecution, and mass murder. Postwar trials affirmed the important role that propaganda played in maintaining popular support for the Nazi regime and in justifying the persecution of Jews and other victims of the Holocaust era. The prosecution of propagandists for "crimes against humanity" established an important precedent invoked by international bodies and courts to the present day.

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