The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

The Trial of Adolf Eichmann
Defence Submission Notes 2


Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann, Eichmann trial, holocaust, Jewish holocaust
1. It has already been emphasized above that the war crimes imputed to the Accused in substance are crimes against humanity within the meaning of the Nazi Punishment Law; it is therefore unnecessary to enter into a separate discussion of the offence of war crime, as defined in the Nazi Punishment Law.

2. The same view is held, in respect of art. 10 (1) (c) of the Control Council Law No. 10 and the attitude of the Allied Powers, by Feldmann, Das Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit, 1948, p. 15.

3. A detailed description of the development is to be found in Schottlaender's article: Die geschichtliche Entwicklung des Satzes nulla poena sine lege, Strafrechtliche Abhandlungen, No. 132, Breslau, 1911; see also Maurach, Deutsches Strafrecht, Allgemeiner Teil, 2nd ed., 1958, p. 85.

4. See Jescheck, Verantwortlichkeit, p. 239.

5. See in this respect also ibid., p. 238.

6. See generally: Friedrich Christian Schroeder, Die Grundsaetze der Strafgesetzgebung der UdSSR und der Unionsrepubliken, Studien des Instituts fuer Ostrecht, Vol. 10, 1960, p. 24.

7. Ibid., pp. 24-25.

8. Law Reports 1933, I K. B., 529 - quoted also by Schoenke, ibid., p. 11.

9. See reference in Schoenke, Materialien zum englisch- amerikanischen Strafrecht, 4th supplement to Deutsche Rechtszeitschrift, 1948, p. 4.

10. See ibid., p. 5; Jescheck, Verantwortlichkeit, pp. 236- 237.

11. Der Geist des englischen Rechts, 3rd ed., Goettingen, 1956, p. 60, note 1 [the quotation from Holdsworth is a re- translation, Radbruch's book not being available to the translator and no mention being made where Holdsworth's statement may be found - Translator].

12. United States Military Tribunal IV, Case No. 11 (the case of the "Wilhelmstrasse"), dissenting opinion p. 43.

13. Pal, op. cit., pp. 17-18.

14. Jeschek, Verantwortlichkeit, p. 232.

15. In agreement: ibid., p. 233; Schoenke, op. cit., . p. 4.

16. Ibid.

17. See, inter alia: Schoenke-Schroeder, Kommentar zum StGB, 9th ed., 1959, Ann. XIV to para. 2.

18. Legal Control of International Conflicts, London, 1954, p. 368.

19. Vorschule der Rechtsphilosophie, 2nd ed. Goettingen, 1959, p. 112.

20. Der Geist des englischen Rechts, p. 60, note s.

21. In this context it has not been overlooked that the original meaning of the ex-post-facto prohibition has been to guarantee that criminal proceedings be held in a court of law; see Maurach, Deutsches Strafrecht, Allgemeiner Teil, p. 85; Sax, Grundsaetze der Strafrechtspflege, in Bettermann- Nipperdey-Scheuner, Die Grundrechte, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1959, p. 992, note 250.

22. Stone's comments (Legal Controls, p. 368) are characteristic for this kind of argumentation.

23. Radbruch, Vorschule der Rechtsphilosophie, p. 112.

24. In this sense i.a.: Smith, The Nuremberg Trials, in Free Europe, Vol. 13 (1946), p. 202; Pal, ibid., p. 12; Quincy Wright, The Law of the Nuremberg Trial, Am. J. Int. Law, 41, 1947, p. 53; Memorandum of the Evangelical Church, p. 22; Morgan, The Great Assize, p. 23; in favour of the recognition of the rule as a principle of international law - see also Donnedieu de Vabres, Principes, p. 429 and Schoenke-Schroeder, Note III 5 to paragraph 2; Lord Hankey, Politics, Trials and Errors, p. 131 ff.

25. Smith, The Nuremberg Trials, p. 202.

26. Smith, The Crisis in the Law of Nations, p. 46.

27. See, e.g., Kelsen, Peace through Law, p. 87; Schick, The Nuremberg Trial and the International Law of the Future, Am. J. Int. Law, 41, 1947, p. 793; Viscount Maugham, in his preface to Morgan, The Great Assize, p. vii.

28. See Sax, Grundsaetze der Strafrechtspflege, . p. 992; Maurach, Deutsches Strafrecht, Allgemeiner Teil, pp. 85-86; also Bauer, Die Kriegsverbrecher vor Gericht, p. 167. As to prior origins, see the authors just mentioned, ibid., and Schottlaender, Die geschichtliche Entwicklung des Satzes "Nulla poena sine lege," 1911, passim.

29. Maurach, Deutsches Strafrecht, Allgemeiner Teil (2), p. 84.

30. See Donnedieu de Vabres, Principes, p. 407.

31. Wintrich, Die Bedeutung der "Menschenwuerde" fuer die Anwendung des Rechts, Bay VB1, 1957, p. 137.

32. In the first place, Forsthoff is to be mentioned: Die Bindung an Gesetz und Recht (art.20 (3) GG) DOeV 1959, p. 41 ff; Der Jurist in der industriellen Gesellschaft, NJW 1960, p. 1273 ff.

33. Ibid., p. 41.

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid.

37. Verantwortlichkeit der Staatsorgane, p. 226.

38. Schwarzenberger, Power Politics, A Study of International Society, New York, 1951, p. 224.

39. Ibid., p. 224; a similar view is held also by Bauer, Die Kriegsverbrecher vor Gericht, 1945, p. 82; see also Lord Hankey, Politics, Trials and Errors, Oxford, 1950, p. 9; most critically also Morgan, The Great Assize, pp. 22-23.

40. Schwarzenberger, op.cit.

41. This reserve is expressed in various passages of Schwarzenberger's book: pp. 224, 230, 635; see Bauer, op. cit., p. 84: "This universal opinion [is]) a very nebulous term which it is extremely difficult to define more concisely."

42. Smith, The Crisis in the Law of Nations, p. 17 ff.

43 . Ibid., p. 95.

44 . In Strupp-Schlochauer, Woerterbuch des Voelkerrechts, Vol. I, 2nd ed., 1960 - item "Ethos, Internationales" (p. 444 ff.).

45. See Schwarzenberger, Power Politics, p. 636.

46 . See ibid.

47 . As quoted by Schwarzenberger, ibid., p. 636.

48. See ibid.

49. Ibid., p. 636; see also in this context the similar note by the same author in Current Legal Problems, 1956, p. 293; Kelsen arrives at the same result (Principles of International Law, 1952, p. 152) - ("only the character of a recommendation").

50. Schwarzenberger, op. cit., p. 636.

51. As quoted by Schwarzenberger, ibid..

52. Ibid., p. 638.

53. Forsthoff, Bindung, p. 41.

54 . See The Trial of the Main War Criminals in the International Military Tribunal, Exhibit 630 - PS, Vol. XXVI, p. 169.

55 . In the collection "Der Fuehrer ins Nichts. Eine Diagnose Adolf Hitlers," with further contributions by Edith Eucken-Erdsieck, Gert Buchheim and H. G. Adler, Rastatt, 1960.

56. Ibid.

57. Emphasis added.

58. RGB1. I, p. 83.

59. See Hofer, Der Nationalsozialismus, Dokumente 1933-1945, Frankfurt, 1957, p. 43.

60. See also Hofer, ibid.

61. RGB1 I, p. 151.

62. RGB1 I, p. 141.

63 . RGB1 I, p. 134.

64. See in detail the references in Poliakov-Wulf, Das Dritte Reich und seine Diener, Berlin, 1936, p. 231 ff.

65. RGB1 I, p. 372.

66. A complete description of the development is made by Kern, Geschichte des Gerichtsverfassungsrechts, 1954, p. 197 ff.

67. In this sense, expressly Freisler, Der Rechtsstaat, Deutsche Juristenzeitung 1937, p. 151 ff, 152.

68. Krauss-v.Schweinichen, Disputation ueber den Rechtsstaat, Hamburg, 1935, p. 30 ff.

69. Ibid., p. 30.

70. Ibid, p. 86; Schmitt's sneering remark on F.J. Stahl, one of the most remarkable scholars of German constitutional law, is likewise noteworthy: "...the miserable artifices of a Jolson-Stahl whose German-Christian mask has been torn off so convincingly by the advocate of the thesis."

71. Lange, Vom Gesetzesstaat zum Richterstaat, Tuebingen, 1934.

72. See, e.g.,Schutz des Volkes oder des Rechtsbrechers?, Deutsches Strafrecht, 1935, p. 1 ff; Richter, Recht und Gesetz, Deutsche Justiz, 1934, p. 1333 ff; Guertner- Freisler, Das neue Strafrecht, 1936, p. 33 ff; Freisler, Der Rechtsstaat, Deutsche Justiz, 1937, p. 151 ff.

73. Deutsche Justiz, 1937, p. 152. Emphasis added.

74. Maurach, Deutsches Strafrecht, 1935, p. 16.

75. In Guertner-Freisler, Das neue Strafrecht, p. 22 - set in spaced type in the original.

76. Maurach, Deutsches Strafrecht, 1935, p. 13.

77. OGHSt 1, 1 ff (4-5).

78. OGHSt 2, 231 ff (232).


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