Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremburg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, Volume 07

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

55581

Title

Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremburg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, Volume 07

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

This official transcript documents the International Military Tribunal's proceedings from February 5 to February 19, 1946. It features Soviet prosecution evidence detailing systematic German atrocities against civilians and POWs, including mass starvation, torture, and industrial-scale murder. The text presents harrowing testimonies regarding the extermination of Soviet prisoners, the production of soap from human fat, and the tanning of human skin, establishing a record of crimes against humanity.

Summary up to 500 words

Volume VII of the Nuremberg Trials transcripts documents the intense prosecution phase focusing on war crimes committed by German forces in occupied territories. The proceedings, held between February and early March 1946, begin with legal arguments regarding witness admissibility before shifting to the presentation of overwhelming evidence of systematic brutality. Soviet prosecutors detail the deliberate extermination of Soviet prisoners of war through starvation, freezing, and mass shootings in camps across Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and elsewhere. Testimonies describe horrific conditions where inmates slept on the dead and faced execution for mere existence. The narrative escalates with graphic accounts of industrial murder methods, including the use of mobile crematories and specialized execution apparatuses like iron plates that pole-axed victims. A particularly disturbing segment involves testimony from a laboratory assistant at the Danzig Anatomic Institute, who describes the boiling of human fat to produce soap and the chemical tanning of human skin for industrial use. High-ranking officials are noted as having inspected these facilities. The volume concludes with the presentation of documentary films depicting German atrocities in the USSR. The text serves as a historical record of the tribunal's effort to document the scale of fascist aggression, moving beyond individual murders to expose organized state-sponsored genocide and crimes against humanity. The proceedings highlight the Tribunal's refusal to be bound by ordinary evidence rules when confronting such egregious violations of human conscience. Major figures include Soviet prosecutors who presented extensive documentary evidence, witnesses like Paul Ludwig Gottlieb Waldmann who described execution methods at Sachsenhausen, and laboratory assistants who detailed the production of soap from human fat. The volume underscores the calculated nature of these crimes, noting that the Hitlerites endeavored to discover ways and means for the rapid mass extermination of human beings even prior to their attack on the Soviet Union.

LLM editorial rating

4.5/5

Download URL

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55581.epub.noimages

Local file path

data/epubs/pg55581.epub

Download EPUB

Downloaded at

2026-08-21 22:15 UTC

Categories

• History
• Politics