Important issue of the French weekly Le Monde Illustré, dated September 28, 1946 – capturing the atmosphere of tension in and around the courtroom in Nuremberg just days before the sentencing of the Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials, held on October 1, 1946.
On the front page appears a photograph of Hermann Göring in the courtroom just days before the verdict was delivered, with a caption describing him as ״the last remnant” of Nazism making his final appearance on stage: “Grand Master of the Luftwaffe, who on October 1, 1940, from his observation post declared: ‘We have defeated England, ’ will hear the verdict of the Allies on October 1, 1946…”. The opening article of the issue is titled: “The Nuremberg Tribunal: Human Justice Before Divine Justice.” Correspondent Jean Boulier reports: “The verdict in Nuremberg will be delivered in less than a week, after the fate of the defendants is determined by the temporary judges. Another authority, whose ruling we shall never know, the judgment of G-d will deal with the guilty.” He notes that the world had expected the punishment of the Nazi war criminals to arrive swiftly, and that as the proceedings dragged on, global expectations for harsh sentences diminished. Yet he adds: “Nevertheless, when the blood-stained curtain falls on the tragedy of Nuremberg with the final breath of the condemned, we are convinced that the sacred phrase shall be spoken: Justice has been done.” He further emphasizes that for the first time in history, it was clearly established that international law refuses to regard a soldier as a machine, possessing no more conscience than a rifle. A man who carries out orders from his superiors without question is not simply a functionary, he is a monster: “Whatever the verdict may be, we can already salute it, for it is a verdict. It has already toppled the two bloodthirsty idols we mentioned earlier: sovereignty, and the passive obedience that accompanies it. In doing so, it opens a great hope for humanity.”
Later in the issue appears an article by Professor Edmond Vermeil on the psychological state of Nazi Germany after the verdict. In his words, he points out that Hitler’s regime, above all, sought to destroy international reality in all its forms, and it is only fitting that international reality is now the one to judge its men. He also addresses the extended duration of the trial. While the public had wished to see the Nazi criminals punished much earlier, he argues that the length was necessary in order to present the scale of the documentation and the gravity of the crimes, to lay bare, one by one, the horrifying evidence of the Third Reich’s atrocities, even before justice was carried out against the criminals themselves. The British prosecution, in particular, had a clear intent to promote the concept of “genocide” as central to the charges – this, Vermeil notes, was also a form of moral redress, considering that when clear documentation of mass extermination reached London in 1943–1944, several senior British diplomats refused to believe it.
The article is accompanied by several photographs capturing the tense atmosphere in the days leading up to the sentencing: U.S. Chief Prosecutor Judge Robert Jackson in the courtroom, Field Marshal Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt returning to his prison cell after giving testimony (he was accused of war crimes, but was not brought to trial due to poor health), Nazi war criminals Göring, Hess, Keitel, and Dönitz caught in a moment of laughter in the courtroom, The American communications service transmitting audio from the courtroom, The witness stand, interpreters representing various nations, Passersby outside the courthouse listening to the proceedings via loudspeakers mounted on trucks.
Le Monde Illustré was one of the oldest and most widely circulated weeklies in France.
29 pages. 38 cm. Complete issue. Good condition.
