Issue of the Newspaper EUROPE AMERIQUE IMAGES – ENQUETES ET REPORTAGES – “Europe-America – Investigations and Reports in Pictures” – A Major Article Covering an Interview Conducted by Journalist Alexandre Szombati with Nicolas Doman During the Nuremberg Trials, Months Before the Sentencing of the Nazi War Criminals. Brussels (Belgium), January 17, 1946. Nicolas Doman, the man who headed the American prosecution team, which included 400 attorneys, personally interrogated Nazi war criminals who appeared before the International Tribunal in Nuremberg – including Rudolf Hess, Hermann Göring, Julius Streicher, Fritz Sauckel, and others. On the front page is a photograph of Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess in the Nuremberg prison, drinking soup.
The major article in the issue is, in fact, a detailed interview in which Nicolas Doman reveals the behind-the-scenes processes of interrogating Nazi war criminals. In his fascinating statements, Doman outlines the challenges faced by the prosecution, which was tasked with laying the foundations for a collective judgment by humanity against war criminals. Doman shares that the evidence included tens of tons of documents (as, thanks to German bureaucratic order, all their actions were meticulously recorded on paper), which needed to be consolidated into a clear and precise indictment. After considerable effort to streamline the material, the indictment ultimately consisted of 10,000 printed pages, representing only the American prosecution’s case. “You must understand this was an inhuman amount of work, ” said Doman. Doman also recounts the struggle between the American prosecution and the French prosecution, which initially preferred that the extermination of German Jews be treated as a domestic German issue not to be addressed in the international tribunal. “We fought this viewpoint and won, ” he states.
The central part of the interview focuses on the details of the interrogations and the responses given by Nazi war criminals to Doman’s difficult questions regarding their roles in the crimes of Nazi Germany. Among other revelations, Doman provides previously unknown details about the behavior of Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess (Hitler’s deputy). Doman personally interrogated Hess and recounts that the Americans immediately knew that Hess was faking amnesia. Doman asked Hess about his role in the Nazi Party, to which Hess replied:
“I don’t know what the Nazi Party is.” When pressed further, “But you were one of the leaders of the Nazi Party, ” Hess replied: “Mein Gott, there were so many parties. Who can remember them all?”
Doman asked, “Have you heard of the Nuremberg Laws?” Hess responded: “Never in my life.” Doman then presented him with a document bearing Hess’s signature, containing the Nuremberg Laws, and asked: “Do you recognize your handwriting?” After staring at the document for a long time, Hess replied: “Yes.” Doman then asked: “Do you know these were the laws against the Jews? Why did you do it?” Hess replied: “Because I hate Jews, and Jews hate me.”
Doman further recounts that shortly after interrogating Rudolf Hess, he decided to confront Hess with Hermann Göring to “refresh” Hess’s memory. Göring eagerly volunteered for the role. Doman spoke to Hess, pointing at Göring: “Do you know this man?”
Hess: “I have never seen him.” Göring was furious. How could anyone not know him, especially Hess! Göring: “You don’t know me?”
Hess: “I’m very sorry. I have never seen you.” Göring, agitated, exclaimed: “You’re pretending not to know me! I am Hermann Göring, Reichsmarschall, head of the Luftwaffe, Master of the Hunt, President of the Reichstag, Prime Minister of Prussia, the first Führer’s successor…”
Göring listed all his titles for five full minutes. Hess replied calmly: “I’ve never heard of you.” Göring continued: “Do you remember our Führer?” Hess: “I have his picture.” Göring pressed further: “The Gestapo? Do you remember them?” Hess: “No, sir.” Göring, frustrated: “What do you know about Mein Kampf?” Hess: “Nothing.” Göring snapped: “But you received a dedicated copy from the Führer himself after the Munich Putsch when you were imprisoned together!” Hess replied indifferently: “There must be a mistake in the whole story.”
The exchange continued in this manner until Göring, at the end, turned to Doman with a smile and said: “I’m sorry. I did everything I could. But if I can be of any further help, I am always at your disposal.” Doman’s Impressions of Göring: “He is a remorseless criminal who has no concept of a human conscience… He admitted to everything he could not deny. He confessed to everything that could be proven with documents, but nothing more.” Doman further revealed that at the start of the trial, Göring requested to make a statement, which the judge denied. Göring confided in Doman that he intended to say he took responsibility for rearming Germany but not for the concentration camps and the atrocities committed by the German army. When Doman asked Göring for his opinion on the extermination of millions of Jews, Göring answered: “I knew nothing about it. I learned about it from the American Army newspaper “Stars and Stripes” during my captivity.” Doman summed up Göring’s personality: “He is a man of pathological arrogance.”
On Julius Streicher, the editor of Der Stürmer: “He is an idiot. He claimed he wasn’t responsible for anything, saying he was just a ‘poor journalist.’ When asked whether he was responsible for the pogroms of November 9, 1938 (Kristallnacht), following the assassination of the German consulate secretary in Paris by young Grynszpan, he refused to take responsibility. Only after I presented him with a document signed by him did he lose his confidence.”
Other Defendants: Joachim von Ribbentrop: Denied everything.
Fritz Sauckel: Claimed he was merely following the Führer’s orders.
Alfred Rosenberg, the chief theorist of Nazism, declared: “I am not responsible for anything. I was a minor employee whose office was in Berlin.” He claimed it had never occurred to him to expel Jews from Germany. General Attitude of Nazi War Criminals Toward the Trial: When asked how the war criminals prepared for the trial, Doman replied: “They claimed they didn’t have enough time to prepare their defense, even though they received the indictment thirty days before the trial began.” Doman noted that the general impression he gained from interrogating the Nazi war criminals was that they were not so much afraid of the possibility of execution as they were of the humiliation of being on trial and the shame of testifying as witnesses.
The article is accompanied by rare photographs of: Nazi war criminals in court. The prosecution team and judges. German documents used to convict the defendants.
The executioner, awaiting the verdict to carry out the final reckoning.
31 pages. Complete issue. Very good condition.
