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Ministry of Truth
January 27, 2014
As is very well known, whilst giving testimony during the Nuremberg trial Julius Streicher claimed that he inhumanly treated by U.S. soldiers following his capture, and that these claims by Streicher was subsequently stricken from the record. Eighteen years ago Carlos W. Porter quoted verbatim from the original mimeographed transcript what Streicher had claimed in his work Not Guilty at Nuremberg. The same year David Irving vividly detailed in his book Nuremberg: The Last Battle (pdf) Streicher’s treatment by the Americans following his capture—without making his source clear (pp.84-5 and note 164 on p.473). Irving claimed to provide proof of further mistreatment Streicher endured whilst at Nuremberg (p.272 and note 598 on p.517), which perhaps occurred the evening after Streicher’s second day on the stand, as during his first day he’d stated that he was being properly treated at Nuremberg.
Throughout the eleven month long trial copies of the mimeographed transcript were sent to the Foreign Office in batches every few days, and these transcripts are now held in the U.K. National Archives. In this post I’ll provide photographs and quote from the ones which relate to Streicher’s subsequently stricken testimony, whilst providing hyperlinks to images I’ve made of the mimeographed transcript compared to the transcript published in the volumes known as the Blue Series.
The image below is from the Blue Series volume 12, pp.398-399 (Avalon project version), and features an extract from the transcript of the Morning Session of Tuesday, April 30, 1946, whilst Lawrence (the British main judge and court President), Jackson (chief U.S. prosecutor) and Marx (Streicher’s defence counsel) were discussing expunging parts of Streicher’s testimony from the record:
Below is the mimeographed transcript of the same discussion. This copy was received at Foreign Office in Whitehall on May 7, 1946. The phrasing is slightly different in places, but it features parts (indicated by my red annotations) that were omitted from the printed version above. They expunged all details of what the court was discussing expunging!
In the extract below I’ve indicated in bold what was omitted from the printed volume of the transcript (C. W. Porter didn’t quote this part):
JACKSON: May it please the Tribunal; I should like to make a motion to the case of Streicher. I desire to move that Streicher’s testimony found at pages 8494, 8495, and 8496 of April 26th be expunged from the record, and on page 8549 of yesterday’s testimony in which Streicher makes charges against the United States army of mistreatment. If this testimony is irrelevant, it has no place in this record. If it is relevant, then it calls for an answer at considerable time and at considerable difficulty in view of the redeployment of people in the service of the United States. In our view it is utterly irrelevant. It was not responsive to any question and, no matter how it should be resolved, it would not help to determine whether Streicher is or is not guilty of the offences charged here, but it is not a pretty charge to leave unanswered in a record for all time.
It may be that we are unduly sensitive, as it has been suggested, but the United States has tried to conduct this war within the rules and the forces of the United States have sane sensitivity about their record in that respect.
In order to obtain a clear-cut ruling and in order to know whether we should take any steps in reference to this, I move that this be expunged as immaterial and irrelevant testimony and, of course, if it is irrelevant, we are excused from any duty to deal with it; if not, we will know that we must.
[…]THE PRESIDENT: I can tell you what it was. The motion was that passages on pages 8494, 8495, and 8496 and on page 8549, in which the defendant Streicher made certain charges against the United States Army, be expunged from the record.
Julius Streicher testified over two days at Nuremberg, taking the stand in the the afternoon of Friday, April 26, 1946, and remaining there for all of the morning and into the afternoon session of Monday, April 29, 1946. The image above is three pages from the transcript of April 26, which was received in London on May 4, 1946. My annotations in red indicate the parts of Streicher’s testimony which was stricken from the record, which is also quoted below (here Streicher was being questioned by his defence counsel Dr. Hanns Marx):
“If I might finish now with the description of my life, it will be with the description of an experience which will show you, gentleman of the Tribunal, that without the government’s wanting it, things may happen which are not human, not according to the principles of humanity.
Gentlemen, I was arrested, and during my internment I experienced things such as we, the Gestapo, have been accused of. Four Four days I was without clothes in a cell. I was burned; I was thrown on the floor, and an iron chain was put upon me. I had to kiss the feet of Negroes who spit into my face, Two colored men and a white officer spit into my mouth, and when I didn’t open it any more, they opened it with a wooden stick, and when I asked for water I was led to the latrine and I was ordered to drink from there.
In Wiesbaden, gentlemen, a doctor took pity, and I state here a Jewish director of the hospital acted correctly. I state here, in order not to be misunderstood, the Jewish officers who are guarding us here in the prison have acted correctly, and the doctors who also treat me have even been considerate. And you may see from this statement the contrast from that prison until this moment.
What I have told you now I have reported to an American officer and the officer has forwarded the report to Frankfort. What happened to it I have never found out. That was my life. Now, please ask your questions.”
The above image is from the transcript of the Morning Session of Monday, April 29, 1946, whilst Streicher was being cross-examined by British junior prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel John Griffith-Jones. This transcript was also received in London on May 4, 1946. Once again the phrasing slightly differs from that in the published volumes of the transcript, and in the extract below I indicate in bold Streicher’s testimony which was stricken from the record (Streicher appears to have been struggling to hear the German translator through his headphones):
“GRIFFITH-JONES: Do you mean mean by “enlightenment” the word “persecution”? Is that why the Jew was to have no joy from it, from your enlightenment?
STREICHER: So as to avoid a misunderstanding, I have to say that I was beaten in Freising so much and for days without clothes that I have lost forty per cent of my hearing capacity and people are laughing when I ask. I can’t help it that I was treated like that. Therefore, I ask to hear the question again.”
