Atrocities and persecutions or racial or religicus grounds committed by the Germans since 1933 will be censidered war crimes and these guilty of inciting, ordering or counselling their commission will be punished, Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, U.S. war crimes prosecuter, declared today in a report to President Truman, following his return from London where he consulted with the United Nations War Crimes Commission.
Justice Jackson said that the American people considered the Nazi regime “a bend of brigands,” adding that ” our people have been outraged by the oppressions, the crellest form of torture, the large-scale murder and the wholesale confiscation of property which initiated the Nazi regime within Germany. They witnessed persecution of the greatest enormity on religious, political and racial grounds, the breakdown of trade unions and the liquidation of all religious and moral influences.” Citing the Nazi record of brutality, he stated:-“We propose to punish acts which have been regarded as criminal since the time of Cain.”
Discussing what persons and groups would be liable to punishment, Justice Jackson said that the War Crimes Commission would indict “a large number of individuals and officials who were in authority in the government, in the military establishment including the General Staff, and in the financial and economic life of Germany, who by all civilized standards are provable to be common criminals.” Organizations such as the Gestapo and the S. S., which played a “cruel and controlling part” in subjugating, first, the German people and then their neighbors would also be prosecuted, he declared.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
