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{
    "localId": "207523756",
    "label": "Report, Statements Regarding John J. McCloy's Final Decisions on Requests for Clemency for War Criminals Convicted at Nuremberg",
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    "id": "207523756",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/207523756",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Statements Regarding John J. McCloy's Final Decisions on Requests for Clemency for War Criminals Convicted at Nuremberg",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/207523756",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 31,
            "logicalDate": "1951-01-31",
            "month": 1,
            "year": 1951
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{
    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750292/750292-31-02.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "-2-\n'Fifteen of the prisoners convicted at Nuremberg and now at\nLandsberg are under sentence of death. In these cases I have taken\ninto account every factor which could justify clemency and have\nresolved every doubt in favor of the convicted man. Ten of the\nsentences will be commuted to imprisonment.\n1: The remaining five sentences will be confirmed. In each\nof\nthese cases the enormity of the crimes for which these men were\ndirectly responsible was such as to place clemency out of reason.\nFour of them were leaders of the SS Einsatzgruppen or extermination\nunits which were engaged in the ruthless liquidation of all possible\nopponents of Nazism in the conquered territories. Their crime was\nthe slaughter among others of Jews, gypsies, insane people and\ncommunists who fell into their hands. In all, approximately\n2,000,000 helpless human beings were exterminated in the program.\n\" The other prisoner sentenced to death at Nuremberg whose\nsentence is not commuted is the former leader of the organization\nresponsible for the administration of the concentration camps. (WVHA) .\nHundreds of thousands of people died of starvation or abuse or were\nmurdered in these camps. In addition to many other atrocities this\nman personally supervised the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto in\nwhich 56,000 Jews were murdered or deported.\n*Objection has been voiced to the execution of these death\nsentences as contrary to the provision of the Basic German Law of\n1949, abolishing the death penalty in Germany. This provision,\nhowever worthy of respect, does not control this situation. [t.can\nnot affect my obligation to honor the judgments of courts constitut-\ned pursuant to international action before the adoption of the\nGerman Basic Law.\nThe crimes for which these judgments and sentences were\nimposed were committed mainly outside Germany and against non-\nGermans. The flood of criminality engendered by the Hitler regime-\nresulted in an international.demand for justice. Courts were estab-\nlished to try individuals accused of a program of deliberate and\ncalculated crime, of historic proportions, perpetrated not on a\nnational but on an international scale. The crimes for which they\nwere found guilty have no counterpart in the ordinary criminal law\nand the present German law concerning capital punishment cannot be\naccepted as the standard of punishment.\n\"Some have suggested that the delay since the death sentences\nwere imposed makes it inhumane or unjust to carry them out. These\nviews fail to take account of the facts which induced the delay\nand the extent of it.\n\"Actually the time which has elapsed since the sentences were\nimposed has been much shorter than is generally realized and has\nbeen taken up with reviews for the benefit of the condemned men.\nThe defendants were originally sentenced in April and August of\n1948. The law under which these cases were tried required that\ndeath sentences be reviewed and confirmed by the Military Governor.\nAfter this review General Clay confirmed all death sentences except\none which was commuted to life imprisonment. This process of review\nnecessarily took considerable time\n\"A further delay was caused by investigations of certain of\nthe war crimes trials by committees of the Congress of the U.S.\nThese investigations were undertaken to make sure that the trials\nwere fair in all respects and gave the defendants an adequate oppor-\ntunity to present their defenses. While the investigations were in\nprogress, a stay of execution was issued for all capital sentences\nimposed by Military Tribunals or Military Commissions in Germany.\nIt is now no longer in effect.\n\"In the"
}