Inter-allied declaration on the extermination of the Jews in 1942

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The Inter-Allied Declaration on the Extermination of the Jews 1942 was drawn up by twelve Allied governments on the already begun annihilation of the Jewish population of Europe and published on December 18, 1942 .

This was preceded by the Riegner telegram of August 8, 1942, presumably the first communication to the USA and Great Britain about the extermination of the Jews by a credible German informant. It was immediately preceded by the statement by the Foreign Minister of the Polish government-in-exile (London), Edward Raczyński , who used the term mass extermination of Jews in the heading .

Then in December the representatives of the governments of Belgium , Great Britain , the Netherlands , Greece , Luxembourg , Norway , Poland , USA , Soviet Union , Czechoslovakia , Yugoslavia and France met and issued the following statement:

“The attention of the governments… was drawn to the numerous reports from Europe that the German authorities in all areas to which their barbaric regime extends, limit themselves not only to the deprivation of the most basic human rights of persons of Jewish descent, but those of Realize Hitler's repeatedly expressed intention to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe ... The governments listed above and the French National Committee categorically reproach this bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination. They explain that similar events can only reinforce the determination of the freedom-loving peoples to overthrow Hitler's barbaric tyranny. They reaffirm their solemn commitment, together with all the United Nations, to ensure that those responsible for these crimes do not escape the retaliation they deserve and to expedite the practical measures necessary to achieve the end set. ... Jews from all occupied countries are transported to Eastern Europe under the most horrible and brutal conditions ... The stronger ones are slowly being annihilated by work in labor camps. The weak are left to die, starve to death, or they are systematically massacred in mass executions. The number of victims of this bloody atrocity goes into many hundreds of thousands of completely innocent men, women and children. "

Although this document was presented to the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg after the war , it was not included as text in Volume XXIII / XXIV p. 557 of the document index. The document itself is available as a duplicated copy at the Institute for International Law at the University of Göttingen .

The then British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden made this declaration in the British House of Commons on December 17, 1942 . On the same day, the US State Department released this statement to the press.

This declaration showed and legally announced that the international community would pursue the Nazi crimes against the Jews after the suppression of the Nazi regime. After this declaration, persons in responsible positions could no longer claim to have known nothing of the final solution directed against the Jews . Since this declaration was also distributed via radio and other communication links, it can be assumed that the relevant persons and authorities of the Nazi regime were aware of the content of this declaration.

The Moscow Declaration of October 1943

In formal contrast, the Moscow Three Power Declaration of October 30, 1943 became the most important war document for the Nuremberg Trial of the Shoah . In terms of content, he repeated the declaration on these crimes made 10 months earlier.

See also

literature

  • History of the United Nations War Crimes Commission and the Development of the Laws of War , London 1948, p. 106.
  • Report of Robert H. Jackson, United States Representative to the International Conference on Military Trials , London 1945, p. 9 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Edward Raczyński: The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland. Republic of Poland, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, London, New York, Melbourne, 1942.
  2. ^ Corrado Augias : The secrets of the Vatican p. 340 ff, CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-61363-0 .
  3. ↑ Christine Hess: The legal processing of war crimes and serious human rights violations in International Göttingen Series, Volume 6, p. 14, Cuvillier Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86727-442-5 .