Historically significant program for the "International Military Tribunal, Nurnberg, Germany, 1945-1946," thirteen pages, 8 x 10.25, signed on the back cover in fountain pen by fifteen of the Nazi defendants: Hermann Goring, Julius Streicher, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Erich Raeder, Alfred Rosenberg, Albert Speer, Alfred Jodl, Fritz Sauckel, Wilhelm Frick, Hans Frank, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Hans Fritzsche, and Walther Funk. Also includes a 5.25 x 7.5 sheet signed in fountain pen by Hjalmar Schacht, Karl Donitz, Franz von Papen, and Konstantin von Neurath. The program outlines the charges against the defendants and provides short biographies of each; in the margin beside the statement of charges against Fritzsche, he has penned a single German word with an exclamation point, perhaps signifying his innocence (he was indeed acquitted). In fine condition. Provenance: Paul C. Richards Autographs, 1984.
The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals held by the Allied powers in the aftermath of World War II, notable for the prosecution of the high-ranking leaders of Nazi Germany responsible for the atrocities of the Holocaust. This historic program and additional sheet offer the signatures of 19 of the 21 defendants who were present at the first set of trials; a total of 24 were originally indicted, but three were not present: Martin Bormann (tried in absentia); Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (declared medically unfit for trial); and Robert Ley (committed suicide before the trial began). Eleven of these signers—Frank, Frick, Goring, Jodl, Kaltenbrunner, Keitel, Ribbentrop, Rosenberg, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, and Streicher—were convicted and given the death penalty. Fritzsche, Papen, and Schacht were acquitted, and the others were sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths. Representing the civilized world's efforts to restore peace to humanity following the tragedy of the Holocaust, this is an extraordinary piece of the utmost significance.
