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Nuremberg Quotes

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Nuremberg Quotes

“This is surely the main problem of the twentieth century: is it permissible merely to carry out orders and commit one's conscience to someone else's keeping? Can a man do without ideas of his own about good and evil, and merely derive them from the printed instructions and verbal orders of his superiors? Oaths! Those solemn pledges pronounced with a tremor in the voice and intended to defend people against the evildoers: see how easily they can be misdirected to the service of the evildoers and against the people!”

TotalitarianismWar Crimes1976NurembergOath Of OfficeFollowing OrdersOaths
Book:The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Books V-VII
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“Attempts to locate oneself within history are as natural, and as absurd, as attempts to locate oneself within astronomy. On the day that I was born, 13 April 1949, nineteen senior Nazi officials were convicted at Nuremberg, including Hitler's former envoy to the Vatican, Baron Ernst von Weizsacker, who was found guilty of planning aggression against Czechoslovakia and committing atrocities against the Jewish people. On the same day, the State of Israel celebrated its first Passover seder and the United Nations, still meeting in those days at Flushing Meadow in Queens, voted to consider the Jewish state's application for membership. In Damascus, eleven newspapers were closed by the regime of General Hosni Zayim. In America, the National Committee on Alcoholism announced an upcoming 'A-Day' under the non-uplifting slogan: 'You can drink—help the alcoholic who can't.' ('Can't'?) The International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled in favor of Britain in the Corfu Channel dispute with Albania. At the UN, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko denounced the newly formed NATO alliance as a tool for aggression against the USSR. The rising Chinese Communists, under a man then known to Western readership as Mao Tze-Tung, announced a limited willingness to bargain with the still-existing Chinese government in a city then known to the outside world as 'Peiping.' All this was unknown to me as I nuzzled my mother's breast for the first time, and would certainly have happened in just the same way if I had not been born at all, or even conceived. One of the newspaper astrologists for that day addressed those whose birthday it was: There are powerful rays from the planet Mars, the war god, in your horoscope for your coming year, and this always means a chance to battle if you want to take it up. Try to avoid such disturbances where women relatives or friends are concerned, because the outlook for victory upon your part in such circumstances is rather dark. If you must fight, pick a man! Sage counsel no doubt, which I wish I had imbibed with that same maternal lactation, but impartially offered also to the many people born on that day who were also destined to die on it.”

WarHistoryUnited StatesBirthIsraelChinaAlcoholAstronomyNewspapersCommunismBritainCensorshipMarsGodsUnited NationsDiplomacyAstrologyAlcoholismProhibitionNatoHitlerJewsMaoNazisBreastfeedingUssrBeijingAntisemitismBirthdaysCzechoslovakiaHoroscopesNurembergAlbaniaVaticanThe HagueCorfuDamascusPassover SederInternational Court Of JusticeCommunist Party Of ChinaAndrei GromykoCorfu Channel IncidentErnst Von WeizsackerFlushing MeadowsFlushing QueensHosni Zayim
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“He got carried away as he developed his idea: 'The aesthetic quality of towns is essential. If, as has been said, every landscape is a frame of mind, then it is even more true of a townscape. The way the inhabitants think and feel corresponds to the town they live in. An analogous phenomenon can be observed in certain women who, during their pregnancy, surround themselves with harmonious objects, calm statues, bright gardens, delicate curios, so that their child-to-be, under their influence, will be beautiful. In the same way one cannot imagine a genius coming from other than a magnificent town. Goethe was born in Frankfurt, a noble city where the Main flows between venerable palaces, between walls where the ancient heart of Germany lives on. Hoffmann explains Nuremberg - his soul performs acrobatics on the gables like a gnome on the decorated face of an old German clock. In France there is Rouen, with its rich accumulation of architectural monuments, its. cathedral like an oasis of stone, which produced Corneille and then Flaubert, two pure geniuses shaking hands across the centuries. There is no doubt about it, beautiful towns make beautiful souls.”

NurembergFrankfurtPsychogeographyE T A HoffmannGustave FlaubertJohann Wolfgang Von GoetheRouenPierre Corneille
Book:The Bells of Bruges
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“the Jews should stay away from this trial -- for their own sake. For -- mark this well -- the charge "a war for the Jews" is still being made, and in the post-war years it will be made again and again. The too-large percentage of Jewish men and women here will be cited as proof of this charge. Sometimes it seems that the Jews will never learn about these things. They seem intent on bringing new difficulties down on their own heads. I do not like to write about this matter... but I am disturbed about it. They are pushing and crowding and competing with each other, and with everyone else. They will try the case I guess... --Letters from Nuremberg, page 135”

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Book:Letters from Nuremberg: My Father's Narrative of a Quest for Justice
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“It was rumored, in 1946, that the hangman in Nuremberg adjusted the nooses of some of the condemned to magnify the pain of suffocation. Such sadism was not called for then and is not called for now. But if fornication is wrong, there is no denying that it can bring pleasure. The death of Saddam Hussein at rope's end brings a pleasure that is undeniable, and absolutely chaste in its provenance.”

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Author:William F. Buckley, Jr.
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“Did you know that Nuremberg courtroom was designed so that the Allies could project movies during the trial? And, also so that they could film the trial? The first movies that were shown were prepared by John Ford - a compilation of material from the liberation of Bergen-Belsen and Dachau. But here comes an interesting part. Did you know they lit (using fluorescent tubes) the defendants so they could be filmed watching the films that were shown during the trial?”

KnowsFirstsFilmInterestingMaterialsProjectsPreparedTrialsLiberationAlliesLitTubesDid You KnowCourtroomCompilationNurembergDachau
Author:Errol Morris
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“We were very excited and we brought speakers in – then it so happened that there was a marine recruiter in the center of campus and one of our brothers, one SDS person put up a sign with a quote from the Nuremberg trial and an arrow point at the marine recruiter, saying, "This man is a war criminal." My younger brother and I, he was freshman and I was a sophomore, got caught up in the debates that were swirling around the center of campus and the young Trotskyists had put out a fact sheet on Vietnam that was phenomenal.”

MenPersonsWarFactsYoungHappenedBrotherCaughtExcitedCriminalsDebateTrialsVietnamSpeakersSheetsCaught UpMarineArrowsPhenomenalCampusFreshmanSophomoreYounger BrotherNurembergNuremberg Trials
Author:Bill Ayers
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“The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.”

PeopleWarCountryPoliticalPeaceFreedomLeaderHistoryDangerHuman RightsTrialsPropagandaNew WorldAnti WarAntiwarRulersDictatorshipNaziVietnam WarFreedom And LibertyFascistsNew World OrderWorld OrderPeace WarPolitical PowerDemocracies HaveExposingPacifistPeacemakingPeacemakerPacifismHuman FreedomMake Peace Not WarPolitical LifeRights And FreedomsNwoBiddingPolitical FreedomMedia ManipulationDemocracy FreedomPoliticians And PoliticsLiberty And EqualityGoeringPolitics FunnyNurembergDemocracy And Human RightsMedia PropagandaWar PropagandaPatriotism And WarPolitics And WarEngland And AmericaNuremberg TrialsWar Of 1812Communist Leaders
Author:Hermann Goring
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“Draft resisters have had and should continue to have only normal difficulties immigrating [to Canada]. Probably any young American can get in if he is really determined, though all will need adequate information. ... The toughest problem a draft resister faces is not how to immigrate but whether he really wants to. And only you can answer that. For yourself. That's what Nuremberg was all about.”

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Author:Mark Satin
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“'An order is an order' was not an excuse to do the wrong thing. You couldn't just blindly follow a government order ... This whole issue of should the Supreme Court be the final arbiter of what is or isn't constitutional, was settled at Nuremberg. People everywhere need to understand and need to follow that.”

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Author:Matt Shea
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