Martin Bormann- Nuremberg Trials
Guilty on Counts Three and Four. Not guilty for Count one.
1920's-1930's
- In 1925 Martin joined the National Socialist.
- He became member of Staff of Supreme Court of SA from 1928-1930.
- In charge of the Aid Fund of Party.
- He was Reichsleiter from 1933-1945.
- Between 1933-1941, Bormann was the Chief of Staff in the Office of Fuehrer's deputy.
- He devoted his time to persecution of churches and Jews.
1941
- On May 12, he became Head of the Party Chancellery.
- On May 29, Bormann took over offices and powers.
- On May 31, he signed the decree extending Nuremberg Laws to the annexed Eastern territories.
- 3 weeks after the invasion of Russia on July 16, there was a conference about plans of enslavement and annihilation.
- On November 5, Bormann prohibited decent burials for Russian prisoners of war.
1942
- On January 24, his powers extended so he soon got control over all laws and directives by Hitler
- On May 8, Bormann conferred about the forced resettlement of Dutch personnel in Lativa, extermination programme in Russia, and an economic exploitation of Eastern territories.
- Martin was interested in confiscation of art and other properties in the East.
- On August 12, he placed all party agencies at the disposal of Himmlers programme (way to increase German/Aryan population).
- On September 4, control was to be exercised by Sauckel, Himmler and Bormann, which related to the transfer of 500,00 female domestic workers from the East to Germany.
- On October 9, he declared the permanent elimination of Jews in Germany could no longer be solved by emigration but by using ruthless force in special camps.
- He issued a series of orders to Party Leaders dealing with treatment of prisoners at war.
- On December 1, he became the administrator of the entire civilian war effort.
- He controlled the ruthless exploitations of the subjected populace.
1943
- On January 29, he transmitted to his leaders OKW instructions allowing the use of firearms and corpal punishment on prisoners of war.
- On April 12, he soon became the secretary to the Fuehrer.
He was political and organisational head of the Volkssturm and a General in the SS.
On May 5, he was issued directions regulating the treatment of foreign workers, pointing out they were subject to SS control on security problems, and ordered the mistreatment to cease.
- On July 1, he signed an ordinance withdrawing Jews from the protection of the law courts and placing them under the exclusive jurisdiction of Himmlers Gestapo.
- Bormann was prominent in the slave labour programme.
- On November 25, Bormann directed the Gauleiters to report cases of lenient treatment of prisoners at war.
1944
January 11, his letter for the creation of a large scale organisation to withdraw commodities from the occupied territories for the bombed out German populace.
Bormann was extremely active in the persecution of Jews.
- Martin was part of the discussions that led to the removal of 60,000 Jews.
- On May 30, he prohibited any police action or criminal proceddings against persons who had taken part in the lynching of Allied fliers.
- He was accompanied by the Goebbels propaganda campaign inciting the German people to take action.
- On June 6, there was a conference about the regulations for the application of lynching.
- On September 13, he ordered liasion between the Kreisleiters with the camp commandants in determining the use to be made of prisoners of war for forced labour.
- On September 30, he signed a decree taking from OKW jurisdiction over prisoners of war and handing them over to Himmler and SS.
- Bormann was responsible of the lynching of the allied airmen.
Problems and Evidence
- Nothing shown that Bormann knew Hitlers plans about aggressive wars.
- At first, he didn't attend conferences.
- He didn't start attending more conferences until around 1941 because of being the Head of the Party Chancellery, and in 1943 when he became the secretary to the Fuehrer.
- Which soon mean't he couldn't be convicted on Count One.
- The Counsel soon became unable to refute.
- As his counsel argued that Bormann is dead.
- Even though, there was no evidence of his death being conclusive.
- The Tribunal was determined to try him in absentia.
- Considering the facts in mitigation, they decided to alter or reduce the sentence if it was proper in his presence.
- The Tribunal finds that Bormann is not guilty on Count one, but is guilty on Counts Three and Four.
- He sentenced to death by hanging.
- On May 2, 1945, Martin Bormann committed suicide.
Reflect:
It's understandable why most would sentence him to death because of what he was apart of, but you don't know if he was just apart of it to be a follower or just to keep his life. Instead of sentencing him to death by hanging, I would've just sentenced him life or 30 years in prison, because you never know what will happen while they are in there. Some commit suicide around the time they are out in there and some get killed around the time they arrive. I believe it's a pretty good consequence for all the Nazi's to be sentenced life or 30 years. Except Hitler, I believe he deserved to be sentenced to death because he is the reason why all these people who were innocent at one point to believe all these crazy ideas in their minds. He used so much trickery to have all these people on his side, and of coarse he worked on almost all of them.