Closing Statement by The British Prosecution

On July 26, 1946, The British Chief Prosecutor, Sir Hartley Shawcross, made the longest closing statement of the Prosecution. He began by emphasizing that Nazi Germany fought a “total and totalitarian war” in defiance of solemn agreement and treaties. He said ten million had been killed “in battles that ought never to have been,” and that 12 million more persons had been murdered during the Nazi occupation of invaded countries, including two-thirds of all European Jews.
He declared that all major actions by the Nazi leaders were related to preparation for watr. In this excerpt, he quotes extensively from the affidavit of Herman Graebe, a German engineer who observed one of the Einsatzgruppen executions of Jews at the airport near Dubno in the Soviet Union.

Produced by US Army Signal Corps 1945-1956, housed in National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Digitized and provided by The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive.

On July 26, 1946, The British Chief Prosecutor, Sir Hartley Shawcross, made the longest closing statement of the Prosecution. He began by emphasizing that Nazi Germany fought a "total and totalitarian war" in defiance of solemn agreement and treaties. He said ten million had been killed "in battles that ought never to have been," and that 12 million more persons had been murdered during the Nazi occupation of invaded countries, including two-thirds of all European Jews. He declared that all major actions by the Nazi leaders were related to preparation for watr. In this excerpt, he quotes extensively from the affidavit of Herman Graebe, a German engineer who observed one of the Einsatzgruppen executions of Jews at the airport near Dubno in the Soviet Union.

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