This doctoral thesis explores a range of issues within the development of the offence of incitement to genocide. It examines how the 'notorious Jew-baiter' Julius Streicher, was prosecuted in 1945/46 before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) for 'the incitement of the persecution of the Jews'. The newly defined category of 'crimes against humanity' under Article 6( c) of the Nuremberg Charter, classified 'persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds' as a new criminal offence. In 1945, the prosecution alleged that Streicher's antiSemitic propaganda had paved the way for Hitler's extermination policy, leading to the mass murder of approximately six million Jews. On October I, 1946, the Tribunal held that Streicher's actions of 'incitement to murder and extermination' were classified as 'persecution' and found him guilty of crimes against humanity. This thesis asks the question how was it that 'words used as persecution' became recognised as an international criminal offence as a sub set of crimes against humanity, without being directly or expressly criminalised by the Charter? In order to provide an answer to this question, this thesis conducts the first in-depth analysis and comprehensive reconstruction of how the prosecution's case against Streicher developed during the various phases of the pre-trial and trial process. This detailed reconstruction, based on archival sources not previously discussed in the academic literature on Nuremberg, forms the most original element of the thesis. The present study critically examines the factual evidence raised and dropped during different stages in the development of Streicher' s case. It explores the various strategies and tactics deployed by the prosecution, and evaluates the success and weaknesses, along with the counterarguments submitted by Streicher' s defence counsel. The aim in explicating and discussing these issues and conflicts of strategic interpretations and reinterpretations is to provide an original perspective that effectively explores the process 'behind the scenes'. This study suggests that it was this process of selective interpretation and decision-making that resulted in the emergence, or 'birth', of a new offence, 'incitement to genocide' that today would be recognised as 'direct and public incitement to commit genocide', under Article III( c) of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:438233 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Eastwood, Maggi |
| Publisher | University of Central Lancashire |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/19300/ |
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