 1945 the war was over came back to the ruins of Europe the war was over but there was no peace despair crouched over the continent hopelessness circled Europe like a bird of prey why what were the forces what were the issues in a war that turned nations into rubble heaps and populations into beggars the people wanted the answers they wanted to know what happened and why in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg the people of the world came together for there sat the international military tribunal to judge the chief Nazi war criminals the opening statement for the prosecution the privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility the wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated so malignant and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated that four great nations flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that power has ever paid to reason this inquest represents the practical effort of four of the most mighty of nations with the support of 15 more to utilize international law to meet the greatest menace of our time aggressive war the common sense of mankind demands that law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people it must also reach men who possess themselves of great power and who make deliberate and concerted use of it to set in motion evils which leave no home in the world untouched in the prisoners dock sit 20 odd broken men reproached by the humiliation of those they have led almost as bitterly as by the desolation of those they have attacked their personal capacity for evil is forever past merely as individuals their fate is of little consequence to the world what makes this inquest significant is that these prisoners represent sinister influences that will lurk in the world long after their bodies have returned to dust they are living symbols of the arrogance and cruelty of power of racial hatred of terrorism and violence they are symbols of fierce nationalism and of militarism of intrigue and war making which have embroiled Europe generation after generation crushing its manhood destroying its home and impoverishing its life they have so identified themselves with the philosophies they conceived and with the forces they directed that any tenderness to them is a victory and an encouragement to all the evils which are attached to their names what these men stand for we will patiently and temperately disclose we will give you undeniable proof of incredible event the catalogue of crimes will omit nothing it may be that these men of troubled conscience do not regard a trial as a favor but they do have a fair opportunity to defend themselves a favor which they rarely extended their fellow country we will not ask you to convict these men on the testimony of their foes there is no count of the indictment that cannot be proved by books and records and we will show you the defendants own film you will see their own conduct and hear their own voices as they reenact for you from the screen some of the events in the course of the conspiracy the acts of the defendants have bathed the world in blood and set civilization back a century they have subjected their European neighbors to every spoliation and deprivation they have brought the German people to the lowest of the wretched they have stirred hatred and incited domestic violence and every continent these are the things that stand in the dark shoulder to shoulder with these prisoners the real complaining party at your bar is civilization