The Nuremberg Defense is someone saying, "I was only following orders", as someone said this during the Nuremberg Trials. Who said it?

serpa

Adolph Eichmann and others. During the whole trial, Eichmann insisted that he was only "following orders"—the same Nuremberg Defense used by some of the Nazi war criminals during the 1945–1946 Nuremberg Trials. He explicitly declared that he had abdicated his conscience in order to follow the Führerprinzip. Eichmann claimed that he was merely a "transmitter" with very little power. He testified that: "I never did anything, great or small, without obtaining in advance express instructions from Adolf Hitler or any of my superiors." During cross-examination, prosecutor Hausner asked Eichmann if he considered himself guilty of the murder of millions of Jews. Eichmann replied: "Legally not, but in the human sense ... yes, for I am guilty of having deported them". When Hausner produced as evidence a quote by Eichmann in 1945 who stated: "I will leap into my grave laughing because the feeling that I have five million human beings on my conscience is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction." Eichmann countered the claim saying that he was referring only to "enemies of the Reich". Witnesses for the defense, all of them former high-ranking Nazis, were promised immunity and safe conduct from their German and Austrian homes to testify in Jerusalem on Eichmann's behalf. All of them refused to travel to Israel, but they sent court depositions. None of the depositions supported Eichmann's "following orders" defense. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichman Jan 02 10, 5:46 PM

serpa

Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Defense Jan 02 10, 5:47 PM

star_gazer

Although, Eichmann was not tried at Nuremberg but in Jerusalem in 1961. Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl and other defendants of the Nuremberg trials unsuccessfully used the defense during their trials. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Keitel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Jodl Jan 02 10, 8:16 PM