When the cross-examination of the defendants began at the Nuremberg trials, it became clear to the prosecution that Nazi criminals could take advantage of topics that the victorious countries did not want to discuss. It was extremely disadvantageous for the governments of Great Britain and France to return to the topic of the Munich Agreement, or, in the case of the USSR, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. And the Americans could be accused of unprovoked nuclear explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And these undesirable issues come nowhere near to representing a comprehensive list.
On 8 March 1946, Robert Jackson sent a letter to the prosecutors of Great Britain, France, and the USSR. He reminded his audience of the chief prosecutors on 9 November 1945 when the possibility of political attacks from the defence was discussed, and that “it was decided that all of us will confront these attacks as unrelated to the case”. The chief of the American prosecution invited his colleagues to draw up memoranda defining taboo issues.
On 17 March, Roman Rudenko, chief prosecutor for the USSR, responded to the letter.
Rudenko to Jackson:
“In accordance with the wishes expressed in your letter, I am providing an indicative list of matters that, for the aforementioned reasons, should be removed from the discussion: 1. Questions connected with the social and political order of the USSR. 2. The foreign policy of the USSR: a) the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact of 1939 and questions connected with it (The Trade Agreement, the determining of frontiers, negotiations, etc.); b) Ribbentrop’s visit to Moscow and the negotiations of November 1940 in Berlin; c) The Balkan question; d) Soviet-Polish relations. 3. The Soviet Baltic Republics."
The politically contentious decisions of the anti-Hitler coalition countries were anyway discussed in the press and various public forums. But the removal of these issues from the Nuremberg trials ensured that debates irrelevant to the objectives of the tribunal were avoided, and did not prevent the defendants' counsels from doing their job.
Source:
Boris Havkin. “Racism and anti-Semitism in Hitler's Germany”
