7172 - Arthur Seyss-Inquart Autograph Manuscript Signed at Nuremberg, Defending Against Charges of a "War of Aggression"

Arthur Seyss-Inquart Autograph Manuscript Signed at Nuremberg, Defending Against Charges of a "War of Aggression" AMS in pencil, in German, signed “Seyss-Inquart,” one page, 6.5 x 8, no date but circa 1946. Handwritten statement setting out a three-point legal argument challenging the Tribunal's definition of aggressive war under Count One of the indictment, Crimes Against Peace. In full (translated): "1) The criterion of a war of aggression does not lie in the fact of starting military operations. These can be defense against an imminent attack. This fact merely shifts the onus of proof. 2) The starting of a war without a declaration of war also still does not make this into a war of aggression. The development of means of information and transport allows the defense, within a few hours, to be so organized that a 'forewarning,' effected by means of a declaration of war, will subsequently cost the lives of tens of thousands of one's own soldiers. Therefore, the decision to wage war leads to the decision to begin it without a declaration of war. 3) A definition of more from the point of view of the philosophy of history: the securing of imperial objectives, in the sphere of foreign politics, by the employment of military means. 'Imperial' is what goes beyond the safeguarding of the territory of one's own people." In fine condition. This was not courtroom testimony but a written legal memorandum submitted during the defense phase in June 1946 through his counsel, Dr. Gustav Steinbauer, addressed directly to the IMT judges as an attempt to dismantle the legal foundation of the aggressive-war charge itself, arguing that starting hostilities without warning, and even without a declaration of war, did not automatically make a war "aggressive," and reframing the entire concept in philosophical terms aimed at dissolving individual criminal responsibility. The Tribunal rejected it outright. In its judgment of October 1, 1946, the IMT held that Germany's invasions were aggressive wars, that declarations of war were legally irrelevant, that individuals could be held criminally responsible for planning such wars, and that philosophical or historical argument did not negate criminal intent. Seyss-Inquart was convicted on Count One and hanged October 16, 1946.