Taylor remarks on German High Command at Nuremberg Trial

(Paris 488) War Crimes Trials, Nuremberg, Germany, January 7, 1946. Telford Taylor of the US prosecution makes opening remarks to the court. He states that he will show that the High Command Group of the German Army had a major part in the commission of war crimes and atrocities. CU, chart of the Wehrmacht from 1938-1945. 04:46:38-04:47:54 Taylor reads to the Tribunal directly from orders signed by Hitler which discuss the purported actions of allied "commandos": "From captured orders it is divulged that they [the commandos] are directed not only to shackle prisoners, but also to kill defenceless [German] prisoners on the spot at the moment in which they believe that the latter, as prisoners, represent a burden in the further pursuit of their purposes, or could otherwise be a hindrance. Finally, orders have been found in which the killing of prisoners has been demanded in principle. For this reason it was already announced, in an addendum to the Armed Forces report of 7th October, 1942, that in the future, Germany in the face of these sabotage troops of the British and their accomplices, will resort to the same procedure..." The quote continues in the transcript, although not in the video: "that is, that they will be ruthlessly mowed down by the German troops in combat, wherever they may appear."