[NUREMBERG TRIALS]: RIBBENTROP JOACHIM VON (1893-1946)

[NUREMBERG TRIALS]: RIBBENTROP JOACHIM VON (1893-1946)

[NUREMBERG TRIALS]: RIBBENTROP JOACHIM VON (1893-1946) German politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany 1938-45. A remarkable D.S., J v Ribbentrop, in bold pencil, one page, folio, n.p. (Nuremberg), 25th January 1946, in German. The partially printed (mimeographed) document, completed in typescript, is addressed to the General Secretary of the International Military Tribunal and is a Defendant's Application for Summons for Witness in which Ribbentrop requests that the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, be summoned to give evidence on his behalf, as 'When presenting his credentials in 1936, von Ribbentrop expressed to the then King Edward VIII the desire of the Reich Chancellor for the closest cooperation between Germany and England. In the course of this audience, King Edward VIII declared that he, too, deemed such a cooperation necessary' and further explaining that such facts are relevant 'To disprove counts I and II of the General Indictment and the respective counts of the special indictments filed up to now'. Countersigned in bold pencil at the foot by Dr. Martin Horn, the Defence Counsel representing Ribbentrop. Accompanied by the official IMT English translation of Ribbentrop's document. Some file holes to the upper edge of each document, light overall age wear and minor traces of professional restoration, otherwise VG, 2

King Edward VIII's beliefs regarding Adolf Hitler and the Nazis have long been the subject of speculation. Many historians have suggested that Hitler was prepared to reinstate the Duke of Windsor as King in the hope of establishing a fascist puppet government in Great Britain after Operation Sea Lord. It is widely believed that the Duke and Duchess (whom the FBI were informed had slept with the German Ambassador in London, Joachim von Ribbentrop, in 1936) sympathised with fascism before and during World War II and were moved to the Bahamas to minimise their opportunities to act on their feelings.

Joachim von Ribbentrop was arrested in June 1945 and subsequently convicted and sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials for his role in starting World War II in Europe and enabling the Holocaust. On 16th October 1946 he became the first of the Nuremberg defendants to be executed by hanging.

Provenance: The present document originated from the archives of Dr. Hans Werner who was responsible for directing the printing of the Record of the Trial of Major War Criminals in 42 volumes and in three different languages (English, French & German) immediately following the Nuremberg Trials.