Which thankfully was shown to be no defence for the defendants at Nuremberg. Certain laws that run counter to the inalienable basic human rights make such practices illegal at the outset. The laws of war are older than germany itself (not that this matters).. hitler, despite his supreme power, never abrogated Germany's responsibilities and obligations under either the hague convention or Geneva. ergo, notwithstanding his supreme control of the apparatus of government, he maintained the obligations of his soldiers and his people to these international responsibilities. On this, alone, his lieutenants could be successfully indicted (though additional reasons were also accepted in the demolition of the fuhrer prinzip defence) . they had acted illegally with respect to laws their erstwhile leader had never abandoned. Those international treaty obligations overulled the national level laws enacted by Hitler
Under cross examination from Robert Jackson, Goering in 1945 admitted this
Against the Japanese, who never ratified the Geneva convention a different approach was taken, but that is another story for another time perhaps.
In his summing up before the trial justices at Nuremberg Robert Jackson made the following comments
"The catalogue of crimes will omit nothing that could be conceived by a pathological pride, cruelty, and lust for power. These men created in Germany, under the Fuehrerprinzip, a National Socialist despotism equaled only by the dynasties of the ancient East. They took from the German people all those dignities and freedoms that we hold natural and inalienable rights in every human being. The people were compensated by inflaming and gratifying hatreds toward those who were marked as "scape-goats." Against their opponents, including Jews, Catholics, and free labor the Nazis directed such a campaign of arrogance, brutality, and annihilation as the world has not witnessed since the pre-Christian ages. They excited the German ambition to be a "master race," which of course implies serfdom for others. They led their people on a mad amble for domination. They diverted social energies and resources to the creation of what they thought to be an invincible war machine. They overran their neighbors. To sustain the"master race " in its war making, they enslaved millions of human beings and brought them into Germany, where these hapless creatures. now wander as "displaced persons". At length bestiality and bad faith reached such excess that they aroused the sleeping strength of imperiled civilization. Its united efforts have ground the German war machine to fragments. But the struggle has left Europe a liberated yet prostrate land where a demoralized society struggles to survive...The most savage and numerous crimes planned and committed by the Nazis were those against the Jews. These in Germany, in 1933, numbered about 500,000. In the aggregate, they had made for themselves positions which excited envy, and had accumulated properties which excited the avarice of the Nazis. They were few enough to be helpless and numerous enough to be held up as a menace...
What we charge against these defendants is not those arrogances and pretensions which frequently accompany the intermingling of different peoples and which are likely despite the honest courts of government, to produce regrettable crimes and convulsions. It is my purpose to show a plan and design, to which all Nazis were fanatically committed, to annihilate all Jewish people."
Quite lengthy legal argument was then presented to the IMT judges from both the prosecution and the defence about this "Fuhrer Principle" as it had been used (or rather implied....it was never specifically mentioned in any of the defence arguments....just that they were "following orders") resulting in the IMT rejecting the defence as "without power". That the whole world across the entire political spectrum at the time would unanimously reject such spurious argument as being powerless is one of those truly amazing and awe inspiring moments in history.
The judges were right in thir findings on this issue