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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep274: NUREMBERG AND THE POST-WAR SILENCE Colleague Charles Spicer. At the Nuremberg trials, Ribbentrop appeared a broken man, attempting to call amateur spies like Conwell-Evans as witnesses to prove his pre-war desire for peace, a defense that ultimately faile

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Arts, Books, News, Society & Culture

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2026

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

NUREMBERG AND THE POST-WAR SILENCE Colleague Charles Spicer. At the Nuremberg trials, Ribbentropappeared a broken man, attempting to call amateur spies like Conwell-Evans as witnesses to prove his pre-war desire for peace, a defense that ultimately failed to excuse his war crimes. His widow, Anneliese, later wrote memoirs obsessing over social slights in London, displaying a detachment from the reality of the Holocaust. Conversely, in the "Ministries Trial," Lord Vansittart denied his connections to the German resistance, likely because admitting to these chaotic back-channel efforts was too uncomfortable for a Foreign Office that preferred the narrative of inevitable total war. Consequently, the Anglo-German Fellowship, despite having had government approval, was brushed under the carpet of history, its role in attempting to avert catastrophe largely forgotten. NUMBER 15
1945-46 TRIBUNAL JUDGES.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm John Batchel with Charles Spicer, the author of Coffee with Hitler, the untold story of the amateur spies who tried to civilize the Nazis.

0:13.4

The war spills out across Europe, across Asia, around the world, the catastrophe, the deaths of tens of millions of people, the brutality and the

0:22.4

sadism, but the war has ended, and the Nuremberg trials begin.

0:28.6

The von Ribbentrop is captured. Guring is captured, and Hess is in custody, has been, since

0:36.7

July of 1940. Himmler commits suicide.

0:40.7

Hitler of course committed suicide. But the trial at Nuremberg is a is a first draft telling

0:48.1

of who was responsible and how guilty. And Charles spends time with it, and we will too,

0:55.4

because there are revelations at the trial

0:57.4

that are important to understand

0:59.1

the historical record as presented afterwards.

1:02.8

This is the three men who are,

1:06.6

especially in the witness box together,

1:08.6

Ribbentrop, Gering, and Hess.

1:11.2

Charles writes, they all had good World War I records,

1:15.2

but have all participated in some fashion in the brutality.

1:18.2

They will all be convicted.

1:19.5

There is not a doubt of their guilt.

1:21.7

And yet we begin with von Ribbentrop.

1:23.9

You emphasize Charles how he looks to have had a nervous breakdown because he let

1:29.2

himself go. He let his cell go and he was in despair. He, in the witness box was, you characterized

1:36.8

him as muddled, but he wanted to call a lot of witnesses, including our principles, to explain

1:44.0

what? What was his thinking? What rationalization did he have,

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