Joachim von Ribbentrop (April 30th 1893 with Wesel - October 16th 1946 with Nuremberg, Germany) was Foreign Minister of the Third Reich of 1938 with 1945.

Youth and beginnings

It passes its youth to the anglophone Canada. Soldier during the First World War, it is wounded in 1917.

Former wine representative of Champagne for Pommery, it joined NSDAP in 1932 where its bonds with the traditional political circle are appreciated. He is then the friend of Heinrich Himmler but their relation worsens.

Diplomat

In June 1935, it negotiates a naval agreement germano-British making it possible Reich to appreciably increase its fleet.

Initially ambassador with London in 1936, he becomes Foreign Minister of Hitler in 1938 in the place of Konstantin von Neurath.

He is the craftsman, with Viatcheslav Molotov, of the pact germano-Soviet of non-aggression which leads in particular in 1939 to the partition of the Poland between the two powers.

He prepares also the diplomatic ground of the annexation of the Sudètes and plays a crucial role in the bringing together between Hitler and Mussolini which leads to the Pacte of Steel signed the May 22nd 1939. He pushes with the release of the war against the USSR in 1941.

Loss of influence

As the war continues, the influence of Ribbentrop decreases. Moreover, the majority of the people whom it names in the embassies are coarsely inefficient. Hitler marginalizes it, but maintains it in its entourage where he is frequently made fun. It is completely excluded from the attempted murder of the July 20th 1944 however carried out by its social class.

Judgment and execution

At the time of the Lawsuit of Nuremberg, he denies any responsibility about the concentration camps. However, it would have pushed, in September 1942, the German diplomats posts some in the countries occupied to accelerate the deportations of Jews. Ribbentrop would have complained near the Italians about slownesses in the deportation about the Jews about the zone about Italian occupation about France. The diplomats played a big role in the organization of the deportation, negotiated, as in France with the mode of Vichy in June 1942, when the German representative near the mode of Vichy requires Laval the deportation of 50.000 Jews.

During the lawsuit, it is the French prosecutor Edgar Faure which carries out the cross-examination: it reads with marked extract of a letter of the Embassy of Germany of the June 27th 1942, addressed to the chief of the Sicherheitspolizei in France.

“ the Hauptsturmführer Dannecker indicated to me that it needed 50.000 Jews of the free zone to be off-set towards the East as soon as possible, and that it was advisable to support the action of Darquier de Pellepoix, General Commissaire with the Jewish Questions. ”

In its answer, Ribbentrop is muddled and is let trap by Edgar Faure. It starts by denying to have been informed of this work of its own services, before trying to say that it tried to temporize, which indicates that it knew the situation perfectly.

In April 1943, Ribbentrop also takes part in a conference between Hitler and the Horty Hungarian during whom this last is informed that the Jews were to be exterminated or sent in concentration camps.

He is condemned to died at the time of the Procès of Nuremberg in 1946 for concerted plan or plot, crimes against peace, war crimes and Crime against humanity, and he is the first of condemned to be carried out by hanging in the night October 16th 1946 with 1:01.

Its last words on the scaffold:

“That God protects Germany, about to die, I express the hope which it can preserve its unit, and which the west and the east will be able to mean on this point. ”

Reference

• Magazine Historia N° 334 September 1974 On the lawsuit of Nuremberg

External bonds

• Joachim von Ribbentrop on Trial Watch

Simple: Joachim von Ribbentrop

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