Crimes Against Humanity: The accused was alleged to have committed acts of deportation, enslavement, torture, murder, or other inhumane acts against civilians before or during the war. Some of the defendants also claimed that the tribunal itself had no legal standing due to its unprecedented nature. Definition and Considerations, Primo Levi, Author of the 'Best Science Book Ever Written', Rudolf Hess, Nazi Who Claimed to Bring Peace Offer From Hitler, Rise and Fall of Nazi Officer Franz Stangl, The Gestapo: Definition and History of the Nazi Secret Police, The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution, Ten Fugitive Nazi War Criminals who went to South America. Some of these deaths were part of the new “total war tactics,” yet others were specifically targeted, such as the massacre of Czech civilians in Lidice and the death of Russian POWs at the Katyn Forest Massacre. In all, 199 defendants were tried, 161 were convicted, and 37 were sentenced to death. These crimes included invading other nations, violating the Treaty of Versailles and most significantly, "crimes against humanity". This was how I responded. Two American soldiers were selected to carry out the hangings, which took place in the gymnasium of the Nuremberg prison. The judges and alternates were as follows: The prosecution was led by U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Robert Jackson. Charge Two: Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace. The defense cases were primarily centered around the concept of the “Fuhrerprinzip” (Fuhrer principle). Four individuals were sentenced to jail terms ranging from ten to twenty years. Nurnberg trials, a series of trials held in Nurnberg, Germany, in 1945–46, in which former Nazi leaders were indicted and tried as war criminals by the International Military Tribunal. Additional trials in the series included: The Nuremberg Trials were unprecedented in many ways. What were the trials? Died in 1953. The IMT was to comprise one judge from each of the four Allied nations. It is located in the western part of the city and there is a U-Bahn stop (Bärenschanze) within a short walk. Legal representation for Nazi defendants was provided mostly by German lawyers. Trials of the high ranking Nazi officials after the second World War Why was Nuremberg chosen as the location? There were certainly many flaws, but it was deemed an overall success. Since there were hundreds of Nazi defendants, the Allies decided to prosecute them in ‘groupings’ rather than individually (a process that may have taken many years). Martin Bormann could not be located and was tried in absentia, while labour boss Robert Ley committed suicide before the trial began. The prosecution built its case largely around evidence compiled by the Nazis themselves, as they had carefully documented many of their misdeeds. The Nuremberg Trials One journalist described it as a chance "to see justice catch up with evil." What is coming will bring to mind the Nuremberg Trials that ran between 1945-1949. Publisher: Alpha History The Nuremberg Trials took place during the immediate aftermath of World War II. The Nuremberg trials were a series of trials held between 1945 and 1949 in which the Allies prosecuted German military leaders, political officials, industrialists, and financiers for crimes they had committed during World War II. Goss, Jennifer L. "The Nuremberg Trials." The Nuremberg Trials officially began with the first proceedings, which opened on November 20, 1945. The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials that occurred in post-World War … In 1947, sentenced to 9 years in work camp; released after 3 years. During World War II, the Nazis perpetrated an unprecedented reign of hatred against Jews and others deemed undesirable by the Nazi state. Should There Be a Trial or Just Hang Them? US president Franklin Roosevelt, and later president Harry Truman, favoured a conservative, judicially-sanctioned punishment, after due process and a fair trial. Judges, legal counsel and defendants were each outfitted with equipment, supplied by IBM; they could don headphones and switch between any of the four languages. Committed suicide on October 15, 1946 (three hours before he was to be executed). Of the 24 men placed on trial, 18 were found guilty of one or more charges and four were acquitted. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. URL: https://alphahistory.com/holocaust/nuremberg-trials/ Memorium Nuremberg Trials This is the court building, where the trials following the Second World War took place in 1945 to 1949. The Nuremberg Trials: What were the Crimes? Although the initial trial held at Nuremberg is the most famous, it was not the only trial held there. The site is now occupied by an ALDI store. Goss, Jennifer L. (2020, September 6). Crimes against individuals deemed undesirable were not the only charges being levied against the Germans in the post-war era. At the opening of the trial, the 24 defendants were charged with one or more of the following four charges: Charge One: Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace. The accused would be indicted on one or more of the following counts:1. The trials were recorded in their entirety, but unfortunately reel-to-reel recordings of the interpreters were lost. The Allies were considering what to do with Nazi leader and war criminals post-war, as early as 1943. Eleven prominent Nazis were sentenced to death, while others received short prison sentences or no penalty at all. This was the first. 2. Three of the accused were sentenced to life in prison. The remaining 22 were found guilty of all charges, apart from two defendants who were convicted only on the third charge. Despite a series of postwar trials, many perpetrators of Nazi-era criminality have never been tried or punished. The Defendants at Nuremberg View of the defendants in the dock at the International Military Tribunal trial of war criminals at Nuremberg. Ferencz says the legacy of the trials remains to be seen. Out of the hundreds of thousands of Germans that were responsible for numerous war crimes and atrocities during WW2, only 19 were convicted and were held accountable for those monstrous crimes. It is impossible to judge the accuracy of the interpretation at Nuremberg. The prosecution team was also to contain one chief prosecutor from the same nations. Later it was discovered Bormann had died in 1945. ThoughtCo, Sep. 6, 2020, thoughtco.com/the-nuremberg-trials-1779316. Charge Four: Crimes against humanity. For more info, visit our FAQ page or Terms of Use. 4. They were the first to share the horrors of the Holocaust with the world on a large scale. The defendants were 24 senior Nazi officials, including Herman Goering, Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher, Albert Speer and military commanders Alfred Jodl and Karl Donitz. War Crimes: The accused allegedly violated previously established rules of warfare, including the killing of civilians, POWs, or malicious destruction of civilian property. The Nuremberg trials were held between November 1945 and October 1948. Recently uncovered evidence suggests that Allied discussions on bringing enemy leaders and war criminals to justice had taken place almost two years before the war had ended. ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. As the Allied Powers worked to gather evidence, they also had to determine who should be included in the first round of proceedings. According to this concept, the accused were following orders issued by Adolf Hitler, and the penalty for not following those orders was death. The Nuremberg Trials marked a milestone in the establishment of… Since Hitler, himself, was no longer alive to invalidate these claims, the defense was hoping that it would carry weight with the judicial panel. The Nuremberg Trials were a series of international criminal trials held in the German city of Nuremberg in the wake of the Second World War. The leaders of European nations, who had been more directly affected by Nazi aggression and occupation, took a stronger line. The International Military Tribunal was opened on November 19, 1945, in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg. In the months following liberation, many military officers and Nazi officials were held in prisoner of war camps throughout the four Allied zones of Germany. On October 1, 1946, 19 of the 22 Nuremberg defendants were found guilty of … The IMT itself was comprised of judges from the four major Allied powers: Britain, France, United States and the Soviet Union. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England, initially felt that all those who were alleged to have committed war crimes should be hanged. The Allies also identified a certain symmetry in bringing leading Nazis to justice in a city that had been the ceremonial heartland of Nazism. Copyright: The content on this page may not be republished without our express permission. Judges from the Allied powers—Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States—presided over the hearing of 22 major Nazi … Many of the hangings were carried out with short rope that caused prisoners to die a long, lingering death from suffocation, rather than an instantaneous death from a broken neck. A small number of individuals survived these horrors but their lives were changed forever by the horrors inflicted upon them by the Nazi State. Nuremberg was a city in Germany and was in one of the best conditions of German cities after the war This prison was run by the British, French, Americans and Russians in alternating three-month shifts, for the next 40 years. The Americans, French, and Soviets felt that trials were necessary and worked to convince Churchill of the importance of these proceedings. Non-German Axis leaders were soon removed from the working list of targets for prosecution. Crimes of Conspiracy: The accused was alleged to have participated in the creation and/or implementation of a joint plan or conspired to assist those in charge of executing a joint plan whose goal involved crimes against the peace. This charter proclaimed that persons of Axis nations could be prosecuted for breaches of international law and the laws of war. Supreme Commander of the Navy (1943) and German Chancellor, Head of the Radio Division of the Propaganda Ministry. This article, however, is primarily concerned with the first and best-known of the Nuremberg hearings: the ‘trial of major war criminals’. Chief of the Security Police, SD, and RSHA. The prosecution entered indictments against 24 major war criminals and seven organizations – the leadership of the Nazi party, the Reich Cabinet, the Schutzstaffel (SS), Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the Gestapo, the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the "General Staff and High Command", comprising several categories of senior military officer… The Nuremberg Trials Attempted To Punish The Most Powerful Surviving Nazis — And Failed Miserably Starting in November 1945, Allied forces presided over a series of Nuremberg trials intended to bring high-ranking Nazis to justice, but millions of Nazis evaded their grasp. In 1953, a German appeals court posthumously found Jodl not guilty of breaking international law. Allied personnel would not be tried for war crimes in Nuremberg. Minister of the Interior and Reich Governor of Austria, United States – Frances Biddle (Main) and John Parker (Alternate), Britain – Sir Geoffrey Lawrence (Main) (President Judge) and Sir Norman Birkett (Alternate), France – Henri Donnedieu de Vabres (Main) and Robert Falco (Alternate), Soviet Union –Major General Iona Nikitchenko (Main) and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Volchkov (Alternate). On trial were 24 of Nazi Germany’s major war criminals, including Hermann Goering, Martin Bormann, Julius Streicher, and Albert Speer. Requested to be shot as a soldier. by Hadding Scott TODAY SOMEBODY made the absurd assertion that the German defendants got a fair trial before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. The United States held 12 additional trials in Nuremberg after the initial International Military Tribunal. Of the 22 that were ultimately tried, 12 were sentenced to death. The seventh series of Ravensbrück trials was held between July 2nd and July 21st, 1948 to hear the cases of Aufseherin accused of maltreatment of prisoners and making selections for the gas chambers. Two of the six were acquitted, two given prison terms and two sentenced to death. Of the 22, one wasn’t in custody; Martin Bormann (Nazi Party Secretary) was charged in absentia. Witnesses to the atrocities were also brought to the stand, as were the accused. They were the first trials in history to indict an entire regime for aggressive war crimes. The ashes were scattered over the River Isar. There were two sets of Nuremberg Trials.. The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals held in the months after World War II, to investigate Nazi war crimes and dispense justice to prominent Nazi leaders and commanders. Chief of the Security Police, SD, and RSHA. The Nuremberg Trials After the war, the top surviving German leaders were tried for Nazi Germany’s crimes, including the crimes of the Holocaust. The first, and most well known, were the trials of the leaders of Nazi Germany.This was organized by the International Military Tribunal (IMT). Jennifer Goss is a Holocaust historian and history educator. They established war crimes tribunals in Nuremberg, the ceremonial home of the Nazi Party. On November 20, the trial began with 21 defendants appearing before the court. Crimes Against the Peace: The accused was alleged to have committed acts that including planning for, preparation of, or initiation of aggressive warfare. Date accessed: February 11, 2021 The Nuremberg Trials also included a series of twelve trials held in the Palace of Justice following the conclusion of the initial trial. The Nuremberg War Trial has a strong claim to be considered the most significant as well as the most debatable event since the conclusion of hostilities. Denazification court sentenced Schacht to 8 years in a work camp; released in 1948. Supreme Commander of the Navy (1928-1943), Party Philosopher and Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Area, Minister of Economics and President of the Reichsbank (1933-1939). The judges in the subsequent trials were all American, as the other Allied powers wished to focus on the massive task of rebuilding needed after World War II. This was the first The Nuremberg trials were held between November 1945 and October 1948. Jackson’s opening statement set the somber yet progressive tone for the trial and its unprecedented nature. The London Charter also provided the trials with their own rules of evidence. Although firing squads are usually employed for military executions, the IMT chose to hang the Nuremberg convicts, believing it more appropriate for their criminal conduct. The trials were held in the German city of Nuremberg from 1945 to 1946. Exposure demands a consequence. The term “Nuremberg Trials” would eventually include this original trial of Nazi leaders as well as 12 subsequent trials that lasted until 1948. Their trial was held before an International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg, Germany. The tribunals utilised procedures from Western legal systems and heard a range of evidence. The city was also the namesake of the infamous 1935 Nuremberg race laws levied against Jews. Both Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, had committed suicide as the war was coming to an end. This time period, known as the Holocaust, resulted in the deaths of six million Jews and five million others, including Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), the handicapped, Poles, Russian POWs, Jehovah’s witnesses, and political dissidents. The Nuremberg Trials opened on November 20, 1945 and ended on October 1, 1946. It had not suffered as much extensive damage as the capital, Berlin. Hanged on October 16, 1946. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-nuremberg-trials-1779316. The legal basis for the trials was established by the London Charter, issued on August 8th 1945. The seven Nazis given prison sentences were shipped to Spandau Prison in Berlin. This site contains articles, sources and perspectives on the Nazi anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, 1933-45. This first trial lasted a total of ten months. Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces. Also, Nuremberg housed the largest courthouse still standing in Germany, known as the Palace of Justice, and its attached prison was large enough to house all 24 defendants. She serves as a consultant for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the USC Shoah Foundation. On October 1, 1946, the International Military Tribunal handed down its verdicts in the trials of 22 Nazi leaders - eleven were given the death penalty, three were acquitted, three were given life imprisonment and four were given imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years. It was decided that there was enough evidence regarding their deaths, unlike Bormann’s, that they were not placed on trial. Initially, the trials, military tribunals by occupying powers, were barely respected in a country that wanted to forget. Victims were interned in concentration camps and also killed in death camps or by other means, such as mobile killing squads. The countries that administrated those zones (Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States) began to discuss the best way to handle the post-war treatment of those who were suspected of war crimes. Nuremberg Trials. Once Churchill assented, a decision was made to move forward with the establishment of the International Military Tribunal that would be convened in the city of Nuremberg in the fall of 1945. THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT THE NUREMBERG TRIALS BY MS KING (TOMATOBUBBLE.COM)According to an account written by the drunken, cigar-chomping, terrorist scum-pig,Winston Churchill, it was during the 1943 Tehran Conference that “Uncle Joe” Stalinproposed executing 50,000 German staff officers after the war.American Gangster President Roosevelt then … His brief opening address spoke of the importance of the trial, not only for the restoration of Europe but also for its lasting impact on the future of justice in the world. In the main trial, 24 leading Nazis were tried, 18 found guilty and 12 sentenced to death. The Nuremberg Trials. He was Spandau’s only inmate for 21 years, until his death in 1987, aged 91. The hearings were conducted in four ‘official’ languages (English, French, German and Russian) so to facilitate a smooth trial without constant interruptions, the IMT organised a new system of simultaneous translation. The judges panel during testimony at Nuremberg Trials. Key Nazi leaders like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and Heinrich Himmler were already dead. Trial procedures were set down in the London Charter, with the four Allied nations taking a lead role. The allies had to understand how power was exercised in Nazi Germany, and had to disco… By using ThoughtCo, you accept our. Date published: August 19, 2019 In relation to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the Nuremberg Trials would have a profound impact on the future of justice. Seventy year ago, the 1945-46 Nuremberg Trials of Nazi Germany’s top surviving wartime leaders reached their climax. The Nuremberg Trials After the end of WWII and the surrender of Nazi Germany, an International Military Tribunal put senior Nazis on trial in Nuremberg for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 1949, a German court sentenced Papen to 8 years in work camp; time was considered already served. Although the list of defendants was long, two key individuals were missing. Charge Three: War crimes. It was ultimately determined that 24 defendants would be charged and put on trial beginning in November 1945; these were some of the most notorious of Nazi’s war criminals. Interpreters were placed in sound-proof booths and translated trial proceedings in real time. Some of the notable verdicts included: The 12 men sentenced to death – except for the missing Bormann and Goering, who had suicided the night before – were executed on October 16th 1946. 5. Request denied. A landmark in the history of international criminal justice, the Nuremberg trials saw 24 major Nazi criminals tried as war criminals, with judges from the Allied powers presiding over the hearings. 2. Authors: Jennifer Llewellyn, Steve Thompson The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials that occurred in post-World War II Germany to provide a platform for justice against accused Nazi war criminals. The Soviets, and at times the British, favoured retribution against Nazi leaders and soldiers – even mass execution in some cases. (It was later discovered that Bormann had died in May 1945.). An additional three individuals were acquitted of all charges. Nazi war criminals were tried in public international courts that were controversial but necessary. But the Americans’ significant political muscle won out, leading to the formation of a military tribunal. By 1966 there was only one remaining prisoner: Rudolf Hess. One of the British judges on the panel described the tribunals as the ‘greatest trial in history’. Each defendant was permitted to have representation, either from a group of court-appointed defense attorneys or a defense attorney of the defendant’s choosing. 3. This site is created and maintained by Alpha History. Died in 1969. The second set of trials were the 12 follow up trials (German: nachfolgende Prozesse). The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals held in the months after World War II, to investigate Nazi war crimes and dispense justice to prominent Nazi leaders and commanders. Afterwards, their bodies were shipped to Munich and incinerated at Dachau, the site of many Nazi atrocities. The Nuremberg trials employed legal procedures that were common in Western legal systems and courtrooms. Goss, Jennifer L. "The Nuremberg Trials." Was missing at time of trial. Hanged on October 16, 1946. Justice comes on the back end of Truth. The trial resulted in a total of 12 death sentences, all of which were administered on October 16, 1946, with one exception -- Herman Goering committed suicide by cyanide the night before the hangings were to take place. A total of 24 defendants were originally slated to be put on trial during this initial Nuremberg trial, but only 22 were actually tried (Robert Ley had committed suicide and Gustav Krupp von Bohlen was deemed unfit to stand trial). ThoughtCo. The International Military Tribunal was composed of a judge and an alternate judge from each of the four main Allied Powers. Died in 1970. 4. The city of Nuremberg was chosen to host the trial for three reasons. The Nuremberg Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Trials (1945–1948) Following World War II, the victorious Allied governments established the first international criminal tribunals to prosecute high-level political officials and military authorities for war crimes and other wartime atrocities. They set the standards for judging the actions of other nations in future wars and genocides, ultimately paving the way for the foundation of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, which are based at The Hague, Netherlands. For more information on usage, please refer to our Terms of Use. The Nuremberg Trials were the infamous military tribunals held after World War II by the Allied Forces specifically England, Russia, the US, and France, to prosecute and convict high ranking members of the Third Reich. It was last updated on September 2nd 2020. Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces. The court rejected the defense that only countries could perpetrate war crimes and found most of … Why Argentina Accepted Nazi War Criminals After World War II, 11 Facts About Dr. Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz "Angel of Death", What Is Extradition? The trial was held in the Palace of Justice in the German city of Nuremberg, which had played host to major Nazi Party rallies during the Third Reich. The Nuremberg executions took place on 16 October 1946, shortly after the conclusion of the Nuremberg Trials.Ten prominent members of the political and military leadership of Nazi Germany were executed by hanging: Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Alfred Jodl, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Alfred Rosenberg, Fritz Sauckel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, and Julius Streicher. During the trials, the Allied forces hoped to bring the major architects of the Nazi regime to justice, trying people involved in various levels of the Nazi war machine.
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