The Nuremberg Trials were a series of 13 trials held between 1945 and 1949 in Nuremberg, Germany. Major Nazi war criminals were prosecuted for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The most well-known trial was the Trial of Major War Criminals which prosecuted top Nazi leaders. Of the 22 defendants, 19 were convicted and 12 were sentenced to death. The trials established important precedents for international law and the prosecution of war crimes.

1. The Nuremberg Trials
Held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, the Nuremberg trials were
a series of 13 trials carried out in Nuremberg, Germany, between 1945 and 1949. The
defendants, who included Nazi Party officials and high-ranking military officers along with
German industrialists, lawyers and doctors, were indicted on such charges as crimes
against peace and crimes against humanity. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
committed suicide and was never brought to trial. Although the legal justifications for the
trials and their procedural innovations were controversial at the time, the Nuremberg
trials are now regarded as a milestone toward the establishment of a permanent
international court, and an important precedent for dealing with later instances of
genocide and other crimes against humanity.
the defendants and prevent later accusations
that the defendants had been condemned
The Road to the Nuremberg Trials without evidence.
Shortly after Adolf Hitler came to power as There were many legal and procedural
chancellor of Germany in 1933, he and his difficulties to overcome in setting up the
Nazi government began implementing policies Nuremberg trials. First, there was no
designed to persecute German-Jewish people precedent for an international trial of war
and other perceived enemies of the Nazi criminals. There were earlier instances of
state. Over the next decade, these policies prosecution for war crimes, such as the
grew increasingly repressive and violent and execution of Confederate army officer Henry
resulted, by the end of World War II (1939- Wirz (1823-65) for his maltreatment of Union
45), in the systematic, state-sponsored prisoners of war during the American Civil
murder of some 6 million European Jews War (1861-65); and the courts-martial held by
(along with an estimated 4 million to 6 million Turkey in 1919-20 to punish those responsible
non-Jews). for the Armenian genocide of 1915-16.
However, these were trials conducted
In December 1942, the Allied leaders of Great according to the laws of a single nation rather
Britain, the United States and the Soviet than, as in the case of the Nuremberg trials, a
Union "issued the first joint declaration group of four powers (France, Britain, the
officially noting the mass murder of European Soviet Union and the U.S.) with different legal
Jewry and resolving to prosecute those traditions and practices.
responsible for violence against civilian
populations," according to the United States The Allies eventually established the laws and
Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). procedures for the Nuremberg trials with the
Joseph Stalin (1878-1953), the Soviet leader, London Charter of the International Military
initially proposed the execution of 50,000 to Tribunal (IMT), issued on August 8, 1945.
100,000 German staff officers. British Prime Among other things, the charter defined three
Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) categories of crimes: crimes against peace
discussed the possibility of summary (including planning, preparing, starting or
execution (execution without a trial) of high- waging wars of aggression or wars in violation
ranking Nazis, but was persuaded by of international agreements), war crimes
American leaders that a criminal trial would (including violations of customs or laws of
be more effective. Among other advantages, war, including improper treatment of civilians
criminal proceedings would require and prisoners of war) and crimes against
documentation of the crimes charged against humanity (including murder, enslavement or
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2. deportation of civilians or persecution on of victor's justice--the Allies were applying a
political, religious or racial grounds). It was harsh standard to crimes committed by
determined that civilian officials as well as Germans and leniency to crimes committed
military officers could be accused of war by their own soldiers.
crimes.
As the accused men and judges spoke four
The city of Nuremberg (also known as different languages, the trial saw the
Nurnberg) in the German state of Bavaria was introduction of a technological innovation
selected as the location for the trials because taken for granted today: instantaneous
its Palace of Justice was relatively undamaged translation. IBM provided the technology and
i
by the war and included a large prison area. recruited men and women from international
Additionally, Nuremberg had been the site of telephone exchanges to provide on-the-spot
annual Nazi propaganda rallies; holding the translations through headphones in English,
postwar trials there marked the symbolic end French, German and Russian.
of Hitler's government, the Third Reich.
In the end, the international tribunal found all
The Major War Criminals' Trial: 1945-46 but three of the defendants guilty. Twelve
were sentenced to death, one in absentia, and
The best-known of the Nuremberg trials was the rest were given prison sentences ranging
the Trial of Major War Criminals, held from from 10 years to life behind bars. Ten of the
November 20, 1945, to October 1, 1946. The condemned were executed by hanging on
format of the trial was a mix of legal October 16, 1946. Hermann Göring (1893-
traditions: There were prosecutors and 1946), Hitler's designated successor and head
defense attorneys according to British and of the "Luftwaffe" (German air force),
American law, but the decisions and committed suicide the night before his
sentences were imposed by a tribunal (panel execution with a cyanide capsule he had
of judges) rather than a single judge and a hidden in a jar of skin medication.
jury. The chief American prosecutor was
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), an associate Subsequent Trials: 1946-49
justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Each of the
four Allied powers supplied two judges--a Following the Trial of Major War Criminals,
main judge and an alternate. there were 12 additional trials held at
Nuremberg. These proceedings, lasting from
Twenty-four individuals were indicted, along December 1946 to April 1949, are grouped
with six Nazi organizations determined to be together as the Subsequent Nuremberg
criminal (such as the "Gestapo," or secret Proceedings. They differed from the first trial
state police). One of the indicted men was in that they were conducted before U.S.
deemed medically unfit to stand trial, while a military tribunals rather than the international
second man killed himself before the trial tribunal that decided the fate of the major
began. Hitler and two of his top associates, Nazi leaders. The reason for the change was
Heinrich Himmler (1900-45) and Joseph that growing differences among the four
Goebbels (1897-45), had each committed Allied powers had made other joint trials
suicide in the spring of 1945 before they could impossible. The subsequent trials were held in
be brought to trial. The defendants were the same location at the Palace of Justice in
allowed to choose their own lawyers, and the Nuremberg.
most common defense strategy was that the
crimes defined in the London Charter were These proceedings included the Doctors Trial
examples of ex post facto law; that is, they (December 9, 1946-August 20, 1947), in which
were laws that criminalized actions 23 defendants were accused of crimes against
committed before the laws were drafted. humanity, including medical experiments on
Another defense was that the trial was a form prisoners of war. In the Judges Trial (March 5-
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3. December 4, 1947), 16 lawyers and judges
were charged with furthering the Nazi plan for
On Nov. 20, 1945, the International Military
racial purity by implementing the eugenics
Tribunal began proceedings against 22 high-
laws of the Third Reich. Other subsequent
trials dealt with German industrialists accused ranking Nazis indicted for war crimes; the
of using slave labor and plundering occupied Nuremberg Trials set a precedent in
countries; high-ranking army officers accused international human rights law.
of atrocities against prisoners of war; and SS
officers accused of violence against
concentration camp inmates. Of the 185
people indicted in the subsequent Nuremberg Trials of Nazi War Criminals Begin
trials, 12 defendants received death
sentences, 8 others were given life in prison
and an additional 77 people received prison At the end of World War II, the Allied powers
terms of varying lengths, according to the sought to bring those responsible for the
USHMM. Authorities later reduced a number Holocaust and World War II atrocities to
of the sentences. justice. Low-level offenders were tried by
court-martial, while Germans who primarily
Aftermath committed crimes in foreign countries would
be tried in those countries.
The Nuremberg trials were controversial even
among those who wanted the major criminals The most serious offenders would be tried
punished. Harlan Stone (1872-1946), chief under the Charter of the International Military
justice of the U.S. Supreme Court at the time, Tribunal, also known as the London Charter, a
described the proceedings as a body of laws drafted by judges from the
"sanctimonious fraud" and a "high-grade United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union
lynching party." William O. Douglas (1898- and France in August 1945. The main trials
1980), then an associate U.S. Supreme Court under the new legislation were held at the
justice, said the Allies "substituted power for Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany.
principle" at Nuremberg.
The four Allies divided the workload for the
Nonetheless, most observers considered the prosecution. The United States handled the
trials a step forward for the establishment of charges of conspiracy, Britain handled crimes
international law. The findings at Nuremberg against peace, and France and the Soviet
led directly to the United Nations Genocide Union shared war crimes and crimes against
Convention (1948) and Universal Declaration humanity.
of Human Rights (1948), as well as the Geneva
Convention on the Laws and Customs of War In the first and most famous of the 12 trials at
(1949). In addition, the International Military Nuremberg, 24 Nazi war criminals were
Tribunal supplied a useful precedent for the indicted. Industrialist Gustav Krupp was ruled
trials of Japanese war criminals in Tokyo too ill to face trial and labor leader Robert Ley
(1946-48); the 1961 trial of Nazi leader Adolf committed suicide before trial. The tribunal
Eichmann (1906-62); and the establishment of began proceedings against the remaining 22
tribunals for war crimes committed in the men—including with Hitler’s deputy Martin
former Yugoslavia (1993) and in Rwanda Bormann, who was tried in absentia—on Nov.
(1994). 20, 1945.
The first day was spent reading the 24,000-
word indictment against the defendants,
broadcast through headphones in four
different languages. The defendants sat
together in a two-level dock, guarded by a
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4. row of white steel-helmeted American 19 Convicted, 12 Sentenced to
military personnel. The following day each
defendant pleaded not guilty and the
Death
prosecution, headed by U.S. Supreme Court
Over the next month, the prosecution
Justice Robert Jackson, began its case.
presented evidence of Nazi atrocities,
including a film with footage from
“The privilege of opening the first trial in
concentration camps and the Warsaw ghetto.
history for crimes against the peace of the
In a 1992 interview, interrogator Henry
world imposes a grave responsibility,” Jackson
Kellermann, a Jew who emigrated from
began. “The wrongs which we seek to
Germany 1937, spoke of the defendants’
condemn and punish have been so calculated,
reactions to the film.
so malignant, and so devastating, that
civilization cannot tolerate their being
“It was amazing how they fell apart,” he said.
ignored, because it cannot survive their being
“[Hermann] Goering never looked at it,
repeated. That four great nations, flushed
neither did [Rudolf] Hess. [Hans] Frank, the
with victory and stung with injury, stay the
‘Butcher of Poland,’ broke into tears.”
hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit
their captive enemies to the judgment of the
The prosecution began their cases against
law is one of the most significant tributes that
each individual defendant in January and,
Power has ever paid to Reason.”
from March to June, most of the defendants
would testify. Final statements were made
The Defendants Aug. 31 and the justices reached their verdicts
on Oct. 1.
Many of the men most responsible for the
atrocities under the Third Reich, including Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to
Chancellor Adolf Hitler, SS head Heinrich death, including Bormann. Seven were given
Himmler and propaganda minister Joseph prison sentences and three were acquitted.
Goebbels, had committed suicide to avoid Goering evaded the hangman by swallowing a
being captured. poison capsule the day before his scheduled
execution.
The 24 men chosen to face trial included
Deputy Fuhrer Rudolph Hess, Hans Frank, the
“Butcher of Poland,” Foreign Minister Joachim
von Ribbentrop, and Hermann Goering, the
former head of the Luftwaffe, president of the i
Taken from
Reichstag and Hitler’s chosen successor. 1. http://www.history.com/topics/nuremberg-
trials
Goering held no remorse for his actions and
thought he committed no crimes. His 2. http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-
testimony was one of the most well-known day/November/Nuremberg-Trials-Begin.html#2
moments of the trial; “Göring obviously
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials
enjoyed himself as he kept the courtroom
spellbound for days,” wrote Life magazine.
“Göring was anxious, whatever his fate, that
history record him as an important world
figure and as a German hero.”
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