The Nuremberg Trials

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The Nuremberg Trials

The Nuremberg trial was built up to be the trial of the century. In the word's of Norman Birkett, who served as a British alternate judge: it was "the greatest trial in history" . The four most intriguing characters of this trial were of vast contradiction to each other; there was Herman Georing the relentless leader, Joachim von Ribbentrop the guilty and indecisive follower of Hitler, Hjalmar Schacth the arrogant financial wizard of the Rich and Albert Speer the remorseful head of armament and munitions. Three of the four allies wanted the Nazi leaders to be executed without a trial Winston Churchill said, "They should be rounded up and shot like dog's" but the Americans persuaded the other allies that a trial would be most beneficial from a public relations standpoint, so now with the allies agreed the stage for Nuremberg was set.

The four most fascinating leaders of the Nazi party that were put on trial were Georing, von Ribbentrop, Schacth and Speer, not so much individually but together. Georing was presumably the most famous and high ranking of all the defendants tried at Nuremberg. He had joined the Nazi party in 1922 and ascended to the post of president of the Reichstag in essence Hitler's number two man. He like many of the others tried was very intelligent, but seemed to be much too aware of it. He defend himself and Hitler vigorously saying "the victor will always be the judge and the vanquished the accused. " Von Ribbentrop was the German foreign minister in theory, but in reality he was just a messenger of Hitler's will with no real power. He was said by all Nazi leaders to be very week and indecisive to the point of asking prison barbers and guards for advice for his defense. The onc...

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...onsidered the evidence with great care, and comes to the conclusion that this necessary inference (the Nazi party) has not been established beyond a reasonable doubt." Not guilty. The last verdict was Speer who had thrown his mercy to the court. The judge sympathized with him but also denounced him. Guilty on counts three and four, twenty years impresentment.

What was the legacy of the Nuremberg trials? It was meant to change how wars are fought forever, but did not complete that goal of a permanent tribunal with only one other human rights tribunal since then. The trial is a successes in it self but it's legacy is a failure. Robert Jackson said what the Nuremberg trial was about best in his closing argument "They have been given the kind of trial which they in the days of their pomp and power, never gave any man…" Fairness and a more civilized society.

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