The Trials at Nuremburg
November 20, 1945:
The beginning of the Nuremberg trial of Nazi War Criminals
The opening day of the Nuremberg trail of Nazi War Criminals began on November 20, 1945. Lord Justice Lawrence, the British president of the international tribunal, oversaw the proceedings against the surviving major leaders of the Third Reich. In his opening statement, he called the trial "Unique in the history of the jurisprudence of the world" (Opening). And thus, the case of the United States, French Republic, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union against Germany was opened in Nuremberg, Germany.
The prisoners appeared in the order of their names in the indictment, and were seated in two rows. The articles went on to describe the prisoners. Goering, (Successor designate to Hitler, Minister of Air force and Commander-in-Chief of Air Force, Plenipotentiary for the Four-Year Plan, Chief of Police in Prussia, Chairman of the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich, and the President of the Reichstag) occupied the right hand corner of the dock, facing the raised judges bench. He looked healthy except for a "heavy sadness" in his eyes (Opening). Admiral Doenitz (Commander-and-Chief U-boats, Commander-and-Chief of German Navy, Gross admiral, and Head of the German State) sat behind him, looking almost inconsequential in his civilian clothes. Rudolf Hess (Deputy to the Fuhrer and successor designate next to Goering, Minister of the Portfolio, and Member of the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich) looked tense. His eyes wandered back and forth across the court when he wasn't reading a novel he had brought. Sometimes Hess spoke with Joachim von Ribbentrop (Ambassador to Great Britain, and Minister for For...
... middle of paper ...
...e Manchester Guardian, 23 November 1945, Have to go back and get this info.
With Author: L.B. Namier, "The Nuremberg Trial -- History or Law?" The Manchester Guardian, 23 November 1945, Have to go back and get this info.
With Author: Hal Foust, "20 Nazis Make Plea Today to War Tribunal," Chicago Daily Tribune, 21 November 1945, Have to go back and get this info.
With Author: Kathleen McLaughlin, "Allies Open Trial of 20 Top Germans for Crimes of War," The New York Times, 21 November 1945, sec. A, p. 1.
No Author: "Justice Jackson's Indictment of Nazi Leaders," The Manchester Guardian, 30 November 1945, Have to go back and get this info.
Secondary Sources:
Burton C. Andrus, "The Infamous of Nuremberg," Leslie Frewin Publishers, London, 1969.
Peter Calvocoressi, "Nuremberg: The Facts, the Law, and the Consequences," Chatto and Windus, London, 1947.
Gellately, Robert. “The Gestapo and German Society: Political Denunciation in the Gestepo Case Files.” Journal of Modern History (The University of Chicago Press) 60, no. 04 (December 1988): 654-694.
If you have been in a History class you have probably heard of an event that happened after World War Two called the Nuremberg Trials. These trials were conducted by the United States. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson was appointed to lead the trials (Berenbaum). During these trials they charged with Crimes against the Peace, War crimes and Crimes against Humanity (Berenbaum). Many major Nazi leaders committed suicide before officials could hang them or before even being caught. The famous Doctor Goebbels killed his children then him and his wife committed suicide (Berenbaum). Only twelve out of the twenty-two who stood trial were hanged, twelve, while the rest just got prison time. Besides major Nazi officials, Physicians were put on trial, the people who were part of the mobile killing squads, Concentration camp officials, Judges and Executives who sold concentration camps Zyklon B. You can expect that they had many excuses, but m...
Goldhagen, Daniel J. (1997) Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (Abacus : London)
Siegel, Scott J., On-line article, In Defense of the German Civilian Population on Charges of Willing Accomplices to Crimes Against Humanity During WW II. Location: http://members.tripod.com/~ssscott/defense.html.
Linder, Douglas. “The Trial of Bruno Hauptmann.” Jurist Law. Jurist, 2002. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Oxford, Edward. "The Other Trial Of The Century." American History 30.3 (1995):
In 1943, under Soviet leadership the first war crime trials were conducted, however the first trial to involve the Allied powers was the Nuremburg International Military Tribunal in 1945 . The International Military Tribunal (IMT), set out to prosecute 22 defendants comprising largely of the administration arm of the Third Reich . The American's initially wished to indict whole Nazi organisations for their crimes. This focus was soon altered to determine the accountability of particular individuals. The accused were tried under at least two of the following four headings devised for indictment. The first count was the "formulation of a common plan or conspiracy"; two, "crimes against peace (planning and waging a war of aggression
The Nuremberg Trials took place in Nuremberg, Germany. Trials began in 1945 and continued into 1946; they lasted roughly two years, trying war criminals and give them varying punishments. At the beginning of the trial, 24 Nazi officials lined up for their trial. But even after this time period, they went on as they collected more criminals from hiding. Shortly after the war, people
Those to be prosecuted were done so because of the brutal “war crimes”, “crimes against peace” and “crimes against humanity” they had committed. The prosecutors were dominated by a large percentage of Jews, who at this time, excusably, had a fervent hatred for the Nazis, since the Nazis had also had a fervent hatred for them. But this just shows how hard it would have been for these prosecutors to not have had revenge govern their thoughts throughout the trial.
Bloxham, Donald. Genocide on Trial: War Crimes Trials and the Formation of Holocaust History and Memory: War Crimes Trials and the Formation of Holocaust History and Memory. Oxford University Press, 2001.
One of the major Nazi criminals from the Holocaust was Franz Strangl, a commander of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps during the Holocaust. In 1961 his name appeared on an official list of “Wanted Criminals.” He was tracked down by Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, and Strangl was arrested in Brazil on February 28th, 1967. He was tried for co-responsibility in the mass murder of 900,000 Jews at the Treblinka extermination camp and sentenced to life in prison in 1970. Franz Stangl should be held responsible for his actions during the Holocaust.
“Police decree on identification of Jews, 1 September 1941” Ed. By Stackelberg and Winkle. The Nazi Germany Sourcebook: an anthology of texts. (New York: Rutledge, 2002), 154
From 1946 to 1947, the Nuremberg War Crime Trials took place, withfifteen of twenty-three German physicians and research scientist-physicians found guilty of criminal human experimentation projects. The trial court attempted to establish a set of principles of human experimentation that could serve as a code of research ethics. The result was the Nuremberg Code, which attempted to provide a natural law-based set of universal ethical principles.
The Nuremberg Trials was unethically run and violated the rights of the Nazi leaders who were convicted of committing crimes against humanity. Primarily because the Allies sought to use the trials as a way to remind the Germans, who won the war ‘again’. Thus making it similar to the Treaty of Versailles in (19- ), through implying this notion of “Victors’ Justice”. Nevertheless, the Allies did to an extent ‘try’ to make the tribunal as ethical as possible,
"Gestapo Torture of Jews in Warsaw Prisons Reported, List of Guilty Nazis Published." . The Global Jewish News Source , 19 October 1942. Web. 10 Dec 2013. .
"War Guilt Clause." Treaty of Versailles and Nazism. N.p., 9 Nov. 2011. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.