For the past half century, the world has blamed Nazi Germany for the horrible acts that took place during World War II and for the deaths of millions of Holocaust victims. Dozens of Germans, including major Nazi leaders, doctors and lawyers were brought to trial at the end of World War II when they were accused of committing inhumane and immoral acts during the war and their cases were supposed to be brought to justice, however, justice was not served. The Nuremberg Trials were not fair trials for the German defendants because their crimes were not illegal when they were committed, only a handful of Germans were brought to trial, many of the defendants were brainwashed and not responsible for their actions, the court was biased, and the penalties …show more content…
On August 8, 1945, Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union signed the London Agreement and agreed to persecute major war criminals from the Holocaust. (“The Final Stages of the War and the Aftermath”). In the agreement, they also granted the right for a fair trial for all of the criminals persecuted in the trials; this right included the right to counsel and the right to cross examine any witness. Another thing they did was to establish the International Military Tribunal which was the tribunal for European war criminals (Scheffer). The Nuremberg Trials took place in the late 1940’s and were conducted by the International Military Tribunal (“The Final Stages of the War and the Aftermath: The Nuremberg Trials.”). The defendants in the Nuremberg Trials were major German war criminals with political, military, propaganda, finance or forced labor backgrounds (Scheffer). The four counts of the indictments were crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the conspiracy to commit any of the other three crimes. The most known trial was the trial of major war criminals. (“The Final Stages of the War and the Aftermath: The Nuremberg
Therefore, putting the head leaders of the Nazi Party on trial, demonstrating to the world who were the real criminals during the war. Implicitly the Nuremberg Trial was organized by the Allied powers as a form of public humiliation for the Germans. Like the Treaty of Versailles in 19-. However, as Hitler and the Nazi Regime broke the sacred treaty the Allies felt that it was their duty as the victors to punish the Germans for their actions. Though the renown historian Geoffrey describes the Allies actions his in his Crimes Against Humanity: The struggle for global justice, as a way to make the German’s pay. Thus causing the tribunal, even before it the planning for it began to be a symbol of “Victors’
Name: Institution: Course: Tutor: Date: German Collective Guilt I believe that the majority of the German people as a whole were guilty of the Holocaust. Ideally, during the Second World War (WWII) the huge majority of citizens in Germany as well as the overpowered European states took no risks. They were spectators, attempting to get going with their lives the best they could. However, they failed to protest against Nazi domination or endanger their welfare, attempting to overcome their novel rulers by assisting the person in need. Nevertheless, after the end of WWII, many asserted not to have recognized the right nature of Nazi maltreatments as well as the Holocaust.
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...
I realize the German people’s complicity. was required in order to enact an efficient system of genocide, but I cannot not. agree with the notion that the Nazis simply provided an outlet by which ordinary Germans were allowed to act on their evil desires. The vast majority of the German people were not willing executioners. However, these people were guilty for failing to protest Hitler’s murderous intentions and policies while there. was still time, and for this, they should be ashamed.
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
...ering again. When the news got out about the events of the Holocaust most Germans claimed they where vaguely aware about the death camps. Claiming they where misinformed about the camps, but Hitler had a 93% vote for his actions by Germany. These actions didn’t go unnoticed after all had settled after WWII the search for German officers to be charged with war crimes had started the people didn’t want the actions of the people who tortured, killed, and slaughtered them to walk away free. Many of the German SS officers where arrested for war crimes and sentenced but few escaped. In my opinion Hitler made the Jewish people stronger they ended up conquering and moving past this hard time. There are many holocaust museums and monuments symbolizing what the Jews and other people went through. In my mind the holocaust has to be the most brutal and vile event in history.
Even if a suspected Nazi were to be found alive and tried, it would be difficult to come to a conviction. After seventy years, virtually all eyewitnesses have passed away, and most of the documentation destroyed or lost. Additionally, proving that an individual was guilty of a greater crime would be nearly impossible. It is safe to assume that those still alive would have been in their early 20’s during the war and had only been simple guards and low ranking officers, likely guilty of no greater crime. Considering all of these facts, it can be concluded that of the 4,000 names available, a fraction of them can be located, a fraction of those are still alive, and an even smaller fraction deserves to be tried. However, there are some who believe that those affiliated with the third reich in any way should continue to be hunted down. Those who desire most for the Nazi’s to face justice are the survivors of the holocaust. Martin Greenfield describes how he vowed to, “return and kill the [Nazi’s] wife”, after he escaped. This evidence of hatred, among the countless other cases, show the rightful feelings the
...s of the Holocaust, the Allies held the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-46, which made the horrifying actions of the Nazis known all over. The Ally forces pressured Germany to create a homeland for those who suffered through the Holocaust. Over the decades that followed, ordinary Germans struggled with the Holocaust’s bitter legacy, as survivors and the families of victims tried to regain their property and wealth that was taking away during the Holocaust. In 1953, the German government made payments to individual Jews and to the Jewish people as a way of apologizing for the crimes which were committed by the German people.
In early October 1945, the United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia issued an indictment against 24 men and six organizations.2 The indictment appointed against these men and organizations contained four courts: conspiracy to wage aggressive war, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The trial at Nuremberg opened on November 20, 1945.3 For judgemen...
Following World War II, war trials convicted the criminals of their crimes. There were hundreds of trials that took place to punish the Nazi criminals. According to UnitedStatesHolocaustMemorialMuseum.org, “On December 17, 1942, the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union issued the first joint declaration officially noting the mass murder of European Jews and resolving to prosecute those responsible for crimes against civilian populations.” The United Nations War Crimes Commission would be in charge of the trials. These trials took place all over Europe.Many of them were in Germany and were held by the country that was occupying Germany after the war. According to UnitedStatesHolocaustMemorialMuseum.org, “The IMT defined crimes against humanity as “murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation.” Most of the trials were with lower-level officials, and most of the first information we knew about concentration camps came from evidence and eyewitness accounts from these trials. Some of the specific trials were the Nuremberg trials, the Doctors trials, and the Auschwitz trials.
The jury plays a crucial role in the courts of trial. They are an integral part in the Australian justice system. The jury system brings ordinary people into the courts everyday to judge whether a case is guilty or innocent. The role of the jury varies, depending on the different cases. In Australia, the court is ran by an adversary system. In this system “..individual litigants play a central part, initiating court action and largely determining the issues in dispute” (Ellis 2013, p. 133). In this essay I will be discussing the role of the jury system and how some believe the jury is one of the most important institutions in ensuring that Australia has an effective legal system, while others disagree. I will evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of a jury system.
The holocaust was a horrible and unthinkable event in history. It was instigated by one cruel individual with the right tactics to get millions of followers. This man was known as Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a very powerful and convincing individual. He made the German people believe he was a compassionate man looking at the best options to get Germany back to where there needed to be post WWI. Hitler did not step into office and bluntly tell the German people he was going to completely annex the race of Jews. If he did this then he would have never been given the authority he was given. With that being said, the German people as a whole should not be guilty. Majority of the German people supported Hitler for many reasons. He found ways to get
Is our justice system fair to all? Although the answer to this question is an opinion, there are pieces of evidence and commentary to defend this argument. The process of the legal system itself is all an opinion because in the end, the only person whose judgments matter is the judge himself. Over time, the wrong people have been arrested for the wrong things. Living in the United States, a country where crimes are committed constantly; we count on this system to make the right decisions. It is important that each case is treated equally when carrying out justice to keep the United States a safe place, to form a nation with good education, and to teach people from judging right from wrong. However, sometimes rights are taken from the wrong people. Our legal system is creating a dangerous path for African Americans in our country because of its’ highest per capita incarceration rate, its’ favoritism towards those in power, and its failure to carry out justice to protect people from the dangerous acts of those who are defined as criminals.
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
Prior to WWII any concept of international human rights would not have been able to be Kept. State sovereignty was still the norm leaders around the globe followed when it came to international relations. Of course that all changed after the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime in the Holocaust were exposed to the global community. After what had happen to the Jewish population in Europe at the hands of Hitler's army was reviled to the world, the international community realized that there was something to the whole idea of human rights that could quite possibly go beyond the recognizable sovereignty of independent states(Collaway, Harrelson-Stephens, 2007 p.4). December 17, 1942 was the date that leaders of the allied forces of WWII that included the US, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union came together and issued the first declaration that officially noted and acknowledged the mass murder of European Jews and settled to find a solution to prosecute those responsible for violence against civilians. Because of the type of acts that were committed some political leaders advocated for summary executions instead of trials (Collaway, Harrelson-Stephens, 2007). If you really think about it by doing this the allied forces would have been defeating the purpose of what they were trying to accomplish which was to make those responsible for the acts to pay but by giving them a f...