Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg Trials, the war-crimes trials of 22 German Nazi leaders and several organizations at the end of World War II. The trials were held at Nuremberg, Germany, during 1945–46, before a tribunal of judges from the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France. Crimes and atrocities for which German leaders were responsible were exposed in detail before the world. The tribunal's creation, proceedings, and decisions set many precedents in international law.
During the war frequent statements had been made by the Allies that Axis leaders would be held responsible for their actions. On August 8, 1945, the four powers occupying Germany signed a charter creating the International Military Tribunal, for the trial of German war criminals whose offenses had not been restricted to any particular place.
The charter designated certain acts as punishable crimes. Some of the acts violated international treaties; others violated the law of all civilized nations. These acts were:
Crimes against Peace, which included planning or waging a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties;
War Crimes, which included violation of the laws and customs of warfare, and various acts of murder, plunder, and deportation committed in occupied countries during wartime; and
Crimes against Humanity, which included the murder, extermination, and deportation of individuals and groups before or during the war.
Conspiracy to commit any of these acts was also established as a crime.
The tribunal's charter ruled that (1) the defendants were not protected from prosecution if they had committed these acts while serving as government officials, and (2) an individual acting on orders from a superior was not freed from responsibility for his actions.
Conduct of the TrialsThe Nuremberg Trials opened on November 20, 1945. Each of the four nations contributed one judge and one alternate judge to the tribunal, and each had its own prosecuting staff. During many months of testimony, hundreds of witnesses were heard and thousands of documents submitted. The most prominent of the defendants was Hermann Goering, who was second only to Hitler in importance during most of the Nazi regime.
The tribunal completed sentencing on October 1, 1946. Twelve defendants were sentenced to death. Among them were Goering, foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, and generals Alfred Jodl and Wilhelm Keitel. One of the twelve—Martin Bormann, a top assistant to Hitler who had disappeared in the final days of the war—was tried and sentenced to death in absentia. Seven defendants, including deputy party leader Rudolf Hess and Admiral Karl Doenitz were given prison terms. Three defendants were acquitted. Four Nazi organizations—including the SS (Nazi party police) and the Gestapo (the secret branch of the police)—were found to be criminal, and all of their members were subject to later trials.
Goering committed suicide by taking poison in his cell, but the 10 other prisoners sentenced to death were hanged on October 16. Other war-crimes trials were later held at Nuremberg and elsewhere, as former Nazis were hunted down and captured.
In 1972 the skeletal remains of two long-buried bodies were found in Berlin; the following year, one was determined by German experts to be that of Bormann, and he was officially ruled dead. Hess, the last surviving Nuremberg defendant, committed suicide in Spandau Prison, Berlin, in 1987.