The Nuremberg Trials

The Nuremberg Trials Definition

The Nuremberg Trials took place between 1945 to 1949. The Trails were led by the Allied powers of France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the US, who each appointed a representative to the prosecuting team.

The defendants of the Nuremberg Trials were the leaders of Nazi Germany and those who carried out war crimes during World War II. Many of those on trial were directly involved with the Holocaust.

The Nuremberg Trials Overview

The celebration of the end of World War II on May 8, 1945, came with the atrocities of the Nazi reign in Germany coming to light, including genocide and persecution of the Jewish people, which became known as the Holocaust.

The Allied powers turned their attention to the future of the Axis powers, mainly Germany, whose actions had culminated in mass destruction and genocide. Shortly after, Allied leaders from the US, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union convened at the Potsdam Conference on July 17, 1945. Here they decided that the war crimes committed by Nazi leaders could not go unpunished, and any reference to the party should be removed. They called this process denazification,

Before this, there were no concrete processes for international courts to try leaders of another country in a court of law for war crimes. The Allied powers came to agreements to set up the International Military Tribunal to guide the trials and guidelines on how to proceed with a fair trial of the Germans.

The Trials are generally agreed to have two rounds: the first one being led by the International Military Tribunal and the second one being led by the American Military Tribunal.

The Nuremberg Trials summary

Before the first of the Nuremberg Trials began, the Allied leaders had to do a lot of background work to organize international trials.

Two years before, in 1943, the leaders of the Allied powers signed the Moscow Declaration of German Atrocities, stating that when the War ended, the leaders of Nazi Germany would be tried for their crimes. The Moscow Declaration was implemented in August 1945 when the Allied forces forged and signed the London Charter and Agreement, which created a new branch of their alliance called the International Military Tribunal (IMT).

Each country, the US, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, appointed a representative to the IMT. The London Charter and Agreement set up a format for the trials, as well as outlining three crimes the majority of defendants would be accused of:

• crimes against peace
• war crimes
• crimes against humanity

German defendants were on trial in November 1945.

Trial of Major War Criminals

The Trail of Major War Criminals began on November 20, 1945, and ended on October 1, 1946. The Allies elected British Justice Geoffrey Lawrence to preside over the trials of 22 German officials.

The officials being tried were considered Major War Criminals, as they were leaders within the Nazi party. They were considered Major War Criminals because their crimes were not specific to a particular place and affected the vast population instead of a particular group or person.

During the Major War Criminal trials, crimes against humanity were also used in a court of law for the first time.

The Trials stretched on for almost a year, and the jurists reviewed an incredible amount of evidence. Twelve defendants were sentenced to death, three were sentenced to life in prison, and four were sent to prison. Three were found not guilty.

American Role in the Nuremberg Trials

After the Trial of Major Criminals came to a close, the control of the Nuremberg Trials was left to American jurisdiction. The last trial was a joint effort with the IMT in December 1946. While the decisions were in the hands of the Americans, the trials were still held in the Palace of Justice in Germany. There they had twelve more trials of Nazi Germany leaders accused of war crimes. These Trials were known as the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings.

Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings

The Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings were led by Associate Supreme Court Justice Robert H Jackson, who was also the leader of the making of the London Charter. Other American judges during the Trials were: Francis Biddle, John J Parker, and Edward Francis Carter.

American administrators from the US Army organizing evidence for the Nuremberg Trials.

The 12 American-led trials began on December 9, 1946. These trials differed from the Trials of Major War Criminals because they mainly focused on crimes committed against a specific individual or group of people. The Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings included, but were not limited to:

• Trials for 23 Doctors who committed medical crimes against prisoners
• Trials of German businesses, like IG-Farben, who had used slave labor from concentration camps to produce goods
• Hostages Trials, where German military leaders committed war crimes during occupation of other countries

Nuremberg Trials Controversy

Many felt that the Nuremberg trials were unfair and even referred to as the "lynching party" by Supreme Court Justice Harlan Stone. They were against the trials because those on trial were accused of crimes that technically did not exist as laws before the War. The German prisoners complained that their sentencing and imprisonment were an application of ex-post facto law.

While the US Supreme Court ceded that they did not have official jurisdiction over Germany, they solidified the sentences. However, in 1951, the American High Commissioner for Occupied Germany (HICOG), John McCloy, decided to commute the sentences of those sentenced in the US-led trials.

The Nuremberg Trials Significance

The Nuremberg Trials were the first time multiple countries came together in a court of law and set an important precedent for future international statutes and relationships. Before Nuremberg, it was not assumed that leaders in the military or government could be individually held accountable for their actions.

The signing of the Geneva Convention.¹

The trials set a precedent that civilians would be protected by international law, and no one, not even leaders of countries, is exempt from being convicted of crimes against humanity. Both military and political leaders could be put on trial and held accountable for their actions during wartime.

While the trials were groundbreaking, they paved the way for the United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948 and the Geneva Convention on the Laws and Customs of War in 1949. The attempt to bring German Nazi war criminals continued into the 21st century.