Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials is the general name for two sets of trials of Nazis involved in World War II and the Holocaust. The trials were held in the German city of Nuremberg (Nürnberg) from 1945 to 1949 at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice (the only court in Germany large enough to host the event that had not been destroyed by Allied bombing). The first and most famous of these trials was the Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal or IMT, which tried twenty-four of the most important captured (or still believed to be alive) leaders of Nazi Germany. It was held from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946. The second set of trials were of lesser war criminals under Control Council Law No. 10, including the famous Doctors Trial. The majority of this page deals with the IMT.
| Table of contents |
|
2 The validity of the court 3 The main trial 4 Influence on the development of international criminal law 5 See also 6 External links |
Creation of the court
At the meetings in Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945) and Potsdam (1945), the three major wartime powers USA, USSR and Britain agreed on the format to punish those responsible for war-crimes during World War II. France managed to gain a place on the tribunal too. Some 200 German war crimes defendants were tried at Nuremberg, and 1,600 others were tried under the traditional channels of military justice.
The Soviet Union had wanted the trials to take place in Berlin, however Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the trials for several reasons:
- convenient location in the American sector (at this time, Germany was divided up into four sectors)
- the Palace of Justice was spacious and largely undamaged. A large prison was also part of the complex
- because Nuremberg had been appointed "City of the party rallies", there was symbolic value in making it the place of the party's demise.
Each of the four countries provided one judge and an alternate; and the prosecutors. The judges were:
- Geoffrey Lawrence (British main and president)
- Norman Birkett (British alternate)
- Francis Biddle (US main)
- John Parker (US alternate)
- Henri de Vabre (French main)
- Robert Falco (French alternate)
- Iola Nikitchenko (Russian main)
- Alexander Volchkov (Russian alternate)
The validity of the court
The defendants were not allowed to complain about the selection of judges. Some people argue that, because of this, the Tribunal was not impartial and could not be regarded as a court in the true sense. The trial, allegedly, had all the trappings of a kangaroo court. A.L. Goodheart, Professor at Oxford, refuted this view, writing:
- "Attractive as this argument may sound in theory, it ignores the fact that it runs counter to the administration of law in every country. If it were true then no spy could be given a legal trial, because his case is always heard by judges representing the enemy country. Yet no one has ever argued that in such cases it was necessary to call on neutral judges. The prisoner has the right to demand that his judges shall be fair, but not that they shall be neutral. As Lord Writ has pointed out, the same principle is applicable to ordinary criminal law because 'a burglar cannot complain that he is being tried by a jury of honest citizens." The Legality of the Nuremberg Trials, Juridical Review, April 1946
The International Military Tribunal was opened on October 18, 1945, in the Supreme Court Building in Berlin. The first session was presided over by the Soviet judge, Nikitchenko. The prosecution entered indictments against 24 major war criminals and six "criminal organizations" - the leadership of the Nazi party, the SS and SD, the Gestapo, the SA and the High Command of the army. The indictments were for:
The twenty-four accused were:
The main trial
Defendants in the dock:
Front row: Göring, Hess, von Ribbentrop, and Keitel;
second row: Dönitz, Raeder, Schirach, Sauckel.
The definition of what constitutes a war crime is described by the Nuremberg Principles, a document which came out of this trial.
The medical experiments conducted by German doctors led to the creation of the Nüremberg code to control future trials involving human subjects, and the so-called Doctors' Trial.
Influence on the development of international criminal law
The Nuremberg trials had a great influence on the development of international criminal law. The International Law Commission, acting on the request of the United Nations General Assembly, produced in 1950 the report Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the NÃÂürnberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal (Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1950, vol. III). The influence of the tribunal can also be seen in the proposals for a permanent international criminal court, and the drafting of international criminal codes, later prepared by the International Law Commission.
The Nuremberg trials initiated a movement for the prompt establishment of a permanent international criminal court, eventually leading over fifty years later to the adoption of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.