The Nuremberg Trials
By Sophie Caballero-Pearce, Third Year History
On this day in 1946, 8 judges, two from each Allied superpower (Great Britain, America, France, and The Soviet Union) passed judgement on the incomprehensible atrocities carried out by the Nazi party. These were the Nuremberg Trials, which ran from the 20th of November 1945 to the 1st of October 1946.
The Chief of Counsel for the United States, Justice Robert H. Jackson's opening statement on the first day of the trials was a stark reminder of the purpose of the trials: “We will show them to be living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence, and of the arrogance and cruelty of power.” The Nuremberg Trials were held to try countless Nazis, such as Doctors and SS commanders, who claimed they were “just following orders”. They were held accountable for their role in committing abhorrent war crimes during the Third Reich.
What made these trials even more significant was that the Allied superpowers brought together four different law practices to bring justice to the countless victims of the Nazi regime. This marked a shift in the way war crimes were tried, with the establishment of a permanent international court, which paved the way towards ensuring that future acts of genocide and humanitarian crimes were prosecuted.
Nuremberg, a city in the German state of Bavaria, was specifically chosen as a location to hold the trials due to its sordid past with the Third Reich. Under Hitler, the Nazi party held annual propaganda rallies in Nuremberg, with approximately 700,000 Nazis attending in support. The decision to hold the trials here became a symbolic conclusion to Germany's overdue termination of the Third Reich.
The de-Nazification of Nuremberg as a result of the trials saw 177 defendants tried. Of the 177, 24 were sentenced to death, 20 were handed a life sentence in prison and 98 were required to serve prison sentences. Only three perpetrators were acquitted - one of which was Franz Von Papen, who served as vice chancellor under Hitler from 1933-1934.
Not only were the trials significant due to the scale and subject of prosecution, but the trials also marked a shift towards new technology, using instantaneous translation equipment. This involved recruiting men and women from international telephone exchanges to provide precise translations to both prosecutors and perpetrators through headphones. This was instrumental in reaching conclusive judgements at the trials, with four different languages being spoken and communication being paramount to ensuring victims received the justice they deserved.
Despite the trials being viewed as progressive and necessary for the punishment of Nazi crimes, some became unsure of the efficacy due to the power dynamic of the four Allied forces against the Germans. For example, William O. Douglas, who was an associate US Supreme Court justice, claimed the allies “substituted power for principle” during the examinations, suggesting that their main purpose was to exercise their political dominance on the world stage.
Despite these observations, the Nuremberg Trails paved the way for multiple different laws and conventions which outlawed acts of genocide and humanitarian crimes in future wars. One famous example is the Geneva Convention which consisted of diplomatic international meetings about the law of armed conflicts during 1949. To this day, the Nuremberg Trails serve as a reminder that those convicted were, in most cases, ordinary individuals, whose actions cost the lives of approximately 20 million people.