Nuremberg Trials

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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 from 1945 to 1949 at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice . The first and more 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 of lesser war criminals was conducted under Control Council Law No. 10 at the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT), including the famous Doctors' Trial. This article primarily deals with the IMT.

Origin of the Trials

By 1944, victory for the allies had become inevitable. Advocate groups (who had received detailed information regarding Nazi plans of mass extermination, or the "Final Solution") and governments in exile became concerned that the Nazis would unleash a final wave of atrocities. To help prevent the escalation of violence, the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) was established, an organization which began to compile a list of probable war criminals. However, the Allies did not consolidate these threats (of the possible prosecution of war crimes) against the Nazis yet due to a fear of reprisals on prisoners of war.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. suggested a plan of the total denazification of Germany; this was known as the Morgenthau Plan. The plan detailed methods of deportation, forced labor, and economic repression similar to that of the Treaty of Versailles. Both Churchill and Roosevelt supported this plan, and went as far as attempting its authorization at the Quebec Conference in September of 1944. However, the Soviet Union announced its preference for a judicial process (possibly seeing this as an opportunity for a show trial). Later, details were leaked to the public, generating widespread protest. Roosevelt, seeing strong public disapproval, abandoned the plan, but did not proceed to adopt support for another position on the matter. The demise of the Morgenthau Plan created the need for an alternative method of dealing with the Nazi leadership. The plan for the “Trial of European War Criminals” was drafted by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and his War Department. When Roosevelt died in 1945, Harry S. Truman gained the presidency and gave strong approval for a judicial process. After a series of negotiations with the Soviet Union, Britain, and France, details of the trial were worked out. The trials were set to commence on November 20th, 1945, in the city of Nuremberg.

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 was also awarded a place on the tribunal.

The legal basis for the trial was established by the 'London Charter', issued on August 8, 1945, which restricted the trial to "trial and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis countries". Thus, accusations of Allied war crimes could not be tried. Some 200 German war crimes defendants were tried at Nuremberg, and 1,600 others were tried under the traditional channels of military justice. The legal basis for the jurisdiction of the court was that by the Instrument of Surrender of Germany, political authority for Germany had been transferred to the Allied Control Council which having sovereign power over Germany could choose to punish violations of international law and the laws of war. Because the court was limited to violations of the laws of war, it did not have jurisdiction over crimes that took place before the outbreak of war on September 1, 1939.

Location

The Soviet Union had wanted the trials to take place in Berlin, but Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the trials for specific reasons:

• It was located in the American sector (at this time, Germany was divided into four sectors).
• The Palace of Justice was spacious and largely undamaged (one of the few that had remained largely intact through extensive Allied bombing of Germany). 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.

It was also agreed that Berlin would become the permanent seat of the IMT and that the first trial (several were planned) would take place in Nuremberg. Because of the Cold War, there were no subsequent trials.

Participants

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 Donnedieu de Vabres (French main)
• Robert Falco (French alternate)
• Iona Nikitchenko (Russian main)
• Alexander Volchkov (Russian alternate)

The Chief prosecutors were Robert H. Jackson for the United States, Hartley Shawcross for the UK, General R. A. Rudenko for the Soviet Union, and François de Menthon and Auguste Champetier de Ribes for France.

The validity of the court

The validity of the court has been questioned by many groups and individuals for a variety of reasons and motives:

• The defendants were not allowed to appeal or affect the selection of judges. Some people argue that, because the judges were appointed by the victors, the Tribunal was not impartial and could not be regarded as a court in the true sense. A. L. Goodheart, Professor at Oxford, opposed 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 main Soviet judge, Nikitchenko, had taken part in Stalin's show trials of 1936-1938, something which in later years has damaged the credibility of the trials in some circles.

• The trials were conducted under their own rules of evidence; the indictments were created ex post facto and were not based on any nation's law; the tu quoque defense was removed; and the entire spirit of the assembly was "victor's justice". Article 19 of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal Charter reads as follows:

"The Tribunal shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence. It shall adopt and apply to the greatest possible extent expeditious and nontechnical procedure, and shall admit any evidence which it deems to be of probative value. ."

• There were no trials for war crimes committed by people from Allied countries. These included attacks on German vessels displaying Red Cross flags, such as the Laconia incident, and the mistreatment of prisoners of war. It is usual that the armed forces of a civilised country^[1] issue their forces with detailed guidance on what is and is not permitted under their military code. These are drafted to include any international treaty obligations and the customary laws of war. For example at the trial of Otto Skorzeny his defence was in part based on the Field Manual published by the War Department, United States Army, on 1 October, 1940, and The American Soldiers' Handbook^[2]. A member of the armed forces of a modern democracy who breaks its military code can expect to face a court martial. Allied personnel were occasionally tried, for example as a result of the Biscari massacre, while Axis personnel were never tried by their own military justice systems for war crimes.

The main trial

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 German army (OKW). The indictments were for:

1. participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of crime against peace
2. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crime against peace
3. War crimes
4. Crimes against humanity

The twenty-four accused were:

"I" acquitted        "G" guilty    "º" Not Charged

The definition of what constitutes a war crime is described by the Nuremberg Principles, a document which was created as a result of the trial. The medical experiments conducted by German doctors led to the creation of the Nuremberg Code to control future trials involving human subjects, including 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 Nürnberg 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.

• The Conclusions of the Nuremberg trials served to help draft:
  • The Genocide Convention, 1948.
  • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
  • The Convention on the Abolition of the Statute of Limitations on War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, 1968.
  • The Geneva Convention on the Laws and Customs of War, 1949; its supplementary protocols, 1977.

See also

• Anton Dostler
• Dachau International Military Tribunal
• Frankfurt Auschwitz trials
• IG Farben
• Japanese war crimes
• Nuremberg Defense
• Subsequent Nuremberg Trials for the trials before the NMT.
• War crime
• Nuremberg Diary

External links

• Official page of the Nuremberg City Museum
• Nuremberg Trials Project: A digital document collection Harvard Law School Library
• The Avalon Project
• Charter of the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg trials)
• The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials
• Nizkor Holocaust Web Project
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Online Exhibit
• Famous World Trials - Nuremberg Trials

Notes

1. ^  Judgement : The Law Relating to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity containd in the Avalon Project archive at Yale Law School. "but by 1939 these rules laid down in the [Hague] Convention [of 1907] were recognised by all civilised nations, and were regarded as being declaratory of the laws and customs of war"
2. ^ Trial of Otto Skorzeny and Others, General Military Government Court of the U.S. Zone of Germany, 18 August to 9 September, 1947.

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