Transcript The Nuremberg Trials - Freeman Public Schools

The Nuremberg Trials
The Allies and the Trials
• Winston Churchill did not want a trial
– Thought all should be hung
• Americans and Russians wanted a trial
• How do you try people for the murder of
millions of people that had been made
“legal” under Hitler?
The Lieber Code
• Compiled by Frances Lieber and given to
American soldiers during the Civil War
– It detailed how civilians, prisoners of war, and
spied were to be treated
– Other nations, including Britain, France, and
Germany prepared similar manuals
– View the code
– See important parts of the code
The Hague
• Held in 1907 in Hague, Netherlands
– Focused on the rights of civilians and soldiers
who have surrendered
Geneva Accord
• Established how prisoners of war were to be
treated and called for the protection of the
wounded.
Previous Violations
• World War I- Germany while unprovoked,
invaded Belgium
– Treaty of Versailles said Kaiser Wilhelm was to
be tried for aggression, but those trials never
took place
• 1915- Turks massacred the Armenians in
genocide- no trials took place
• Video of Armenian Genocide
The Crimes
• Crime of conspiracy
– Leaders, organizers, instigators, and
accomplices in the formulation or execution of
a common plan, or a conspiracy to commit any
of the following crimes are responsible for all
acts performed by any persons in executing
such a plan.
The Crimes
• Crimes against peace
– Planning, preparing or initiating a war of
aggression.
• War Crimes
– This meant breaking the rules of war. It
included killing prisoners or war and destroying
homes and property
The Crimes
• Crimes against humanity
– The murder, extermination, enslavement,
deportation, and other inhumane acts
committed against any civilian population
before or during the war.
Who should be tried?
• The first job facing the court at Nuremberg
was to decide who should be tried.
• 24 Nazi’s were indicted
• 22 stood trial
• The rest were turned over to local trials
How the trials were set up
• Allies formed the International Military
Tribunal (IMT) to bring the Nazi leaders to
trial
– Tribunal is a court of justice
• The defendants were made aware of all
charges, each was entitled to a lawyer and
had the right to plead his own case, offering
witnesses and evidence on his behalf.
The Nuremberg Trials
• Began Nov. 20, 1945
and lasted 10 months
• Chief prosecutor was
Robert H. Jackson,
justice on United
States Supreme Court
– Opening Statement by
Jackson
Statement by Jackson
• “We must never forget that the record on
which we judge these defendants today is
the record on which history will judge us
tomorrow. To pass these defendants a
poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips
as well.”
The Prosecution
• Used the Nazi’s own records
• Tried to show the Nazis planned a war and
planned to conquer the world if they could
– A crime against peace
• A minor part of the prosecution was
documents and witnesses of the Holocaust
The Defense
• Too much evidence to claim the Holocaust
didn’t happen
– Had to make case on other issues
• Said tribunal had no legal authority
• Said they were just following orders
The Defense
• Vehemently denied responsibility for crimes
against humanity
The Defense
• Used the argument Fuhrer-prinzip
– Nazi “leadership principal”
– All orders given in Germany were Hitler’s
orders and the punishment for not obeying was
death.
The Nuremberg Trials
• The details of what the Nazi’s had done
became vivid to the rest of the world
Sentences
• Martin Bormann
– Hitler’s secretary, was
tried in absentia, never
captured, sentenced to
die
Sentences
• Hermann Goering–
–
–
–
Highest ranking official, 2nd to Hitler
Commanded the Luftwaffe
Set up the Gestapo
Sentenced to death, but took poison hours
before he was to be hung
Sentences
• Jochaim von Ribbentrop
– Hitler’s foreign minister
– Deported Jews from occupied countries “to the
East”
Sentences
• Julius Streicher
– Published Der
Stuermer, an
antisemitic newspaper
– Found guilty of
“inciting the
population to abuse,
maltreat, and slay their
fellow citizens.”
Later Trials
• The first Nuremberg Trials were followed
by a dozen others.
• Those accused
– Military leaders
– High-ranking SS and police officers
– Doctors who performed selections and medical
experiments
– Businessmen who used slave labor
Later Trials
• The Allies extradited many Nazis to nations
once occupied by Germany
• Norwegians convicted Prime Minister
Vidkun Quisling
• French convicted Henri-Philippe Petain
Later Trials
• Rudolf Hess
– Tried by the Poles and the Czechs
– Was the Commandant at Auschwitz
– Sentenced to life in prison
Results of the Nuremberg Trials
• Told the world in great detail about the
Holocaust
• Established the principle that individuals
can’t escape responsibility for their actions
by saying they were following orders
• Set the standards for judging the actions of
nations in the future
Adolf Eichmann Trial
• Some high ranking Nazis escaped from the
Allies
– One was Adolf Eichman
• Did more than any other Nazi to persecute
Jews
• Was in charge of deporting Jews from all
over Europe to death camps
Tracking Down Eichmann
• Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor,
was instrumental in tracking Eichmann to
Argentina
• Found in 1949, but by then, most countries
had lost interest and would not extradite
Nazis
The Trial of Adolf Eichmann
• April 11, 1961
Eichmann walks into a
courtroom in
Jerusalem, Isreal
– Put in bulletproof glass
booth, for his
protection
• Main focus was
crimes against the
Jewish people
Eichmann’s Defense
• His main defense was “just following
orders”
• He also lied about how much authority he
had, what he knew, and what he did.
Eichmann’s sentence
• Was sentenced to death
• He is the only person executed by the State
of Israel
Effect of Eichmann Trial
• More Holocaust survivors came forward to
tell their stories
• More scholars studied the Holocaust
“Nazi Hunters”
• Individuals and organizations known as
“Nazi Hunters” still actively seek to bring
Nazis to trial.
• The Butcher of Lyons was sentenced to life
in prison in 1987.