Content Warning: This blogpost features discussion and images related to the Holocaust. Some readers may find this material distressing.
This is the second part in a two part series on the Nuremberg Trials.
The International Military Tribunal began on November 20, 1945. In his opening statement, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson underscored the importance of the trial in establishing new legal norms. “The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated,” Jackson argued. His hope was that the prosecution of war crimes would establish new processes through which any nation, including those victorious in World War II, could be held accountable should they commit crimes against the peace of the world.
Twenty-two defendants ultimately appeared before the tribunal. Three of the original 24 men indicted were unable to be tried. Robert Ley, the head of the German Labour Front, committed suicide in his cell before the trial began. Industrialist Gustav Krupp was deemed unfit to stand trial during preliminary hearings due to severe health issues. Martin Bormann, private secretary to Hitler, was tried in absentia because he could not be located, though it was later discovered that he died while trying to escape Berlin in 1945. The other defendants included prominent Nazi officials including Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer and others. Over the following 10 months, prosecutors presented extensive evidence from military records, witness testimony, photographs and films, and German documents. Among the trial’s most significant moments was the November 29, 1945 screening of Nazi Concentration and Prison Camps, a film compiling footage recorded during the liberation of concentration camps in Europe.
On October 1, 1946, the tribunal delivered its verdicts: 12 defendants were sentenced to death, seven received prison sentences, and three (economic minister Hjalmar Schacht, former German Chancellor Franz von Papen, and radio propagandist Hans Fritzsche) were acquitted. Hermann Göring died by suicide the night before his scheduled execution, while the remaining 11 condemned defendants were executed on October 16, 1946.
These verdicts did not bring an end to the prosecution of Nazi crimes. Its judgments became a critical foundation for the development of international criminal law, and between 1946 and 1949, the United States conducted twelve subsequent trials at Nuremberg. The subsequent trials prosecuted physicians who took part in medical experimentation, judges and lawyers responsible for the implementation of Nazi racial policies, industrialists who benefitted from forced labor, and members of the aforementioned “criminal organizations.”
The American war-crimes program also included the trials held at Dachau Concentration Camp between 1945 and 1948, addressing crimes committed by concentration camp personnel. These trials dealt more intimately with crimes at the operational, rather than conspiratorial, level. Among the defendants was Austrian Nazi Party district leader Franz Strasser, who was convicted of killing five U.S. airmen after they had surrendered willingly. Video of Strasser’s execution is available in the AHC’s digital collections, though viewer discretion is advised. Also available in the Charles K. Vilim collection is silent footage of Dachau defendants testifying, including Ilse Koch, whose case became a media sensation due to reports of her particularly cruel treatment of prisoners while her husband was the commandant of Buchenwald.
The legacy of Nuremberg continued long after the immediate postwar trials ended. As Cold War priorities shifted, many former Nazis were reintegrated into German society, and the prosecution of Nazi crimes became increasingly dependent on national courts and the denazification process. Nevertheless, later trials demonstrated that accountability for Nazi crimes remained an ongoing process. The 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem was an important turning point in the process. Israeli agents captured Eichmann from Argentina in 1960, and brought him to Jerusalem for trial. Unlike the Nuremberg proceedings, which focused heavily on documents and the responsibility of state leaders, the Eichmann trial placed survivor testimony at the center of the public record. More than one hundred witnesses testified about the Holocaust, bringing the experiences of victims before an international audience and contributing to broader public awareness of the genocide. He was sentenced to death and executed in 1962.
Visiting the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg offered a tangible connection to these historical events. Standing in Courtroom 600 with my classmates offered an opportunity to reflect on the human experiences and debates that shaped postwar justice efforts then, and the continued pursuit of justice today. The legacy of Nuremberg, Dachau, and later prosecutions such as the Eichmann trial continues to influence contemporary conversations about human rights, international law, and the responsibility to confront mass atrocities. The Murray C. Bernays Papers here at the American Heritage Center tell one part of that story– asking us all to consider how we respond when confronted with the consequences of hatred, violence, and state-sponsored persecution.
To learn more about the Holocaust and the postwar justice process, please visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, whose extensive archive and encyclopedia was an invaluable resource to this post. I would also like to extend a thank you to Dr. Melissa Hampton and Dr. Adam Blackler for their incredible support and instruction, both for this study abroad course and as members of my thesis committee.
Post contributed by UW History M.A. candidate and AHC Archives Aide Rhiannon Skye McLean.
