Nuremburg Trials

 1945-1946

The City

•  Ancient German city

• Symbolic importance to Nazis
• Chosen by allies as site for war trials
• Within US controlled area of Germany
• Invert Nazi symbolism

The Trials

•  Stalin and Churchill advocated mass execution

• FDR pushed for trials

•  200 defendants (24 high profile)

• International (allies) panel of judges
• Defendants allowed lawyers

Indictments

• Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of crime against peace
• Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace
• War crimes
• Crimes against humanity

Crimes against peace

•  Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;

• Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned above.

War Crimes

• Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation of slave labor or for any other purpose of the civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the Seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.

Crimes against humanity

• Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime

Results (24 high-profile defendants)

• 12 verdicts for death

• 7 verdicts for jail time
• 5 acquittals