Okla-homey
11/20/2009, 07:32 AM
November 20, 1945, NUREMBERG TRIALS BEGIN:
Sixty-four years ago today, 24 high-ranking Nazis went on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, for atrocities committed during World War II.
The Nuremberg Trials were conducted by an international tribunal made up of representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and Great Britain. It was the first trial of its kind in history, and the defendants faced charges ranging from crimes against peace, to war crimes, to crimes against humanity. All of these offenses are felonies under generally accepted principles of international law, thus the international nature of the tribunal.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/3097/nnjudges7sh.jpg
Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence, the British member, presided over the proceedings, which lasted 10 months and consisted of 216 court sessions.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/6935/n800pxnurembergjudges1qg.jpg
Nuremberg judges, left to right: John Parker, Francis Biddle, Alexander Volchkov, Iola Nikitchenko, Geoffrey Lawrence, Norman Birkett
Perhaps unfortunately, the two biggest offenders (Hitler and Joseph Geobbels) avoided trial by offing-themselves in the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin just before the Red Army made it there to arrest the sick bastages.
On October 1, 1946, the 12 surviving architects of Nazi policy were sentenced to death. Seven others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life, and three were acquitted.
Of the original 24 defendants, one, Robert Ley, committed suicide while in prison, and another, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, was deemed mentally and physically incompetent to stand trial.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5964/njodl12bn.jpg
Feldmarschal Alfred Jodl...big shot Nazi
Among those condemned to death by hanging were Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi minister of foreign affairs; Field Marshal Hermann Goering, leader of the Luftwaffe; Field Marshal Alfred Jodl, head of the German armed forces staff; Admiral Karl Doenitz, head of the Nazi navy, AKA Kriegsmarine who was declared Hitler's successor in der Fuhrer's will; and Wilhelm Frick, minister of the interior.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1685/nn103924hh.gif
Defendants Rudolf Hess (first row, left), Joachim von Ribbentrop (first row, right), Karl Doenitz (second row, left), Erich Raeder (second row, middle), and Balder von Schirach (second row, right) sit in the dock during the Nuremberg Trials, 1945-46.
On October 16, 10 of the architects of Nazi policy were hanged. Goering, who at sentencing was called the "leading war aggressor and creator of the oppressive program against the Jews," committed suicide by poison on the eve of his scheduled execution.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1820/ngoeringtestifying9kp.jpg
Goering testifies.
BTW,There is evidence an American MP officer the still charming Hermann Goering had befriended during incarceration., while not directly implicated, may have "looked the other way" when Goering killed himself. No one knows how or where Goering hid his cyanide capsules during his imprisonment and trial.
Nazi Party leader Martin Bormann was condemned to death in absentia (but is now believed to have died in May 1945). Trials of lesser German and Axis war criminals continued in Germany well into the 1950s and resulted in the conviction of 5,025 other defendants and the execution of 806.
It should also be noted, of those Germans who were convicted but not sentenced to death, none remained in prison by 1960 as the West German government released them at the end of the Allied occupation. Opinions vary as to why this was so, but most scholars acknowledge the releases had a great deal to do with the fact that Germans generally didn't wish to continue to impose "victors' justice" on their fellow Germans, most of whom were "just following orders."
That "just following orders" defense has forever since been called the "Nuremberg defense" in legal circles. It didn't work at the tribunals because the prosecution was effective in convincing the tribunal that war crimes of the nature and scope committed by the defendants were so heinous it was their duty to humanity to disobey those orders, even if doing so meant death at the hands of their Nazi superiors.
One more fact I've always found interesting. Capital punishment is no longer the law in any European country. None of them. However, it was not outlawed in any European state until the last convicted war criminal was snuffed in the latter half of the 1950's. Hmmmm.:rolleyes:
Sixty-four years ago today, 24 high-ranking Nazis went on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, for atrocities committed during World War II.
The Nuremberg Trials were conducted by an international tribunal made up of representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and Great Britain. It was the first trial of its kind in history, and the defendants faced charges ranging from crimes against peace, to war crimes, to crimes against humanity. All of these offenses are felonies under generally accepted principles of international law, thus the international nature of the tribunal.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/3097/nnjudges7sh.jpg
Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence, the British member, presided over the proceedings, which lasted 10 months and consisted of 216 court sessions.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/6935/n800pxnurembergjudges1qg.jpg
Nuremberg judges, left to right: John Parker, Francis Biddle, Alexander Volchkov, Iola Nikitchenko, Geoffrey Lawrence, Norman Birkett
Perhaps unfortunately, the two biggest offenders (Hitler and Joseph Geobbels) avoided trial by offing-themselves in the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin just before the Red Army made it there to arrest the sick bastages.
On October 1, 1946, the 12 surviving architects of Nazi policy were sentenced to death. Seven others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life, and three were acquitted.
Of the original 24 defendants, one, Robert Ley, committed suicide while in prison, and another, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, was deemed mentally and physically incompetent to stand trial.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5964/njodl12bn.jpg
Feldmarschal Alfred Jodl...big shot Nazi
Among those condemned to death by hanging were Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi minister of foreign affairs; Field Marshal Hermann Goering, leader of the Luftwaffe; Field Marshal Alfred Jodl, head of the German armed forces staff; Admiral Karl Doenitz, head of the Nazi navy, AKA Kriegsmarine who was declared Hitler's successor in der Fuhrer's will; and Wilhelm Frick, minister of the interior.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1685/nn103924hh.gif
Defendants Rudolf Hess (first row, left), Joachim von Ribbentrop (first row, right), Karl Doenitz (second row, left), Erich Raeder (second row, middle), and Balder von Schirach (second row, right) sit in the dock during the Nuremberg Trials, 1945-46.
On October 16, 10 of the architects of Nazi policy were hanged. Goering, who at sentencing was called the "leading war aggressor and creator of the oppressive program against the Jews," committed suicide by poison on the eve of his scheduled execution.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1820/ngoeringtestifying9kp.jpg
Goering testifies.
BTW,There is evidence an American MP officer the still charming Hermann Goering had befriended during incarceration., while not directly implicated, may have "looked the other way" when Goering killed himself. No one knows how or where Goering hid his cyanide capsules during his imprisonment and trial.
Nazi Party leader Martin Bormann was condemned to death in absentia (but is now believed to have died in May 1945). Trials of lesser German and Axis war criminals continued in Germany well into the 1950s and resulted in the conviction of 5,025 other defendants and the execution of 806.
It should also be noted, of those Germans who were convicted but not sentenced to death, none remained in prison by 1960 as the West German government released them at the end of the Allied occupation. Opinions vary as to why this was so, but most scholars acknowledge the releases had a great deal to do with the fact that Germans generally didn't wish to continue to impose "victors' justice" on their fellow Germans, most of whom were "just following orders."
That "just following orders" defense has forever since been called the "Nuremberg defense" in legal circles. It didn't work at the tribunals because the prosecution was effective in convincing the tribunal that war crimes of the nature and scope committed by the defendants were so heinous it was their duty to humanity to disobey those orders, even if doing so meant death at the hands of their Nazi superiors.
One more fact I've always found interesting. Capital punishment is no longer the law in any European country. None of them. However, it was not outlawed in any European state until the last convicted war criminal was snuffed in the latter half of the 1950's. Hmmmm.:rolleyes: