The Nuremberg trials, occurring from November 1945 to October 1946, were crucial in appointing responsibility for the war crimes and crimes against humanity conducted by Germany while under the rule of Hitler and the Nazi Party. Two dozen of the most notable political and military leaders were tried during the Nuremberg trials with a considerable amount resulting in execution. Despite continual efforts to shift blame to higher ranking officers and claims of general unawareness, most Nazi war criminals, specifically Wilhelm Frick, Herman Goering, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and Otto Ohlendorf, who claimed to have been unaware of the persecution and mass murder of the Jews were found guilty of being involved with the Holocaust with evidence …show more content…
When questioned about his opinions on the charges against Karl Frank, one of the many war criminals found guilty and sentenced to death, Frick’s response was that “he had his good side.” He also noted that “Hitler was undoubtedly a genius,” and justified most of his viewpoints criticizing that he did not have “enough self-control.” In the interview, Frick would claim that he “lost Hitler’s confidence in 1934” and “was not really in the inner circle of Hitler’s advisers” yet retained his position of minister of interior, that he considered an important role, through 1945 (Goldensohn 55). Frick would oversee the internment of “tens of thousands of opponents to the Nazi regime” into concentration camps during his time as the minister of interior (Walker 57). His signature would also be found to legitimize the murders of the Roehm purge (Taylor 337). Frick was most definitely aware of the conspiring to eliminate political opponents and the existence of the concentration camps as he oversaw the legitimization of documents detailing their orders. Also an early member of the Nazi Party joining in 1925, Otto Ohlendorf was undeniably guilty of assisting in the murder of millions of Jews. Ohlendorf was evasive on the topic of the Jews with his only responses about them being that “they were members of other parties” and that they “held more favorable positions than they should have, according to their percentage of the population.”
On September 15 1935, Hitler passed the Nuremberg Laws, most Germans if not all already agreed with everything Hitler has been saying. The Nuremberg Laws gave these Germans an excuse to do hurtful things towards Jews and not be looked down on. Some might've even been praised.
These were the Nuremberg Trials, and they were specifically set up to prosecute the top level of members of the nazi party and military commanders that were responsible for the genocide and murder of the Jewish race or crimes against humanity and peace. The “Nuremberg Trials are now regarded as a milestone toward the establishment of a permanent international court.” (History) This was the first time that the international community set up a court for a specific event only. It did not hear other cases or issues. Its sole focus was on Germany behavior during WWII. We also set up similar courts in Tokyo after WWII, as well as a court for the mass killings in Rwanda in 1994 that judged those responsible for this
The Nuremberg Trials is the best-known trail regarding World War II and the Holocaust. This trial took place from November 20th, 1945- October 1st, 1946, and was not the only trial for prosecuting those involved with the horrific acts of the Holocaust. This trial tried major war criminals of being responsible for what happened during the Holocaust. The prosecution and defense attorneys followed the American and British law. The legal proceedings followed the 4 Allied countries that made up the judge tribunal: The British Empire, France, America, and the Soviet Union. Each Allied power had 2 judges, 1 main judge, and an alternate. The Defendants were also allowed to choose their own lawyers. 24 individuals and 6 Nazi’s organizations
The Nuremberg Trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany from the 20th of November 1945 to the 1st of October 1946, 24 of the Nazi leaders were tried for their crimes against humanity, however only 22 trials were officially carried out due to Robert Ley committing suicide and Gustav Krupp von Bohlen deemed unfit for trial before their hearing. It was considered to be controversial as all Nazi officials at one time claimed that they were simply following orders from a higher power and that they weren’t to blame for their crimes because they were acting in self defence. Hermann Göring also committed suicide the day before his scheduled execution. Also a few of Hitler’s accomplices committed suicide before they had a chance to be trialled. These adjustments to the expected outcome of the Nuremberg Trials caused controversy amongst everyone who knew of the Nazi’s treatment of others, especially Jews. There was also some bias towards the Nazi party from the people conducting the trial as they were mostly from Allied descent and had personal reasons to persecute Nazis simply because they were Nazis without fairly considering their crimes against humanity.
Synopsis – Hitler’s Willing Executioners is a work that may change our understanding of the Holocaust and of Germany during the Nazi period. Daniel Goldhagen has revisited a question that history has come to treat as settled, and his researches have led him to the inescapable conclusion that none of the established answers holds true. Drawing on materials either unexplored or neglected by previous scholars, Goldhagen presents new evidence to show that many beliefs about the killers are fallacies. They were not primarily SS men or Nazi Party members, but perfectly ordinary Germans from all walks of life, men who brutalized and murdered Jews both willingly and zealously. “They acted as they did because of
When Adolf Hitler first came to power in pre-WWII Germany, all of Germany was ready for a new Fuhrer to lead them into success and overcome the recent depression. Among his supporters was Adolf Eichmann, who began as just another German citizen, but transformed into something even he could not have imagined. “On trial are his deeds, not the sufferings of the Jews, not the German people or mankind, not even anti-Semitism and racism” (Arendt 5). Eichmann was tried for crimes against humanity, but before deciding for oneself whether he was guilty of this charge, we must question whether he was acting out of service to his country or out of his own self-interest. After reading deeper into the results and proceedings of the trial, it is only logical for one to conclude that although he may have joined forces with the Nazi party as a patriot, his motives for continuing to assist in carrying out genocide on an unimaginable scale was largely self-interest.
Most people know of Hitler being the leader of the nazis and “leading” the war on Jews, but in documents it states that he justedx signed off on it because it was brought up by one of his second in command and one of his most trusted people, but before he could be put on trial Hitler ended his life in his bunker so that he couldn't be captured. So the Nuremberg trials consisted of Rudolf Hess, Joachim Freiherr, Dr. Wilhelm Frick, Heinrich Himmler and many more these names are just some of the biggest because they were all his most trusted comrades. All together they were charged with the genocide of Jews, gypsies, gays, and many more. They were also charged with crimes against peace by invading other countries and taking total control of them, they were also charged with crimes against humanity because of the gruesome and awful ways they treated people and how they killed people and they were also charged with conspiracy to commit such crimes all of these charges are major charges mainly resulting in the death penalty due to the nature of the crimes the only one that wasn't worth the death penalty was the conspiracy to commit because they had planned on what they were doing and hadn't even started it yet. Making this one of the many ways that helped them figure there death toll for the Jews. All of these men were killed because of their crimes and for the role they had in the mass
Heinrich Himmler was born on October 7th, 1900 in Munich to a middle-class Bavarian family. His father was Joseph Gebhard Himmler, a secondary-school teacher and principal. His mother was Anna Maria Himmler (maiden name Heyder), a devout Catholic and extremely attentive mother. Heinrich had an older brother, Gebhard Ludwig Himmler, and a younger brother, Ernst Hermann Himmler. Heinrich was named after his godparent, Prince Heinrich of Wittelsbach of the royal family of Bavaria, who was tutored by Gebhard Himmler. Educated at secondary school in Landshut, Himmler served as an officer cadet in the 11th Bavarian Regiment at the end of WW1, although he saw no active service. After working briefly as a salesman for a fertilizer manufacturing firm, Heinrich Himmler joined the Nazi party and in the November of 1923 participated in the Beer-Hall Putsch as a standard bearer at the side of Ernst Rohm. All of these roles combined together were a major reason for Heinrich Himmler being chosen for the jobs he received later in his militaristic life. It is surprising, that Heinrich Himmler, the chief of the SS and the primary architect of the Holocaust, has not attracted the attentions of more biographers. For all that he had taken part in for the history of the Third Reich, he appears to lack the “infamous charisma” of Heydrich or Hitler, and because of this lack of “infamous charisma” he has been presented only rarely as a primary subject for a book about the holocaust and the
The International Military Tribunal was established in Nuremberg in August 1945, later followed by other tribunals. The Tribunal was set up by the Allied great powers: The United States, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France. Until October 1946 22 accused were prosecuted for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The extermination of the European Jews was not an independent count at the trial, but was included in crimes against humanity. Many of the murderers, tormentors and henchmen have since 1945 been convicted for the murder of Jews based on the guidelines from the Nuremberg Tribunal. Several of these have been
During your lifetime, have you ever wanted to bring someone to justice for something bad that they had done? The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials held between 1945 and 1949 in which the Allies prosecuted German military leaders, political officials, industrialists, and financiers for the crimes they had committed during World War II. The Nazis who participated in doing those terrible things to the Jews were brought to justice. Most of them were executed for the sickening crimes they commited. The Nuremberg Trials were a significant aspect of the Holocaust because this event was held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice.
A set of military trials held after the Second World War between 1945 to 1947 by the Allies in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, is known as the Nuremberg Trials. This series of Trials aimed to prosecute the war criminals whom were former prominent leaders in the Nazi Party, or had participated in the deportation and annihilation of the Jewish race during the Second World War. The judges were from France, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union and the indictments were divided into three major sections: Crimes against peace, humanity and War crimes (“JURISDICTION AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES” 6). Ultimately, ten war criminals were sentenced to death, excluding Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels, who had committed
On 8th August, 1945, shortly after the end of World War II in May of 1945, the Allied governments entered into a joint agreement establishing the International Military Tribunal for the purpose of trying those responsible for the war atrocities. Whereas some 5,000 Nazi’s were charged with war crimes, the Nuremberg trials were designed specifically to prosecute high ranking Nazi officials with whom the authority for the commission of heinous atrocities rested.
From the research I have done Keitel is portrayed as a disgraced desk soldier whose only defence in the trial was that he was obeying orders. I still do not agree with Wilhelm’s argument because he had a choice not to follow through with Hitler’s wishes but instead signed orders for various ruthless killings and attacks. Keitel knew his actions were really obscene but he chose to go through with them to please Hitler. The judge’s final verdict for Wilhelm Keitel was that he is guilty on all four accounts and sentenced to death by hanging. Keitel signed orders for the attacks on the neutral countries of Belgium and the Netherlands. He also ordered the attacks on soldiers in the East that should be met by putting to death fifty to one hundred Communists for one German soldier’s death. The judges made the appropriate sentencing for Keitel as he deserved to die for his inhumane war orders. Superior orders, even to a soldier, cannot lessen the crime when the evil doings are committed deliberately and ruthlessly. These kinds of orders Keitel singed off on were just so vicious and cold blooded. Any normal human being in their right mind would not allow for these actions to happen. Finally, Hans Frank was the third accused Nazi who used the defence that he was just following orders. Frank was appointed Chief Civil Administration Officer for occupied Polish territory during the war. Hans Frank stated during the trial, “I did not approve of the persecutions of
The Nuremberg Trials were a critical point in the history of international law because it established the fact that humanity has the need of an international shield to shelter and protect. This event was responsible for contributing in the ongoing process of developing rules that are binding between states and nations also known as international laws. The judgment of the trials may be one of the most important events in the history of international law due to the fact that it assisted in establishing laws against war crimes. One of the biggest questions raised was whether causing a war was an international crime that would be punishable or not. Many believed there was no
“If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of being doomed, will be held up as an example.” Anne Frank, a holocaust survivor had once said that. The Nuremberg Trials had many Nazi’s killed during the process. The Jews had been suffering during the Holocaust and then it was the Nazi’s turn. The Nuremberg Trials had either left the Nazi’ alive but in prison or completely dead. The Nuremberg Trials had many impacts on the world and also the future. Firstly, the Nuremberg Trials were held during 1945 to 1946. Secondly, the trials had devastated their reputation. Lastly, there is Nazi’s still alive today but most of them are dead.