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The Holocaust Essays

Decent Essays

It is without a doubt that the Holocaust will forever go down in history as one of the most heinous crimes against humanity. Even years after the Nazi leadership, effects of the war still haunt the streets of Germany and the memories of the few survivors still alive today. Hitler and his Nazi regime held power in Germany from 1939 until 1945, when they were defeated by the Allied forces (Davenport 10). Within that time, Hitler was responsible for the death of six million Jewish people, and millions of other non-Jews. (Davenport 10) However, when the war ended, it was a big question as to who to blame for these horrendous crimes. Several of Hitler’s head leaders, and Hitler himself, either committed suicide or went into hiding before they …show more content…

Later, it was proven that the USSR was correct in pushing for a trial to occur. If the United States had continued its argument to not to go through with the trial, it would jeopardize the values that the country was built on. The trials began with a 24,000 word indictment, taking nearly two days to read (Levinson 578). Each of the men was tried on four counts, conspiracy to wage aggressive war, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity (Levinson 578), by a set of judges and jury that represented each of the Allied countries (fix citation). By having a fair and just trial, it gives the court the power to show that every human, no matter what the crime, has the right to a fair trial and that justice would eventually be served. By exercising the justice system, it also allowed the public to view the magnitude of the crimes committed by the men, and the level of involvement that each of them had in Nazi activity. The trial brought many chilling pieces of evidence against the men. They showed film of concentration camps, gas chambers, cremation ovens, and the forced medical experience as principal and oral evidence to the judge and jury (Fix citation). The prosecution also brought six witnesses to the stand; including concentration camp survivors themselves (fix citation). Most of the accused stood somber and disconnected during the

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