War Crimes In Ww2

To what extent should the allies share the guilt for the injustices perpetrated during the 1930s and World War II?

Bombing of civilian centers in WWII by Germany, Britain and the US was immoral and not necessary because millions of people were killed without reason in strict violation of laws protecting civilians. Intentional bombing of civilian centers did not disrupt military functions of the enemy; it simply killed civilians. This unnecessary death it not only immoral but also illegal. According to accepted principles of war, there must be “military necessity” and a “legitimate military objective” in order for an attack to be allowed. Furthermore, the Allies admit deliberately targeting civilian centers in a pamphlet dropped by the RAF in Germany: "We are bombing Germany, city by city, and ever more terribly, in order to make it impossible for you to

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Before the war started, there was no law that forbade aerial bombing of cities as the Hague conventions of 1897, and 1907 which outlined the codes of wartime conduct at land and sea had not been updated to include air warfare. Despite FDR’s early attempts to convince both sides of the table to agree to target military assets exclusively, political, industrial , and civilian infrastructures were soon targets of the strategic bombing plans used by the Axis as well as the Allied powers to destabilize ,cause chaos, and instill terror among the populations. Whereas in the past conflicts mainly took their course on the battlefields with civilians out of harm’s way, this time the Allied, and Axis war machines were directed at each other’s civilian hubs to bleed each other into submission. With world war 2 came a new era of warfare. With new technology, and new strategies, the world would witness devastation on a scale the likes

It is a pleasant autumn day in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1960. Suddenly, agents from Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, tackled a man to the ground (Lichtblau, The Nazis Next Door 68). Unbeknownst to spectators, that man was Adolf Eichmann, aide to the Fascist dictator Adolf Hitler. Along with Hitler and other Third Reich Nazis, he had organized the Holocaust—a massive genocide murdering eleven million people. How is it possible that, after all of these years, Eichmann remained hidden? How is it possible that the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, which were held by the Allied Powers after World War II, did not execute this man? The Nuremberg Trials were a series of thirteen trials held between 1945 and 1949 to prosecute some Nazi war criminals. The trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany, because its courthouse was not damaged from the war. The four Allied Powers held the hearings, and the best-known trial was the Trial of Major War Criminals (“Nuremberg Trials”). The fact of the matter is that not many Nazis were actually convicted in the Nuremberg Trials, even though these court proceedings were supposed to bring Nazis to justice. Overall, the Nuremberg Trials were not effective in prosecuting Nazi war criminals. This is because few Nazis were executed, many fled to South America, the U.S. enlisted them as spies, and they became top scientists in the United States Space Program.

The number of deaths that occurred due to the national socialist regime in Germany is truly massive: up to six million Jews, seven million Soviet citizens, three million Soviet prisoners of war, 1.8 million Poles, 312,000 southern Slavs (Croats, Bosniaks, and Serbs), 250,000 disabled persons, around 200,000 people of Romani descent (Gypsies), 2,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses, and an undetermined number of homosexuals and political opponents (“Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution”). Leaders of the victorious Allies realized that the Nazi soldiers and leaders responsible for these deaths would need to be punished. This duty to punish the guilty evolved into the postwar trials, which influenced the way

Opposing sides in a war often have contradicting moral views. Hitler truly believed that he was doing what is right for his country. Being someone that fought in the first world war and saw the retributions that Germany faced made Adolf Hitler a fanatical patriot. Morality is a delicate topic when it comes to war, as often, during wartime, people’s morals are skewed by the desire for victory. Hitler’s plan for Germany’s rise to power was, in fact, fairly successful. Much of Germany’s original power and glory was taken away by the Treaty of Versailles. Additionally, Germany fell into a deep economic depression, like most of the countries around it. By the end of the war, however, as shown by the About Nazism website, "The German economy achieved near full employment and greatly expanded its economic and industrial base." While many do argue that the way he achieved this glory was immoral, it is easy to say that Hitler could be considered as one of the greatest leaders of his time. Furthermore, morality and the line between right and wrong is often blurred during war, even in countries considered to be “good,” as seen by the bombing of Hiroshima. Many Americans, at that time, felt that dropping the atomic bomb on the densely populated city was justified. However, it is now argued that perhaps the use of the bomb was actually quite hypocritical. Much of the hatred that came towards the Japanese was because of their treatment of China, especially the bombing of unprotected cities. According to the article, "Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese Invasion of China," Japan's bombing of Shanghai was "the first of many Japanese terror bombings of civilian populations." Nonetheless, the United States proceeded with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even though originally, they disagreed with the morals of Japan dropping bombs. It is in this way that morality can be twisted to fuel

Russia, for example, presented a list of 50,000 to 100,000 members of the Nazi party they just wanted to execute with no trial, and many people in Britain and the U.S. agreed with them. After all, they didn’t give the millions of men they killed a fair trial or a chance to prove their worth. The trials even angered many native Germans and former members of the Nazi party as they viewed the trials as a way to get back at Germany. To them, the trials were rigged so that the Nazi leaders would be executed, and they were just performing the trials so that their executions would be legal and justified while the war crimes of the Americans and the British went unnoticed (Fireside 17). This actually opened up one of the few defenses against the crimes they had committed as they accused the “Allies” of twisting justice and dealing out punishment to anyone they deemed undesirable or were involved in the effort against the Allied side of World War

The horrible sights that could be seen were described by a police chief of Hamburg, Germany of December 1st, 1943. These bombings that wiped out an estimated 44,000 civilians may be a war crime. As stated in the list of Customary Rules of International Humanitarian Law as rule 1, “The parties to the conflict must at all times distinguish between civilians and combatants. Attacks may only be directed against combatants. Attacks must not be directed against civilians.” This rule states how the soldiers were supposed to fight opposing soldiers, and not take it upon themselves to demolish the civilians in order to get the point across that losing was not an option. As stated in document 20 by a police chief, “The horrific scenes that occurred in the areas of the firestorm are indescribable. Children were torn from the hands of their parents by the tornado and whirled into the flames.” As this quote speaks of children, it is shown that the bombings may have been

Most significantly, the German defendants at Nuremberg were being tried for several categories of offense that had no precedent under international law creating "ex post facto" charge, meaning that the defendants were indicted for something that was not a crime until after they had committed it. At the time that the German officials on trial committed the various atrocities for which they were charged, no international law specifically banned their actions. The prosecution was therefore able to construct their charges to maximize the rate of conviction. Most national legal codes, including the law of the United States, require that a crime must have been illegal at the time the act was committed in order to charges to be pressed. The major focuses of the prosecution were crimes against the peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, organizations, and conspiracy.

Since this definition was established, it became much easier to convict the accused Nazi’s for their crimes, as convicting war criminals with a valid definition in the first place is crucial. The purpose of the Nuremberg trials was to find and convict the Nazi participants in the war for what they had done. The Nuremberg Trials did not take too long to complete, taking only 10 months between November 20th, 1945, to October 1st, 1946. This was mainly only because Germany was very strict on consistent and accurate documentation about the crimes- unknowing at the time, that they had committed; which made it easier to persuade the accused to admit to what they had done. These documents included the robbery against Jewish people, such as rings, paintings and other valuables.2 Because of the weighted proof of thousands of documents, twelve of the twenty-two initially accused Nazi’s were sentenced to death, three were acquitted, and the last seven were sentenced to prison.3 The Nuremberg trials were a big step towards establishing human rights internationally and made it known that both civilians and prisoners of war are entitled to protection despite any circumstances. The trials were the first in history that war criminals from around the world were tried in an international court for their crimes.4 Furthermore, it pushed the agenda that war crimes were not to be dismissed so

First, the laws which were applied to the trials were mainly established after the war. The trials were done under the Charter of the International Military Tribunal but this was made just before trials to judge Nazi. Prosecutors applied them retroactively in the trials, but retroactive application of laws discredited the legitimacy of trials because

Both the Soviet Union and Great Britain felt that summary execution (execution without trial) was necessary, but American leaders pushed for a criminal trial, stating it would be more effective “The Allies eventually established the laws and procedures for the Nuremberg trials with the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal (IMT), issued on August 8, 1945.”(History) There was no history of an international trial for war criminals for more than one nation until the Nuremberg Trials, which had four powers (France, Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S.) with differing legal practices. Therefore, they settled upon the London Charter of the IMT which defined three categories of crime: crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. ¨Nuremberg, Germany, was chosen as a site for trials that took place in 1945 and 1946.¨ (USHMM) Nuremberg (also known as Nurnberg) Germany was specifically chosen for the place of the trials for multiple reasons. For one, its Palace of Justice was mostly undamaged from the war, and it also held a large prison. Additionally, Nuremberg was a site for Nazi propaganda rallies, making the postwar trials a symbolic end of Hitler's

World war two the war that cost thousands of people their lives. Why weren’t the Nazi soldiers held accountable for what they did? Well they were that is what we call the Nuremberg trials. What was Nuremberg trials?

After World War II, both international and domestic courts conducted trials of accused war criminals. The trial of leading German officials before the International Military Tribunal (IMT), took place in Nuremberg, Germany, with judges from the Allied powers (the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and France). Between October 18, 1945, and October 1, 1946, the IMT tried 22 "major" war criminals on charges of crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit such crimes. Twelve of those convicted were sentenced to death, three defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment, and four to prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years. The IMT acquitted three of the defendants. US military tribunals