The NÚREMBERG Trials

Crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis before and during World War II they are considered some of the most serious in human history, so it is very important to know the trials in which the main leaders of the Nazis were tried and doomed. To talk about this event thanks to which some of the main causes of World War II were condemned, in a Professor we are going to offer a summary of the Nuremberg Trials.

The Nuremberg Trials, also known as the Nuremberg Processes, were a set of judicial processes carried out by the Allied forces, the victors of the Second World War, against the government, leaders and collaborators of the nazi government that started the war.

The trials took place in the German city of Nuremberg, between November 20, 1945 and October 1, 1946, during this time more than 600 people of different kinds were accused. During this time several parallel trials were carried out, some carried out by English and other American courts, forming a kind of universal trial never seen before.

One of the biggest problems with the Nuremberg trials was their legitimacy, as it was the first time trials of this magnitude had been held. It was an international trial for which the world had never set norms and caused that, over the following decades, a series of international norms will begin to form for possible trials of that type.

The crimes tried in Nuremberg responded to three classes, serving to differentiate the accusers into three groups, although many of them were part of more than one group at the same time.

• The first group were crimes against peace, being accused those who had directed, prepared or developed a war, being therefore the causes and directors of the Second World War.
• The second group were war crimes, condemning those who had violated the laws, with their way of treating civilians and prisoners of war, through elements such as forced labor or murder.
• The last group were crimes against humanityThose who had committed inhumane acts against the civilian population, such as ethnic persecution, slavery or genocide, were condemned.

When commenting on the Nuremberg Trials we must bear in mind that not all of them were equally important, since they were grouped differentiating the different types of defendants and causing that some of the trials are more important than others.

Some of the most important judgments that took place in Nuremberg were the following:

• Doctors judgment: In this trial, 24 doctors were tried who had committed crimes against sterilization of Jews or the murder of thousands of people following Nazi orders.
• Trial against Erhard Milch: Trial on Erhard Milch in which he was tried for his crimes in the concentration camps, among which the experiments carried out on prisoners stood out.
• Judgment of the judges: In this trial, about 16 lawyers and judges were tried for collaborating with the Nazis and creating a legal framework where there were laws such as racial hygiene or the many created to punish Jews with thousands of excuses.
• Pohl judgment: Trial against the office that was in charge of the administration of the concentration camps.
• Flick trial: Trial against businessman Friedrich Flick, who used Jews in concentration camps as slave labor for his company.
• IG Farben trial: Trial of a chemical company for using Jews as slaves, both in terms of work and for experimenting with them.
• RuSHA trial: Trial against all Nazi organizations that were in charge of racial cleansing.
• Trial of the Einsatzgruppen: Judgment against H.H and its system of search and extermination of Jews, being the so-called death brigades.
• Krupp trial: Trial against the industrial company Krupp for the use of Jews as slave labor.
• Judgment of the Ministries: Trial against the highest officials of the Nazis, being therefore one of the most relevant.

To finish this summary of the Nuremberg Trials we must talk about the main trial: the one in which they were jThe most powerful figures of the Nazis have been chosen.

The main trial was led by a judge from each of the main Allied countries: the United Kingdom, France, the United States and the USSR, who contributed judges. In the case of the prosecutor, the position went to an American, while the rest of the nations contributed assistant prosecutors.

In the main trial 24 Nazi leaders were tried, of which only 3 of them said they felt sorry for the enormous amount of crimes, murders and pain caused. Some of the Nazi leaders even said they were proud of what they achieved during the war.

Of the 24 Nazi leaders, 12 were sentenced to be hanged, 3 were acquitted for their low involvement in the crimes, 3 were sentenced to life imprisonment and 4 were sentenced to jail, varying the number of years depending on the importance of their crimes

Only two people were not judged, Robert Ley who committed suicide before trial, and Gustav Krupp that he was deemed unfit to participate in the trial.