Nuremberg Trials
bringing war criminals to justice
what were the Nuremberg Trials
Defendants rise in the courtroom in Nuremberg
Here is a gripping account of the major postwar trial of the Nazi hierarchy in World War II. The Nuremberg Trial brilliantly recreates the trial proceedings and offers a reasoned, often profound examination of the processes that created international law.
Defendants in the dock in Room 600 at the Palace of Justice, during proceedings against leading Nazi figures for war crimes at the International Military Tribunal (IMT), Nuremberg, Germany, 1945. Front row (left to right): Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Wilhelm Keitel. Back row (left to right): Karl Donitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel and Alfred Jodl.
Who was there
Held between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946, the Tribunal was given the task of trying 23 of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich, though one of the defendants, Martin Bormann, was tried in absentia, while another, Robert Ley, committed suicide within a week of the trial's commencement.
Not included were Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels, all of whom had committed suicide in the spring of 1945, well before the indictment was signed.
How did it end
The tribunals were mutually controlled by the UK, America and Russia. Criminal law judges were provided by all three nations.