[177] In the latter case, the Wehrmacht leadership was not considered an organization within the meaning of the charter;[177][178] but this verdict was later misrepresented as an acquittal of the criminality of the Wehrmacht, forming one of the foundations of the clean Wehrmacht myth. Fact-checked by: Myth Detector. It prevents a battery or negligence, and protects the autonomy rights of the patient. Yes. [6] The Soviet Union wanted to hold a show trial similar to the 1930s Moscow trials, in order to demonstrate the Nazi leaders' guilt and build a case for war reparations to rebuild the Soviet economy, which had been devastated by the war. [6][7] Trainin's ideas were reprinted in the West and widely adopted. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded many countries across Europe, inflicting 27 million deaths in the Soviet Union alone. 03/Jun/2021. [14][15] The exact form that retribution would take was left unresolved at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. Preserving records from the Nuremberg Trial as well as materials from the subsequent tribunals and truth and reconciliation commissions it inspired is crucial to protecting the historic and judicial legacies of the war and acknowledging the consequences of mass atrocities, said David Cohen, director of the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice and professor of classics in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Ferencz is the last Nuremberg prosecutor alive today. Shoot 'em there. Benjamin Ferencz: Yes. [231], The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Trial) borrowed many of its ideas from the IMT, including all four charges. Benjamin Ferencz: There was only one time I wanted to-- really. (JTA) At the opening of his trial in Nuremberg, Julius Streicher made several uncharacteristically friendly statements about Jews a people he had devoted his professional life to demonize. By early 1946, Western prosecutors were uneasy about the Katyn charge, although they never publicly rejected it for fear of casting the entire proceedings into question. Lesley Stahl: Had you prosecuted trials before? But during his first semester, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and he, like many classmates, raced to enlist. [94] All defendants pleaded not guilty. Nuremberg trials - Wikipedia [19], The Nuremberg Charter upended the traditional view of international law by holding individuals, rather than states, responsible for breaches of international law. [46] The British chief prosecutor was Hartley Shawcross, assisted by David Maxwell Fyfe, who had been the attorney general in Churchill's government. Nuremberg Trials News and latest stories | The Jerusalem Post 40 years on from the Majdanek trial verdict - DW - 06/29/2021 This footage came to light years later. They're not real. [141] The defendants tried to blame their crimes on Hitler, who was mentioned 1,200 times during the trialmore than the top five defendants combined. Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Channette Alexander). Germany, May 1945: a surrender, a country in chaos and the top Nazi leaders attempting to slip away. Holocaust Memorial Museum). [26], The final version of the charter only gave the court the ability to punish those crimes against humanity that had been committed "in connection with any crimes within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal". The claim has circulated widely online, including in this November 24, 2021 article (archived here) published by biotechexpressmag.com titled "Team of 1,000 lawyers and 10,000 Medical Experts Start Nuremberg 2 Trial against World Leaders for Crimes Against Humanity." It opened: Your legs won't reach the pedals." But Ferencz knew they were guilty and could prove it. [56][57] After this division of formulating the charges, the British and American delegations decided to work jointly in drafting the charges of conspiracy to wage aggressive war. [139] Some defendants denied their involvement in, or knowledge of, certain crimes,[140] even resorting to implausible lies. [47] Although the chief British judge, Sir Geoffrey Lawrence (Lord Justice of Appeal), was the nominal president of the tribunal, in practice Biddle exercised more authority. A new drama from Radio 4 follows the race to track down and capture war criminals, the struggle . [157] Over the course of the trial, crimes against humanity and especially against Jews (who were mentioned as victims of Nazi atrocities far more than any other group) came to upstage the aggressive war charge. [190][191] Also on trial were industrialistsin the Flick trial, the IG Farben trial, and the Krupp trialfor using forced labor, looting property from Nazi victims, and funding SS atrocities. People receiving the COVID-19 vaccines at this point are not taking part in a medical experiment, because the vaccines already have gone through clinical trials and have received emergency . HumansAreFree@HumansAreFree. For Cohen, testimonies in the archive show the lived horror of mass atrocity and violence, which is regretfully still relevant in the world today. And the father had routinely saved a piece of his bread for his son, and he kept it under his arm at He kept it under his arm at night so the other inmates wouldn't steal it, you know. [151], In order to appease concerns about fair process, the defendants were allowed a free hand with their witnesses and a great deal of irrelevant testimony was heard. The Nuremberg Trials, 75 Years Later - The Unwritten Record I hear it here for the first time." He never stops pushing his message and he's donating his life savings to a Genocide Prevention Initiative at the Holocaust Museum. Nearly 75 years ago, the Nuremberg Trial came to a close when on Oct. 1, 1946, a group of convicted Nazi leaders was sentenced by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during World War II and the Holocaust. Stanford University is marking the 75th anniversary of the International Military Tribunal of Nuremberg with a significant expansion of records from the historic trial. [55], The work of drafting the indictment was divided up by the national delegations. Stanford University. [50][51] Because the Soviet Union expected a show trial, its appointees were familiar with this form. [206], Many Germans at the time of the trials focused on finding food and shelter; few followed the trial closely. [80][81] The aim was to have these organizations declared criminal, so that their members could be tried expeditiously for membership in a criminal organization. [200] The case law of the trials fleshed out the skeleton provided by the Nuremberg charter and the IMT verdict. per adult (price varies by group size) Nuremberg World War 2 Tour. They could-- like, they're waiting for a bus. The Nuremberg trials were a series of 13 trials carried out between 1945 and 1949, the Trial of Major War Criminals being held from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946. . Benjamin Ferencz: Same thing, not guilty. And I see the progress. and Chris Smith (R-N.J.) would . [152] The defendants' witnesses sometimes managed to exculpate them, but other witnessesincluding Rudolf Hss, the former commandant of Auschwitz, and Hans Bernd Gisevius, a member of the German resistanceeffectively incriminated the defendants. QAnon Followers Think Secret Trials Will Be Held for COVID Rule Stanford scholars expand digital database with historic records from The Palace of Justice was relatively intact but needed to be renovated for the trial due to bomb damage; it had an attached prison where the defendants could be held. [228][24] The charge of crimes against humanity, the charge of conspiracy, and imposing criminal penalties on individuals for breaches of international law were also novel but attracted little criticism. Defendants-- absolutely blank. Benjamin Ferencz: Of course, is my answer. Exhibit 84, from Einsatzgruppen D in March of 1942: Total number executed so far: 91,678. Lesley Stahl: So they went right in after the troops? [228] The most controversial charge was crimes against peace. At the opening of his trial in Nuremberg, . I'm sitting here listening to you. Were Doctors and Members of the Media Hanged in This Nuremberg Trial Jackson. Ferencz is legendary in the world of international law, and he's still at it. Building a digital space for the archives is part of Cohens and the Libraries larger vision to create a comprehensive database, known as the Virtual Tribunals Initiative, of all international criminal proceedings that deal with mass atrocities, starting from post-WWII court proceedings to contemporary cases like the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor (SPSC) or similar international criminal tribunals for Rwanda, Sierra Leone or the former Yugoslavia. Brigadier General Telford Taylor was Chief of Counsel during the Doctors Trial. Benjamin Ferencz: When I reached over a million people murdered that way, over a million people, that's more people than you've ever seen in your life, I took a sample. New Nuremberg Trials - Crimes Against Humanity - Golden Age of Gaia [168], The judgment found that there was a premeditated conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, the goals of the conspiracy being "the disruption of the European order as it had existed since the Treaty of Versailles" and "the creation of a Greater Germany beyond the frontiers of 1914". First published on June 27, 2021 / 6:54 PM. Just put 'em in the ditch. [211] The educational purpose of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals was a failure, in part because of the resistance to war crimes trials in German society, but also because of the United States Army's refusal to publish the trial record in German for fear it would undermine the fight against communism. It's never been done before. [61], The problem of translating the indictment and evidence into the three official languages of the tribunal, as well as German, was severe due to the scale of the task and difficulty in recruiting interpreters, especially in the Soviet Union. Complete Nuremberg Trials recordings online for the first time [204] In the United Kingdom, although a variety of responses were reported, it was difficult to sustain interest in a long trial. He promoted an intentionalist view of the Nazi state and its overall conspiracy to commit all of the crimes mentioned in the indictment. The defense lawyers saw themselves as acting on behalf of their clients, but also the German nation;[78] they prioritized the Wehrmacht's reputation over the lives of the generals on trial. By SIMCHA PASKO 01/10/2021 The trials weren't perfect, but the Allies had wanted to shoot the defendants, so at least the . Nuremburg Trial Courthouse (Nuremberg) - All You Need to - Tripadvisor [217][218] The last prisoner was released in 1958. Digitizing all the records from the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal Trial Archives is ongoing. (Image credit: U.S. Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, in Des Moines . Lesley Stahl: They're making them run to their own death? The defendants' lawyers jointly appealed to the court, claiming it did not have jurisdiction against the accused; but this motion was rejected. [67] Former Nazis were allowed to serve as counsel[45] and by mid-November all defendants had lawyers. Other absent and dead men including Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, Adolf Eichmann, and Bormann were also blamed. Following the end of World War II, trials aimed at holding Nazi war criminals accountable were held in Nuremberg, Germany. 06/29/2021. Ben Ferencz entered into evidence the defendants' own reports of what they'd done. [39] Besides legal professionals, there were many social-science researchers, psychologists, translators and interpreters, and graphic designers, the latter to make the many charts used during the trial. [207][208] In a 1946 poll, 78 percent of Germans assessed the trial as fair, but four years later that had fallen to 38 percent, with 30 percent considering it unfair. The judgement argued that aggressive war had already been illegal, even if no one had been punished for it, and therefore the German leaders could not count on immunity from prosecution. 2023 jewish telegraphic agency all rights reserved. Ferencz told us he is still haunted by the things he saw. [108][109], On 12 December, Shawcross gave the opening speech for the British. A photograph shows doctors and members of the media who were hanged in the aftermath of the Nuremberg trials. Seven defendants (Hess, Funk, Raeder, Dnitz, Schirach, Speer, and Neurath) were sent to Spandau Prison to serve their sentences. [79] Initially, the Americans had planned to try fourteen organizations and their leaders, but this was narrowed to six: the Reich Cabinet, the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the Gestapo, the SA, the SS and the SD, and the General Staff and High Command of the Wehrmacht. The technology will allow users to discover and cut straight to material in a really dense corpus without being an expert on the trial or being a lawyer, and that is really powerful, Van Tuyl said. The main target of the prosecution was Hermann Gring (at the left edge on the first row of benches). Nuremberg: The Trial of the Nazi War Criminals - BBC The Doctors' Trial was one of 13 proceedings. In 1954, the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine, was . FALSE: "Nuremberg Trial 2" took place due to the - Poynter President Harry Truman asked Robert Jackson, an associate justice of the Supreme Court, to serve as the chief American prosecutor . [146] The Nuremberg Laws were compared to discriminatory laws in the United States. 2021 19:03. [22][23] War crimes already existed in international law as criminal violations of the laws and customs of war. [58], The charge of conspiracy was spearheaded by the United States prosecution and was less popular with the other Allies. You're not getting very far. This was Case #1 of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings . The most optimistic. Some people say I'm crazy. Exhibit 179, from Kiev in 1941: "The city's Jews were ordered to present themselves about 34,000 reported, including women and children. And these were daily reports from the Eastern Front-- which unit entered which town, how many people they killed. Nuremberg Combo Tour WWII + Old Town. [156], On 31 August, closing arguments were presented. Fish contaminated with "forever chemicals" found in nearly every state, CBS News Poll: How GOP primary race could be Trump v. Trump fatigue, Missing teens may be among 7 found dead in Oklahoma, authorities say, Gordon Lightfoot, "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" singer, dies at age 84, Bob Lee died from three stab wounds, medical examiner says, At least 6 dead after dust storm causes massive pile-up on Illinois highway, Oklahoma governor signs gender-affirming care ban for kids, U.S. tracking high-altitude balloon first spotted off Hawaii, What the last Nuremberg prosecutor alive wants the world to know. War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people. [87] In France, some verdicts were met with outrage from the media and especially from organizations for deportees and resistance fighters, as they were perceived as too lenient. [64] The division of labor, and the haste with which the indictment was prepared, resulted in duplication, imprecise language, and lack of attribution of specific charges to individual defendants. [234][235] Further developments in international criminal law in the aftermath of the trials included the Genocide Convention (1948) and the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949). Benjamin Ferencz: No. Never again doesnt mean anything unless you know what has happened and why, said Cohen, who has partnered with Stanford Libraries to digitally archive the records and create a searchable website for the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (1945-1946). Documents in the Taube Archive have been converted into digital files using optical character recognition technology that turns printed materials, including handwritten, typed or scanned paper files, into an electronic format that can be easily searched. Institutional rivalries hampered the search. [99] Nevertheless, defense lawyers (although not most of the defendants) often argued that the prosecution was trying to promote German collective guilt and forcefully countered this as a strawman argument. Massachusetts woman arrested for placing swastikas at Jewish womans home, Netflixs Rough Diamonds brings viewers into the drama of Antwerps Orthodox diamond district, Sofia Richie, Lionel Richies daughter, marries Jewish music executive after converting to Judaism, Sammys Roumanian, iconic Lower East Side Jewish restaurant, mounts a comeback, Stranger Things star Brett Gelman proposes to singer girlfriend Ari Dayan in Jerusalem, Disney+ series A Small Light tells the Anne Frank story from the perspective of the woman who hid her, Barbra Streisand is getting the next Jewish Nobel, in prizes return to celebrity tradition, Meet the real-life rabbi in the synagogue scene of Are You There God? Einsatzgruppen D was the unit of Ferencz's lead defendant Otto Ohlendorf. [106][107] The Americans summoned Einsatzgruppen commander Otto Ohlendorf, who testified about the murder of 80,000 people by those under his command, and SS general Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who admitted that German anti-partisan warfare was little more than a cover for the mass murder of Jews. His equivocations, standing in sharp contrast to his genocidal editorial line reflected in slogans like Germany will live as long as it sees the Jews as the mortal enemy of mankind, are now available online for the first time along with hundreds of additional hours of audio and video recordings from the trials of 24 Nazis that ended 1946, nearly 75 years ago. And that's how 27-year-old Ben Ferencz became the chief prosecutor of 22 Einsatzgruppen commanders at trial number 9 at Nuremberg. June 27, 2021 / 6:54 PM The indictment lodged against them contained four counts: (1) crimes against peace (i.e., the planning, initiating, and waging of wars of aggression in violation of . [132] The inclusion of Katyn in the charges undermined the credibility of Soviet evidence in general. The only part of the French charges that were accepted by the judges was the deportation of Jews from France and other parts of Western Europe. Cohen is also the WSD-HANDA Professor in Human Rights and International Justice. Flags from left to right: International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Charter of the International Military Tribunal, List of defendants at the International Military Tribunal, SS Main Economic and Administrative Office, mass expulsion of millions of Germans from central and eastern Europe, confrontation with the concentration camps, Journal of International Criminal Justice, "Notre combat pour la paix: la France et le procs de Nuremberg (1945-1946)", "Le procs de Nuremberg: retour sur soixante-dix ans de recherche", "German Participation in the Nuremberg Trials and Its Implications for Today", "Imperfect Justice at Nuremberg and Tokyo", Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg Trials), International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Special Panels of the Dili District Court, International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, List of major perpetrators of the Holocaust, Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nuremberg_trials&oldid=1152692054, International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1946, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 May 2023, at 18:42. [185] Twelve military trials were convened solely by the United States in the same courtroom that had hosted the International Military Tribunal. [120] Ultimately, the French prosecution was unable to convince the court that Germanization was a crime against humanity, and incidents such as the German annexation of AlsaceLorraine went unmentioned in the final verdict. Streichers paper was a symbol for how Nazi propaganda methodically dehumanized Jews and used mass media to ready non-Jewish Germans to carry out the Holocaust. Benjamin Ferencz: Well, if it's naive to want peace instead of war, let 'em make sure they say I'm naive. He was proud of that. And you shouldn't-- you know-- be despairing because it's never happened before. It was one of the biggest trials in post-war Germany dealing with Nazi-era war crimes. The Marines, they just looked at me and said, "Forget it, kid.". [145], Despite the fact that the charter did not recognize a tu quoque defense, such arguments were repeatedly raised during the trial. Although controversial at the time for their use of ex post facto law, the trials' innovation of holding individuals responsible for violations of international law established international criminal law. Benjamin Ferencz: And I'm still in there fighting. 10 issued by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. You know? subscribe to Stanford Report. A Supreme Court justice led the American team of prosecutors. The SA, the Reich Cabinet, and the General Staff and High Command were not ruled to be criminal organizations. [67] Also prosecuted were leaders of the German economy, such as Gustav Krupp (of the conglomerate Krupp AG), former Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht, and economic planners Albert Speer and Walther Funk, along with Speer's subordinate and head of the forced labor program, Fritz Sauckel. A 103-year-old South Florida man who fought Nazi atrocities as a Nuremberg prosecutor is now the recipient of the Governor's Medal of Freedom. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. These indictments and criminal procedures were carried out by the occupying Allies following the events of the Second World War. from. Watching Ben Ferencz during his daily swim, his gym workout and his morning push-up regimen is to realize he isn't just the sunniest man we've ever met -- he may also be the fittest. [238][239] The Palace of Justice houses a museum on the trial and the courtroom became a tourist attraction, drawing 13,138 visitors in 2005. 40 years on from the Majdanek trial verdict. At the time, Ferencz just had the documents, and he started adding up the numbers. Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, alongside thousands of . The British worked on putting together the aggressive war charge; the French and Soviet delegations were assigned the task of covering crimes against humanity and war crimes committed on the Western Front and the Eastern Front, respectively. [105] The American prosecutors were not any more effective when presenting documentary evidence on the conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity, and ended up reaching a "saturation point of horror" by their indiscriminate selection and disorganized presentation of evidence without tying it to specific defendants. [227] The main legal criticisms of the trial focused on questions of retroactivity, selectivity, and jurisdiction. Two of the 24 defendants died during the trials, including Hermann Goring, commander of Nazi Germanys air force, who committed suicide. [129] The Soviet prosecution also attempted to fabricate German responsibility for the Katyn massacre, which had in fact been committed by the Soviet Union. [159] During the closing statements, most defendants disappointed the judges by their lies and denial. [222] By the late 1950s, the West German consensus on release began to erode, due to greater openness in political culture and new revelations of Nazi criminality, including the first trials of Nazi perpetrators in West German courts. [198] The trials targeted 177 defendants and obtained 142 convictions, including 25 death sentences;[199] the severity of sentencing was related to the defendant's proximity to mass murder. Ferencz came home, married his childhood sweetheart and vowed never to set foot in Germany again. [172] All 22 defendants were charged with crimes against peace, and 12 were convicted. Grbe painfully recounts how he saw a grave of over a thousand bodies, some of whom were still moving.. Ralf Bosen. Ben Ferencz in court: The charges we have brought accuse the defendants of having committed crimes against humanity. Produced by Shari Finkelstein and Nieves Zuberbhler. She describes in great detail what she and many others had to endure: starvation, slave labor, beatings, epidemics and extreme cold as well the daily trauma of witnessing thousands sent to gas chambers, never to return, among many other cruelties. At the Nuremberg Trials, the doctors and nurses stood trial, and they hung. By exploring previous international or domestic trials, tribunals, and commissions, people from policymakers to human rights activists can see what was successful in previous investigations or prosecutions, where there were failures, and how such defeats can be avoided in the future. Stanford, California 94305. You know, kick 'em in. General Telford Taylor, in charge of the Nuremberg trials, asked him to direct a team of researchers in Berlin, one of whom found a cache of top-secret documents in the ruins of the German foreign . [5] Soviet jurist Aron Trainin developed the concept of crimes against peace (waging aggressive war) which would later be central to the proceedings at Nuremberg. All eight judges participated in the deliberations, but the alternates could not cast a vote. [195][196], These trials emphasized the crimes committed during the Holocaust. Nrnberg trials | Facts, Definition, & Prominent Defendants Benjamin Ferencz: And I start screaming. General Telford Taylor, in charge of the Nuremberg trials, asked him to direct a team of researchers in Berlin, one of whom found a cache of top-secret documents in the ruins of the German foreign ministry. [188] The Office of Chief Counsel for War Crimes identified 2,500 major war criminals, of whom 177 were tried. Judges deliberate at the trials of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, Germany, Jan. 1, 1945. . [224][225][226] During the two decades after the trial, opinions were predominantly negative. [54] The Soviet judges and prosecutors were not permitted to make any major decisions without consulting a commission in Moscow led by Soviet politician Andrei Vyshinsky; the resulting delays hampered the Soviet effort to set the agenda. Benjamin Ferencz: Never in my life. Nov. 20, 2021 / 3:00 AM On This Day: Nuremberg trials begin On Nov. 20, 1945, 24 German leaders went on trial at Nuremberg before the International War Crimes Tribunal. [34][35] Located in the American occupation zone, Nuremberg was a symbolic location as the site of Nazi rallies. [17] On May 8, Germany surrendered unconditionally. Stanford scholars expand digital archive of Nuremberg trial I've got here mass murder, mass murder on an unparalleled scale." [103], Much of the American case focused on the development of the Nazi conspiracy before the outbreak of war. 'The unsung heroes of the Nuremberg trials': How translators played a He's an intelligent, patriotic human being. add_to_queue. Lesley Stahl: Now, you've been at this for 50 years, if not more. I got on the next plane, flew from Berlin down to Nuremberg, and I said to Taylor, "General, we've gotta put on a new trial.". And he said, "Can you do this in addition to your other work?" [83] The American and British prosecutors focused on documentary evidence and affidavits rather than testimony from survivors, as the latter was considered less reliable and more liable to accusations of bias, but at the expense of reducing public interest in the proceedings. Because I want peace instead of war. [87][149] United States admiral Chester Nimitz testified that the United States had used the same methods of submarine warfare that the German admirals were accused of; Dnitz's counsel successfully argued that this meant that such actions could not be crimes. And they're chasing them. Benjamin Ferencz: Well, don't say that. [134] The second film included footage of the liberation of Majdanek and the liberation of Auschwitz and was considered even more disturbing than the American concentration camp film.