Nuremberg Trials
| File:Nuremberg Trials.jpg Defendants in the dock at Nuremberg | |
| Date | 20 November 1945 - 1 September 1946 |
|---|---|
| Description | An application of the legal process to the senior officials of the Nazi German government |
The Nuremberg Trials were an application of the legal process to the senior officials of the Nazi German government. {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Nuremberg Trials |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Amy Baker Benjamin|+sep=, |Has text=“What the Americans and the British did at Nuremberg was deeply flawed but Nonetheless truly astonishing. They insisted – much to the surprise of the Nazi defendants and perhaps of humanity – that the de jure world of law and institutions really mattered; that the “Kellogg-Briand Pacts” and “Hague Conventions” of the world, if you will, would have the final say and the last laugh over the cynical de facto world of business-as-usual. At Nuremberg, evidence of pre-meditated aggressive intent was no longer ignored, nor jadedly accepted as an open secret. It was publicly denounced and criminally punished.” |Is about=Nuremberg Trials,|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate= |Sourced from=Document:To Wreck A State - The New International Crime |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=Document:To Wreck A State - The New International Crime |Has sourceURL=
}}
“What the Americans and the British did at Nuremberg was deeply flawed but Nonetheless truly astonishing. They insisted – much to the surprise of the Nazi defendants and perhaps of humanity – that the de jure world of law and institutions really mattered; that the “Kellogg-Briand Pacts” and “Hague Conventions” of the world, if you will, would have the final say and the last laugh over the cynical de facto world of business-as-usual. At Nuremberg, evidence of pre-meditated aggressive intent was no longer ignored, nor jadedly accepted as an open secret. It was publicly denounced and criminally punished.”
Amy Baker Benjamin [1]
Origins
The legal basis for the trial was established by the London Charter, agreed upon by the four so-called Great Powers on 8 August 1945, which restricted the trial to "punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis countries".
Procedure
Some 200 German war crimes defendants were tried at Nuremberg, and 1,600 others were tried under the traditional channels of military justice. A second set of trials of lesser war criminals was conducted under Control Council Law No. 10 at the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT), which included the Doctors' Trial and the Judges' Trial.
Legacy
Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials, introduced the concept of the Supreme crime.
The Doctors' trial
- Full article: Doctors' trial
- Full article: Doctors' trial
Hypocrisy
Even as the the allies were conducting the Doctors Trial, US doctors were carrying out similarly murderous medical research in Guatemala, fact that would not emerge until 2005. Operation Paperclip was resettling Nazi scientists in USA. And in deepest secrecy, the medical and biological warfare experts from the Japanese Unit 731 were sharing their gruesomely attained knowledge with their US colleagues.