The Nuremberg trial 70 years after its completion remains a vivid and memorable symbol of justice over Nazi criminals. This was the first of its kind process, which was the focus of the entire world community in the first peaceful years after the fall of the Reich.
Organization of the process
They started talking about the trial of the leaders of Nazi Germany long before the victory in the war. The first official meetings of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Allied countries on this subject took place as early as 1943. During the Yalta Conference, Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt personally addressed this sensitive issue.
Each of the national leaders in their own way saw the trial of the leadership of the Third Reich. The British Prime Minister even offered to shoot Hitler’s close associates immediately after his arrest. Stalin and Roosevelt objected to him. One way or another, but an official agreement on the court was reached after the victory during the London Conference in the summer of 1945. In particular, a list was compiled of the main Nazi criminals, which included 24 people. These were the military, politicians and ideologists of the Third Reich.
Of course, everyone primarily wanted to judge Hitler, but he committed suicide in his bunker before the fall of Berlin. Together with him, the chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels brought to life . They and other leaders of the regime were afraid of arrest, which would be followed by the Nuremberg trials. 70 years later, descendants can say with confidence: none of the main criminals would have escaped execution.
Beginning of meetings
November 20, 1945 opened the Nuremberg trials. In short, the whole world was waiting for him. Over the next year, journalists from all influential newspapers and publications from each country tried to fetch new information about the investigation.
The beginning of the Nuremberg trials was forced by the American side. The day before, industrialist Gustav Krupp seriously ill, who provided serious financial assistance to the Nazi regime. The Americans were afraid that he would die before his own sentence.
A total of 403 meetings were held. The Tribunal, according to the London agreements, was composed of representatives of four victorious powers (USSR, USA, Great Britain and France). From each country, a judge, the main prosecutor, and many legal experts attended the trial. For example, the interests of the USSR were represented by the prosecutor of Ukraine Roman Rudenko, Colonel of Justice Alexander Volkov. Also in Nuremberg was one of the highest representatives of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, Ion Nikitchenko.
Conflict between allies
Hasty organization was accompanied by general nervousness experienced by all the characters. This was due to the natural deterioration of relations between the victorious countries. The Cold War had not yet begun, but the world was already rapidly moving towards it. The states divided Europe into spheres of influence. Here the interests of not only political leaders clashed, but also of ideologies.
Churchill's Fulton speech , delivered on March 5, 1946, when the Nuremberg trials were still underway, became epoch- making. 70 years later, historians agree that this speech became a prologue to the confrontation between the democratic and communist systems in the second half of the 20th century. Churchill accused the leadership of the USSR of destroying civil liberties in his country, of lowering the "iron curtain" over the states where the Red Army was present.
The speech caused the effect of an exploding bomb. She influenced the Nuremberg trials. In short, more and more contradictions began to arise within the tribunal. In addition, the Nazi criminals decided that this was their last chance to escape punishment. In the event of a war between the USA and the USSR, the whole process could fall apart. The defendants became bolder in their speeches, and their lawyers also changed rhetoric.
Defense of the accused
German lawyers built the defense of the accused on several principles. Firstly, the organization of the process was criticized and the fact that the injured party (allies) led it, and not an independent court, as is usually the case in peacetime.
Secondly, lawyers refused to recognize the validity of the new language in the sentences. For example, these were the concepts of “preparing a military attack” and “crime against peace” that did not exist before.
Death sentences
Nevertheless, the months-long work of the tribunal has borne fruit. Thousands of documents were checked, a lot of work was done to collect evidence of crimes. By court decision, 12 people were sentenced to death. One of them - Martin Bormann - died during an escape from Berlin in the last days of the war. But at the time of the hearing of the tribunal, his body was never found, and many believed that he managed to escape. Therefore, he was sentenced to death in absentia.
Capital punishment awaited Hermann Goering - President of the Reichstag and Reich Minister of Aviation. He was one of the most odious Nazi figures who lived to see the trial.
The beginning of the Nuremberg trials was marked by the mention of the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty, which referred to the division of Poland and the allied relations between Germany and the USSR in 1939-1940. For the Soviet side, this was a very slippery issue, which the parties tried to agree on even before the start of the process. One way or another, but Ribbentrop received his death sentence. The agreement signed by him and Molotov was published in the USSR only during the years of perestroika.
Other process results
Several people (including Rudolf Hess) received life sentences in prison. Among the accused and acquitted, for example, radio host and propagandist Hans Fritsche.
The Nazi party, the SD, the SS, the Gestapo and other punitive bodies during the reign of Hitler were recognized as criminal organizations. From a legal point of view, this was an important point. He allowed to launch a further campaign on the denazification of Germany and other European countries where puppet regimes existed. The Nuremberg trials led to such results. The trial ended on October 1, 1946.
Additional Courts
It would be wrong to think that the history of the Nuremberg trials ended after the termination of the work of the main tribunal. He was a showcase. The main criminals of the Third Reich were tried on it. However, many smaller people remained in the Allied prisons, also involved in the Holocaust and other atrocities of the Hitler regime.
Therefore, in 1946-1949. in the same Nuremberg another twelve processes took place. Their initiator was the American leadership, which was the prosecution in court. The cases of doctors involved in the experiment on people in concentration camps, SS officers, generals, etc. were examined. Judges read dozens of death sentences. This enormous work would not have fit into the Nuremberg trials. Years of investigations, gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses - all this lasted a very long time.
The fate of the fugitives
Some Nazi criminals fled the country safely in the last days of the war. Mostly they settled in Latin America, where they managed to get new documents with false names. Some of these fugitives have never been found.
But there were reverse cases. For example, Adolf Eichmann , one of the organizers of the massacre of Jews, lived safely in Buenos Aires until 1960. He was tracked down, caught, and taken to Israel by Mossad employees. The trial of Eichmann lasted two years. He was massively covered by the press and very much like the Nuremberg trials. 70 years later, Nazi leaders who escaped justice have already died of old age, but their crimes against humanity have been unanimously condemned by the entire international community.