Organization of the tribunal

In 1942, British Prime Minister Churchill declared that the Nazi elite should be executed without trial. He expressed this opinion more than once in the future. When Churchill tried to impose his opinion on Stalin, Stalin objected: “Whatever happens, it must be ... an appropriate court decision. Otherwise, people will say that Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin simply took revenge on their political enemies!” Roosevelt, hearing that Stalin insisted on a trial, in turn declared that the trial procedure should not be “too legal”.

The requirement to create an International Military Tribunal was contained in the statement of the Soviet government of October 14, 1942 "On the responsibility of the Nazi invaders and their accomplices for the atrocities committed by them in the occupied countries of Europe."

The agreement on the establishment of the International Military Tribunal and its charter were developed by the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France during the London conference, which took place from June 26 to August 8, 1945. The jointly developed document reflected the coordinated position of all 23 countries participating in the conference, the principles of the charter were approved by the UN General Assembly as universally recognized in the fight against crimes against humanity. On August 29, the first list of the main war criminals was published, consisting of 24 Nazi politicians, military men, ideologists of fascism.

List of defendants

In the initial list of defendants, the defendants were included in the following order:

1. Hermann Wilhelm Göring (ur. Hermann Wilhelm Göring listen)) Reichsmarschall, Commander-in-Chief of the German Air Force
2. Rudolf Hess (German) Rudolf Hess), Hitler's deputy for the leadership of the Nazi Party.
3. Joachim von Ribbentrop (ur. Ullrich Friedrich Willy Joachim von Ribbentrop ), Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany.
4. Wilhelm Keitel (ur. Wilhelm Keitel), chief of staff of the German High Command.
5. Robert Ley (German) Robert Ley), head of the Labor Front
6. Ernst Kaltenbrunner (ur. Ernst Kaltenbrunner), leader of the RSHA.
7. Alfred Rosenberg (ur. Alfred Rosenberg), one of the main ideologists of Nazism, Reich Minister for Eastern Territories.
8. Hans Frank (German) Dr. Hans Frank), head of the occupied Polish lands.
9. Wilhelm Frick (German) Wilhelm Frick), Minister of the Interior of the Reich.
10. Julius Streicher (ur. Julius Streicher), Gauleiter, editor-in-chief of the Sturmovik newspaper (German. Der Sturmer - Der Stürmer).
11. Walter Funk (ur. Walther Funk), Minister of Economy after Mine.
12. Hjalmar Schacht (ur. Hjalmar Schacht), the imperial minister of economics before the war.
13. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (ur. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach ), head of the Friedrich Krupp concern.
14. Karl Dönitz (ur. Karl Donitz), Grand Admiral of the Fleet of the Third Reich, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, after the death of Hitler and in accordance with his posthumous will - President of Germany
15. Erich Raeder (ur. Erich Raeder), Commander-in-Chief of the Navy.
16. Baldur von Schirach (ur. Baldur Benedikt von Schirach), head of the Hitler Youth, Gauleiter of Vienna.
17. Fritz Sauckel (ur. Fritz Sauckel), leader of the forced deportations to the Reich of labor from the occupied territories.
18. Alfred Jodl (ur. Alfred Jodl), chief of staff of the operational leadership of the OKW
19. Martin Bormann (ur. Martin Bormann), the head of the party office, was accused in absentia.
20. Franz von Papen (ur. Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen ), Chancellor of Germany before Hitler, then ambassador to Austria and Turkey.
21. Arthur Seyss-Inquart (ur. Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart), chancellor of Austria, then imperial commissioner for occupied Holland.
22. Albert Speer (ur. Albert Speer), Imperial Minister of Armaments.
23. Konstantin von Neurath (ur. Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath ), in the early years of Hitler's reign, Minister of Foreign Affairs, then Viceroy in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
24. Hans Fritsche (German) Hans Fritzche), head of the press and broadcasting department in the Propaganda Ministry.

Remarks to the accusation

The defendants were asked to write on it their attitude towards the prosecution. Raeder and Lay wrote nothing (Ley's response was, in fact, his suicide shortly after the charges were brought), while the rest of the defendants wrote the following:

1. Hermann Wilhelm Goering: "The winner is always the judge, and the loser is the accused!"
2. Rudolf Hess: "I don't regret anything"
3. Joachim von Ribbentrop: "The charges against the wrong people"
4. Wilhelm Keitel: "An order for a soldier - there is always an order!"
5. Ernst Kaltenbrunner: "I am not responsible for war crimes, I was only doing my duty as head of intelligence agencies, and I refuse to serve as a kind of Himmler's ersatz"
6. Alfred Rosenberg: "I reject the charge of 'conspiracy'. Anti-Semitism was only a necessary defensive measure.”
7. Hans Frank: "I regard this process as the highest court pleasing to God, designed to understand the terrible period of Hitler's reign and complete it"
8. Wilhelm Frick: "The whole accusation is based on the assumption of participation in a conspiracy"
9. Julius Streicher: "This trial is the triumph of world Jewry"
10. Hjalmar Schacht: "I don't understand at all why I'm charged"
11. Walter Funk: “Never in my life have I done anything consciously or unknowingly that would give rise to such accusations. If, due to ignorance or due to delusions, I committed the acts listed in the indictment, then my guilt should be considered from the perspective of my personal tragedy, but not as a crime.
12. Karl Dönitz: “None of the charges has anything to do with me. American inventions!
13. Baldur von Schirach: "All troubles come from racial politics"
14. Fritz Sauckel: "The gulf between the ideal of a socialist society nurtured and defended by me, a former sailor and worker, and these terrible events - the concentration camps - deeply shocked me"
15. Alfred Jodl: "The mixture of just accusations and political propaganda is regrettable"
16. Franz von Papen: “The accusation horrified me, firstly, by the realization of irresponsibility, as a result of which Germany was plunged into this war, which turned into a world catastrophe, and secondly, by the crimes that were committed by some of my compatriots. The latter are inexplicable from a psychological point of view. It seems to me that the years of godlessness and totalitarianism are to blame for everything. It was they who turned Hitler into a pathological liar."
17. Arthur Seyss-Inquart: "I would like to hope that this is the last act of the tragedy of the Second World War"
18. Albert Speer: “Process is necessary. Even an authoritarian state does not remove responsibility from each individual for the terrible crimes committed.
19. Konstantin von Neurath: "I have always been against accusations without a possible defense"
20. Hans Fritsche: “This is the worst accusation of all time. Only one thing can be more terrible: the coming accusation that the German people will bring against us for abusing their idealism.

Groups or organizations to which the defendants belonged were also accused.

Even before the start of the court hearings, after reading the indictment, on November 25, 1945, the head of the Labor Front, Robert Ley, committed suicide in the cell. Gustav Krupp was declared terminally ill by the medical board, and the case against him was dismissed pending trial.

The rest of the accused were put on trial.

Process progress

The International Military Tribunal was formed on an equal basis from representatives of the four great powers in accordance with the London Agreement.

Members of the tribunal

• from the United States: former Attorney General F. Biddle.
• from the USSR: Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, Major General of Justice I. T. Nikitchenko.
• for the United Kingdom: Chief Justice, Lord Geoffrey Lawrence.
• from France: professor of criminal law A. Donnedier de Vabre.

Each of the 4 countries sent its chief accusers, their deputies and assistants:

• for the US: US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson.
• from the USSR: Prosecutor General of the Ukrainian SSR R. A. Rudenko.
• for Great Britain: Hartley Shawcross
• for France: François de Menthon, who was absent during the first days of the process and was replaced by Charles Dubost, and then Champentier de Ribes was appointed instead of de Menthon.

A total of 216 court hearings were held, the chairman of the court was the representative of the UK, J. Lawrence. Various evidences were presented, among them for the first time appeared the so-called. "secret protocols" to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (were presented by I. Ribbentrop's lawyer A. Seidl).

Due to the post-war aggravation of relations between the USSR and the West, the process was tense, this gave the accused hope for the collapse of the process. The situation escalated especially after Churchill's Fulton speech, when the real possibility of a war against the USSR arose. Therefore, the defendants behaved boldly, skillfully playing for time, hoping that the coming war would put an end to the process (Goering contributed most of all to this). At the end of the process, the USSR prosecution provided a film about the concentration camps of Majdanek, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz, filmed by front-line cameramen of the Soviet army.

accusations

1. Nazi party plans:
   • The use of Nazi control for aggression against foreign states.
   • Aggressive actions against Austria and Czechoslovakia.
   • Attack on Poland.
   • Aggressive war against the whole world (-).
   • German invasion of the USSR in violation of the non-aggression pact of August 23, 1939.
   • Cooperation with Italy and Japan and aggressive war against the USA (November 1936 - December 1941).
2. Crimes against the world:
   • « All the accused and various other persons participated in the planning, preparation, initiation and conduct of aggressive wars for a number of years up to May 8, 1945, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements and obligations.».
3. War crimes:
   • Killings and ill-treatment of the civilian population in the occupied territories and on the high seas.
   • Withdrawal of the civilian population of the occupied territories into slavery and for other purposes.
   • Murder and ill-treatment of prisoners of war and military personnel of countries with which Germany was at war, as well as with persons who were sailing on the high seas.
   • Aimless destruction of cities and towns and villages, devastation not justified by military necessity.
   • Germanization of the occupied territories.
4. Crimes against humanity:
   • The accused pursued a policy of persecution, repression and extermination of enemies of the Nazi government. The Nazis threw people into prison without a trial, subjected them to persecution, humiliation, enslavement, torture, and killed them.

Hitler did not take all responsibility with him to the grave. All guilt is not wrapped in Himmler's shroud. These living have chosen these dead to be their accomplices in this grandiose brotherhood of conspirators, and for the crime they committed together, each of them must pay.

It can be said that Hitler committed his last crime against the country he ruled. He was a mad messiah who started a war for no reason and continued it pointlessly. If he could no longer rule, then he did not care what would happen to Germany ...

They stand before this court, as blood-stained Gloucester stood before the body of his slain king. He begged the widow, as they beg you: "Say that I didn't kill them." And the queen answered: “Then say that they are not killed. But they are dead." If you say that these people are innocent, it's like saying that there was no war, no dead, no crime.

From the indictment of Robert Jackson

Sentence

International Military Tribunal sentenced:

• To death by hanging: Goering, Ribbentrop, Kaitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, Bormann (in absentia), Jodl.
• To life imprisonment: Hess, Funk, Raeder.
• By 20 years in prison: Schirach, Speer.
• By 15 years in prison: Neurath.
• By 10 years in prison: Dönitz.
• Justified: Fritsche, Papen, Schacht

The Soviet judge I. T. Nikitchenko filed a dissenting opinion, where he objected to the acquittal of Fritsche, Papen and Schacht, the non-recognition of the German cabinet of ministers, the General Staff and the supreme command of criminal organizations, as well as life imprisonment (not the death penalty) for Rudolf Hess.

Jodl was fully acquitted posthumously when the case was reviewed by a Munich court in 1953, but later, under pressure from the United States, the decision to annul the Nuremberg court verdict was annulled.

The Tribunal declared the SS, SD, SA, Gestapo and leadership of the Nazi Party to be criminal organizations.

A number of convicts petitioned the Allied Control Commission for Germany: Goering, Hess, Ribbentrop, Sauckel, Jodl, Keitel, Seyss-Inquart, Funk, Doenitz and Neurath - for pardon; Raeder - on the replacement of life imprisonment with the death penalty; Goering, Jodl and Keitel - about replacing hanging with execution if the request for pardon is not granted. All of these applications were denied.

The death penalty was carried out on the night of October 16, 1946 in the gymnasium of the Nuremberg prison. Goering poisoned himself in prison shortly before his execution (there is an assumption that the capsule with poison was given to him by his wife during the last meeting with a kiss).

Trials of smaller war criminals continued in Nuremberg until the 1950s (see Subsequent Nuremberg Trials), not in the International Tribunal, but in an American court.

On August 15, 1946, the American Information Administration published a survey of surveys conducted, according to which the vast majority of Germans (about 80 percent) considered the Nuremberg Trials fair, and the guilt of the defendants was undeniable; about half of the respondents answered that the defendants should be sentenced to death; only four percent responded negatively to the process.

Execution and cremation of the bodies of convicts

One of the witnesses to the execution, the writer Boris Polevoy, published his memoirs and impressions of the execution. The verdict was carried out by the American sergeant John Wood - "of his own free will."

Going to the gallows, most of them tried to appear brave. Some behaved defiantly, others resigned themselves to their fate, but there were also those who appealed to God's mercy. All but Rosenberg made brief last-minute announcements. And only Julius Streicher mentioned Hitler. In the gym, where 3 days ago the American guards played basketball, there were three black gallows, of which two were used. They hung one by one, but in order to finish sooner, the next Nazi was brought into the hall when the previous one was still hanging on the gallows.

The condemned climbed 13 wooden steps to an 8-foot-high platform. Ropes hung from beams supported by two poles. The hanged man fell into the interior of the gallows, the bottom of which on one side was hung with dark curtains, and on three sides it was lined with wood so that no one could see the death throes of the hanged.

After the execution of the last convict (Seiss-Inquart), a stretcher with the body of Goering was brought into the hall so that he would take a symbolic place under the gallows, and also so that journalists would be convinced of his death.

After the execution, the bodies of the hanged and the corpse of the suicide Goering were placed in a row. “Representatives of all the allied powers,” wrote one of the Soviet journalists, “examined them and signed on the death certificates. Photographs were taken of each body, dressed and naked. Then each corpse was wrapped in a mattress along with the last clothes that he was wearing, and rope, on which he was hanged, and put in a coffin. All the coffins were sealed. While they were managing the rest of the bodies, Goering's body was brought on a stretcher, covered with an army blanket ... At 4 o'clock in the morning, the coffins were loaded into 2.5-ton trucks, waiting in the prison yard, covered with a waterproof tarpaulin and driven off, accompanied by a military escort. An American captain rode in the front car, followed by French and American generals. Then followed trucks and a jeep guarding them with specially selected soldiers and a machine gun. The convoy drove through Nuremberg and , leaving the city, took the direction to the south.

At dawn, they drove up to Munich and immediately headed to the outskirts of the city to the crematorium, the owner of which was warned about the arrival of the corpses of "fourteen American soldiers." In fact, there were only eleven corpses, but they said so in order to lull the possible suspicions of the crematorium personnel. The crematorium was surrounded, radio contact was established with the soldiers and tankers of the cordon in case of any alarm. Anyone who entered the crematorium was not allowed to go back until the end of the day. The coffins were opened and the bodies checked by the American, British, French and Soviet officers present at the execution to make sure they had not been switched along the way. After that, the cremation began immediately and continued throughout the day. When this matter was also finished, a car drove up to the crematorium, and a container with ashes was placed in it. The ashes were scattered from the plane into the wind.

Conclusion

Having passed a guilty verdict on the main Nazi criminals, the International Military Tribunal recognized aggression as the gravest crime of an international character. The Nuremberg Trials are sometimes referred to as " By the court of history", as he had a significant impact on the final defeat of Nazism. Funk and Raeder, sentenced to life imprisonment, were pardoned in 1957. After Speer and Schirach were released in 1966, only Hess remained in prison. The right-wing forces of Germany repeatedly demanded that he be pardoned, but the victorious powers refused to commute the sentence. On August 17, 1987, Hess was found hanged in a gazebo in the prison yard.

The Nuremberg trials are dedicated to the American film "Nuremberg" ( Nuremberg) ().

At the trial in Nuremberg, I said: “If Hitler had friends, I would be his friend. I owe him the inspiration and glory of my youth, as well as later horror and guilt.

In the image of Hitler, as he was in relation to me and others, you can catch some pretty features. There is also the impression of a person who is in many ways gifted and selfless. But the longer I wrote, the more I felt that it was about superficial qualities.

Because such impressions are countered by an unforgettable lesson: the Nuremberg Trials. I will never forget one photographic document depicting a Jewish family going to their death: a man with his wife and his children on their way to death. He still stands before my eyes today.

In Nuremberg I was sentenced to twenty years in prison. The verdict of the military tribunal, however imperfectly portrayed history, tried to formulate guilt. Punishment, always ill-suited to measure historical responsibility, put an end to my civil existence. And that photo took my life from the ground. It turned out to be more durable than the sentence.

Museum

Currently, the meeting room ("Room 600"), where the Nuremberg trials took place, is the usual working premises of the Nuremberg Regional Court (address: Bärenschanzstraße 72, Nürnberg). However, on weekends there are guided tours (from 13:00 to 16:00 every day). In addition, the Documentation Center for the History of the Nazi Congresses in Nuremberg has a special exhibition dedicated to the Nuremberg trials. This new museum (opened November 4th) also has audio guides in Russian.

Notes

Literature

• Gilbert G. M. Nuremberg diary. The process through the eyes of a psychologist / transl. with him. A. L. Utkina. - Smolensk: Rusich, 2004. - 608 pages. ISBN 5-8138-0567-2

see also

• The Nuremberg Trials is a feature film by Stanley Kramer (1961).
• The Nuremberg Alarm is a 2008 two-part documentary film based on the book by Alexander Zvyagintsev.

History has never known such a court. The leaders of the country that was defeated in the war were not killed, they were not treated as honorary prisoners, they were not given asylum by any neutral state. The leadership of Nazi Germany, almost in its entirety, was detained, arrested and put on trial. They did the same with Japanese war criminals, holding the Tokyo Court of Nations, but this happened a little later. The Nuremberg trials gave a criminal and ideological assessment of the actions of statesmen, with whom, up to 1939 inclusive, world leaders negotiated, concluded pacts and trade agreements. Then they were received, they paid visits, in general, they were treated with respect. Now they were sitting in the dock, silent or answering questions. Then they, accustomed to honor and luxury, were taken to cells.

Retribution

US Army Sergeant J. Wood was an experienced professional executioner with extensive pre-war experience. In his hometown of San Antonio (Texas), he personally executed almost three and a half hundred notorious villains, most of whom were serial killers. But with such "material" he had to work for the first time.

The permanent head of the Nazi youth organization "Hitler Youth" Streicher resisted, he had to be dragged to the gallows by force. Then John strangled him by hand. Keitel, Jodl and Ribbentrop suffered for a long time with the airways already clamped by the noose, for several minutes they could not die.

At the last moment, realizing that the executioner could not be moved to pity, many of the condemned still found the strength to accept death for granted. Von Ribbentrop said words that have not lost their topicality even today, wishing Germany unity, and East and West - mutual understanding. Keitel, who signed the surrender and, in general, did not participate in the planning of aggressive campaigns (except for the attack on India that was never carried out), paid tribute to the fallen German soldiers by remembering them. Jodl greeted his native country in the end. Well, and so on.

Ribbentrop was the first to ascend the scaffold. Then it was the turn of Kaltenbrunner, who suddenly remembered God. His last prayer was not denied him.

The execution went on for a long time, and in order to speed up the process, the convicts were brought into the gym where it took place, without waiting for the agony of the previous victim to end. Ten people were hanged, two more (Göring and Ley) were able to avoid the shameful execution by laying their hands on themselves.

After several examinations, the corpses were burned, and the ashes were scattered.

Process preparation

The Nuremberg trials began in the deep autumn of 1945, on November 20. It was preceded by an investigation that lasted six months. In total, 27 kilometers of tape were used up, thirty thousand photographic prints were made, viewed great amount newsreels (mostly captured). According to these figures, unprecedented in 1945, one can judge the titanic work of the investigators who prepared the Nuremberg trials. Transcripts and other documents took about two hundred tons of writing paper (fifty million sheets).

To make a decision, the court needed to hold more than four hundred meetings.

Charges were brought against 24 officials who held various positions in Nazi Germany. It was based on the principles of the Charter adopted for the new court called the International Military Tribunal. For the first time, the legal concept of a crime against humanity was introduced. The list of persons to be prosecuted under the articles of this document was published on August 29, 1945, after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Criminal plans and intentions

Aggression against Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the USSR and, as the document says, "the whole world" was blamed on the leadership of Germany. The conclusion of cooperation agreements with fascist Italy and militaristic Japan was also called criminal actions. One of the charges was an attack on the United States. In addition to specific actions, the former German government was charged with aggressive designs.

But that was not the point. Whatever insidious plans the Hitlerite elite built, they were judged not for thinking about the capture of India, Africa, Ukraine and Russia, but for what the Nazis did in their own country and abroad.

Crimes against nations

Hundreds of thousands of pages that occupy the materials of the Nuremberg Trials irrefutably prove the inhuman treatment of civilians in the occupied territories, prisoners of war and crews of ships, military and commercial, which sank the ships of the German Navy. Large-scale ethnic cleansing carried out on a national basis also took place. The civilian population was exported to the Reich in order to be used as labor resources. Death factories were built and operated at full capacity, in which the process of exterminating people took on an industrial character, for which unique technological methods invented by the Nazis were used.

Information about the progress of the investigation and some materials from the Nuremberg trials were published, although not all.

Humanity trembled.

From unpublished

Already at the stage of the formation of the International Military Tribunal, some delicate situations arose. The Soviet delegation brought with them to London, where preliminary consultations were held on the organization of the future court, a list of issues, the consideration of which was considered undesirable for the leadership of the USSR. The Western allies agreed not to discuss topics relating to the circumstances of the conclusion of the 1939 Soviet-German non-aggression pact, and in particular the secret protocol attached to it.

There were other secrets of the Nuremberg Trials that were not made public due to the far from ideal behavior of the leadership of the victorious countries in the pre-war situation and during the fighting on the fronts. It was they who could shake the balance that has developed in the world and Europe thanks to the decisions of the Tehran and Potsdam conferences. The boundaries of both states and spheres of influence, stipulated by the Big Three, were established by 1945, and, according to the intention of their authors, were not subject to revision.

What is fascism?

Almost all the documents of the Nuremberg Trials have become publicly available today. It was this fact that, in a certain sense, cooled interest in them. They are appealed to during ideological discussions. An example is the attitude towards Stepan Bandera, who is often called Hitler's henchman. Is it so?

German Nazism, also called fascism and recognized by the international court as a criminal ideological base, is in its essence an exaggerated form of nationalism. Giving an advantage to an ethnic group may well lead to the idea that members of other peoples living in the territory of a nation-state can either be forced to abandon their own culture, language or religious beliefs, or be forced to emigrate. In case of disobedience, the option of forced expulsion or even physical destruction is possible. There are more than enough examples in history.

About Bandera

In connection with the recent events in Ukraine, such an odious person as Bandera deserves special attention. The Nuremberg trials did not directly address the activities of the UPA. There were mentions of this organization in the materials of the court, but they concerned relations between the occupying German troops and representatives of Ukrainian nationalists, and those did not always work out well. Thus, according to document No. 192-PS, which is a report of the Reichskommissar of Ukraine to Alfred Rozneberg (written in Rovno on March 16, 1943), the author of the document complains about the hostility of the Melnik and Bandera organizations towards the German authorities (p. 25). In the same place, on the following pages, mention is made of "political impudence", expressed in the demands to grant Ukraine state independence.

It was this goal that Stepan Bandera set for the OUN. The Nuremberg trials did not consider the crimes committed by the UPA in Volhynia against the Polish population, and other numerous atrocities of Ukrainian nationalists, perhaps because this topic was among the "undesirable" for the Soviet leadership. At the time when the International Military Tribunal was taking place, pockets of resistance in Lvov, Ivano-Frankivsk and other western regions had not yet been suppressed by the forces of the MGB. And the Nuremberg trials were not engaged in Ukrainian nationalists. Bandera Stepan Andreevich tried to take advantage of the German invasion to implement his own idea of ​​national independence. He didn't succeed. Soon he ended up in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, however, as a privileged prisoner. For the time being…

Documentary

The cinematic documentary chronicle of the Nuremberg trials in 1946 became more than just accessible. The Germans were forced to watch it, and in case of refusal they were deprived of food rations. This order was in effect in all four occupation zones. It was hard for people who had consumed Nazi propaganda for twelve years to look at the humiliation that those they had recently believed were subjected to. But it was necessary, otherwise it would hardly have been possible to get rid of the past so quickly.

The film "The Court of Nations" was shown on a wide screen both in the USSR and in other countries, but it evoked completely different feelings among the citizens of the victorious countries. Pride for their people, who made a decisive contribution to the victory over the personification of absolute evil, overwhelmed the hearts of Russians and Ukrainians, Kazakhs and Tajiks, Georgians and Armenians, Jews and Azerbaijanis, in general, all Soviet people, regardless of nationality. The Americans, the French, the British also rejoiced, it was their victory. “The Nuremberg trials paid tribute to the warmongers,” everyone who watched this documentary thought so.

"Little" Nurembergs

The Nuremberg trials ended, some war criminals were hanged, others were imprisoned in Spandau, and others managed to avoid fair retribution by taking poison or building a makeshift noose. Some even ran away and lived the rest of their lives in fear of exposure. Others were found decades later, and it was not clear whether punishment awaited them, or deliverance.

In 1946-1948, in the same Nuremberg (there was already a prepared room there, a certain symbolism also played a role in choosing a place) trials of Nazi criminals of the "second echelon" were held. A very good American film "The Nuremberg Trials" of 1961 tells about one of them. The picture was shot on black and white film, although in the early 60s Hollywood could afford the brightest Technicolor. Stars of the first magnitude are involved in the roles (Marlene Dietrich, Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Spencer Tracy and many other wonderful artists). The plot is quite real, they are trying Nazi judges who passed terrible sentences on the basis of absurd articles that filled the codes of the Third Reich. The main theme is repentance, which not everyone can come to.

It was also the Nuremberg Trials. The trial stretched out in time, it involved everyone: those who executed the sentences, and those who only wrote papers, and those who simply wanted to survive and sat on the sidelines, hoping to survive. Meanwhile, young men were executed “for disrespect for great Germany”, men who seemed inferior to someone were forcibly sterilized, girls were thrown into prison on charges of being “subhuman”.

Decades later

With every decade, the events of the Second World War seem more and more academic and historical, losing their vitality in the eyes of new generations. Quite a bit of time will pass, and they will begin to seem something like the Suvorov campaigns or the Crimean campaign. There are fewer and fewer living witnesses, and this process, unfortunately, is irreversible. Quite differently than contemporaries, the Nuremberg trials are perceived today. The collection of materials available to readers reveals many legal gaps, shortcomings of the investigation, contradictions in the testimony of witnesses and the accused. The international situation of the mid-1940s was by no means conducive to the objectivity of judges, and the restrictions originally set for the International Tribunal sometimes dictated political expediency at the expense of justice. Field Marshal Keitel, who had nothing to do with the Barbarossa plan, was executed, and his "colleague" Paulus, who took an active part in the development of the aggressive doctrines of the Third Reich, testified as a witness. At the same time, both surrendered. Of interest is the behavior of Hermann Goering, who clearly explained to the accusers that the actions of the allied countries were sometimes also criminal both in war and in domestic life. Nobody, however, listened to him.

Mankind in 1945 was outraged, it was thirsty for revenge. There was little time, and there were a lot of events to be assessed. The war has become an invaluable storehouse of plots, human tragedies and destinies for thousands of novelists and filmmakers. Future historians have yet to evaluate Nuremberg.

At the Nuremberg Trials

The Nuremberg trials are an international trial of the leaders of fascist Germany, the leaders of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, through whose fault it was launched, resulting in the death of millions of people, the destruction of entire states, accompanied by terrible atrocities, crimes against humanity, genocide

The Nuremberg trials took place in Nuremberg (Germany) from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946

defendants

• G. Goering - Minister of Aviation in Nazi Germany. On court: "The winner is always the judge, and the loser is the accused!"
• R. Hess - SS Obergruppenführer, Hitler's deputy for the party, third person in the hierarchy of the Third Reich: "I don't regret anything"
• I. von Ribbentrop - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany: "The wrong people have been charged"
• W. Keitel - Chief of Staff of the Supreme High Command of the German Armed Forces: “An order for a soldier is always an order!”
• E. Kaltenbrunner - SS Obergruppenführer, head of the Imperial Security Main Office (RSHA): "I am not responsible for war crimes, I was only doing my duty as the head of the intelligence agencies, and I refuse to serve as a kind of Himmler's ersatz"
• A. Rosenberg - the main ideologist of the Third Reich, the head of the foreign policy department of the NSDAP, the Fuhrer's authorized representative for moral and philosophical education of the NSDAP: “I reject the accusation of a ‘conspiracy’. Anti-Semitism was only a necessary defensive measure.”
• G. Frank - Governor General of occupied Poland, Reich Minister of Justice of the Third Reich: “I view this trial as a God-pleasing supreme court to sort out and bring to an end the terrible period of Hitler’s rule.”
• V. Frick - Reich Minister of the Interior of Germany, Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia: "The whole accusation is based on the assumption of participation in a conspiracy"
• J. Streicher - Gauleiter of Franconia, ideologist of racism: "This process is"
• W. Funk - Minister of Economics of Germany, President of the Reichsbank: “Never in my life have I, either consciously or unknowingly, done anything that would give grounds for such accusations. If, due to ignorance or due to delusions, I committed the acts listed in the indictment, then my guilt should be considered from the perspective of my personal tragedy, but not as a crime.
• K. Dönitz - Grand Admiral, commander of the submarine fleet, commander-in-chief of the navy of Nazi Germany: “None of the charges has anything to do with me. American inventions!
• E. Raeder - Grand Admiral, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy
• B. von Schirach - party and youth leader, Reichsugendführer, Gauleiter of Vienna, SA Obergruppenführer: "All troubles come from racial politics"
• F. Sauckel - one of the main responsible for organizing the use of forced labor in Nazi Germany, Gauleiter of Thuringia, SA Obergruppenführer, SS Obergruppenfuehrer: “The gulf between the ideal of a socialist society, hatched and defended by me, in the past a sailor and a worker, and these terrible events - concentration camps - deeply shocked me”
• A. Jodl - Chief of Staff of the Operational Command of the Wehrmacht High Command, Colonel General: "A regrettable mixture of just accusations and political propaganda"
• A. Seyss-Inquart - SS Obergruppenführer, minister without portfolio in Hitler's government, Reichskommissar of the Netherlands: “I would like to hope that this is the last act of the tragedy of the Second World War”
• A. Speer - Hitler's personal architect, Reich Minister of Armaments and Ammunition: “The process is necessary. Even an authoritarian state does not remove responsibility from each individual for the terrible crimes committed.
• K. von Neurath - German Foreign Minister and Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia (1939-1943), SS Obergruppenführer: "I have always been against accusations without a possible defense"
• G. Fritsche - Head of the Press and Broadcasting Department in the Ministry of Propaganda: “This is the worst accusation of all time. Only one thing can be more terrible: the coming accusation that the German people will bring against us for abusing their idealism.
• J. Schacht - Reich Minister of Economics (1936-1937), Reich Minister without portfolio (1937-1942), one of the main organizers of the war economy of Nazi Germany: “ I don't understand why I'm being charged."
• R. Ley (hung himself before the start of the process) - Reichsleiter, SA Obergruppenführer, head of the organizational department of the NSDAP, head of the German Labor Front
• G. Krupp (he was declared terminally ill, and his case was suspended) - an industrialist and financial magnate who provided significant material support to the Nazi movement
• M. Bormann (sued in absentia, because he disappeared and was not found) - SS Obergruppenführer, SA Standartenführer, personal secretary and close ally of Hitler
• F. von Papen - Chancellor of Germany before Hitler, then ambassador to Austria and Turkey: “The accusation horrified me, firstly, by the realization of irresponsibility, as a result of which Germany was plunged into this war, which turned into a world catastrophe, and secondly, by the crimes that were committed by some of my compatriots. The latter are inexplicable from a psychological point of view. It seems to me that the years of godlessness and totalitarianism are to blame for everything. It was they who turned Hitler into a pathological liar."

Judges

• Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence (Great Britain) - Chief Justice
• Iona Nikitchenko - Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union Major General of Justice
• Francis Biddle - Former U.S. Attorney General
• Henri Donnedier de Vabre - Professor of Criminal Law of France

Chief accusers

• Roman Rudenko - Prosecutor General of the Ukrainian SSR
• Robert Jackson - Member of the United States Supreme Court
• Hartley Shawcross - British Attorney General
• Charles Dubost, Francois de Menthon, Champentier de Ribes (alternately) - representatives of France

Lawyers

During the trial, each defendant was represented by a lawyer of his own choice.

• Dr. Exner - professor of criminal law, defender of A. Jodl
• G. Yarrice is a specialist in international and constitutional law. government advocate
• Dr. R. Dix - head of the association of German lawyers, defender J. Shakht
• Dr. Kranzbüller - judge in the German Navy, defender of K. Dönitz
• O. Stammer - lawyer, defender of Goering
• Other

accusations

• crimes against peace: starting a war for the sake of establishing world domination of Germany
• war crimes: murder and torture of prisoners of war, deportation of the civilian population to Germany, murder of hostages, looting and destruction of cities and villages in occupied countries
• crimes against humanity: extermination, enslavement of the civilian population for political, racial, religious reasons

Sentence

• Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, Bormann (in absentia), Jodl - the death penalty by hanging
• Hess, Funk, Raeder - life imprisonment
• Schirach, Speer - 20 years in prison
• Neurath - 15 years in prison
• Dönitz - 10 years in prison
• Fritsche, Papen, Schacht - acquitted

The state organizations of Germany, the SS, SD, Gestapo and the leadership of the Nazi Party, were also recognized as criminal by the court.

Chronicle of the Nuremberg Trials, Briefly

• 1942, October 14 - the statement of the Soviet government: "... considers it necessary to immediately bring to trial a special international tribunal and punish any of the leaders of fascist Germany to the fullest extent of the criminal law ..."
• 1943, November 1 - the protocol of the Moscow Conference of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain was signed, the 18th paragraph of which was the "Declaration on the responsibility of the Nazis for the atrocities committed"
• 1943, November 2 - "Declaration on the responsibility of the Nazis for the atrocities committed" was published in "Pravda"
• 1945, May 31-June 4 - Conference of Experts in London on the Punishment of Axis War Criminals, which was attended by representatives of 16 countries participating in the work of the United Nations War Crimes Commission
• 1945, August 8 - in London, the signing of an agreement between the governments of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France on the prosecution and punishment of major war criminals, according to which the International Military Tribunal was established.
• 1945, August 29 - a list of the main war criminals was published, consisting of 24 names
• 1945, October 18 - the indictment was served on the International Military Tribunal and transmitted through its secretariat to each of the accused
• 1945, November 20 - the beginning of the process
• 1945, November 25 - the head of the Labor Front, Robert Ley, committed suicide in a cell
• 1945, November 29 - demonstration during the meeting of the tribunal of the documentary film "Concentration Camps", which included German newsreels filmed in the Auschwitz camp, Buchenwald, Dachau
• 1945, December 17 - at a closed session, the judges expressed bewilderment to Streicher's lawyer, Dr. Marx, about the fact that he refused to satisfy the client's request to summon some witnesses to the trial, in particular the defendant's wife
• 1946, January 5 - Gestapo lawyer Dr. Merkel petitions for ... a postponement of the process, but does not receive support
• 1946, March 16 - interrogation of Goering, he confessed to minor crimes, but denied his involvement in the main charges
• 1946, August 15 - The American Information Administration published a survey of polls, according to which about 80 percent of Germans considered the Nuremberg trials fair, and the guilt of the defendants was undeniable
• 1946, October 1 - verdict on the accused
• April 11, 1946 - During interrogation, Kaltenbruner denies his knowledge of what was happening in the death camps: “I have nothing to do with this. I did not give orders, nor did I execute other people's orders on this matter.
• 1946, October 15 - the head of the prison, Colonel Andrews, announced to the convicts the results of the consideration of their applications, at 22 hours 45 minutes Goering, sentenced to death, poisoned himself
• 1946, October 16 - execution of criminals sentenced to death

1. The most important element of the denazification of Germany can be considered the Nuremberg trials of Nazi criminals. Although they were not sealed by a causal relationship, but without the categorical decision of the Nuremberg trial of the bonzes of the 3rd Reich, the process of lustration of post-war Germany would most likely have led to a repetition of the Versailles syndrome.

   Nuremberg Trial: Judgment on Nazism

   Back in November 1943, at the Moscow conference, the main principles of the Nuremberg trial were announced. The verdict on Nazism was to be passed by the entire world community. The choice of the venue for the tribunal was not accidental - the Nazis especially singled out the city of Nuremberg, where they held their congresses, accepted new members into their ranks, rejoiced under Hitler's speeches. Because of this, it was sometimes said that
   In the city, even now, the same hall in the same house where everything happened is open to the public.

   Particular attention was paid to the preparation of the work of the panel of judges, the statute of the tribunal and document flow. The fact is that the Nuremberg trials are a unique phenomenon in world practice that has no precedents. And according to the conditions, representatives of countries with fundamentally different ideologies should have taken equal part in the work of the court.

   In particular, the fact of the crimes of the Nazi regime was exposed, even before the start of the work of the judicial body, in October 43, at a meeting of foreign ministers of the countries of the anti-Hitli coalition.

   In this regard, it was decided not to apply the fundamental principle of legal law - the presumption of innocence - to the defendants.

   With regard to document flow, each of the participating countries had its own specific conditions, which they stipulated at the Potsdam Conference in early August 45. Although these nuances have not yet been fully disclosed, partial information about these exceptions is available in the open press. And even now, the obscenity of these exceptions does no credit to the participants.

   When the Nuremberg trials of Nazi criminals began, none of the victorious countries wanted manifestations of racial segregation to be reflected in the documentation of the work of the tribunal in relation to representatives of the German and Japanese nation who lived in the territories of the participants in the anti-Hitler coalition.

   For example, in the United States, during the war, about 500,000 ethnic Japanese were deprived of their civil rights and property without trial or investigation. In the USSR, a similar procedure was applied to the Volga Germans.

   It should be noted that the coordination of all the conditions for the full functioning of the Nuremberg Tribunal passed without any difficulties.

   The trial lasted 10 months and 10 days, but according to the results of the work, the death sentences of the Nuremberg trials were approved only in relation to 12 defendants. Although all the decisions were approved unanimously, the protocols recorded the "dissenting opinion" of Judge Nikitchenko (representative of the USSR), where he expressed the disagreement of the Soviet side with "soft" sentences for some of the defendants who were acquitted or received prison terms.

   Judge Nikitchenko
   

   The essence of the Nuremberg trials

   The inconsistency of the actions of the allies after the First World War led to the formation of the "Versailles Syndrome". This is a special state of mentality of the population of the whole country, which, after the defeat in the war, did not carefully revise its beliefs, and demanded revenge.

   The basis for the emergence of this syndrome was:

   • The meticulously designed Schlieffen plan;
   • Reassessment of one's strengths;
   • Disdainful attitude towards opponents.

   As a result, after a crushing defeat and the conclusion of the shameful Treaty of Versailles, the German nation did not reassess its aspirations, but only began a “witch hunt”. Jews and socialists were recognized as internal enemies. And the very idea of ​​​​war and world domination of German weapons only got stronger. Which in turn brought Hitler to power.

   The essence of the Nuremberg trials, by and large, was that a radical change occurred in the national self-consciousness of the German people. And the beginning of this change was to serve as a global assessment of the crimes of the Third Reich.

   Results of the Nuremberg Trials

   Nazi criminals executed by the verdict of the Nuremberg trials lived only 16 days after the end of the trial. During this time, they all filed appeals and were denied. At the same time, some of them asked to replace hanging or life imprisonment with execution.

   But only 10 sentenced were executed. One of them was sentenced in absentia (M. Borman).
   

   Another (G. Goering) took poison a few hours before the execution.

   Execution by hanging was carried out by American military personnel in a converted gymnasium.

   Chief executioner of the Nuremberg Trials
   

2. Photos of the Nuremberg executions were published in many newspapers around the world.

   Photo of executions in Nuremberg

   The bodies of Nazi criminals were cremated near Munich, and the ashes were scattered over the North Sea.
   The consolidated investigation into the crimes of the Nazi regime of the Third Reich was undertaken not so much in order to punish the criminals, but more in order to unanimously and definitively stigmatize Nazism and genocide. At the same time, one of the points of the final document was the principle of “the inviolability of the decision of the Nuremberg Tribunal”. In other words: "there will be no revision of decisions."

   Progress of denazification

   For 5 years, the personal files of all German citizens who occupied at least some significant leadership positions during the Third Reich were thoroughly checked. The scrupulously carried out work on denazification allowed the German people to rethink the vector of their aspirations and embark on the path of peaceful development of Germany.

   Although more than 72 years have passed since the end of the Second World War, and de jure Germany is an independent country, in fact, the US occupation troops are still on its territory.

   This fact is diligently hushed up by the liberal media, and only in moments of aggravation of the political situation, it is raised by the nationally oriented associations of Germany.

   Apparently free Germany still inspires fear.

3. Why are you interested in this topic? In general, in general, people with a Soviet education are familiar with this. Well, for those who are younger, it is worth reading.
   

   The essence of the Nuremberg trials, by and large, was that a radical change occurred in the national self-consciousness of the German people. And the beginning of this change was to serve as a global assessment of the crimes of the Third Reich.

   A well-designed plan for the denazification of post-war Germany provided for a phased lustration of the activities of government officials at all levels. At the same time, the procedure should have begun with the leaders of the Wehrmacht, gradually revealing crimes at all levels of government.

   Click to reveal...

   Do you think that even then the powers that be - representatives of the victorious countries were thinking about the self-consciousness of the German people? And how did it succeed? Everywhere they write that they succeeded - that the Germans for the most part shy away from that past and from the theories that were once instilled in their society. But you add that this is only an appearance:

   And the last phrase
   Is it a regret that a great, in general, country is being held back in development in some sense, or do you also think that new aggressive currents can arise there?

   
   

4. It is unlikely that Germany is now something holding back. It used to be, indeed: the Germans, as it were, did not stick out their nationality because of the memory of the Second World War.

   And in the last ten years, especially under Merkel, the Germans are gradually moving away from this.

   But neither then nor now, nothing hindered or held back the growth of the German economy. That is, there were no sanctions in the sense that we understand them.

   
   

5. The main executioner of the Nuremberg trials is the American John Woods.

   In the photo, this man shows his "unique" 13-knot rope knot. John Woods "helped" his victims by clinging to the legs of a freshly hanged man, so the process ended faster.

   The prison where the Nazis were kept during the Nuremberg trials was in the American sector. American soldiers were on duty in this prison, guarding Nazi criminals:

   And Soviet soldiers guarded the entrance to the courthouse, where the Nuremberg trials of Nazi criminals took place:

   Woods was accustomed to work quickly, his work experience had an effect, especially since he was accepted for this "service" as a volunteer in Normandy.

   Experienced Woods organized 3 gallows at once in the gym of the Nuremberg prison. Hatches were installed in the scaffolding so that the hanged would fall into the hatch, break their necks and die longer and more painfully.

   The Nuremberg trials were over, the verdict on Nazism was pronounced. The first victim of the executioner was to be Goering.

   But he committed suicide. There is a version that an ampoule with poisonous potassium cyanide was passed to Gernig in a kiss by his wife at a farewell meeting.

   By the way, the executioner John Woods himself died in the service, in 1950, after the war, from electric current.

   Last edit: 29 Sep 2017

6. The Nuremberg trials of Nazi criminals led to the fact that some of them were sentenced to death. Executed by the verdict of the Nuremberg trials, photos of their executions and deaths are given above.
   And one person was sentenced in absentia. That man was Martin Bormann.

   One of the key figures of the III Reich, Bormann came from a family of an employee. Martin Bormann has long been something of Hitler's press secretary. And then he began to control Hitler's financial flows: the receipt of money from German industrialists, the fee for the sale of the book Mein Kanf, and much more. He partially controlled the "access to the body" of the Führer for those who requested the meetings.

   A member of the NSDAP, he was an ardent supporter of the persecution of Jews and Christians. In particular, Bormann said that "in the future Germany there will be no place for churches, it's just a matter of time." And in relation to Jews and prisoners of war, Bormann adhered to the position of maximum cruelty. During the Second World War, Martin Bormann strengthened his position and, according to the hierarchy, became subordinate only to Hitler. Many, not without reason, believed that falling out of favor with Bormann was about the same as falling out of favor with Hitler himself. And after the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad, Hitler remained alone for a long time, not letting anyone in. Bormann had the right to be there at such moments.

   From January 1945, Hitler was in the bunker. In April 1945, the Soviet Army launched an attack on Berlin. The goal is to surround the city. At the end of April, Hitler marries Eva Braun in a bunker. Martin Bormann and Goebbels were witnesses at this "wedding". Hitler draws up a will, according to which Bormann becomes Minister for Party Affairs. Further, on the orders of the Fuhrer, Bormann leaves the bunker.

   Meanwhile, Bormann, as part of a group of four, among whom was the SS doctor Stumpfegger, are making an attempt to break out of the Soviet encirclement. Crossing the bridge over the river Spree in Berlin, Bormann was injured. On subsequent attempts, the group managed to cross the bridge, after which the group members separated. One of the fugitives recalled that he stumbled upon a Soviet patrol, returned to the bridge and saw the dead - Bormann and SS doctor Stumpfegger. But the body of Martin Bormann was not found in reality. And his fate remained unknown until the end.

   The post-war period gave rise to and in every possible way warmed up rumors: either Bormann was seen in Argentina, or his former driver reports that he saw a patron in Munich.

   When the Nuremberg trials began, the official Bormann was "neither alive nor dead." The Nuremberg trials sentenced Martin Bormann to death in absentia for crimes against humanity due to the lack of evidence of his death.

   But attempts to find the body of Reichsleiter Martin Bormann continued. The CIA and the German intelligence services worked. Bormann's son Adolf (pay attention to the name) recalls that during the post-war period several thousand publications were published that his father had been seen somewhere.
   The options were -
   Martin Borman changed his appearance and lives in Paraguay,
   Martin Bormann was a Soviet agent and fled to Moscow
   Martin Bormann hides in South America
   Martin Bormann lives in Latin America, developing activities to create and strengthen the new Nazi organization.
   Etc.

   And in 1972, during the construction of a house near the place of the alleged death of Bormann, human remains were seized. And initially - according to the reconstruction of the remains, and later again - on the basis of a DNA examination, it was proved that the remains belong to Bormann. The remains were burned, and the ashes were scattered over the Baltic Sea.

   
   

7. When the Nuremberg trials of Nazi criminals began, there was even talk of not applying the basic norms of democracy to the accused, their crimes were so large-scale and cruel. However, during the ten months that the Nuremberg war criminal trials lasted, relations between the accusers changed. The aggravation of relations was facilitated by Churchill's speech, the so-called "Fulton speech".

   And the defendants, war criminals, understood and felt this. They and their lawyers played for time as best they could.

   At this stage, the firmness, intransigence and professionalism of the actions of the Soviet side helped. The most compelling evidence of Nazi brutality in concentration camps was also presented in the form of chronicle frames from Soviet war correspondents.

   There were no doubts and loopholes left to challenge the guilt of the defendants.
   This is what the accused Nazis looked like when they announced the verdicts of the Nuremberg trials:

   The essence of the Nuremberg Trials is that the history of international law begins with it. Aggression was recognized as the gravest crime.

   The norms of international law are often questioned today. Sometimes there are words that they simply do not work.

   Only a strong country capable of protecting its borders and its people can talk about independence today.

S. Kara-Murza, in his book "Manipulation of Consciousness", gives an interesting example of a network attack.
Imagine there is a division of super-duper special forces. All in the most modern equipment, body armor, modern weapons. Well, practically, they can only be bombed. So you won't take it.
But then a cloud of mosquitoes, midges and midges flies. They hide under bulletproof vests, under ammunition, they sting and bite the fighters.
And none of the available defenses and no weapons will help this division survive.
Real example?
Here, according to a similar scenario, the USSR was destroyed. To Russia, with a similar event are selected.
The trouble is, after all, that they are preparing to resist one weapon, and the enemy uses another.
And it would be nice if there were external attacks. But they are from the inside recent times act.

Göring in the dock at the Nuremberg Trials

On October 1, 1946, the verdict of the International Military Tribunal was proclaimed in Nuremberg, condemning the main war criminals. It is often referred to as the "Court of History". It was not only one of the largest trials in the history of mankind, but also a milestone in the development of international law. The Nuremberg trials legally sealed the final defeat of fascism.

On the dock:

For the first time, criminals who made a whole state criminal appeared and suffered severe punishment. The initial list of defendants included:

1. Hermann Wilhelm Göring (German: Hermann Wilhelm Göring), Reichsmarschall, Commander-in-Chief of the German Air Force
2. Rudolf Hess (German Rudolf Heß), Hitler's deputy in charge of the Nazi Party.
3. Joachim von Ribbentrop (German: Ullrich Friedrich Willy Joachim von Ribbentrop), Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany.
4. Robert Ley (German: Robert Ley), head of the Labor Front
5. Wilhelm Keitel (German Wilhelm Keitel), Chief of Staff of the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces.
6. Ernst Kaltenbrunner (German Ernst Kaltenbrunner), head of the RSHA.
7. Alfred Rosenberg (German: Alfred Rosenberg), one of the main ideologists of Nazism, Reich Minister for the Eastern Territories.
8. Hans Frank (German Dr. Hans Frank), head of the occupied Polish lands.
9. Wilhelm Frick (German Wilhelm Frick), Minister of the Interior of the Reich.
10. Julius Streicher (German: Julius Streicher), Gauleiter, editor-in-chief of the anti-Semitic newspaper Sturmovik (German: Der Stürmer - Der Stürmer).
11. Hjalmar Schacht (German Hjalmar Schacht), Reich Minister of Economics before the war.
12. Walther Funk (German Walther Funk), Minister of Economics after Mine.
13. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (German: Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach), head of the Friedrich Krupp concern.
14. Karl Doenitz (German: Karl Dönitz), Admiral of the Third Reich Fleet.
15. Erich Raeder (German Erich Raeder), Commander-in-Chief of the Navy.
16. Baldur von Schirach (German: Baldur Benedikt von Schirach), head of the Hitler Youth, Gauleiter of Vienna.
17. Fritz Sauckel (German: Fritz Sauckel), head of forced deportations to the Reich of labor from the occupied territories.
18. Alfred Jodl (German Alfred Jodl), Chief of Staff of the Operational Command of the OKW
19. Franz von Papen (German: Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen), Chancellor of Germany before Hitler, then Ambassador to Austria and Turkey.
20. Arthur Seyss-Inquart (German Dr. Arthur Seyß-Inquart), chancellor of Austria, then imperial commissioner of the occupied Holland.
21. Albert Speer (German: Albert Speer), Reich Minister for Armaments
22. Konstantin von Neurath (German Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath), in the first years of Hitler's reign, Minister of Foreign Affairs, then Viceroy in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
23. Hans Fritsche (German: Hans Fritzsche), Head of the Press and Broadcasting Department in the Ministry of Propaganda.

Twenty-fourth - Martin Bormann (German Martin Bormann), head of the party office, was charged in absentia. Groups or organizations to which the defendants belonged were also accused.

Investigation and charges

Shortly after the end of the war, the victorious countries of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France, during the London conference, approved the Agreement on the Establishment of the International Military Tribunal and its Charter, the principles of which the UN General Assembly approved as universally recognized in the fight against crimes against humanity. On August 29, 1945, a list of top war criminals was published, which included 24 prominent Nazis. The charges brought against them included the following:

Nazi party plans

• -The use of Nazi control for aggression against foreign states.
• - Aggressive actions against Austria and Czechoslovakia.
• - Attack on Poland.
• - Aggressive war against the whole world (1939-1941).
• -The invasion of Germany into the territory of the USSR in violation of the non-aggression pact of August 23, 1939.
• -Cooperation with Italy and Japan and aggressive war against the USA (November 1936 - December 1941).

Crimes against the world

"All the accused and various other persons, for a number of years up to May 8, 1945, participated in the planning, preparation, initiation and conduct of aggressive wars, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements and obligations."

War crimes

• -Killing and ill-treatment of the civilian population in the occupied territories and on the high seas.

• - Withdrawal of the civilian population of the occupied territories into slavery and for other purposes.
• -Murder and ill-treatment of prisoners of war and military personnel of countries with which Germany was at war, as well as with persons who were sailing on the high seas.
• - Aimless destruction of cities and towns and villages, devastation not justified by military necessity.
• -Germanization of the occupied territories.

Crimes against humanity

• -The accused pursued a policy of persecution, repression and extermination of enemies of the Nazi government. The Nazis threw people into prison without a trial, subjected them to persecution, humiliation, enslavement, torture, and killed them.

On October 18, 1945, the indictment was submitted to the International Military Tribunal and a month before the start of the trial, it was handed to each of the accused in German. On November 25, 1945, after reading the indictment, Robert Ley committed suicide, and Gustav Krupp was declared terminally ill by the medical commission, and the case against him was dismissed before the trial.

The rest of the accused were put on trial.

Court

In accordance with the London Agreement, the International Military Tribunal was formed on an equal basis from representatives of four countries. The representative of Great Britain, Lord J. Lawrence, was appointed Chief Justice. From other countries, the members of the tribunal approved:

• - from the USSR: Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, Major General of Justice I. T. Nikitchenko.
• -from the USA: former Attorney General of the country F. Biddle.
• -from France: Professor of Criminal Law A. Donnedier de Vabre.

Each of the 4 countries sent its main prosecutors, their deputies and assistants to the trial:

• - from the USSR: Prosecutor General of the Ukrainian SSR R. A. Rudenko.
• -from the United States: Federal Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson.
• -from UK: Hartley Shawcross
• -from France: François de Menthon, who was absent during the first days of the process, and was replaced by Charles Dubost, and then Champentier de Ribe was appointed instead of de Menthon.

The process lasted ten months in Nuremberg. A total of 216 court hearings were held. Each side presented evidence of crimes committed by Nazi criminals.

Due to the unprecedented gravity of the crimes committed by the defendants, doubts arose whether to observe democratic norms of justice in relation to them. For example, representatives of the prosecution from England and the United States proposed not to give the defendants the last word. However, the French and Soviet sides insisted on the opposite.

The process was tense, not only because of the unusual nature of the tribunal itself and the charges brought against the defendants.

The post-war aggravation of relations between the USSR and the West after Churchill's famous Fulton speech also had an effect, and the defendants, feeling the current political situation, skillfully played for time and hoped to escape the deserved punishment. In such a difficult situation, the tough and professional actions of the Soviet prosecution played a key role. The film about concentration camps, filmed by front-line cameramen, finally turned the course of the process. The terrible pictures of Majdanek, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz completely removed the doubts of the tribunal.

Court verdict

The International Military Tribunal sentenced:

• -To death by hanging: Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, Bormann (in absentia), Jodl (was posthumously acquitted during the retrial by the Munich court in 1953).
• -To life imprisonment: Hess, Funk, Raeder.
• -To 20 years in prison: Schirach, Speer.
• -To 15 years in prison: Neurata.
• -To 10 years in prison: Doenica.
• - Justified: Fritsche, Papen, Shakht.

The Soviet side protested in connection with the acquittal of Papen, Fritsche, Schacht and the non-application of the death penalty to Hess.
The Tribunal recognized as criminal the organizations of the SS, SD, SA, Gestapo and the leadership of the Nazi Party. The decision to recognize the Supreme Command and the General Staff as criminal was not made, which caused the disagreement of the member of the tribunal from the USSR.

Most of the convicts filed petitions for clemency; Raeder - on the replacement of life imprisonment with the death penalty; Goering, Jodl and Keitel - about replacing hanging with execution if the request for pardon is not granted. All of these applications were denied.
The death penalty was carried out on the night of October 16, 1946 in the building of the Nuremberg prison. Göring poisoned himself in prison shortly before his execution.

The verdict was carried out "of his own free will" by American Sergeant John Wood.

Funk and Raeder, sentenced to life imprisonment, were pardoned in 1957. After Speer and Schirach were released in 1966, only Hess remained in prison. The right-wing forces of Germany repeatedly demanded that he be pardoned, but the victorious powers refused to commute the sentence. On August 17, 1987, Hess was found hanged in his cell.

Results and conclusions

The Nuremberg Tribunal, having created a precedent for the jurisdiction of senior government officials to an international court, refuted the medieval principle "Kings are under the jurisdiction of God alone." It was with the Nuremberg trials that the history of international criminal law began. The principles enshrined in the Charter of the Tribunal were soon confirmed by the decisions of the UN General Assembly as universally recognized principles of international law. Having passed a guilty verdict on the main Nazi criminals, the International Military Tribunal recognized aggression as the gravest crime of an international character.