All of the defendants herein, acting in concert with others for whose acts the defendants are responsible, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly participated as leaders, organizers, investigators, and accomplices in the formulation and execution of the said common design, conspiracy, plans, and enterprises to commit, and which involved the commission of, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It was a part of the said common design, conspiracy, plans, and enterprises to perform medical experiments upon concentration camp inmates and other living human subjects, without their consent, in the course of which experiments the defendants committed the murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts, more fully described in counts two and three of this indictment.
The said common design, conspiracy, plans, and enterprises embraced the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as set forth in counts two and three of this indictment, in that the defendants unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly encouraged, aided, abetted, and participated in the subjection of thousands of persons, including civilians, and members of the armed forces of nations then at war with the German Reich, to murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts.
Between September and April all of the defendants herein unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed war crimes, as defined by Article II of Control Council Law No. Such experiments included, but were not limited to, the following:. One hundred twelve Jews were selected for the purpose of completing a skeleton collection for the Reich University of Strasbourg. Their photographs and anthropological measurements were taken.
Then they were killed. Thereafter, comparison tests, anatomical research, studies regarding race, pathological features of the body, form and size of the brain, and other tests, were made.
The bodies were sent to Strasbourg and defleshed. Between May and January Indictment originally read "January " but was amended by a motion filed with the Secretary General. These people were alleged to be infected with incurable tuberculosis.
On the ground of insuring the health and welfare of Germans in Poland, many tubercular Poles were ruthlessly exterminated while others were isolated in death camps with inadequate medical facilities. This program involved the systematic and secret execution of the aged, insane, incurably ill, of deformed children, and other persons, by gas, lethal injections, and diverse other means in nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums.
Such persons were regarded as "useless eaters" and a burden to the German war machine. Hitler was the first dictator of Germany but he was not the last. Nuremberg, Germany was chosen as the location of the trials for being a focal point of Nazi propaganda rallies leading up to the war. The Allies wanted Nuremberg to symbolize the death of Nazi Germany. The court convened in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg that was previously expanded by German prisoners to fit up to 1, detainees.
The jurisdiction of the Tribunal included crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The IMT defined crimes against humanity as "murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation The indictment was read on November 20, with 21 defendants appearing in court.
Between November 20, to October 1, , the Tribunal tried 24 of the most important military and political leaders of the Third Reich and heard evidence against 21 of the defendants. During the trial, the Tribunal—and the world—learned about the the Nazi Party and its "planning, initiating and waging of aggressive war" from the beginning. Footage of Nazi concentration camps taken by Allied military photographers during liberation was shown to the court. The graphic scenes of what had taken place in Europe were the most powerful evidence presented at the trial.
Other memorable moments of the trial were the screenings of the Nazi Concentration and Prison Camps and The Nazi Plan films , the detailed description of the Final Solution, the murders of prisoners of war, atrocities in extermination camps, and countless cruel acts to prosecute Jews. On October 1, , the Tribunal convicted 19 of the defendants and acquitted three.
Of those convicted, 12 were sentenced to death. Three defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment and four to prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years. On October 16, executions were carried out by hanging in the gymnasium of the courthouse.
In , the prisoners sentenced to incarceration were sent to Spandau Prison in Berlin. All three were convicted for their crimes.
Following the end of the trials in October, , the courtroom was used for a separate war-crimes trial held before US officials. Known as the Doctors' trials, the cases prosecuted 23 individuals, mostly medics, for horrific medical experiments on, and murders of, concentration camp prisoners, among other crimes. Those convicted were hanged. In June, , the courtroom was officially given back to justice officials in the southern state of Bavaria and continued to be used for trials. In , the City Museum of Nuremberg began offering weekend guided tours of the hall.
The visits drew a large number of tourists, but they were stopped in due to construction of the Memorium Nuremberg Trials. On February 20, courtroom held its last trial. A man was sentenced to over two years in prison for trying to strangle his wife. Now, the historic room will become part of the permanent exhibition of the Memorium Nuremberg Trials museum. The courtroom leaves a lasting legacy as the start of international criminal law and the first step towards the creation of the International Criminal Court.
But these reservations do not make "the prosecution of German crimes illegitimate," says Safferling. Moreover, would the Germans, liberated as much as they were defeated, have been either practically or morally capable of judging their compatriots? With these Nazi leaders, who all still knew each other, who had appeared at the Reich Party Congress and had all shouted 'Sieg Heil. In terms of organization, the trial surpassed everything that had ever been possible before: In trial days, the court heard witnesses and examined more than , affidavits.
The minutes of the hearing comprised 16, pages. On October 1, , the mammoth trial ended with the pronouncement of 12 death sentences, seven prison sentences and three acquittals. Read more : How year-old Ben Ferencz spent a lifetime making legal history. Twelve more trials took place before US military tribunals against other selected Nazis. Some 24 of those were sentenced to death.
The last trial ended in April Verdicts were passed. But was justice done? In the light of the sheer scale of the crimes committed, it's a question that would fundamentally overtax any justice system. But the Nuremberg trial was certainly of groundbreaking significance. Crimes against humanity are currently being prosecuted worldwide by the ICC, an international court serving international law. And UN tribunals have been set up for individual situations, while many international crimes can now be prosecuted at the national level, via authorities such as Germany's federal prosecutor in Karlsruhe.
Meanwhile, two of the former organizers of the Nuremberg trials, the US and Russia, still refuse to cooperate with the International Criminal Court, as does China. Nils Melzer, Swiss international law expert and UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, said that he sees a "worldwide erosion of human rights.
On the other hand, Safferling believes that international criminal law has played a thoroughly relevant role in global politics since the establishment of the ICC. But no dictator in the world can be sure that an international criminal justice system will not strike at some point," says Safferling. Twenty-one defendants were tried in and before the International Military Tribunal, a court that had been created specifically for the task of prosecuting war crimes.
Among them were Nazi party functionaries, senior military officers, civil servants, diplomats and industrialists — and all had served the Nazi regime. The Soviets initially wanted the trials to take place in Berlin, the capital of the Nazi regime. However, Nuremberg's Palace of Justice was deemed more suitable as it had not been badly damaged by the war, and it also boasted a large jail.
The fact that Nuremberg had been the site of the Nazi Party's rallies seen above in also lent the location a symbolic significance. As vice chancellor, Franz von Papen center tried to keep Adolf Hitler in check as part of a coalition government.
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