The Nuremberg trials (German: die Nürnberger Prozesse) were a series of military tribunals held by the Allied forces under international law and the laws of war after World War II. The trials were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial and economic leadership of Nazi Germany, who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in the Holocaust and other war crimes. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, and their decisions marked a turning point between classical and contemporary international law.
The first and best known set of these trials were those of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT). They were described as "the greatest trial in history" by Norman Birkett, one of the British judges who presided over them.[1] Held between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946,[2] the Tribunal was given the task of trying 24 of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich – though the proceedings of Martin Bormann was <span>tried in absentia</span>, while another, Robert Ley, committed suicide within a week of the trial's commencement.
Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Wilhelm Burgdorf, Hans Krebs and Joseph Goebbels had all committed suicide in the spring of 1945 to avoid capture, though Himmler was captured before his suicide and Krebs and Burgdorf committed suicide two days after that of Hitler's in the same place.[3] Reinhard Heydrich had been assassinated by Czech partisans in 1942, so he was not included. Josef Terboven killed himself with dynamite in Norway in 1945. Adolf Eichmann fled to Argentina to avoid Allied capture, but was captured by Israel's intelligence service the Mossad, convicted of war crimes, and hanged in 1962. Hermann Göring was sentenced to death but committed suicide the night before his execution as a perceived act of defiance against his captors. Miklós Horthyappeared as a witness at the Ministries trial held in Nuremberg in 1948.
This article primarily deals with the first set of trials conducted by the IMT. A second set of trials of lesser war criminals was conducted under Control Council Law No. 10 at the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunal (NMT), which included the Doctors' trial and the Judges' Trial.
The typification of the crimes and the constitution of the court represented a juridical advance that would be used afterwards by the United Nations for the development of a specific international jurisprudence in matter of war crime, crimes against humanity, war of aggression, as well as for the creation of the <span>International Criminal Court</span>
