Subsequent Nuremberg trials

Judges of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals pose for a group photo.
Auschwitz survivor Philipp Auerbach testifies for the prosecution in the Ministries Trial.

The subsequent Nuremberg trials (also Nuremberg Military Tribunals; 1946–1949) were twelve military tribunals for war crimes committed by the leaders of Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The Nuremberg Military Tribunals occurred after the Nuremberg trials, held by the International Military Tribunal, which concluded in October 1946. The subsequent Nuremberg trials were held by U.S. military courts and dealt with the cases of crimes against humanity committed by the business community of Nazi Germany, specifically the crimes of using slave labor and plundering occupied countries, and the war-crime cases of Wehrmacht officers who committed atrocities against Allied prisoners of war, partisans, and guerrillas.[1]

Background

The Allies had initially planned to convene several international trials for war crimes at the International Military Tribunal, but failed because the Allies could not agree upon the proper legal management and disposition of military and civilian war criminals; however, the Control Council Law No. 10 (20 December 1945) of the Allied Control Council empowered the military authorities of every occupation zone in Germany to place on trial people and soldiers suspected of being war criminals. Based on this law, the U.S. authorities proceeded after the end of the initial Nuremberg Trial against the major war criminals to hold another twelve trials in Nuremberg. The judges in all these trials were American, and so were the prosecutors; the chief of counsel for the prosecution was Brigadier General Telford Taylor. In the other occupation zones, similar trials took place.[2]

Trials

The twelve U.S. trials after the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT) took place from 9 December 1946 to 13 April 1949.[2] The trials were as follows:

# Designations Dates Defendants
1 Doctors' Trial 9 December 1946 – 20 August 1947 23 Nazi physicians of the Aktion T4
2 Milch Trial 2 January – 14 April 1947 Field Marshal Erhard Milch of the Luftwaffe
3 Judges' Trial 5 March – 4 December 1947 16 Nazi German "racial purity" jurists
4 Pohl Trial 8 April – 3 November 1947 Oswald Pohl and 17 SS officers
5 Flick Trial 19 April – 22 December 1947 Friedrich Flick and 5 directors of his companies
6 IG Farben Trial 27 August 1947 – 30 July 1948 24 directors of IG Farben, maker of Zyklon B
7 Hostages Trial 8 July 1947 – 19 February 1948 12 German generals of the Balkan Campaign
8 RuSHA Trial 20 October 1947 – 10 March 1948 14 racial cleansing and resettlement officials
9 Einsatzgruppen Trial 29 September 1947 – 10 April 1948 24 officers of Einsatzgruppen
10 Krupp Trial 8 December 1947 – 31 July 1948 12 directors of the Krupp Group
11 Ministries Trial 6 January 1948 – 13 April 1949 21 officials of Reich ministries
12 High Command Trial 30 December 1947 – 28 October 1948 13 generals and 1 admiral of the High Command

Result

The Nuremberg process initiated 3,887 cases of which about 3,400 were dropped. 489 cases went to trial, involving 1,672 defendants. A total of 1,416 of them were found guilty; fewer than 200 were executed, and another 279 defendants were sentenced to life in prison. By the 1950s almost all of them had been released.[3]

Many of the longer prison sentences were reduced substantially by an amnesty under the decree of high commissioner John J. McCloy in 1951, after intense political pressure. Ten outstanding death sentences from the Einsatzgruppen Trial were converted to prison terms. Many others who had received prison sentences were released outright.

Criticism

Some of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals have been criticised for their conclusion that "morale bombing" of civilians, including its nuclear variety, was legal, and for their judgment that, in certain situations, executing civilians in reprisal was permissible.[4]

Judges

Judge Position Designations Previous or Current Position
Hu C. Anderson Presiding Judge Krupp Trial president of the court of appeals of Tennessee
Walter B. Beals Doctors' Trial Justice of the Washington Supreme Court
Mallory B. Blair Judge Judges' Trial Judge of the Third Court of Appeals of Texas
James T. Brand Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Oregon
George J. Burke Hostages Trial Prosecuting Attorney of Washtenaw County, Michigan
Edward F. Carter
William C. Christianson Presiding Judge Ministries Trial Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court
Judge Flick Trial Minnesota Supreme Court Justice
Johnson T. Crawford RuSHA Trial Circuit Judge of the Oklahoma District Court of Appeals
Doctors' Trial
Edward J. Daly Krupp Trial
Richard D. Dixon Alternate judge Flick Trial North Carolina Superior Court Judge
Judge Einsatzgruppen Trial
Winfield B. Hale High Command Trial
Justin W. Harding Bar of the State of Ohio
Alternate judge Judges' Trial
Paul M. Hebert Judge IG Farben Trial Dean of the Law School of Louisiana State University
Robert F. Maguire Ministries Trial
Carrington T. Marshall Presiding Judge Judges' Trial Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio
Clarence F. Merrell Alternate judge IG Farben Trial Lawyer from Indiana (friend of Judge Shake)
James Morris Judge Justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court
Michael Musmanno Presiding Judge Einsatzgruppen Trial Military Governor of an Occupied District in Italy
Judge Milch Trial
Pohl Trial
Daniel T. O'Connell RuSHA Trial Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Fitzroy Donald Phillips Milch Trial
Pohl Trial
Leon W. Powers Ministries Trial Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court
Frank Richman Flick Trial Indiana Supreme Court Justice
Harold Sebring Doctors' Trial Justice of the Florida Supreme Court
Charles B. Sears Presiding Judge Flick Trial Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
Curtis Grover Shake IG Farben Trial Chief Judge of the Indiana Supreme Court
John J. Speight Judge Einsatzgruppen Trial
Alternate judge Milch Trial
Pohl Trial
Victor C. Swearingen Doctors' Trial Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States
Robert M. Toms Presiding Judge Milch Trial Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit Court
Pohl Trial
Charles F. Wennerstrum Hostages Trial Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court
William J. Wilkins Judge Krupp Trial King County Superior Court Judge
Lee B. Wyatt Presiding Judge RuSHA Trial Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia
John C. Young High Command Trial

See also

References

  1. ^ "Nuremberg Trials". History. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  2. ^ a b Kevin Jon Heller (2011). The Trials. Introduction: the indictments, biographical information, and the verdicts. The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law. Oxford University Press. pp. 85–. ISBN 9780199554317. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  3. ^ Nelson, Anne (April 2009). Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler. Random House. pp. 305–6. ISBN 9781588367990. subsequent nuremberg trials 200 nazi.
  4. ^ Heller, Kevin Jon (2011). The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 3.

Further reading

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