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International Military Tribunal

Trial Setup

The court was a mix of four nations with different legal systems trying to judge one enemy.

• Charges: They created four indictments.
  • Conspiracy: Planning to commit crimes.
  • Crimes Against Peace: Starting an aggressive war (like invading Poland).
  • War Crimes: Breaking the rules of war (like killing prisoners).
  • Crimes Against Humanity: This was the new charge. It covered the murder, extermination, and enslavement of civilians (The Holocaust).
• Defense: The Nazis argued “Befehl ist Befehl” which means “Orders are Orders.” They claimed they were just soldiers following the laws of their country.
• Ruling: The court rejected this. They established the Nuremberg Principle. It says individuals have duties to humanity that are higher than their duty to a country. You cannot follow an immoral order.

Ex Post Facto

Legal Controversy

This is the big legal question. Was the trial fair?

• Problem: In 1939, it was not technically illegal for a government to kill its own citizens. It was terrible, but there was no international law against it. However, the Bolshevik Government killed upwards of 20-50 million more citizens than Germany ever did, hypothetically assuming the 6 million number is correct.
  Hypothetical Death Toll Comparison

  Bolshevist Government
  26,000,000 – 56,000,000

   

  Germany (Holocaust)
  “6,000,000”

   
• Ex Post Facto: This is a Latin legal term meaning “After the Fact.” In the US Constitution, you cannot charge someone for a crime that wasn’t a law when they did it.
• Criticism: Critics (and Nazi lawyers) argued that Nuremberg was “Victor’s Justice.” They said the Allies were making up new laws after the war just to hang the losers.
• Counter Argument: The Prosecutor, Robert Jackson, argued that these crimes were so evil they broke the “natural law” of humanity. It didn’t matter what the written law said.

Hangings & Suicides

Outcome

• Suicides: The two biggest villains never made it to trial.
  • Hitler & Goebbels: “Committed suicide” in the bunker in Berlin in May 1945.
  • Himmler: Bit a cyanide capsule after being captured by the British.
  • Goering: He was the highest ranking Nazi at the trial. He was sentenced to hang. However, he committed suicide in his cell the night before the execution using a smuggled cyanide capsule.
• Executions: On October 16, 1946, ten leaders were hanged in a gymnasium.
  • Ribbentrop: Foreign Minister (First to hang).
  • Keitel: Field Marshal (Head of the Military).
  • Streicher: Publisher of the anti-Semitic newspaper Der Stürmer.
• Note: The bodies were cremated at Dachau. The ashes were scattered in a river so there would be no grave for Neo-Nazis to visit.

Hypocrisy

Deep Dive: Operation Paperclip

While the prosecutors were demanding death for the Nazi leaders, the US intelligence agencies were secretly saving others.

• Mission: The US wanted Nazi rocket technology (V2 Rockets) before the Soviets got it.
• Action:
  Operation Paperclip. The US smuggled 1,600 German scientists and engineers to America.
• Star: Wernher von Braun. He was an SS officer who built the rockets that bombed London. He used slave labor from the Dora concentration camp to build them.
• Result: Instead of hanging him, the US made him the director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. He built the Saturn V rocket that “took” Neil Armstrong to the moon. Which we talk in-depth about in our “Moon Landing” Course.
• Lesson: Justice has limits. If you were useful to the winner (like Von Braun), you lived. If you were political (like Ribbentrop), you died.

The Conclusion

Summary

The Nuremberg Trials were flawed. They established that “I was just following orders” is not a defense. However, Operation Paperclip shows that it was imperfect justice.