{"id":12192,"date":"2020-11-23T15:15:25","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T15:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=12192"},"modified":"2020-11-23T15:15:25","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T15:15:25","slug":"75-years-ago-the-nuremberg-trials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/75-years-ago-the-nuremberg-trials\/","title":{"rendered":"75 Years Ago: The Nuremberg Trials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last Friday was the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the <em>N\u00fcrnberger Prozesse <\/em>(Nuremberg trials). It was a series of\u00a0<em>Strafprozesse\u00a0<\/em>(criminal trials) to bring Nazis to justice. The<em> Prozesse\u00a0<\/em>are seen as the beginning of the <em>V\u00f6lkerstrafrecht<\/em> (International Criminal Law) and were an important marker how justice can be served to people that have such severe crimes to their names.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Chefankl\u00e4ger\u00a0<\/em>(chief prosecutor) in case 9 at Nuremberg against the leaders of the <em>Einsatzgruppen <\/em>(action groups) that were responsible for murdering the population of entire towns in Eastern Europe, Benjamin Ferenc, opened the ninth <em>Prozess<\/em>\u00a0with the following words:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The accused on the dock were the cruel executioners whose terror wrote the blackest page of human history. Death was their tool and life their toy. If these men are immune, the law has lost its meaning, and man must live in fear.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ferencz had evidence that was found in Berlin at the end of the war. Top secret documents that tallied the number of people killed and documented the\u00a0<em>Eins\u00e4tze\u00a0<\/em>(actions) by the\u00a0<em>Einsatzgruppen<\/em>. With this evidence, all 22 of the accused were found guilty.<\/p>\n<p>Ferencz was only 27 years old at the time, and he is still alive today. He would go on to play a big role in establishing and defending the International Criminal Court (ICC), headquartered in The Hague in the Netherlands. This court only began operating in 2002, so it was a long road from World War II to get to that point. Last Friday, he was interviewed by the Tagesschau.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"N\u00fcrnberger Prozesse: Chefankl\u00e4ger Benjamin Ferencz im Interview\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Otf6boAxItg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Ferencz was on 60 Minutes as well a few years ago, and is as driven and inspirational as ever.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ben Ferencz, known as the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, has died\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NZHTtfTXjrA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The <em>N\u00fcrnberger Prozesse\u00a0<\/em>had many firsts. It was the first time that four countries came together to serve justice in the same <em>Gerichthof\u00a0<\/em>(court). It was the first time that politicians were made personally responsible for\u00a0<em>v\u00f6lkerrechtliche Verbrechen\u00a0<\/em>(international crimes). There were 13\u00a0<em>Prozesse\u00a0<\/em>in total against more than 200 Nazis. The first main trial was held by the four allies together, while the other 12 were done by the US alone.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, the main trial ended with 12\u00a0<em>Todesurteile\u00a0<\/em>(death sentences), seven\u00a0<em>Freiheitsstrafen\u00a0<\/em>(&#8220;freedom sentences&#8221;, prison sentences) and three\u00a0<em>Freispr\u00fcche\u00a0<\/em>(acquittals). In the remaining 12 <em>Prozesse<\/em>, 24 more\u00a0<em>Todesurteile <\/em>fell.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why Nuremberg?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_12193\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reichsparteitag#\/media\/Datei:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-C12701,_N%C3%BCrnberg,_Reichsparteitag,_RAD-Appell.jpg\" aria-label=\"Bundesarchiv Bild 183 C12701 Nurnberg Reichsparteitag RAD Appell\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12193\" class=\"wp-image-12193 size-full\"  alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"549\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-C12701_Nurnberg_Reichsparteitag_RAD-Appell.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-C12701_Nurnberg_Reichsparteitag_RAD-Appell.jpg 800w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-C12701_Nurnberg_Reichsparteitag_RAD-Appell-350x240.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-C12701_Nurnberg_Reichsparteitag_RAD-Appell-768x527.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12193\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reichsparteitag (Reich Party Rally) in 1937 during Hitler&#8217;s speech in Nuremberg (Image by Bundesarchiv at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 3.0 de)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Nuremberg was chosen as a location for the\u00a0<em>Prozesse<\/em> since it was the city where Hitler&#8217;s NSDAP regularly held its <em>Parteitage\u00a0<\/em>(party conventions) since 1927. Hitler would refer to it as his\u00a0<em>Lieblingsstadt\u00a0<\/em>(favorite city) in Franken, calling it the &#8220;Stadt der Parteitage&#8221; (City of Party Rallies).<\/p>\n<p>Holding the\u00a0<em>Prozesse\u00a0<\/em>in this city is a way to show that the wind was blowing in a different, a better direction now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-C12701_Nurnberg_Reichsparteitag_RAD-Appell-350x240.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-C12701_Nurnberg_Reichsparteitag_RAD-Appell-350x240.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-C12701_Nurnberg_Reichsparteitag_RAD-Appell-768x527.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-C12701_Nurnberg_Reichsparteitag_RAD-Appell.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Last Friday was the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the N\u00fcrnberger Prozesse (Nuremberg trials). It was a series of\u00a0Strafprozesse\u00a0(criminal trials) to bring Nazis to justice. The Prozesse\u00a0are seen as the beginning of the V\u00f6lkerstrafrecht (International Criminal Law) and were an important marker how justice can be served to people that have such severe crimes&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/75-years-ago-the-nuremberg-trials\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":12193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[504079,224233,8582,11709,421737,8882],"class_list":["post-12192","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-language","tag-german-law","tag-hitler","tag-law","tag-nazis","tag-second-world-war","tag-world-war-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12194,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12192\/revisions\/12194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}