Why was nuremberg chosen

However, the first trial of the many that were originally planned was supposed to be held in the U. This decision reached by the Allies at the London Conference in August was motivated primarily due to infrastructure considerations.

The adjacent prison located just to the north of the Palace of Justice simplified the problem of housing and protecting the prisoners.

While Nuremberg's historic role as the "City of Nazi Party Rallies" and as the place where the Nazi "Race Laws" were announced was not the decisive reason for choosing the city as the venue for the trials, it did lend a certain symbolic significance to this choice. In preparation for the trial, a wooden connecting passage was built between the prison and the East Building as a means of securely transporting the prisoners from their prison cells to the courtroom. The grounds around the building complex were also extensively secured.

The testimony of hundreds of witnesses, many of them survivors, was followed all over the world. Eichmann was found guilty and executed in Leading Nazi officials will be indicted and placed on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, under Article 6 of the IMT's Charter for the following crimes: 1 Conspiracy to commit charges 2, 3, and 4, which are listed here; 2 crimes against peace—defined as participation in the planning and waging of a war of aggression in violation of numerous international treaties; 3 war crimes—defined as violations of the internationally agreed upon rules for waging war; and 4 crimes against humanity—"namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecution on political, racial, or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of domestic law of the country where perpetrated.

Martin Bormann Hitler's adjutant is to be tried in absentia. Three are sentenced to life imprisonment Hess, economics minister Walther Funk, and Raeder.

Four receive prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years Doenitz, Schirach, Speer, and Neurath. The court acquits three defendants: Hjalmar Schacht economics minister , Franz von Papen German politician who played an important role in Hitler's appointment as chancellor , and Hans Fritzsche head of press and radio. The other 10 defendants are hanged, their bodies cremated, and the ashes deposited in the Isar River.

The seven major war criminals sentenced to prison terms are remanded to the Spandau Prison in Berlin. We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of all donors. Trending keywords:. Featured Content. Of the defendants, 24 were sentenced to death, 20 to lifelong imprisonment, and 98 other prison sentences.

Twenty five defendants were found not guilty. Many of the prisoners were released early in the s as a result of pardons. Thirteen of the 24 death sentences were executed.

American jurists in occupied Germany developed international law with the concept of crimes against humanity, then grappled with its meaning. Interpreters and translators were the unspoken heroes of the Nuremberg Trials. Their work at Nuremberg was a groundbreaking development in simultaneous interpretation. Following victory, the Allies turned to the legal system to hold Axis leaders accountable.

In an unprecedented series of trials, a new meaning of justice emerged in response to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both the Germans and the Japanese throughout the war. The first international war crimes tribunal in history revealed the true extent of German atrocities and held some of the most prominent Nazis accountable for their crimes.

Justice Robert H. The Nuremberg Trials. List of Judges. List of Chief Prosecutors. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin stating: "The United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union have received from many quarters evidence of atrocities, massacres and cold-blooded mass executions which are being perpetrated by Hitlerite forces in many of the countries they have overrun.

List of Defendants. List of Organizations.