Subsequent Nuremberg trials

File:Judges of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals.jpg

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/nuremberg-trials |title=Nuremberg Trials |website=History |publisher=A&E Television Networks |access-date=25 November 2019}}

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.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ALHAwFfy44C&q=%22a+brief+synopsis+of+those+trials%22 | title=The Trials. Introduction: the indictments, biographical information, and the verdicts | publisher=Oxford University Press | work=The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law | date=2011 | access-date=10 January 2015 | author=Kevin Jon Heller | pages=85–| isbn=9780199554317 }}

Trials

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

class="wikitable" width="95%" style="font-size: 90%; border-spacing:10px 0px;" !# !align="left"\|Designations !align="left"\|Dates !align="left"\|Defendants
id="Doctors' Trial"	1	Doctors' Trial	9 December 1946 – 20 August 1947	23 Nazi physicians of the Aktion T4
id="Milch Trial"	2	Milch Trial	2 January – 14 April 1947	Field Marshal Erhard Milch of the Luftwaffe
id="Judges' Trial"	3	Judges' Trial	5 March – 4 December 1947	16 Nazi German "racial purity" jurists
id="Pohl Trial"	4	Pohl Trial	8 April – 3 November 1947	Oswald Pohl and 17 SS officers
id="Flick Trial"	5	Flick Trial	19 April – 22 December 1947	Friedrich Flick and 5 directors of his companies
id="IG Farben Trial"	6	IG Farben Trial	27 August 1947 – 30 July 1948	24 directors of IG Farben, maker of Zyklon B
id="Hostages Trial"	7	Hostages Trial	8 July 1947 – 19 February 1948	12 German generals of the Balkan Campaign
id="RuSHA Trial"	8	RuSHA Trial	20 October 1947 – 10 March 1948	14 racial cleansing and resettlement officials
id="Einsatzgruppen Trial"	9	Einsatzgruppen Trial	29 September 1947 – 10 April 1948	24 officers of Einsatzgruppen
id="Krupp Trial"	10	Krupp Trial	8 December 1947 – 31 July 1948	12 directors of the Krupp Group
id="Ministries Trial"	11	Ministries Trial	6 January 1948 – 13 April 1949	21 officials of Reich ministries
id="High Command Trial"	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.{{cite book|last1=Nelson|first1=Anne|title=Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler|date=April 2009|publisher=Random House|pages=[https://archive.org/details/redorchestrastor00anne/page/305 305]–6|url=https://archive.org/details/redorchestrastor00anne|url-access=registration|quote=subsequent nuremberg trials 200 nazi.|isbn=9781588367990}}

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.{{cite book |last= Heller |first= Kevin Jon |year= 2011 |title= The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law |location= Oxford |publisher= Oxford University Press |page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=8ALHAwFfy44C&pg=PA3 3] }}

References

External links

[http://www.mazal.org/NMT-HOME.htm The NMT proceedings] at the Mazal Library.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20101125101211/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/subsequenttrials.html An overview].

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Category:1946 in Germany

Category:1947 in Germany

Category:1948 in Germany

Category:1949 in Germany

Category:1940s trials

Trials, Subsequent