The Nuremberg process 70 years later. International trial of Nazi leaders

The Nuremberg process 70 years after its end remains a bright and memorable symbol of justice over Nazi criminals. This was the first of its kind process, which was in the center of attention of the entire world community in the first peace years after the fall of the Reich.

Organization of the process

The trial of the leaders of Nazi Germany began to speak long before the victory in the war. The first official meetings of foreign ministers of the Allied countries on this occasion took place as early as 1943. During the Yalta Conference, Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt personally touched this delicate issue.

Each of the national leaders in his own way saw the trial of the leadership of the Third Reich. The Prime Minister of Great Britain even offered to shoot close Hitler immediately after his arrest. Stalin and Roosevelt objected to him. One way or another, but an official agreement on the court was reached after the victory in the London conference in the summer of 1945. In particular, a list of the main Nazi criminals was compiled, which included 24 people. They were military, politicians and ideologists of the Third Reich.

Of course, everyone wanted to judge Hitler first, but he committed suicide in his bunker before the fall of Berlin. Together with him, the main Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels reduced his life . They and other leaders of the regime were afraid of arrest, followed by the Nuremberg trial. 70 years later, the descendants can say with certainty: none of the main criminals would have escaped execution.

Start of meetings

November 20, 1945 the Nuremberg trial was opened . In short, the whole world was waiting for him. Over the next year, journalists from all influential newspapers and publications from each country tried to extract new information about the progress of the investigation.

The beginning of the Nuremberg trial was boosted by the American side. On the eve of serious industrialist Gustav Krupp fell ill, who provided serious financial assistance to the Nazi regime. Americans were afraid that he would die without waiting for his own sentence.

A total of 403 meetings were held. The Tribunal, according to the London agreements, was composed of representatives of the four victorious powers (USSR, USA, Great Britain and France). Each country was represented by a judge, a chief prosecutor and many legal experts. For example, the interests of the USSR were represented by the prosecutor of Ukraine Roman Rudenko, Colonel of Justice Alexander Volkov. Also in Nuremberg was one of the highest representatives of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union Ion Nikitchenko.

Conflict between allies

The hasty organization was accompanied by general nervousness, which was experienced by all actors. This was due to a natural deterioration in the relations of the victor countries. The Cold War has not yet begun, but the world has already moved swiftly towards it. States divided Europe into spheres of influence. The interests of not only political leaders, but also ideologies were encountered here.

Epochal was Churchill's Fulton speech , delivered on March 5, 1946, when the Nuremberg trial was still in progress. 70 years later historians agree that this speech was the prologue to the opposition of the democratic and communist system in the second half of the 20th century. Churchill accused the leadership of the USSR of destroying civil liberties in his country, of lowering the "Iron Curtain" over states where the Red Army was present.

The speech caused the effect of an exploding bomb. She also influenced the Nuremberg trials. To put it briefly, more and more contradictions began to arise within the tribunal. In addition, Nazi criminals decided that this was their last chance to escape punishment. In the event of a war between the US and the USSR, the whole process could collapse. The defendants became bolder in their speeches, and their lawyers also changed rhetoric.

Protection of the accused

German lawyers built defendants' defense on several principles. First, the organization of the process was criticized and the very fact that it was led by the injured party (allies), and not by an independent court, as is usually the case in peacetime.

Secondly, lawyers refused to recognize the validity of new language in sentences. For example, these were not the pre-existing notions of "preparing a military attack" and "a crime against peace."

Death sentences

Nevertheless, the tribunal's months-long work has borne fruit. Thousands of documents were checked, huge work was done to collect evidence of crimes. According to the court's decision, 12 people were sentenced to death. One of them - Martin Bormann - died during the flight from Berlin in the last days of the war. But at the time of the tribunal's meeting his body was never found, and many believed that he managed to escape. Therefore, he was sentenced to death in absentia.

The supreme penalty also awaited Hermann Goering, the president of the Reichstag and Reichsminister of Aviation. He was one of the most odious Nazi figures who survived to trial.

The beginning of the Nuremberg trial was marked by the mention of the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty, which dealt with the partition of Poland and the allied relations between Germany and the USSR in 1939-1940. For the Soviet side, this was a very slippery issue, which the parties tried to negotiate before the process began. Anyway, Ribbentrop received his death sentence. The treaty signed by him and Molotov, was published in the USSR only in the years of perestroika.

Other process results

Several people (including Rudolf Hess) received life sentences in prison. There were also justified among the accused, for example, the radio broadcaster and propagandist Hans Fritsche.

The Nazi Party, SD, SS, Gestapo and other punitive bodies during the reign of Hitler were recognized as criminal organizations. From a legal point of view, this was an important thesis. He allowed to launch a further campaign for the denationalization of Germany and other European countries where puppet regimes existed. The Nuremberg trial led to such results. The trial ended on October 1, 1946.

Additional courts

It would be wrong to think that the history of the Nuremberg trial ended after the termination of the work of the Chief Tribunal. It was an indicative action. On it the main criminals of the Third Reich were tried. However, in the prisons of the Allies there were many people of a smaller scale who were also involved in the Holocaust and other atrocities of the Hitler regime.

Therefore, in 1946-1949. In the same Nuremberg, there were twelve more processes. They were initiated by the American leadership, which was the prosecution at the trial. The cases of doctors involved in the experience of people in concentration camps, SS officers, generals, etc. were considered. Judges read dozens of death sentences. This huge work would not fit into a single Nuremberg trial. Years of investigations, evidence gathering, questioning of witnesses - all this took a very long time.

The fate of the fleeing criminals

Some Nazi criminals fled the country safely in the last days of the war. Mostly they settled in Latin America, where they were able to obtain new documents with false names. Some of these fugitives have never been found.

But there were reverse cases. For example, one of the organizers of the mass murder of Jews, Adolf Eichmann, until 1960, lived safely in Buenos Aires. He was tracked, captured and taken to Israel by the Mossad. The trial of Eichmann was two years. It was massively covered by the press and was very much like the Nuremberg trial. 70 years later, the Nazi leaders who escaped justice have already died of old age, but their crimes against humanity have been unanimously condemned by the entire world community.