The Nuremberg Trial

Abstract

Just thirty-five years ago Europeans were settling down to enjoy their first summer of general peace since the outbreak of the second world war. By the time that the Pacific conflict ended in midAugust 1945 the task of dealing with the principal surviving representatives of the Nazi regime was already well in hand. Two days after the Hiroshima explosion the American, British, Soviet, and French governments completed the delicate negotiations which enabled them to sign in London an agreement aimed at bringing those Germans to trial before a court specially fashioned for the purpose. Towards the end of November the resulting four-power International Military Tribunal commenced its hearings, under the presidency of Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence. The venue was Nuremberg, city of Albrecht Diirer and Hans Sachs, but also the city of Hitler's party rallies and of Streicher the Jew-baiter. Among those who had not survived to be indicted were Himmler and Goebbels and, of course, the Fuhrer himself. The final tally of defendants came to twenty-two, including the missing Bormann who was prosecuted in absentia. At the head of those actually in the dock stood Goering, Hess, and Ribbentrop, together with two generals and two admirals. Overall, the prisoners had been selected as representing the major administrative groupings within the Nazi regime. Twelve men were charged under all four broad headings of indictment, and each of the others was accused under at least two. The first count covered the formulation or execution of 'a common plan or conspiracy'; the second, 'crimes against peace'; the third, 'war crimes'; and the fourth, 'crimes against humanity'. By devising this last category the makers of the London Agreement were seeking to convey that the Nazis had often gone beyond war crimes as conventionally understood, to another level of quite consciously