Nuremberg Military Tribunals
During the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg, the Allied victors tried what they perceived as the 24 major German war criminals. However, already during the preparation of this tribunal, the victorious powers agreed that many more suspected war criminals needed to be prosecuted. But since it had proven very difficult to get all four Allied powers to agree on conducting one trial together, plans to conduct a series of mutual follow-up trials against lesser alleged war criminals did not materialize. The U.S. decided therefore to organize such a series of trials all by themselves. At the end, twelve of them were conducted between late October 1946 and April 1949. These trials were called “Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals,” and are often simply called Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT). Summaries of the proceedings were published in 15 volumes. Some pertinent data of these trials are listed in the table, including the sentences imposed. The case numbers of tribunals relevant to Holocaust claims are set in bold face.
| Case | U.S. versus | When (dd/mm/yyyy) | Vol. | Sentences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Karl Brandt et al. (Medical Case, physicians) |
25/10/1946 – 20/8/1947 |
I & II |
7 death, 5 life, 2×20, 15, 10 ys |
|
2 |
Erhard Milch (air force, medical experiments) |
13/11/1946 – 17/4/1947 |
II |
life |
|
3 |
Josef Altstotter et al. (Justice Case) |
4/1/1947 – 4/12/1947 |
III |
4 life, 4×10, 7, 5 ys |
|
4 |
Oswald Pohl et al. (WVHA, concentration camps, gas chambers) |
13/1/1947 – 3/1/1947 |
V |
2 death, 4 life, 2×20, 15, 6×10 ys |
|
5 |
Friedrich Flick et al. (Industrialists, slave labor) |
8/2/1947 – 22/12/1947 |
VI |
7, 5, 2½ ys, 3 acquittals |
|
6 |
Karl Krauch et al. (I.G. Farben Case, slave labor, DEGESCH, Zyklon B) |
3/5/1947 – 30/7/1948 |
VII & VIII |
2×8, 7, 2×6, 5, 4, 3, 3×2, 2×1½ ys |
|
7 |
Wilhelm List et al. (Hostage Case, reprisals) |
10/5/1947 – 19/2/1947 |
XI |
2 life, 2×20, 15, 12, 10, 7 ys, 2 acquittals |
|
8 |
Ulrich Greifelt et al. (RuSHA, ethnic cleansing) |
1/7/1947 – 10/3/1948 |
IV & V |
1 life, 2×25, 20, 3×15, 10 ys, 5 releases, 1 acquittal |
|
9 |
Otto Ohlendorf et al. (Einsatzgruppen, mass shootings, gas vans) |
3/7/1947 – 10/4/1948 |
IV |
14 death, 2 life, 3×20, 2×10 ys |
|
10 |
Alfried Krupp et al. (Industrialists, slave labor) |
16/8/1947 – 31/7/1948 |
IX |
3×12, 2×10, 2×9, 7, 2×6, 2 ys |
|
11 |
Ernst von Weizsäcker et al. (Ministries, NS policies, anti-Jewish measures) |
4/11/1947 – 13/4/1949 |
XII-XIV |
25, 2×20, 3×15, 2×10, 6×7, 6, 2×5, 4 ys, 1 release |
|
12 |
Wilhelm von Leeb et al. (German High Command) |
28/11/1947 – 28/10/1948 |
X, XI, XV |
2 life, 3×20, 2×15, 8, 7, 5, 3 ys, 2 acquittals |
The NMTs were conducted by the U.S. following the same principles and statutes as used for the IMT. Therefore, these tribunals were plagued by the identical problems, minus the grotesque absurdities at times exhibited by the Soviet prosecutors during the IMT. In some regards, the NMTs were actually worse than the IMT, because the NMTs attracted much less public attention. As a consequence, both prosecution and judges felt that they could get away with more violations of proper legal procedures. Hence, they exhibited a tendency to treat the defendants and their defense lawyers more harshly than during the IMT. Some judges even had defense lawyers temporarily arrested for insisting on their client’s right to be properly defended.
For more details and references, see the entry on the International Military Tribunal.
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