There were 21 people sitting on the dock. On November 20, 1945, in Nuremberg, a Bavarian city that was a symbol of Nazism and was under American control, the trial of a handful of Third Party officialse Germany. Among them were Hermann Göring, creator of the Gestapo and the highest surviving Nazi official, or Joachim von Ribbentrop, the regime’s foreign minister. At the end of the debate, in October 1946, 12 people were sentenced to death.
Eighty years later, historian Sylvie Lindeperg, author Nuremberg, picture battle (Payot, 2021), explains the origins, progress and legacy of this trial “founder” for international justice, keeping that in mind “the word “genocide” is almost never uttered in the courtroom”.
Why were the Nuremberg trials a major historical episode?
This founding moment ended the impunity of heads of state for crimes committed within the framework of their functions. This is the first time in history that the leaders of a defeated country have been brought before an international court. Nuremberg defined new charges and crimes, incl “crimes against humanity”, which aim “murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation” of the civilian population.
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