75th Anniversary of the First Nuremberg Nazi War Crime Trial Is on November 20, 2020

While I spend a great deal of my time reading both nonfiction and historical fiction books for my various writing projects on Nazi Germany, I felt the article by Ben Knight in the November 16, 2020, edition of the Deutsche Welle (dw.com) provided information important to be shared:

Nuremberg Trials: An important step for Germany to confront its Nazi past

Germany is marking the 75th anniversary of the first Nuremberg trial. Initially, the trials, military tribunals by occupying powers, were barely respected in a country that wanted to forget. But that attitude changed.

I know that I myself frequently refer to the Nuremberg trials as if they all took place at one time, which is not the case. So here from Wikipedia is a short explanation of the various trials (boldface is mine):

The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals held after World War II by the Allied forces under international law and the laws of war. The trials were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany, who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in the Holocaust and other war crimes. The trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany, and their decisions marked a turning point between classical and contemporary international law.

The first and best known of the trials was that of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT). It was described as “the greatest trial in history” by Sir Norman Birkett, one of the British judges present throughout. Held between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946, the Tribunal was given the task of trying 24 of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich. Primarily treated here is the first trial, conducted by the International Military Tribunal. Further trials of lesser war criminals were conducted under Control Council Law No. 10 at the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunal (NMT), which included the Doctors’ trial and the Judges’ Trial.

The categorization of the crimes and the constitution of the court represented a juridical advance that would be followed afterward by the United Nations for the development of an international jurisprudence in matters of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and wars of aggression, and led to the creation of the International Criminal Court. For the first time in international law, the Nuremberg indictments also mention genocide (count three, war crimes: “the extermination of racial and national groups, against the civilian populations of certain occupied territories to destroy particular races and classes of people and national, racial, or religious groups, particularly Jews, Poles, and Gypsies and others.”)

I have just finished reading Erik Larson’s 2011 nonfiction book IN THE GARDEN OF THE BEASTS: “The time is 1933: the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that provided to be a turning point in history.”

The book is an up-close-and-personal look based on documents and diaries of how the political elite in Washington chose to view the first-hand reports of the increased ferociousness and fanaticism of Hitler in the years leading up to Nazi Germany invading Poland and starting WWII.

I highly recommend this nonfiction book for readers who would appreciate an historical view of the beginnings of the fanaticism that led ultimately to the Nuremberg trials.

And check out my free nonfiction theater project www.ThinEdgeOfTheWedge.com to combat anti-Semitism and hate.