|
Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 50 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
Special Topics
|
 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Nuremberg Trial
Party rallies. Party rallies were held each year to show the public how strong the Nazi Party and the German military machine were. They moved the people so much that many pledged to die for Nazis. Debate was illegal in Germany under the Nazis. Anyone who dared to do so risked death.
1945. In the same year that World War Two ended, 1945, the allied governments decided to hold the trials in one of the most important cities in Germany. The first executions took place in 1946.
The Palace of Justice. This is the same building that laws had been made in 1935 to reduce the Jews to second class citizens.
Hermann Goering. Hitler and Goebbels had committed suicide in April of 1945. Himmler, when captured by the British, also committed suicide. So when the trial began Goering was the highest ranking Nazi left. Although he knew a death sentence was imminent, he remained convinced that he was right in all that he did and said.
Yes. At the beginning of the trial, all defendents pleaded not guilty, but near the end, most had broken down and had said that they had "only been following orders". The judges made their decisions based on one or more of the following counts: 1. Conspiracy to commit aggression, 2. The act of aggression, 3. Crimes in the conduct of warfare (that is, war crimes in the narrower sense), 4. Crimes against Humanity. Those convicted on all four counts were: Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Rosenberg, Jodl and Neurath.
Robert Jackson. Robert Jackson, whose nickname was "Justice" Jackson, had doubts about the way the trial would be run. He thought it would fail, just like the trials after World War One. He would be proved wrong though, The Nuremberg Trials established a basis for international law, which is still used today.
Joachim von Ribbentrop. Ribbentrop was one of Hitler's most devoted followers. He was a key figure in the conspiracy to launch a war of aggression and was sentenced to death by hanging. Unlike Goering, he was actually hanged.
22. 22 of the highest ranking Nazi officials were accused. Twelve were hanged, eight received prison terms ranging from ten years to life and two were acquitted. (Politician and diplomat Franz von Papen, and the president of the German Central Bank, Hjalmar Schacht, were acquitted, as was Hans Fritzsche). Goering committed suicide in prison a few hours before he was to be executed. Robert Ley had been charged but had committed suicide before the trial began, and Martin Bormann was tried in absentia.
U.S, Britain, France, U.S.S.R. Of couse Japan was never included in the talks because they were one of the Axis Powers. At the start, things were very difficult because the four Allied Powers each had different laws. It took many months of hard work but by the time of the trial, everything was working smoothly. (Separate trials were held for Japanese war criminals).
Hermann Goering. With Goering's death, the Third Reich was over. Its highest leaders were dead, along with their Fuehrer. It is sometimes said, but has never been proven, that Goering's prison guard retrieved a cyanide tablet from his luggage. No charges were ever brought aginst the man.
Hess spent most of the time reading novels. Hess claimed and then denied that he suffered from memory loss throughout the trial. Many thought he was mentally unstable due to his unusual speeches in the court and his general behaviour. Some suspected it was not genuine.
| What was the "Laconia order" issued by Doenitz to submarine crews which the allied prosecution considered to be "inhumanity contary to the laws of war"? | Nuremberg - The War Crimes Trial
|
Do not rescue crews of sunken ships except for captains, chief engineers or anyone else of strategic importance. This order was a result of the Laconia incident. The Laconia, holding 1800 Italian prisoners of war was sunk by U-156. After realising his allies were in the water, Doenitz sent two U-Boats to rescue them. Both submarines were attacked by Allied aircraft during and after the rescue operation. Hitler was furious.
| Reichsmarschall Goering was detained at Mondorf-les-Bains after his capture. Believing he was on his way to meet Eisenhower he had with him sixteen monogrammed suitcases and he was an unheathy 20 stone in weight. After he was sent to Nuremburg, his heath improved. What was the main reason for this? | Nuremberg - The War Crimes Trial
|
He no longer had access to the quantity of drugs he was addicted to. When Goering was captured, his luggage contained 20,000 paracodein pills, to which he was addicted. Accounts from the time report that Goering was extremely unheathy in appearance.
Goering visibly improved during the trial which was attributed to his drug free or drug reduced life in his cell. A strong desire to survive could have been another factor.
Goering took his own life with a concealed cyanide capsule a few hours before he was due to be hanged at Nuremberg.
Because there was no suitable prison to hold the accused in Berlin. The Russians at first insisted on Berlin as the location for the trial. After it was found that no prisons existed to hold the accused, Nuremberg was chosen. Nuremberg had many associations with the Nazi movement so it was a meaningful choice.
| Airey Neave, a 29-year-old officer in the British Army, who during the war successfully escaped from Colditz, was sent to Nuremberg prison to perform what task? | Nuremberg - The War Crimes Trial
|
To serve the indictments on those accused of war crimes. In 1940 the British government "sacrificed" their forces at Calais, France. in an attempt to delay the German Panzer divisions which were on their way to Dunkirk to take on the BEF.
Airey Neave was wounded and captured at Calais and later escaped from Colditz Castle, eventually returning to England, where he was engaged in the aid of resistance operations in Europe until the end of the war.
Neave was then summoned to the Nuremberg trials due to his legal qualifications. He was tasked with serving the war crimes indictments on to the accused in thier cells and had several meetings with infamous Nazi's such as Goering and Streicher.
After the war, Airey Neave became a politician but was murdered in 1979. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) claimed responsibilty for his death. A mercury-tilt based car bomb was placed under his car which detonated resulting in the loss of both of his legs. Neave died in hospital an hour after being freed from the wreckage.
If you are interested in the Nuremberg trials, I recommend you read "Nuremberg" by Airey Neave which contains some interesting accounts of his conversations with the accused.
Great Britain, France, Russia, United States of America. The war crimes trial at Nuremberg in some circles is considered to be the first, only and last trial of its kind.
This is because uncomfortable comparisons can be made between the behaviour of the victors and that of the defeated. Some regard Allied action during the second world war as inhumane, for example the bombing of Dresden and the alleged massacre of Polish officers by the Russians at Katyn.
Of course, these crimes do not compare to the systematic disposal of human beings due to religion or ethnic background ...
| Although instrumental in the use of slave workers, Albert Speer escaped execution at Nuremberg and was sentenced to 20 years' inprisonment.
What decision did Speer make during the closing days of the Second World War that may have reflected on him favourably during the trial?
| Nuremberg - The War Crimes Trial
|
Speer chose to ignore Hitler's order to destroy Germany's infrustructure. Speer escaped the gallows although his subordinates were not so lucky. Some say Speer was the true architect of slave labour during the Second World War.
Towards the end of the war, Hitler ordered the destruction of Germany's infrastructure such as water and power supplies, but Speer decided to ignore the Fuehrer's command.
| Which defendant had been removed from his post as Gauleiter of Franconia, ostensibly for alleging that Hermann Goering's daughter Edda had been conceived by artificial insemination? | Nuremberg: Tyrants on Trial: Part 1
|
Julius Streicher. Goering himself apparently used influence with Hitler to get Streicher removed from his post. Streicher, the editor of Der Stuermer, a highly pornographic newspaper, was a vulgar, rabid anti-Semite, possibly second only to Hitler. Even many of the other defendants at the trial tended to stay away from him, he was disliked so much.
3. Martin Bormann, Hitler's Private Secretary, was tried in absentia. It is believed he committed suicide or was killed during the escape from Hitler's Bunker in early May of 1945. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, the armaments tycoon, was found to be medically unfit for trial, after suffering from a stroke and increasing senility. (His inclusion in the indictment was actually an error. His son Alfried was supposed to have been tried, and later was.) Robert Ley, head of the Reich Labor Front, committed suicide on October 25, 1945 by tearing a towel into strips and hanging himself from an exposed pipe behind the toilet in his cell. He had stuffed a rag in his mouth so that no one could hear him if he made any noise, then leaned forward and slowly strangled to death.
| Who became known as "The Man Without a Signature" after claiming no knowledge of any atrocities, even when presented with documents personally signed by him that ordered the very things he was denying? | Nuremberg: Tyrants on Trial: Part 1
|
Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Kaltenbrunner took over as chief of Himmler's Reich Security Headquarters after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by Czech partisans in mid-1942. He was a latecomer to the procedings, having been hospitalized twice during the early stages of the trial for subarachnoid hemorrhages. Like Julius Streicher, the other defendants tended to avoid him.
Constantin von Neurath. According the Nuremberg judges it was stated that von Neurath intervened on behalf of many Czechs held by the Gestapo and Security Police. He was also personally told by Hitler that he was not being harsh enough with the Czech population during his time as Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. This was a direct result of a complaint sent to Hitler by Neurath's deputy, Karl Frank, a fanatical Nazi. Neurath later pleaded with Hitler not to send Reinhard Heydrich to take his place. When this failed, he tried to resign, but this was not accepted. In the end, he merely left, his resignation finally becoming official in 1943. The revelation of these events saved his life.
3. Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, and Hermann Goering, the "Military" men, all stated to the prison psychologist after their sentences were read that they knew death was coming, but did not expect to go out in such an undignified manner. They also submitted petitions to the court asking that they be shot as soldiers, rather than hung.
Baldur von Schirach. Henriette Hoffmann and Schirach had three sons and a daughter during their marriage, yet she divorced him a few years into his twenty-year sentence. He did not contest the divorce. When he was released from Spandau in 1966, his son Robert described him as a "Half-blind, broken man". Robert also said he never really forgave his mother for abandoning his father when he needed her the most.
I've seen footage of Schirach with his sons on his release, and he almost looked older than Albert Speer. Robert's description of his father seemed pretty accurate.
The atrocity film introduced by the Russians was started upside down.. Whoever was behind the projector during this part of the trial did indeed start the film upside down. A shot of the defendants in the dock showed that even the ones who were trying to absolve themselves and remain serious, such as Frank and Speer, were laughing. Rosenberg and Ribbentrop were both almost doubled over, even Hess, who was still in his state of "amnesia" was seen smiling and wiping his eyes. Fortunately for the prosecutors, when the film was righted, the defendants found that what was being shown was nothing to laugh about. Schacht refused to watch, Funk was seen openly crying, and Speer and Fritzsche were doing their best to hold back tears. Even their own lawyers seemed horrified at that they were viewing.
Lord Justice Lawrence was the presiding judge at Nuremberg. It was actually Robert Jackson, chief US prosecutor, who ended up losing his temper with Goering during his cross-examination of him.
| Which defendant continually protested his indictment, and was the only one who had been imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration camp towards the end of the war? | Nuremberg: Tyrants on Trial: Part 1
|
Hjalmar Schacht. Schacht, former Minister of Economics and President of the Reichsbank, had been implicated in the plot to assassinate Hitler in July of 1944, and was for a time held in Ravensbrueck, Flossenburg, and Dachau until the Allied liberation. Incredulous that he had even been put on trial in the first place, Schacht was acquitted of all charges and went on to become a highly successful financial advisor to developing coutries in Asia and South America, most notably Egypt's President Gamal Nasser. He lived to the ripe old age of 93, passing away in Munich in 1970.
Justice Jackson was said to have been incensed upon hearing the judges' decision to free him. He had desperately wanted to see Schacht convicted not only as part of his conspiracy case, but to also let the Russians know that the Western Powers would have no problems convicting a "capitalist". In the end, however, he had only been acquitted on a technicality. The four judges were deadlocked, and it had been decided early on that deadlocks would resolve in full acquittal. The American and Russian judges had voted for conviction, the French and British had voted against.
Martin Bormann. Bormann's eldest son, Martin Jr., was raised by various foster families along with his nine other siblings after their mother Gerda, who also converted to Catholicism, died of cancer. When his father's remains were positively identified, the family made the decision to cremate the bones and scatter the ashes into the sea, so that no shrine could be made by his grave, such as the one that stands by the Hess family plot. Bormann later left the priesthood and married a former nun, yet remained strong in both his Catholic faith and his love for his father. Keitel and Frick lost their sons to the war, while Hans Frank himself reconfirmed his Catholic Faith and received Holy Communion and Absolution before being led to the gallows.
Karl Doenitz. In September 1942 the RMS Laconia, which was carrying around 1,800 Italian prisoners of war, was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-Boat off the coast of West Africa. When the commander of the U-Boat realized that the majority of the passengers were allies of his country, he began rescue operations. Doenitz sent two U-boats to meet up with ships from the Vichy Regime for the rescue when they were attacked by US B-24 bombers. Even though the German and French boats had placed Red Cross banners around them, the senior US officer on duty gave the orders to the bombers to sink the submarines. Doenitz had decided that since the Americans were willing to attack even ships flying the Red Cross flag, any survivors of crippled ships were to be left in the sea (the "Laconia Order"). Nevertheless, at the trial, the judges stated: "The Tribunal is of the opinion that the evidence does not establish with the certainty required that Dönitz deliberately ordered the killing of shipwrecked survivors". Adding to that, Doenitz's lawyer also managed to obtain an affidavit from US Admiral Chester Nimitz, stating that he conducted the same form of "unrestricted submarine warfare" in his campaigns.
| The defendants were all asked by prison psychologist Gustave Gilbert to sign their portion of the indictment with their reactions. Who wrote "The trial is a necessity. There is a common responsibility for such horrible crimes even in an authoritarian system"? | Nuremberg: Tyrants on Trial Part 2
|
Albert Speer. Speer, the [official] First Architect of the Third Reich and Hitler's Minister for Armaments from 1942 onwards, was one of the few who personally denounced Hitler at the trial. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his use of slave labor, and sentenced to 20 years in Spandau. The court stated in mitigation that Speer had not only had the courage to tell Hitler that the war was lost, but refused to follow through with Hitler's "scorched earth" policy, which would have left Germany in an even worse state than it already was at the end of the war. (Artur Seyss-Inquart, Reichskommisar for the Netherlands, also refused to follow the "Nero Order"). Some, however, felt that a lot of his newfound sense of "guilt" over his crimes was a smokescreen to save his own skin. Many have stated that his amazingly quick work in galvanazing the production of armaments prolonged the war for two years, and that he cried upon hearing of Hitler's death. Some have also stated they find it incredible that Fritz Sauckel, the one who merely supplied the slave labor, received the death penalty, yet Speer, the one who put the laborers to work, received a prison sentence. Albert Speer passed away of a cerebral hemmorhage in London on September 1, 1981-42 years to the day after Germany invaded Poland.
4. Of the seven men given prison sentences, Karl Doenitz, Albert Speer, Baldur von Schirach and Rudolf Hess were the only ones to fully serve their terms. (Some would dispute whether or not Hess's 1987 suicide would count as truly fulfilling his life sentence, however.) Erich Raeder and Walther Funk, both sentenced to life, were released early for health reasons, as was Constantin von Neurath, who was sentenced to fifteen years. Raeder, Funk, and von Neurath all died within three years of their respective releases.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner & Wilhelm Frick. Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Wilhelm Frick were 43 and 69 years of age, respectively, when they were hanged. The others were between the ages of 46-64.
| Whose last words before being hanged were: "I am dying innocent. The sentence is wrong. God protect Germany and make Germany great again. Long live Germany! God protect my family"?
| Nuremberg: Tyrants on Trial Part 2
|
Fritz Sauckel. Sauckel was the eighth man to go to the gallows. Ribbentrop's last words were "My last wish is that Germany realize its destiny and that an understanding be reached between the East and the West. I wish peace to the world." Frank, the only man to go to the gallows with a smile on his face, said "I am thankful for the kind treatment during my captivity and I ask God to accept me with mercy." The final defendant to be hanged, Seyss-Inquart, like Frank, had received Holy Communion and Absolution before his death. He departed this life after saying "I hope that this execution is the last act of the tragedy of the Second World War and that the lesson taken from this world war will be that peace and understanding should exist between peoples. I believe in Germany."
|
Fun Trivia | 
Quizzes | 
Games
| 
People | 
Services | 
Help | 
Me
