The main dark players involved with these atrocities such as Japan or Nazi Germany, were not punished for their crimes, only stopped by the allies.
America is up to it's neck in guilt for protecting gross criminals, by bringing them to our shores for intellectual assistance in advancing technologies following their atrocities unimagined. No innocence for this nation
resides here.
As for these countries guilty of such crimes against humanity, their punishment will come in the form of complete dissolution. It's been saved for generations when the ultimate demise overtakes these entities.
No one escapes the coming culmination and not one country will remain intact. I believe it will all catch up with us, as is happening currently.
Giovani -
While I’m not sure what you mean by “it will all catch up to us."
However, when it comes to Nazi Germany, many individuals involved in crimes against humanity and war crimes were punished. In addition, the SS, (the Nazi Schutzstaffeln) was determined to be a criminal organization. The latter included the Allgemeine SS (the General SS), the Waffen SS (the armed SS whose membership amounted to almost one million by the date of the Nazi surrender) and the SS-Totenkopfverbande (the Death’s Head guards at the concentration and death camps).
The Nürnberg trials, series of trials held in
Nürnberg,
Germany, in 1945–46, in which former
Nazi leaders were indicted and tried as war criminals by the International Military Tribunal. The
indictment lodged against them contained four counts: (1) crimes against peace (i.e., the planning, initiating, and waging of wars of aggression in violation of international treaties and agreements), (2) crimes against humanity (i.e., exterminations, deportations, and genocide), (3)
war crimes (i.e., violations of the laws of war), and (4) “a common plan or
conspiracy to commit” the criminal acts listed in the first three counts.
Learn about the Nürnberg (Nuremberg) trials, held by the International Military Tribunal after World War II to try former leaders of Nazi Germany for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.(more)
See all videos for this article
The authority of the International Military Tribunal to conduct these trials stemmed from the
London Agreement of August 8, 1945. On that date, representatives from the
United States,
Great Britain, the
Soviet Union, and the provisional government of
France signed an agreement that included a charter for an international military tribunal to conduct trials of major
Axis war criminals whose offenses had no particular geographic location. Later 19 other nations accepted the provisions of this agreement. The tribunal was given the authority to find any individual guilty of the commission of war crimes (counts 1–3 listed above) and to declare any group or organization to be criminal in character. If an organization was found to be criminal, the prosecution could bring individuals to trial for having been members, and the criminal nature of the group or organization could no longer be questioned. A defendant was entitled to receive a copy of the indictment, to offer any relevant explanation to the charges brought against him, and to be represented by
counsel and confront and cross-examine the witnesses.
The tribunal consisted of a member plus an alternate selected by each of the four signatory countries. The first session, under the presidency of Gen. I.T. Nikitchenko, the Soviet member, took place on October 18, 1945, in
Berlin. At this time, 24 former Nazi leaders were charged with the perpetration of war crimes, and various groups (such as the
Gestapo, the Nazi secret police) were charged with being criminal in character. Beginning on November 20, 1945, all sessions of the tribunal were held in Nürnberg under the presidency of Lord
Justice Geoffrey Lawrence (later Baron Trevethin and Oaksey), the British member.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner at the Nürnberg trials, 1946.
After 216 court sessions, on October 1, 1946, the verdict on 22 of the original 24 defendants was handed down. (
Robert Ley committed
suicide while in prison, and
Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach’s mental and physical condition prevented his being tried.) Three of the defendants were acquitted:
Hjalmar Schacht,
Franz von Papen, and
Hans Fritzsche. Four were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years:
Karl Dönitz,
Baldur von Schirach,
Albert Speer, and
Konstantin von Neurath. Three were sentenced to life imprisonment:
Rudolf Hess,
Walther Funk, and
Erich Raeder. Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death by
hanging. Ten of them—
Hans Frank,
Wilhelm Frick,
Julius Streicher,
Alfred Rosenberg,
Ernst Kaltenbrunner,
Joachim von Ribbentrop,
Fritz Sauckel,
Alfred Jodl,
Wilhelm Keitel, and
Arthur Seyss-Inquart—were hanged on October 16, 1946.
Martin Bormann was tried and condemned to death in absentia, and
Hermann Göring committed suicide before he could be executed.
See:
https://www.britannica.com/event/Nurnberg-trials
Field Marshal Wilhelm List, flanked by U.S. Army guards, standing to receive his sentence during the Nürnberg trials, 1946.(more)
In rendering these decisions, the tribunal rejected the major defenses offered by the defendants. First, it rejected the
contentionthat only a state, and not individuals, could be found guilty of war crimes; the tribunal held that crimes of
international law are committed by men and that only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced. Second, it rejected the argument that the trial and adjudication were ex post facto. The tribunal responded that such acts had been regarded as criminal prior to
World War II.
The doctors’ trial:
The Nuremberg Doctors Trial considered the fate of twenty German physicians and three non-physicians who either participated in the Nazi program to euthanize persons deemed "unworthy of life" (the mentally ill, mentally ********, or physically disabled) or who conducted experiments on concentration camp prisoners without their consent. The Doctors Trial lasted 140 days. Eighty-five witnesses testified and almost 1,500 documents were introduced. Sixteen of the defendants charged were found guilty. Seven were executed.
Defendant Doctors
Indictments
Count I--The Common Design or Conspiracy
Count II--War Crimes
Count III--Crimes Against Humanity
Count IV--Membership in a Criminal Organization
Transcript Excerpts
Opening Statement for the Prosecution
Testimony of Prosecution Witnesses
Case Transcript (Harvard Law Schoool)
Full Transcript (Military Trial Records)
Verdicts and Sentences
Images from the Doctors Trial
Link to U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Online Exhibition
During the Doctors Trial, American medical expert Dr. Leo Alexander points to scars on the leg of Jadwiga Dzido. The scars were the result of medical experiments on Dzido when she was imprisoned at the Ravensbrueck concentration camp.
(Dec. 22, 1946 photo. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives)
Indictments
COUNT ONE--THE COMMON DESIGN OR CONSPIRACY
1. Between September 1939 and April 1945 all of the defendants herein, acting pursuant to a common design, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly did conspire and agree together and with each other and with divers other persons, to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, as defined in Control Council Law No. 10, Article II.
2. Throughout the period covered by this indictment all of the defendants herein, acting in concert with each other and with others, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
3. All of the defendants herein, acting in concert with others for whose acts the defendants are responsible, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly participated as leaders, organizers, investigators, and accomplices in the formulation and execution of the said common design, conspiracy, plans, and enterprises to commit, and which involved the commission of, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
4. It was a part of the said common design, conspiracy, plans, and enterprises to perform medical experiments upon concentration camp inmates and other living human subjects, without their consent, in the course of which experiments the defendants committed the murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts, more fully described in counts two and three of this indictment.
5. The said common design, conspiracy, plans, and enterprises embraced the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as set forth in counts two and three of this indictment, in that the defendants unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly encouraged, aided, abetted, and participated in the subjection of thousands of persons, including civilians, and members of the armed forces of nations then at war with the German Reich, to murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts.
COUNT TWO--WAR CRIMES
6. Between September 1939 and April 1945 all of the defendants herein unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed war crimes, as defined by Article II of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving medical experiments without the subjects' consent, upon civilians and members of the armed forces of nations then at war with the German Reich and who were in the custody of the German Reich in exercise of belligerent control, in the course of which experiments the defendants committed murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts. Such experiments included, but were not limited to, the following:
A) High-Altitude Experiments
B) Freezing Experiments
C) Malaria Experiments
D) Lost (Mustard) Gas Experiments
E) Sulfanilamide Experiments
F) Bone, Muscle, and Nerve Regeneration and Bone Transplantation Experiments
G) Sea-Water Experiments
H) Epidemic Jaundice Experiments
I) Sterilization Experiments
J) Spotted Fever (Fleckfieber) Experiments
K) Experiments with Poison
L) Incendiary Bomb Experiments
7. Between June 1943 and September 1944 the defendants Rudolf Brandt and Sievers unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed war crimes, as defined by article II of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the murder of civilians and members of the armed forces of nations then at war with the German Reich and who were in the custody of the German Reich in exercise of belligerent control. One hundred twelve Jews were selected for the purpose of completing a skeleton collection for the Reich University of Strasbourg. Their photographs and anthropological measurements were taken. Then they were killed. Thereafter, comparison tests, anatomical research, studies regarding race, pathological features of the body, form and size of the brain, and other tests, were made. The bodies were sent to Strasbourg and defleshed.
8. Between May 1942 and January 1944 (Indictment originally read "January 1943" but was amended by a motion filed with the Secretary General. See Arraignment, page 18) the defendants Blome and Rudolf Brandt unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed war crimes, as defined by Article II of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the murder and mistreatment of tens of thousands of Polish nationals who were civilians and members of the armed forces of a nation then at war with the German Reich and who were in the custody of the German Reich in exercise of belligerent control. These people were alleged to be infected with incurable tuberculosis. On the ground of insuring the health and welfare of Germans in Poland, many tubercular Poles were ruthlessly exterminated while others were isolated in death camps with inadequate medical facilities.
9. Between September 1939 and April 1945 the defendants Karl Brandt, Blome, Brack, and Hoven unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed war crimes, as defined by Article II of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the execution of the so-called "euthanasia" program of the German Reich in the course of which the defendants herein murdered hundreds of thousands of human beings, including nationals of German-occupied countries. This program involved the systematic and secret execution of the aged, insane, incurably ill, of deformed children, and other persons, by gas, lethal injections, and diverse other means in nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums. Such persons were regarded as "useless eaters" and a burden to the German war machine. The relatives of these victims were informed that they died from natural causes, such as heart failure. German doctors involved in the "euthanasia" program were also sent to Eastern occupied countries to assist in the mass extermination of Jews.
10. The said war crimes constitute violations of international conventions, particularly of Articles 4, 5, 6, 7, and 46 of the Hague Regulations, 1907, and Articles 2, 3, and 4 of the Prisoner-of-War Convention (Geneva, 1929), the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilized nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed, and Article II of Control Council Law No. 10.
COUNT THREE--CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
11. Between September 1939 and April 1945 all of the defendants herein unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed crimes against humanity, as defined by Article II of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving medical experiments, without the subjects' consent, upon German civilians and nationals of other countries, in the course of which experiments the defendants committed murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts. The particulars concerning such experiments are set forth in paragraph 6 of count two of this indictment and are incorporated herein by reference.
12. Between June 1943 and September 1944 the defendants Rudolf Brandt and Sievers unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed crimes against humanity, as defined by Article II of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the murder of German civilians and nationals of other countries. The particulars concerning such murders are set forth in paragraph 7 of count two of this indictment and are incorporated herein by reference.
13. Between May 1942 and January 1944 [Indictment originally read "January 1943" but was amended by a motion filed with the Secretary General. See Arraignment, p. 18] the defendants Blome and Rudolf Brandt unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed crimes against humanity, as defined by Article II of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the murder and mistreatment of tens of thousands of Polish nationals. The particulars concerning such murder and inhuman treatment are set forth in paragraph 8 of count two of this indictment and are incorporated herein by reference.
14. Between September 1939 and April 1945 the defendants Karl Brandt, Blome, Brack, and Hoven unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed crimes against humanity, as defined by Article II of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the execution of the so called "euthanasia" program of the German Reich, in the course of which the defendants herein murdered hundreds of thousands of human beings, including German civilians, as well as civilians of other nations. The particulars concerning such murders are set forth in paragraph 9 of count two of this indictment and are incorporated herein by reference.
15. The said crimes against humanity constitute violations of international conventions, including Article 46 of the Hague Regulations, 1907, the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilized nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed, and of Article II of Control Council Law No. 10.
COUNT FOUR--MEMBERSHIP IN CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION
16. The defendants Karl Brandt, Genzken, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, Sievers, Brack, Hoven, and Fischer are guilty of membership in an organization declared to be criminal by the International Military Tribunal in Case No. 1, in that each of the said defendants was a member of the
SCHUTZSTAFFELN DER NATIONALSOZIALISTISCHEN DEUTSCHEN ARBEITERPARTEI (commonly known as the "SS") after 1 September 1939. Such membership is in violation of paragraph I (d), Article II of Control Council Law No. 10.
Verdicts and Sentences
Wilhelm Beiglboeck
Beiglboeck was a Consulting Physician to the Luftwaffe. He was found guilty on Counts II and III.
Sentence: Imprisonment for a term of fifteen years
This sentence was reduced on appeal to ten years in prison.
Viktor Brack
Brack was a Senior Colonel in the SS and the Chief Administrative Officer in the Chancellery of the Fuehrer. He was found guilty on Counts II, III, and IV.
Sentence: Death by Hanging
Hanged June 2, 1948 at Landsberg prison in Bavaria.
Karl Brandt
He was the personal physician to Hitler. He was active in the SS and the Commissioner for Health and Sanitation. Brandt was found guilty on Counts II, III, and IV.
Sentence: Death by hanging
Hanged June 2, 1948 at Landsberg prison in Bavaria.
Rudolf Brandt
Brandt was a Personal Administrative Officer to Himmler. He was found guilty on counts II, III, and IV.
Sentence: Death by hanging
Hanged June 2, 1948 at Landsberg prison in Bavaria
Herman Brecker-Freyseng
Brecker-Freyseng was the Captian of Medical Services of the Air Force and Chief of the Department for Aviation Medicine of the Chief of Medical Services of the Luftwaffe. He was found guilty on Counts II and III.
Sentence: Imprisonment for a term of twenty years
This sentence was reduced on appeal to ten years in prison.
Fritz Fischer
Fischer was a Major in the Waffen SS and an Assistant Physician to Gebhardt at the hospital at Hohenlychen. He was found guilty on Counts II, III, and IV.
Sentence: Imprisonment for the full term and period of natural life
This sentence was reduced on appeal to fifteen years in prison.
Karl Gebhardt
Gebhardt was the personal physician to Himmler and the president of the German Red Cross. He was found guilty on Counts II, III, and IV.
Sentence: Death by hanging
Hanged June 2, 1948 at Landsberg prison in Bavaria.
Karl Genzken
Genzken was Chief of the Medical Department, a part of the Waffen SS. He was found guilty on Counts II, III, and IV.
Sentence: Imprisonment for the full term and period of natural life
This sentence was reduced on appeal to twenty years in prison.
Siegfried Handloser
Medical Inspector of the Army and Chief of Medical Services of the Armed Forces. Handloser was found guilty on Counts II and III.
Sentence: Imprisonment for the full term and period of natural life
This sentence was reduced on appeal to twenty years in prison.
Waldemar Hoven
Hoven was Chief Doctor of Buchenwald Concentration Camp. He was found guilty on Counts II, III, and IV.
Sentence: Death by hanging
Hanged June 2, 1948 at Landsberg prison in Bavaria.
Joachim Mrugowsky
Mrugowsky was the Chief Hygienist of the Reich Physicians SS and Police and of the Institute of the Waffen SS. He was found guilty on Counts II, III, and IV.
Sentence: Death by hanging
Hanged June 2, 1948 at Landsberg prison in Bavaria.
Herta Oberheuser
Oberheuser was a physician at Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp and an Assistant Physician to Gebhardt at the hospital at Hohenlychen. Oberheuser was found guilty on Counts II and III.
Sentence: Imprisonment for a term of twenty years
This sentence was reduced on appeal to ten years in prison.
Helmut Poppendick
Poppendick was a Senior Colonel in the SS. He was found guilty on Count IV.
Sentence: Imprisonment for a term of ten years
This sentence was reduced on appeal to time served.
Gerhard Rose
Rose was the Brigadier General of Medical Services of the Air Force. He was also Vice president of the Chief of the Department for Tropical Medicine. He was Hygienic Adviser for Tropical Medicine to the Chief of Medical Services of the Luftwaffe. He was found guilty on Counts II and III.
Sentence: Imprisonment for the full term and period of natural life
This sentence was reduced on appeal to fifteen years in prison.
Oskar Schroeder
Schroeder was the Lieutenant General of Medical Services. He was found guilty on Counts II and III.
Sentence: Imprisonment for the full term and period of natural life
This sentence was reduced on appeal to fifteen years in prison.
Wolfram Sievers
Sievers was a colonel in the SS and Director of the Institute for Military Scientific Research. He was also the Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board of Directors of the Reich Research Council. He was found guilty on Counts II, III, and IV.
Sentence: Death by hanging
Hanged June 2, 1948 at Landsberg prison in Bavaria
The crimes of the Einsatzgruppen are the best documented of the Holocaust and their trial was prosecuted by US attorney Ben Ferencz.
In addition to survivor, bystander, and perpetrator eyewitness testimony, there is physical evidence in the form of graves, bodies and the regular Einsatzgruppen reports of their murders sent to the RSHA HQ in Berlin by Enigma encoded radio signals from the field.. There are also photographs and we have a nearly complete series of Einsatzgruppen reports (of 195 reports only one is missing). At the time of the Einsatzgruppen trials, the number of Jews that the Einsatzgruppen murdered was placed at a minimum of 1,000,000. Modern research has shown that it is closer to 1,150,000.
On September 10, 1947, the US Military Government for Germany created Military Tribunal II-A (later renamed Tribunal II). This tribunal was tasked with trying Case #9 of the
Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings:
United States v. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.. Case #9 is usually referred to as the Einsatzgruppen
View This Term in the Glossary Case.
The 24 defendants in Case #9 were all leading members of
Einsatzgruppen that operated on the Eastern Front during World War II. The Einsatzgruppen
View This Term in the Glossary were special task forces of the
SS and Police. The Einsatzgruppen led by the defendants organized and conducted mass shootings of Jews, Communists, and others in territory that Germany seized from the Soviet Union.
The Indictment and Charges
On July 29, 1947, the 24 defendants in the Einsatzgruppen
View This Term in the Glossary Case were indicted for their role in murdering between 723,661 and one million people “as part of a systematic program of genocide.” The indictment listed three charges:
- crimes against humanity
- war crimes
- membership in organizations declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal
Twenty-four Einsatzgruppen
View This Term in the Glossary members were charged. Each one was charged with committing all three counts between June 1941 and July 1943.
Einsatzgruppen trial: US prosecution opens case against Einsatzgruppen members
After the trial of major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, the United States held a series of other war crimes trials at Nuremberg—the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings. The ninth trial before the American military tribunal in Nuremberg focused on members of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units), who had been assigned to kill Jews and other people behind the eastern front. This footage shows US prosecutor Ben Ferencz outlining the purpose of the trial during the opening of the case.
The Defendants
Four of the defendants who were charged had commanded Einsatzgruppen
View This Term in the Glossary units sent into the Soviet Union and Soviet-controlled territory as part of
Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. For example, Otto Ohlendorf commanded Einsatzgruppe D while it committed mass murder in territories that are part of Romania and Moldova, as well as in Ukraine and around the Crimean Sea. The other Einsatzgruppen commanders charged in Case #9 were:
- Heinz Jost: Jost was in charge of Einsatzgruppe A. This unit perpetrated mass murder in the northernmost sector of the Eastern Front, primarily the Baltic countries and the area around Leningrad (today: St. Petersburg).
- Erich Naumann: Naumann commanded Einsatzgruppe B. This unit perpetrated mass murder primarily in Belarus and in Russian territory west of Moscow.
- Otto Rasch: Rasch led Einsatzgruppe C. This unit perpetrated mass murder in Ukraine, including the shooting of more than 33,000 Jews of Kiev at Babyn Yar.
The remaining defendants were commanders or deputy commanders of subordinate units. The men charged were: Paul Blobel, Ernst Biberstein, Walter Blume, Werner Braune, Lothar Fendler, Matthias Graf, Walter Haensch, Emil Hausmann, Waldemar Klingelhoefer, Gustav Noske, Adolf Ott, Waldemar von Radetzky, Felix Rühl, Martin Sandberger, Heinz Schubert, Erwin Schultz, Willy Seibert, Franz Six, Eugen Steimle, and Eduard Strauch.
In the end, only 22 of those charged were tried. Emil Hausmann committed suicide. Otto Rasch was deemed too ill to stand trial.
The Trial
The defendants were arraigned between September 15 and 22, 1947. The trial ran from September 29, 1947, to February 12, 1948.
The chief prosecutor was 27-year-old
Ben Ferencz. Ferencz called no witnesses and based the case on wartime SS reports that detailed mass shootings conducted by the Einsatzgruppen.
View This Term in the Glossary In his opening statement, Ferencz underscored that:
It is with sorrow and with hope that we here disclose the deliberate slaughter of more than a million innocent and defenseless men, women, and children. This was the tragic fulfillment of a program of intolerance and arrogance.…Each of the defendants in the dock held a position of responsibility or command in an extermination unit. Each assumed the right to decide the fate of men, and death was the intended result of his power and contempt. Their own reports will show that the slaughter committed by these defendants was dictated, not by military necessity, but by that supreme perversion of thought, the Nazi theory of the master race.1
Ferencz presented the case in just two court sessions. The remainder of the trial, which lasted more than three months, was devoted to the defendants’ arguments. Each defendant pleaded “not guilty.” Even those who admitted playing a role in the mass killings denied their culpability. They argued that they had acted legally and in obedience to superior orders.
The Judgment and the Sentences
The Tribunal rendered its judgment on April 8–9, 1948. It found 20 defendants guilty on all three counts. Two of the defendants were found guilty on only count three. The tribunal noted in its judgment that
the charge of purposeful homicide in this case reaches such fantastic proportions and surpasses such credible limits that believability must be bolstered with assurance a hundred times repeated.2
The sentences were announced on April 10, 1948:
- 14 defendants were sentenced to death;
- 2 were sentenced to life terms;
- and 5 received sentences that ranged from 10 to 20 years.
Matthias Graf was released with time served.
Ultimately, only four of the 14 death sentences were carried out. Ohlendorf, Naumann, Blobel, and Braune were hanged on June 7, 1951.
Eduard Strauch, the head of
Einsatzkommando 2 (a subunit of Einsatzgruppe A), who received a death sentence, was extradited to Belgium. There, he was sentenced to death and died in Belgian custody.
The other defendants had their sentences commuted or were paroled. All of the remaining convicted defendants in this case were released from prison in 1958.
US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Benjamin Ferencz
See:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/cont...rg-proceedings-case-9-the-einsatzgruppen-case
The Adolf Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem:
Adolf Eichmann was one of the most pivotal actors in the implementation of the “Final Solution.” Charged with managing and facilitating the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and killing centers in the German-occupied East, he was among the major organizers of the Holocaust. His 1961 trial in Jerusalem, Israel, sparked international interest and heightened public awareness of the crimes of the Holocaust.
In the autumn of 1941, Eichmann, then an SS-
Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) and the chief of RSHA section IV B 4, took part in discussions in which the annihilation of the European Jews was planned. Since Eichmann was to be in charge of transporting Jews from all over Europe to the
killing centers, RSHA chief
Reinhard Heydrich asked Eichmann to prepare a presentation for the notorious
Wannsee Conference.
At the conference, RSHA officials advised the appropriate government and Nazi Party agencies on the implementation of the "
Final Solution." Eichmann also relayed these plans to his network of officials who would help him to carry out deportation efforts in German-occupied areas and in Germany's Axis partners.
Prominent among these "
Eichmann-Männer" ("Eichmann's men") were his deputy Rolf Günther, Alois Brunner, Theodor Dannecker, and Dieter Wisliceny. In 1942, Eichmann and his henchmen organized the deportation of Jews from Slovakia, the Netherlands, France, and Belgium. In 1943 and 1944 came the turn of the Jews of Greece, northern Italy, and Hungary. Only in Hungary did Eichmann involve himself directly on the ground in the deportation process. From late April 1944, six weeks after
Germany occupied Hungary, until early July, Eichmann and his aides deported some 440,000 Hungarian Jews.
At war's end, Eichmann found himself in US custody, but escaped in 1946. In the end, he succeeded, with the help of Catholic Church officials, in fleeing to Argentina. There he lived under a number of aliases, most famously Ricardo Klement. In 1960, agents of the Israeli Security Service (
Mossad) abducted Eichmann and brought him to Israel to stand
trial. The proceedings before a special district court in Jerusalem drew international attention, and historians roundly credit coverage of the trial (famously in Hannah Arendt's
Eichmann in Jerusalem) with re-awakening public interest in the Holocaust.
In December 1961, Eichmann was found guilty of crimes against the Jewish people. He was hanged at midnight between May 31 and June 1, 1962. Jewish authorities cremated his remains and scattered his ashes in the sea beyond Israeli boundary waters.
See:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/adolf-eichmann
The Auschwitz trials:
The Polish authorities tried forty-one senior SS personnel (thirty-six men, five women) who had served at Auschwitz. The top echelon of the camp hierarchy were put on trial, including: Rudolf Hoess, Arthur Liebehenschel, camp commanders; Maria Mandel, who controlled the women’s camp; Johann Kremer, a high-ranking physician in the camp, and others. The most senior of the defendants, headed by Rudolf Hoess, testified on behalf of the prosecution as part of the Nuremberg Trials.
Most of the defendants had been handed over to the Polish authorities by the Allied forces. This trial, which lasted only one month, included survivor testimony, and the judges perused a wide variety of German documents. Twenty-four of the defendants were sentenced to death, including Rudolf Hoess, Arthur Liebehenschel and Maria Mandel; of the others, three received life imprisonment, seven received fifteen years in prison, and one was acquitted.
On April 16, 1947, Rudolf Hoess was executed in front of Gas Chamber #1 in Auschwitz I. The rest of the defendants who had received the verdict of capital punishment were executed in Cracow Prison on January 18, 1948. Maria Mandel was the first to be executed.
Second Auschwitz Trial: December 20, 1963 - August 10, 1965
In this series of trials, twenty-two Auschwitz personnel – second and third tier officers and capos – were tried. Unlike the first trial in Cracow, based on international law and the legal definition of crimes against humanity, these trials were conducted according to German criminal law.
Cracow, Poland, A witness giving testimony at the Auschwitz Trial
Cracow, Poland, Postwar, The trial of Reichsminister Rudolf Franz Hoess, an SS officer and former commander of Auschwitz camp
Over the course of the trials, some 360 witnesses were summoned, including approximately 210 camp survivors. Fritz Bauer – then Germany’s Attorney General and himself a former prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp in 1933 – headed the prosecution. News of the criminals’ actions and whereabouts had been known in West Germany from 1958, but they had not been brought to justice due to legal issues. Moreover, despite de-Nazification measures enforced by the Allies in Germany, many former SS and Nazi Party members maintained high-ranking governmental positions. Eighteen of the accused were found guilty. Six of the eighteen were sentenced to life in prison and the others received sentences ranging from 5-14 years. Many of the accused never served their full sentence.
The trial proceedings were open to the public, and helped bring further information about the Holocaust to the citizens of West Germany and around the world.
The difference in severity of the sentences handed down cannot be explained by the higher ranks tried in the first trial and the lower ranks of SS personnel in the second trial as they were all murderers – irrespective of rank. The disparity was a result of the legal systems. The first Auschwitz trial was held according to the laws against war criminals and crimes against humanity, the legal code that was established in the Nuremberg Trials. The second trial was held within the framework of German criminal law, making it more difficult to convict some of the accused.
As mentioned earlier, de-Nazification in Germany was not implemented in all high government levels including the Justice Department. This situation led to the "dissappearance" of many of the criminals. Second, Fritz Bauer, the prosecutor in the trial, who was also the chief prosecutor for Federal Germany and responsible for finding, interrogating, and bringing these criminals to trial, invested great efforts in uncovering documents and testimonies relating to the system and structure of the camps, and far less in bringing specific persons to trial. As a result of these factors, most of the criminals remained outside of the second Auschwitz courtroom, which was supposed to have been the main trial for all Auschwitz personnel.
See:
https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/general/auschwitz-trials.html
While this is not purported to be a complete list of those tried and punished for their activities during the Third Reich, it will serve to give you an idea that many Nazi perpetrators were punished. The evidence presented at these trials gave us an idea of the scope and personnel involved in these horrific years from 1933-1945.
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