The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials (more formally, the Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT)) were a series of twelve U.S. military tribunals for war crimes against surviving members of the military, political, and economical leadership of Nazi Germany, held in Nuremberg after World War II from 1946 to 1949 following the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal.
Background
Although it had been initially planned to hold more than just one international trial at the IMT, the growing differences between the victorious allies (the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Soviet Union) made this impossible. However, the Control Council Law No. 10, which the Allied Control Council had issued on December 20, 1945, empowered any of the occupying authorities to try suspected war criminals in their respective occupation zones. Based on this law, the U.S. authorities proceeded after the end of the initial Nuremberg Trial against the major war criminals to hold another twelve trials in Nuremberg. The judges in all these trials were American, and so were the prosecutors; the Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution was Brigadier General Telford Taylor. In the other occupation zones similar trials took place.
Trials
The twelve U.S. trials before the NMT took place from December 9, 1946 to April 13, 1949. The trials were:
- The Doctors' Trial (9 December 1946 - 20 August 1947)
- The Milch Trial (2 January - 14 April 1947)
- The Judges' Trial (5 March - 4 December 1947)
- The Pohl Trial (8 April - 3 November 1947)
- The Flick Trial (19 April - 22 December 1947)
- The Hostages Trial (8 July 1947 – 19 February 1948)
- The IG Farben Trial (27 August 1947 - 30 July 1948)
- The Einsatzgruppen Trial (29 September 1947 - 10 April 1948)
- The RuSHA Trial (20 October 1947 - 10 March 1948)
- The Krupp Trial (8 December 1947 - 31 July 1948)
- The Ministries Trial
- The High Command Trial
Result
In total, 142 of the 185 defendants were found guilty of at least one of the charges. 24 persons received death sentences, of which 11 were subsequently converted into lifetime imprisonments; 20 were sentenced to lifetime imprisonment, 98 were handed down prison sentences of varying lengths, and 35 were acquitted. Four defendants had to be removed from trials due to illness, and four more committed suicide during the trials.
Many of the longer prison sentences were reduced substantially by decree of high commissioner John J. McCloy in 1951, and 10 outstanding death sentences from the Einsatzgruppen Trial were converted to prison terms. The same year, an amnesty released many of those who had received prison sentences.
See also
- Nuremberg Trials
- Dachau Trials
- Auschwitz trial
- Belsen Trial
- Command responsibility
- Frankfurt Auschwitz trials
- Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials
- Ravensbrück Trial
References
- The NMT proceedings at the Mazal Library.
- An overview.
- A more detailed overview.
- A summary written by Benjamin B. Ferencz.