HIST 3001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Nuremberg Laws, Nuremberg Trials, Miscegenation
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1/15/14
WCT
IMT Nuremberg
Five myths:
1. Nuremberg was obviously necessary
•by no means obvious that there would be a trial
•opposition from defendants and the germans in general
•Churchill, chief justice of SCOTUS, hall (sec of state), sec of treasury
-opposed & thought it was unwise
-preference would be to read out a list of what they had done and execute them,
or just let them off without a trial at all
-pretense of putting on a trial didn’t sit well with everyone
-Jackson (sp ct justice) was given a year off of the sp ct so the ct only had 8
justices at that time
2. Nuremberg (24 people) was the only prosecution of Nazi criminals, the others got a
pass
•exaggeration
•there were thousands of Nazi defendants put on trial
•over 800 death sentences, 500 carried out
•3 defendants didn’t sit in the courtroom: one killed himself when he got the
indictment, one was missing (tried in absentia), one was released for health
reasons (elderly)
•not the only Nuremberg trial
-how many were there?
-12 trials (Nuremberg Military Tribunals)
-the others were done by the victors (GB, France, Soviet Union, USA)
-why did the Americans choose Nuremberg?
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