Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials took place in Nuremberg, Germany from 1945 to 1949. In total, 24 political and military leaders where indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- Nuremberg TrialsHeld for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, the Nuremberg trials were a series of 13 trials carried out in Nuremberg, Germany, between 1945 and 1949.
- The Nuremberg TrialsAfter the war, Allied powers—United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union—came together to form the International Military Tribunal (IMT). From 1945 to 1946, Nazi Germany leaders stood trial for crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes.
- Nuremberg Trials: Library of ContressTwenty-four major political and military leaders of Nazi Germany, indicted for aggressive war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, were brought to trial before the International Military Tribunal. More than 100 additional defendants, representing many sectors of German society, were tried before the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals in a series of 12 trials known as “Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings.” The four major publications linked below contain: the official proceedings of the trial of the major war criminals (The Blue Series), documentary evidence and guide materials from that trial (The Red Series), the official condensed record of the subsequent trials (The Green Series), and a final report on all the war crimes trials held in Nuremberg, Germany, from 1945 to 1949.
- Nuremberg Trials ProjectExamine trial transcripts, briefs, document books, evidence files, and other papers from the trials of military and political leaders of Nazi Germany.
- Search thousands of historical documents from the Nuremberg trialsExamine trial transcripts, briefs, document books, evidence files, and other papers from the trials of military and political leaders of Nazi Germany.
Streaming Media
- Albert SpeerAlbert Speer, a young German architect, attended a meeting in Berlin addressed by Adolf Hitler, and was captivated by the magic of his oratory. He joined the Nazi Party three months later in early 1933. Speer's brilliance and opportunism led to a rapid advance in his career, which saw him become Hitler's favoured architect and close friend. Later, appointed Minister of Armaments and Munitions, Speer was one of the most influential men in the Third Reich.
- The German Neighbor: Adolf Eichmann's Life in Argentina and Nuremberg TrialIntegrating impressive archive material, THE GERMAN NEIGHBOR follows the steps of Adolf Eichmann’s unusual life in Argentina and his remarkable defense at the trial in Jerusalem.
- The Nuremberg TrialsNo trial, according to Professor Linder, provides a better basis for understanding the nature and causes of evil than the war crime trials in Nuremberg from 1945 to 1949. In this lecture, your focus is on the first of 12 trials, regarded by scholars as "The Trial of the Major War Criminals."
- Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben FerenczBarry Avrich’s gripping documentary, PROSECUTING EVIL: THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD OF BEN FERENCZ, tells the fascinating story of one of the Holocaust’s most heroic figures. Ben Ferencz, age 98, is the last surviving Nuremberg trial prosecutor and he is on a life-long crusade in the fight for law not war.
- Front Row Seat at the Nuremberg Trails, November 1945In this Museum oral history clip, Paul Spencer remembers his time as an officer of the court in Nuremberg, Germany at the Nazi war crimes trials. Spencer's duty was keeping peace in the court, but he also spent time talking to the defendants.
Perspectives
The Witness House
Autumn 1945 saw the start of the Nuremberg trials, in which high ranking representatives of the Nazi government were called to account for their war crimes. In a curious yet fascinating twist, witnesses for the prosecution and the defense were housed together in a villa on the outskirts of town. In this so-called Witness House, perpetrators and victims confronted each other in a microcosm that reflected the events of the high court. Presiding over the affair was the beautiful Countess Ingeborg Kálnoky (a woman so blond and enticing that she was described as a Jean Harlowe look-alike) who took great pride in her ability to keep the household civil and the communal dinners pleasant. A comedy of manners arose among the guests as the urge to continue battle was checked by a sudden and uncomfortable return to civilized life. The trial atmosphere extends to the small group in the villa. Agitated victims confront and avoid perpetrators and sympathizers, and high-ranking officers in the German armed forces struggle to keep their composure. This highly explosive mixture is seasoned with vivid, often humorous, anecdotes of those who had basked in the glory of the inner circles of power. Christiane Kohl focuses on the guilty, the sympathizers, the undecided, and those who always manage to make themselves fit in. The Witness House reveals the social structures that allowed a cruel and unjust regime to flourish and serves as a symbol of the blurred boundaries between accuser and accused that would come to form the basis of postwar Germany.
The Nuremberg Interviews
The Nuremberg Interviewsreveals the chilling innermost thoughts of the former Nazi officials under indictment at the famous postwar trial. The architects of one of history’s greatest atrocities speak out about their lives, their careers in the Nazi Party, and their views on the Holocaust. Their reflections are recorded in a set of interviews conducted by a U.S. Army psychiatrist. Dr. Leon Goldensohn was entrusted with monitoring the mental health of the two dozen German leaders charged with carrying out genocide, as well as that of many of the defense and prosecution witnesses. These recorded conversations have gone largely unexamined for more than fifty years. Now, Robert Gellately–one of the premier historians of Nazi Germany–has transcribed, edited, and annotated the interviews, and makes them available to the public for the first time in this volume. Here are interviews with the highest-ranking Nazi officials in the Nuremberg jails, including Hans Frank, Hermann Goering, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and Joachim von Ribbentrop. Here, too, are interviews with the lesser-known officials who were, nonetheless, essential to the workings of the Third Reich. Goldensohn was a particularly astute interviewer, his training as a psychiatrist leading him to probe the motives, the rationales, and the skewing of morality that allowed these men to enact an unfathomable evil. Candid and often shockingly truthful, these interviews are deeply disturbing in their illumination of an ideology gone mad. Each interview is annotated with biographical information that places the man and his actions in their historical context. These interviews are a profoundly important addition to our understanding of the Nazi mind and mission.