The Nuremberg Trials

prof Henry King (2003) decl ard that, in that location is no greater challenge soon confronting the fo com firearmdist community than that of defining the osc ominousoscope of inter interior(a) human rights. And rightly so, as we observe the dumb embed day atrocities perpetrate all everywhere the world as well as how the progression of outside(a) right has developed systems to adjudicate on these controversial matters. One of the or so pi 1ering bourn cases in international integrity is the Nuremberg fight Trials.Along with its import, perhaps, it is in both case one of the most debatable. Judge Charles E. Wyzanski, junior (1946) wrote to those who support the summer campaign it promises the first effective recognition of a world equity for the punishment of malef issueors who spark off struggles or conduct them in stupid fashion (p.66). On the other(a) hand, Wyzanski argues that, to the inauspicious critics the trial appears in m any aspects a negation of principles which they regard as the heart of any system of sightlyice low law. such(prenominal) a chasm in opinion created several(prenominal) theoretically relevant menstruations in analyzing the account of international iniquitous law.It is often verbalize that history is written by the victors. The fall in evinces, the unify Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and France, victors of the 1939-1945 World state of struggle II, organized these trials to implead the national socialist leaders for self-asserting acts and state of war criminal offences. Ab step to the fore six one thousand thousand Jews and nearly five one million million million other Europeans were murdered en tummye in a phenomenon called the Holocaust.This is often benchmarked by international organizations as one of the first acts of race murder. This writing aims to discuss the international crimes indicted in the Nuremberg Trials, constitute the judgment passed on the Nazi def decisionants, present opp osing views and controversies on the matter, and analyze the significance of the Nuremberg Trials in comparison to the current wretched bonnyice system.Nuremberg courtyardOn distinguished 8, 1945, the representatives of the quartet Allied powers dressly take The agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of major(ip)(ip) fight iniquitouss of the European Axis, and Establishing the carry of the transnational army judiciary (IMT). Two months after(prenominal)wards, this Agreement and the IMT remove became the wakeless basis for the indictment of the Nazi leaders on the tetrad counts discussed below.Nuremberg Principles the Four countings of indictmentFour Counts of Indictment were the basis of the charge against the Nation toozialistische Deitsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi ships company) leadership by the International troops Tribunal. These Counts include cabal to commit aggressive war, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against kind-heartedness. Critics o f the Nuremberg Trials view as that these Counts were in the nature of an ex endure facto law, or one that was non a criminal act when it was first affiliated, nevertheless became penal later on by statute or legislation (Wyzanski, 1946). by and by all, one of the most elementary jural principles is one that holds nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege &8212 on that point is no crime where there is no law punishing such. Supporters of the Nuremberg Trials contend that international law, intrinsic law and civil law legal powers baffle to the agreements between states and be compelled to adopt the internationally recognized standards, including the doctrines enshrined in the Nuremberg Trials.Count 1 ConspiracyConspiracy, commonly stated as, the act of one is the act of all, or the secret approval of two or to a greater extent concourse in the commission of an execration, was established as an additional and separate substantive offense from Counts One to Three. To assert co nspiracy is to pay off that there is a wrong through with(p) when, acting together for an unlawful end, he who joins in that action incurs liability not only for the act planned, or participated in, or could reasonably be foreseen to happen, entirely in addition for every single act that his co-conspirators commit.For instance, Julius Streicher was found unlawful by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg for chair incitation and encouraging the commission of war crimes in the following a punitive pilgrimage moldiness come against the Jews in Russia. A punitive expedition which will stand the same fate for them that every liquidator and criminal must expect. Death disapprobation and execution. The Jews in Russia must be killed. They must be exterminated root and fork (Schabas, 2000, p. 278-279).Wyzanski (1946) asks what is the basis for asserting such a broad and substantive crime in international law? Aside from the printing macrocosm new, is it not fundament ally dirty? He reasons that a trial, when used as propaganda, is to debase reasonableice. This is one of the salubriousest principles posited by the critics of the Nuremberg Trials.Count 2 Crimes Against PeaceGer numerous was a party to nine international treaties that condemn the plotting and waging of wars of onset (the type where a state is the brand of the war, and not merely in excuse of national security). The Geneva protocol declared wars of aggression as international crimes &8212 not merely uncivilized slipway of waging war but also the waging in any way of uncivilized wars (Wyzanski, 1946).Count 3 War CrimesWar crimes are in violation of the rules on warfare delimitate in international congregations, to which Germany was a party. This systematic course of conduct toward both civilians and combatants, immoderate destruction of territories, with clear knowledge of the defendants, was deemed to be punishable, according to the 1946 article by Charles E. Wyzanski, J r. It is aggression itself that was criminalized.This Count was the most criticized for being retroactive legislation since the history of warfare has not absolved the organizers of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal from their ingest acts of warfare in their respective colonies. The Allied Forces (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France) were also cognize for committing war metre atrocities in their own jurisdictions but critics point out that only the Nazis were held to account for their wartime liabilities. former(a) aggressive wars introductory to World War II were not punished by international tribunals prior to the one naturalized at Nuremberg.Count 4 Crimes against worldThe crimes of Auschwitz and other parts of Germany and Europe where Jews, Poles and Gypsies were massacred in cold blood were defined as crimes against domain, as described in the first step address to the Nuremberg Trials by US autonomous Court fullice Robert H. Jackson ( King, 2003). despite the innocence of the civilians, they were subject to various atrocities uniform by the Nazi leadership discuss and systematic genocide of racial and national groups of indisputable occupied territories, as aerated in the case of France et al. v. Goering et al., 22 IMT 203 (1946) as cited by William Schabas (pp. 37-38).Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts act against any civilian population, beforehand or during the war, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in nexus with any crime within the jurisdiction of the International Tribunal, enumerated the crimes falling under the comment of crimes against humanity submitted by the American agency to the Charter of the International Military Tribunal that heard the Nuremberg Trials (Schabas, 2000, p.36).Nuremberg JudgmentNazi defendants Bormann, Goering, von Ribbentrop, and Jodl among others, were sentenced to oddment by hanging. On October 16, 1946, ten of them were hanged charm Goering perpetrate felo-de-se. Bormann was try in absentia prior to that while Hess, Doenitz, and five others were awarded ten years to career imprisonment in Spandau Prison, Berlin. 185 defendants were tried subsequently by US judges, including Nazi Party officials, judges, business executives, and doctors.Biographical reportFrom November 20, 1945 until October 1, 1946, the Nuremberg Palace of Justice in Nuremberg City, Germany became the emcee of a series of trials fraught with disputative debates. These trials before the International Military Tribunal adjudicated on war crimes. The most prominent was the first trial which prosecuted 24 of the crownwork Nazi Germany (Nationalsozialistische Deitsche Arbeiterpartei) leadership in the realms of politics, frugality and military. Of the 23 were originally charged, 12 were meted out death sentences but only 10 were imposed. Even organizations snarled fell under the penumbra of these war crimes (W yzanski, 1964).Applicable Historical theoryHistorical theories birthed by the Nuremberg trials include international law concepts, the formation of a tribunal, and responses to the defenses invoked by the accused. United Nations part States adopted the cardinal counts of indictment as definitions of internationally punishable acts. These theories were further codified in the Charter of the IMT which acquired jurisdiction over States that ratified the Agreement. slightly defenses rooted in customary law were raised(a) head of State license first-rate orders and tu quoque (the adversary committed equivalent atrocities).Of these, the IMT at Nuremberg denied the defense of head of State immunity because it was formally provided in the Charter that constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals are liable. The defense of superior orders was also excluded by the IMT to dispel ambiguities. The Nuremberg Trials underscored the honourable duty of citize ns to disobey inhumane orders that run afoul natural law principles of justice. However, the defense of tu quoque was glossed over at Nuremberg since the World War II behavior of the Allied powers would render the legal justifications of the IMT vulnerable to attack (Schabas, 2000, pp. 314-342).Historical surmise In Comparison to Our Current Criminal Justice SystemThe United Nations world(a) Assembly Economic and Social Council created an ad hoc committee to draft a convention on the crime of genocide. In this convention, they headstrong to formulate Nuremberg Principles into the provisions. Several UN member States raised the ideological angle in linking genocide to race theories like Fascism-Nazism. Thus, the Nuremberg principles were adopted in the preamble, by its analogy to punishing war criminals for similar acts of genocide (Schabas, 2000, p. 62-64).Before the April 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the nauseate-mongering Radio Mille Collines was broadcasting messages to promote the population to commit massacres of the Tutsi and some Hutu civilians (Schabas, 2000, p.279). there is a chilling similarity to the fact of Nazi Germany where the Nuremberg court found such direct incitement punishable for direct incitement of acts of genocide, hatred, and violence which led to the Jewish Holocaust, among others. The criminal justice system of today and that of the Nuremberg era are both joined in recognizing the criminal nature of hate propaganda and adopting measures to curb incitements to violence by adjudicating against the perpetrators.The US war on Iraq also raises ethereal issues that can be attributable to the Nuremberg precedent. The historic theories and defenses raised would pose a strong ideological challenge to the criminality of certain acts that States commit against other States in the pretext of protecting national security and the hegemonic concepts of development. piece of music the US-Iraq war is said to be a fluid legal arena, the IMT o f Nuremberg may take a leak much to say on the matter. closureSixty two years past until the present, the precedent set by the Nuremberg Trials is let off being used as the exchange point for other analogous crimes. The iv counts of indictment were codified into a formal Agreement along with the Charter for the IMT. Defenses unremarkably recognized under customary law were denied by express provision of the Charter. Although the criminalization of these counts was still imperfect, provoking legal contentions even, the millions of lives preoccupied during the war deserve the chance to guide the scales of justice tilted in their favor. through the constantly evolving international legal theories, one can only hope that humanity would be able to devise ways to put an end to the abject horror of war.ReferencesSchabas, W. (2000). Genocide in International lawfulness The Crimes of Crimes. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.King, Henry. (2003, May 1). Robert Jackson and Intern ational serviceman Rights. Retrieved November 20, 2007, from http//www.roberthjackson.org/Man/theman2-6-6/Wyzanski, C. E., Jr. (1946, April). NurembergA attractive Trial? Dangerous Precedent. The Atlantic Monthly, muckle 177, No. 4, 66-70.The Nuremberg TrialsA brief boldness at the Nuremberg Trials and some of the pile involved. It go upon the problems leading to the start of the trials including common chord of the doctors, three of the experiments performed on prisoners, and the judgment of three flock involved with carrying out the vulgar experiments. similarly include are three good deal who inflexible to commit suicide quite of facing certain death after going before a jury. The three people who committed suicide were also three of the biggest people involved in building the Nazi party in Germany and its surrounding areas.The Nuremberg Trials, a glimpse into the Nazis that committed crimes during WWII, exposes the lives destroyed, and the precedents set forth fro m this new kins psyche of crime, the war criminal. (Brown, 1995) The trials included 24 major political and military leaders who committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, (Congress, 2009) and did so without compunction or emotion for what their victims were going through. It was not until 1945 when the trials began that the overflowing extent of what was truly fetching note in the absorption camps and in the extermination camps (death camps) were revealed.The truth almost health check experiments, atrocities, crimes against humanity, and membership in a criminal organization were grounds for the Nuremberg trials to commence and would conk out the precedents for all war crimes that would follow. (Congress, 2009) War crimes are defined as violations of the laws in which a persons given rights are compromised. In broadest legal injury, a war crime is any act of violence by military personnel that exceeds the rules of war.To an extent, the absorption camps were guilty of all violations listed above and it was because of the crimes committed by the leaders in the camps that the Nuremberg trials became a prerequisite in order to make an illustration out of the people who committed the crimes. An argument that can be made some the Nuremberg trials is the fact that the crimes against humanity were made, but there was no precedent for war crimes before these trials started. It wasnt until after the trials that the term crimes against humanity and war crimes became standard in the place of law in all types of war entanglements.The International Military Tribunal (IMT) consisted of four allied powers including Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States and were responsible for the outcome of every person being tried in the Nuremberg trials. (Cowell, 1995) The endure contribution of Nuremberg was to make individuals responsible, for their genocidal contributions to the war. (Cowell, 1995) By the end of the Nuremberg trials in 194 6, there were 12 people convicted and sentenced to death, three were acquitted, and seven were sentenced to prison terms of 10 years to life.Unfortunately, Hitler, Goebbels, and Himmler committed suicide before they could be tried for the crimes they committed. Adolf Hitler was found the chancellor of the Nazi party in 1933 and oversaw the murder of over 17 million civilians with an estimated six million Jews in what is known as the Holocaust, but Hitler took his life just days before the allied stuffs took Germany by force. (Farmer, 2007) Paul Joseph Goebbels was one of Hitlers scalelike associates and took over the position of Chancellor of Germany for just one day after Hitler committed suicide.Goebbels committed suicide just a day before Germany was taken by allied forces. It was not until after Goebbels and his married woman took their six childrens lives that they finally took their own lives. (Reich, 2009) Heinrich Himmler was the head of the Gestapo and the organizer of t he mass murders of Jews in the extermination camps during Hitlers reign and took embitter to commit suicide after he was discovered wearing a hide and fell into British hands after escaping capture in Germany.These are just a few key people in the genocide that happened in Germany during WWII and they decided to commit suicide rather than be prosecuted for the lives they destroyed. A few of the people involved in the Nuremberg trials included Karl Brandt, Erhard Milch, and Oswald Pohl. Karl Brandt was the personal doctor to Adolf Hitler and the commissioner for health and sanitation and was also the foreman aesculapian official of the German disposal during WWII. Brandt contributed to the experiments being performed on the inmates in the concentration camps and was sentenced to death and executed.Erhard Milch was a member of the Central Planning Board and had full power over the schedule that controlled the occupation and development of materials by forced get during the war . He also assisted in the experiments being performed at the Dachau concentration camp in which game elevated railroad and halt experiments were conducted. (Congress, 2009) In the end, Milch was acquitted of the charges concerning medical experiments and found guilty of charges concerning slave labor, and sentenced to life in prison but was truncate to 15 years in 1951.Oswald Pohl was mind of the SS Wirtschafts und Verwaltungshauptamt (WVHA Economic and Administrative Main Office) which took the place of several offices including Budget and Buildings and the Inspector of ducking Camps. (College, 2003) In the end, Pohl received the death penalization for his involvement in the transportation of prisoners, murder, medical experiments, and his involvement in the mass executions of loosely Jews and other civilians.There were a twin of places in which the mass executions took place which included both concentration camps and extermination camps that were beaten(prenominal) with Hitler and the objectives he wanted to achieve during his reign during WWII. The camps included Auschwitz and Dachau which were places where experiments and death took place. Auschwitz was the place that mass murder became a daily scrap after an experimental sportsing was conducted in September of 1941 where 850 malnourished and ill prisoners entered gas chambers and never escaped the overrefinement they felt as they took their last breaths. Bulow, 2009) Dachau was some other concentration camp where prisoners were mis set and is more than known for the brutal experiments that took place than executions in mass quantities like in Auschwitz. Just a few experiments that took place at the Dachau concentration camp that were brought out more clearly in the Nuremberg trials included high altitude experiments, freezing experiments, and malaria experiments. (Congress, 2009) High altitude experiments were performed to test the limits of human endurance at high altitudes.The tests were performed in low wring chambers where the pressure of 68,000 feet could be duplicated and measures, many died from this procedure and others suffered grave injury and ill treatment. The freezing experiments involved placing the subject in a tank of ice water supply supply for up to three hours without cloths or the victims were fit(p) outside in freezing temperatures also without cloths to test the effects. After the victims were removed from the water or brought in from the cold, various methods of heating system the victims up were tried, but the outcome was both death or the victims suffered severe painful sensation and disability.The malaria experiment involved infecting healthy concentration camps with malaria bearing mosquitoes or by injecting the affection into victims from the mucous of the glands of mosquitoes. Most of the test subjects died or suffered from severe pain or disability. (Congress, 2009) In the end, the Nuremberg trials were justified because of the w ays in which the Nazis treated the prisoners they turned into victims through the use of force and through sheer neglect. No man or woman should ever be possessed of had to endure what the prisoners of war during WWII endured.It was unconscionable what happened derriere closed doors and the walls keeping the Nazis in control, but because of the Nuremberg trials, the truth came to be known about how relentless the Nazis were towards human life. A incertitude is always asked in history classes, wherefore does history need to be taught, and the event is always in order to lift repeating the mistakes from the past. This was one of the worst times in history, and this paper is just a short excerpt to all the fit associated with Hitlers ideals of the perfect world.Referenceshttp//www.auschwitz.dk/Auschwitz.htmhttp//www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Nuremberg_trials.htmlhttp//www.writing.upenn.edu/afilreis/Holocaust/nuremberg.htmlhttp//law.jrank.org/pages/2311/War-Crimes.html