On October 1, 1946, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg delivered its verdicts against 22 leading Nazi officials, marking a landmark moment in the prosecution of crimes committed by Nazi Germany during World War II.
A landmark post-war trial
The Nuremberg trial began on November 20, 1945, after the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union agreed to establish an International Military Tribunal.
The defendants faced charges including crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The proceedings lasted almost a year. The tribunal heard extensive evidence about Nazi Germany’s policies and actions during the war, including persecution, mass murder, deportation and other atrocities.
12 sentenced to death
The tribunal convicted 19 of the 22 defendants.
Twelve were sentenced to death by hanging, including Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Rosenberg and Julius Streicher.
Three defendants received life sentences, while four were given prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years. Three others were acquitted.
Göring, Hitler’s designated successor for part of the Nazi era and commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, was convicted on all four counts and sentenced to death.
Ribbentrop, Hitler’s foreign minister, was also convicted on all four counts and received the same sentence.
Göring never faced the gallows. He committed suicide by taking cyanide on October 15, 1946, hours before the scheduled executions. Ten other condemned defendants were hanged the following day.
A turning point in international justice
The Nuremberg verdicts 1946 established an important precedent by holding individual political and military leaders accountable before an international tribunal for crimes committed during wartime.
The tribunal also declared the leadership corps of the Nazi Party, the SS and SD, and the Gestapo to be criminal organisations.
The verdicts became a defining moment in the post-war effort to prosecute those responsible for Nazi Germany’s crimes and contributed to the development of international criminal law.
Also read: ON THIS DAY: Rockefeller becomes the world’s first billionaire (1916)
For more videos and updates, check out our YouTube channel
