Topic The Nuremberg Trials Aim How were the

Topic: The Nuremberg Trials Aim: How were the Nazi’s held accountable for war crimes after the end of the War? Do Now: What should be done with the losers of a war if they’ve committed war crimes?

What is the purpose of public trials/executions?

Sadaam Hussein – former dictator of Iraq

Muammar Gaddafi Former Prime Minister of Libya

• Berlin falls to Soviet forces, signaling the end of the European war

Joseph Goebbels: • Minister of Propaganda for the Nazi Party • One of Hitler’s closest associates

The Goebbels Family: • Joseph, Magda, and their 6 children joined Hitler in his bunker during the Battle of Berlin • Children were poisoned by their mother • Both parents then committed suicide

Eva Braun & Hitler: • Longtime girlfriend and briefly the wife of Hitler • Married and committed suicide with Hitler within 40 hours of each other • Public unaware of her existence until after her death

Eva Braun

Ratlines: Adolph Eichmann • Systems of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe at the end of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward safe havens in South America. Other destinations may have included the United States, Canada and the Middle East.

“By the judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal, October 1, 1946, it was established that the highest officials of a government are answerable before the bar of international courts for committing war crimes, crimes against peace, and—in connection with either of these—crimes against humanity. ” Harry S. Truman Address at the Laying of the Cornerstone of the New U. S. Courts Building for the District of Columbia June 27, 1950 #147 Truman Library

The Nuremberg Trials: • Public trials held in Nuremberg, Germany, to hold all Nazi’s accountable for ‘crimes against humanity’ • Many former Nazi’s were found guilty and punished.

Lunch for a Prisoner

Nuremberg Bench • This is a photo of the Nurember g judges.

Nuremberg Jail

The Nuremberg Defense: • Coined during the Nazi war crimes trials at Nuremberg after World War II. • Nazi war criminals who were charged with genocide, mass murder, torture and other atrocities used the defense "I was only following orders" so frequently that the argument became known generically as "The Nuremberg Defense".

Ex-Nazi on Trial in Germany Admits Complicity By VICTOR HOMOLAJULY 1, 2015 (New York Times) Oskar Gröning, 94, acknowledged his complicity in the Holocaust for his work at the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he collected money from arriving prisoners

The Milgram Experiment (1963) Social Experiment that measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. “Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority. ”---Stanley Milgram

The “Banality of Evil” • Phrase coined by Hannah Arendt and incorporated in the title of her 1963 work Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. • Idea that the great evils in history are not executed by fanatics or sociopaths but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal.

---Him Huy, head of guard detail at Tuol Sleng (S-21) death camp where he personally oversaw the deaths of 14, 000 individuals. Huy, now 50, lives in a small village in Cambodia where he lives alongside former victims. “I’m not a bad person. I’m a good man. I never argue with anyone. I never fight with anyone. I have good intentions as a human being…” “We were all prisoners, those who killed and those who were killed. We were victims too. I had no choice. If I hadn’t killed them [Cambodian citizens], I would have been killed myself. ”

Himmler: Hitler’s second in command, and leader of the Nazi SS (elite branch of military) and the Gestapo (Nazi secret police)

Himmer’s Body after taking Cyanide while on trial at Nurember g