Nuremberg Military Tribunals

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After the four-power International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg), a series of twelve Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT) were conducted by the United States, sometimes with British and French assistance, but never again as a four-power process. The legal basis for these "subsequent proceedings" was Allied Control Commission Law 10, which empowered "the commanding officers of the four allied zones of occupation to conduct criminal trials on charges of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity and membership of an organisation aiming at such crimes."[1]

President Harry Truman created six tribunals, which conducted twelve trials between 26 October 1946 to 14 April 1949. The prosecutorial function was under the Office of the United States Goverment for Germany (OMGUS), under Telford Taylor, United States Chief of Counsel for War Crimes. While Taylor was a brigadier general in the United States Army, the trials were conducted by American civilian judges.

Medical Case

Case No. 1, United States against Karl Brandt, et al., dealt with 24 defendants accused of performing medical experiments on concentration camp inmates and other living human subjects

Milch Case

Case No. 2, United States against Erhard Milch charged senior Luftwaffe commanders with the exploitation of slave labour and carrying out medical experiments on concentration camp

Justice Case

Case No. 3, United States against Josef Altstoetter, et al., which charged sixteen defendants with abuse of the judicial process and the administration of justice

Pohl Case

Case No. 4, United States against Oswald Pohl, et al., accused eighteen members of the WVHA with operating concentration camps or economic enterprises of the SS, using slave labor

Flick Case

Case No. 5, United States against Friedrich Flick, et al. was against charged six defendants indicted for criminal conduct in relation to slave labor, the spoliation of property in occupied France and the USSR, and the "Aryanisation" of Jewish industrial and mining properties ·

I. G. Farben Case

Case No. 6, United States against Carl Krauch, et al. , tried 24 executives of the industrial firm, I.G. Farben with spoliation of property in occupied countries and participation in a slave labor program

Hostages Case

Case No. 7, charged twelve generals assigned to southeast Europe with criminal disregard of the rules of warfare for of hostages and civilians

RuSHA Case

Case No. 8, United States against Ulrich Greifelt, et al was the trial of the fourteen officials in the Race and Settlement Office (RuSHA) of the SS with carrying out systematic programmes of genocide ·

Einsatzgruppen Case

Case No. 9, United States against Otto Ohlendorf, et al., charged twenty-three officers of the SS in charge of Einsatzgruppen, or field killing units that murdered 2,000,000 people outside the camp structure

Krupp Case

Case No. 10, United States against Alfred Krupp, et al., tried charged 12 executives of Krupp Industries with using slave labour and spoliation

Ministries Case

Case No. 11, United States against Ernst von Weizsaecker et al. dealt with twenty-one defendants indicted for playing an important part in the political and diplomatic preparation for war, violation of international treaties, economic spoliation and diplomatic implementation of the extermination

High Command Case

Case No. 12, United States against Wilhelm von Leeb, et al. was against 14 military officers in senior command or staff positions in the German Armed Forces.

References

  1. Papers of the International Military Tribunal and the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, ArchivesHub, a national gateway to descriptions of archives in UK universities and colleges, University of Southampton Libraries Special Collections Reference: GB 0738 MS 200