Type of Submission
Podium Presentation
Keywords
Nuremberg, Second World War, war crimes, military tribunal
Abstract
The Second World War wreaked a measure of destruction unseen in human history. An unprecedented number of people died or were killed during the conflict across the European and Pacific theatres of war. Fighting waged for the better part of a decade, claiming nearly one hundred million lives, soldiers and civilians combined. American, British, and Russian forces finally surrounded Berlin in April 1945. Adolf Hitler, the cunning, vengeful, ideologically-driven leader who plunged the world in war, took a cyanide tablet and shot himself in his underground bunker only a week before Germany finally surrendered. The fighting in Europe finally ended in May 1945, signaling an end to the bloodshed (Japan would surrender in August of the same year). The surrender of Germany, however, did not conclude the work of the Allies in Germany. An equally daunting task now faced the leaders of the free world: the trial of Nazi war criminals. While the Allies conducted numerous war trials in the years following, the most famous remains the Nuremberg Trial, conducted by the International Military Tribunal from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946. The trial represented an unprecedented in law and changed the face of international law for all time. Although the trials inevitably allowed many criminals to evade punishment, the circumstances surrounding the trial, its unprecedented nature, and the conviction of major war criminals proved equally important for the legacy of Nuremberg Trials in the years to come.
Campus Venue
Stevens Student Center, Room 240
Location
Cedarville, OH
Start Date
4-11-2018 1:30 PM
End Date
4-11-2018 2:00 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
The Nuremberg Trials: A Troubled Legacy
Cedarville, OH
The Second World War wreaked a measure of destruction unseen in human history. An unprecedented number of people died or were killed during the conflict across the European and Pacific theatres of war. Fighting waged for the better part of a decade, claiming nearly one hundred million lives, soldiers and civilians combined. American, British, and Russian forces finally surrounded Berlin in April 1945. Adolf Hitler, the cunning, vengeful, ideologically-driven leader who plunged the world in war, took a cyanide tablet and shot himself in his underground bunker only a week before Germany finally surrendered. The fighting in Europe finally ended in May 1945, signaling an end to the bloodshed (Japan would surrender in August of the same year). The surrender of Germany, however, did not conclude the work of the Allies in Germany. An equally daunting task now faced the leaders of the free world: the trial of Nazi war criminals. While the Allies conducted numerous war trials in the years following, the most famous remains the Nuremberg Trial, conducted by the International Military Tribunal from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946. The trial represented an unprecedented in law and changed the face of international law for all time. Although the trials inevitably allowed many criminals to evade punishment, the circumstances surrounding the trial, its unprecedented nature, and the conviction of major war criminals proved equally important for the legacy of Nuremberg Trials in the years to come.
