Nuremberg Trials - Trial

Trial

The International Military Tribunal was opened on October 20, 1945, in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg. The first session was presided over by the Soviet judge, Nikitchenko. The prosecution entered indictments against 24 major war criminals and seven organizations – the leadership of the Nazi party, the Reich Cabinet, the Schutzstaffel (SS), Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the Gestapo, the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the "General Staff and High Command," comprising several categories of senior military officers. These organizations were to be declared "criminal" if found guilty.

The indictments were for:

  1. Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace
  2. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace
  3. War crimes
  4. Crimes against humanity

The 24 accused were, with respect to each charge, either indicted but acquitted (I), indicted and found guilty (G), or not charged (-), as listed below by defendant, charge, and eventual outcome:

Name
Count
 Penalty Notes
1 2 3 4

Martin Bormann		 I - G G Death Successor to Hess as Nazi Party Secretary. Sentenced to death in absentia. Remains found in Berlin in 1972 and dated to 1945.

Karl Dönitz		 I G G - 10 years Leader of the Kriegsmarine from 1943, succeeded Raeder. Initiator of the U-boat campaign. Briefly became President of Germany following Hitler's death. Convicted of carrying out unrestricted submarine warfare in breach of the 1936 Second London Naval Treaty, but was not punished for that charge because the United States committed the same breach. Defense attorney: Otto Kranzbühler

Hans Frank		 I - G G Death Reich Law Leader 1933–45 and Governor-General of the General Government in occupied Poland 1939–45. Expressed repentance.

Wilhelm Frick		 I G G G Death Hitler's Minister of the Interior 1933–43 and Reich Protector of Bohemia-Moravia 1943–45. Co-authored the Nuremberg Race Laws.

Hans Fritzsche		 I I I - Acquitted Popular radio commentator; head of the news division of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry. Released early in 1950.

Walther Funk		 I G G G Life Imprisonment Hitler's Minister of Economics; succeeded Schacht as head of the Reichsbank. Released because of ill health on 16 May 1957. Died 31 May 1960.

Hermann Göring 		G G G G Death Reichsmarschall, Commander of the Luftwaffe 1935–45, Chief of the 4-Year Plan 1936–45, and original head of the Gestapo before turning it over to the SS in April 1934. Originally Hitler's designated successor and the second highest ranking Nazi official, he fell out of favor with Hitler in April 1945. Committed suicide the night before his execution.
Rudolf Hess G G I I Life Imprisonment Hitler's Deputy Führer until he flew to Scotland in 1941 in an attempt to broker peace with Great Britain. After trial, incarcerated at Spandau Prison where he allegedly committed suicide in 1987.

Alfred Jodl 		G G G G Death Wehrmacht Generaloberst, Keitel's subordinate and Chief of the OKW's Operations Division 1938–45.

Ernst Kaltenbrunner 		I - G G Death Highest surviving SS-leader. Chief of RSHA 1943–45, the Nazi organ made up of the intelligence service (SD), Secret State Police (Gestapo), Criminal Police (Kripo) and had overall command over the Einsatzgruppen.

Wilhelm Keitel 		G G G G Death Head of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) 1938–45. Known for his unquestioning loyalty to Hitler. Expressed regrets.
Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach I I I ---- Major Nazi industrialist. C.E.O. of Krupp A.G. 1912–45. Medically unfit for trial (died January 16, 1950). Due to an error, Gustav instead of his son Alfried (who ran Krupp for his father during most of the war) was selected for indictment. The prosecutors attempted to substitute his son in the indictment, but the judges rejected this as being too close to trial. Alfried was tried in a separate Nuremberg trial (the Krupp Trial) for his use of slave labor, thus escaping the worst notoriety and possibly death.

Robert Ley 		I I I I ---- Head of DAF, The German Labour Front. Suicide on 25 October 1945, before the trial began. Indicted but neither acquitted nor found guilty as trial did not proceed.

Baron Konstantin von Neurath 		G G G G 15 years Minister of Foreign Affairs 1932–38, succeeded by Ribbentrop. Later, Protector of Bohemia and Moravia 1939–43. On furlough since 1941, he resigned in 1943 because of a dispute with Hitler. Released (ill health) 6 November 1954 after having a heart attack. Died 14 August 1956.

Franz von Papen 		I I - - Acquitted Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and Vice-Chancellor under Hitler in 1933–34. Ambassador to Austria 1934–38 and ambassador to Turkey 1939–44. Although acquitted at Nuremberg, von Papen was reclassified as a war criminal in 1947 by a German de-Nazification court, and sentenced to eight years' hard labour. He was acquitted following appeal after serving two years.

Erich Raeder 		G G G - Life Imprisonment Commander In Chief of the Kriegsmarine from 1928 until his retirement in 1943, succeeded by Dönitz. Released (ill health) 26 September 1955. Died 6 November 1960.

Joachim von Ribbentrop 		G G G G Death Ambassador-Plenipotentiary 1935–36. Ambassador to the United Kingdom 1936–38. Minister of Foreign Affairs 1938–45.

Alfred Rosenberg 		G G G G Death Racial theory ideologist. Later, Minister of the Eastern Occupied Territories 1941–45.

Fritz Sauckel 		I I G G Death Gauleiter of Thuringia 1927–45. Plenipotentiary of the Nazi slave labor program 1942–45. Defense attorney: Robert Servatius

Dr. Hjalmar Schacht 		I I - - Acquitted Prominent banker and economist. Pre-war president of the Reichsbank 1923–30 & 1933–38 and Economics Minister 1934–37. Had been imprisoned in a KZ in 1944. Admitted to violating the Treaty of Versailles. Many at Nuremberg alleged that the British had brought about Schacht's acquittal to safeguard German industrialists and financiers; Francis Biddle revealed Geoffrey Lawrence had argued that Schacht, being a "man of character", was nothing like the other "ruffians" on trial.

Baldur von Schirach 		I - - G 20 years Head of the Hitlerjugend from 1933–40, Gauleiter of Vienna 1940–45. Expressed repentance.

Arthur Seyss-Inquart 		I G G G Death Instrumental in the Anschluss and briefly Austrian Chancellor 1938. Deputy to Frank in Poland 1939–40. Later, Reich Commissioner of the occupied Netherlands 1940–45. Expressed repentance.

Albert Speer 		I I G G 20 Years Hitler's friend, favorite architect, and Minister of Armaments from 1942 until the end of the war. In this capacity, he was ultimately responsible for the use of slave laborers from the occupied territories in armaments production. Expressed repentance. Late in the war, discreetly undermined Hitler's scorched earth edicts.

Julius Streicher 		I - - G Death Gauleiter of Franconia 1922–40, when he was relieved of authority but allowed by Hitler to keep his official title. Publisher of the anti-semitic weekly newspaper, Der Stürmer.

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