Natalie
Pilgeram, of Mt. Spokane High School in Mead, WA received 2nd Place in the National History Day (national)
competition for her paper, "The Trial of the Century: A
Reaction to Nazi Atrocities Prompts Revolution and Reform in Principles of
International Law." Natalie interviewed Seattle-area Holocaust survivor Bob H.
for part of her research. Congratulations Natalie!
The research I carried out on
this topic not only brought me into contact with some wonderful people whom I
never would have met otherwise, but left me with an awareness of the varied
issues surrounding the Holocaust that I will always carry with me. I
never expected that this project would take me this far. Those hours and
days after I learned I had placed at nationals were an incredible whirlwind
experience that I still don’t think I have fully processed!
-Natalie Pilergeram
The following is the text from the first page of Natalie's essay.
The Trial of the Century: A Reaction to Nazi
Atrocities Prompts Revolution and Reform in Principles of International Law
In
November of 1945, Lena Kaplan of Minneapolis received a letter from her
husband: “Here we are on the eve of the opening of the second most important
trial in the history of the world (No. 1: the trial of Jesus Christ),” he
wrote. “Tomorrow morning the trial opens…and from that point on we’re in
the soup.”[1] The letter came from the bombed
out city of Nuremberg, Germany, and Lena Kaplan’s husband was a senior attorney
on the United States prosecutorial staff for Case Number One of the
International Military Tribunal (I.M.T) - the Nuremberg Trial. As a
historically unique reaction to the crimes of the Nazi regime, this trial
prompted reform in principles of international law and ultimately a revolution in
the way sovereign nations interact in the legal realm.
The
“soup” Kaplan referred to lasted from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946 and
tried twenty-two defendants, including one in absentia. Their crimes were
those that could not be restricted to any particular geographic location.
They fell under four counts: crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes
against humanity, and participation in the “common plan” or conspiracy to
commit those crimes.[2]
The Allies endeavored to handpick high-level defendants from every gear of the
National Socialist machine, creating a roster that would serve to establish the
criminality of the organizations represented (a key objective of the American
delegation especially). Of the defendants convicted in the end, twelve
were sentenced to hang. Three were fully acquitted. (see
Appendix I) Control Council Law No. 10, formalized in December of
1945, guided subsequent trials of lower level defendants carried out by
individual Allied nations (primarily the United States) in their respective
occupied zones.[3] These trials
explored the culpabilities of an eclectic assortment of defendants:
concentration camp leaders, medical experimenters, unjust Nazi judges, and even
industrialists who supplied Zyklon B to gas chambers.[4]
The
Palace of Justice in Nuremberg was selected as the seat of the I.M.T. largely
for symbolic reasons. The trial of the century would play out in the city
where the annual rallies of the Nazi Party had spurred the German people into a
militant nationalistic frenzy, the city that lent its name to the “Nuremberg
Decrees” that began the creeping policy of Jewish persecution.[5] The connection was clear.
Twenty-one countries prosecuted the Nazi officials (with France, the United
States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union actually sending representative
judges),[6] but chief American prosecutor Justice
Robert H. Jackson would argue in his opening address to the tribunal, “The real
complaining party at your bar is Civilization.”[7]
[1] Barrett, John
Q. "The Nuremberg Roles of Justice Robert H. Jackson." Washington
University Global Studies Law Review. 6. (2007): 512-513.
[3]
"Memorandum, Control Council Law No. 10: Punishment of Persons Guilty of
War Crimes, Crimes against Peace and against Humanity." 07 Jan 1946. 1-4. Harry
S. Truman Library and Museum. Web. 30 Mar 2012.
[4] And in April of
1946, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East opened the “Tokyo
War Crimes Trial” of twenty-eight Japanese military and civilian leaders.
With its eleven nation judgment team, two and a half year span, and fifty-five
counts, it was much more complex than the Nuremberg Trial. Its successful
impact from the Allied perspective was less obvious (four of the eleven judges
dissented), although it is still referenced as another landmark in the
development of international law.
[6] "Charter
of the International Military Tribunal." Nuremberg Trial Proceedings
1. The Avalon Project. Web. 9 Feb 2012.
.
[7] Jackson, Robert
H. "Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal." Nuremberg
Trial Proceedings 2. The Avalon Project. Web. 9 Feb 2012.
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