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Nuremberg Trials Project

Author: Elizabeth Hoham

After D-Day...

After the war, some of those responsible for crimes committed during the Holocaust were brought to trial. Nuremberg, Germany, was chosen as a site for trials that took place in 1945 and 1946. Judges from the Allied powers -- Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States -- presided over the hearings of twenty-two major Nazi criminals.

Twelve prominent Nazis were sentenced to death. Most of the defendants admitted to the crimes of which they were accused, although most claimed that they were simply following the orders of a higher authority. Those individuals directly involved in the killing received the most severe sentences. Other people who played key roles in the Holocaust, including high-level government officials, and business executives who used concentration camp inmates as forced laborers, received short prison sentences or no penalty at all.

The Nazis' highest authority, the person most to blame for the Holocaust, was missing at the trials. Adolf Hitler had committed suicide in the final days of the war, as had several of his closest aides. Many more criminals were never tried. Some fled Germany to live abroad, including hundreds who came to the United States.

Trials of Nazis continued to take place both in Germany and many other countries. Simon Wiesenthal, a Nazi-hunter, located Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. Eichmann, who had helped plan and carry out the deportations of millions of Jews, was brought to trial in Israel. The testimony of hundreds of witnesses, many of them survivors, was followed all over the world. Eichmann was found guilty and executed in 1962

Key Moments in the Nuremberg Trials

Choose a Defendant

HERMANN GOERING

RUDOLF HESS

JOACHIM VON RIBBENTROP

WILHELM KEITEL

ERNST KALTENBRUNNER

ALFRED ROSENBERG

HANS FRANK

WILHELM FRICK

JULIUS STREICHER

WALTER FUNK

HJALMAR SCHACHT

KARL DOENITZ

ERICH RAEDER

BALDUR VON SCHIRACH

 

FRITZ SAUCKEL

ALFRED JODL

FRANZ VON PAPEN

ARTHUR SEYSS-INQUART

ALBERT SPEER

CONSTANTIN VON NEURATH (or Konstantin)

HANS FRITZSCHE

Download this file

This PDF gives you direction for the questions you will need to include in your brief (1 page) biography paper. It also includes a list of websites you can use to research your defendant.

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Write and Share your Biography

You will use Google Drive to write and share your biography page with me.

Title your paper with your last name and the name of your defendant.  It should be roughly one page, double spaced.  Include a works cited section at the end with the websites you have used.  For more information on how to create and share a document with Google, watch the video below.  For information on MLA citation style for your Works Cited section, check out https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/

Creating a sharing a document in Google Drive