© HarperCollins Publishers 2010

Significance

What happened in Nuremberg?

© HarperCollins Publishers 2010

Significance

Objectives

In this activity you will:

Discover what happened to leading Nazis after World

War Two.

Assess why Nuremburg is relevant today.

© HarperCollins Publishers 2010

Significance

What is going on in the photograph?

Who do you think the people are?

© HarperCollins Publishers 2010

Significance

What happened at Nuremburg?

At the end of the war, the Allies met to plan what should happen

next. One issue to resolve was how to treat war criminals.

They decided to set up an International Criminal Court in

Nuremburg. Nuremburg was chosen because the Court Buildings

were large enough and relatively undamaged by Allied bombing.

There was also a large prison to hold the defendants.

Nuremburg was the site of the annual Nazi Party rallies and so

symbolically a good place to bring Nazism to an end.

© HarperCollins Publishers 2010

Significance

What happened at Nuremburg?

There were trials between 1945-49. First were the major war

criminals, and then others followed, such as members of the

extermination squads and doctors from the Death Camps.

Not all Nazi leaders were tried. Some, for example Hitler,

committed suicide in the final days of the war. Others were

killed, and some escaped.

© HarperCollins Publishers 2010

Significance

What happened at Nuremburg?

Former Nazis were charged with one or more of four crimes:

1. Conspiring to wage war.

2. Planning and waging wars of aggression and committing other

crimes against peace.

3. Crimes against humanity (including the newly defined crime of

genocide).

4. War crimes (abuse and murder of prisoners, use of slave labour

and killing of civilians).

© HarperCollins Publishers 2010

Significance

To get you thinking…

What do you think should have happened to former

Nazis at the end of World War Two? Why?

Should these people have been dealt with by their own

country rather than an International Court of Justice?

Can there ever be ‘rules’ in warfare?

© HarperCollins Publishers 2010

Significance

Escaping justice?

Some of the Nazis who were not tried included some Germans who

were protected by the Allies because of their scientific knowledge.

One example was Werner von Braun. He worked on developing the

V2 rockets that were used to attack Britain from September 1944.

Over 5000 were launched at London, with 2,700 people being killed

and 6,000 injured as a consequence. At the end of the war he

surrendered to US forces.

He and forty other rocket scientists were then moved to the USA

where they began new lives and worked on developing ballistic

missiles. Braun also worked on the space program, developing the

Saturn rocket that took men to the moon in 1969.

© HarperCollins Publishers 2010

Significance

By committing suicide, did Hitler ‘escape justice’?

Were the British and Americans right to ‘protect’ such

people as Werner von Braun? Why/why not?

Be prepared to share your views.

To get you thinking…

© HarperCollins Publishers 2010

Significance

In what ways is Nuremburg significant?

Of those convicted, eleven people were sentenced

to death. The rest were sentenced to imprisonment.

Nuremburg is seen as significant because it set a

precedent for future conflicts.

The International Court of Justice at The Hague is

its modern descendent.