Subsequent Nuremberg trials

In contrast to the International Military Tribunal, which was held in Nuremberg under the jurisdiction of the four victorious powers, Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States of America, the twelve subsequent Nuremberg trials lay solely in the hands of the American occupiers. The twelve trials took place before American military courts in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice between 1946 and 1949. The aim was to serve justice on leading perpetrators who had not been indicted before the International Military Tribunal.

The basis of the indictment brought by the main prosecutor, Brigadier General Telford Taylor, for the United States, was Control Council Law No. 10, which defined crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and membership in criminal organizations; this had been passed by the Allied Control Council on December 20, 1945 and was based on the London Agreement of August 8, 1945. The offenses defined in Control Council Law No. 10 were punishable under both national and international law.
The trials proceeded in an exceptionally structured manner in order to convict as many state and society offenders as the authorities were able to apprehend. Charges were brought against 185 persons who had committed crimes in their capacity as leading doctors and lawyers, members of the SS or police force, industrialists, company executives, military officers, ministerial bureaucrats, or members of the government.

The fact that 35 defendants were acquitted while 24 were sentenced to death indicates that differentiated assessments were made of each individual’s guilt. 20 defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment, 98 were given shorter prison sentences. Many of those sentenced to life imprisonment or several years in prison were subsequently granted clemency. Twelve of the 24 death sentences were executed, eleven commuted to prison sentences, and one convict extradited to Belgium, where he died in prison. Despite certain staffing and financial difficulties, the Americans conducted the trials in the most meticulous manner. The evidence assembled at the time has served as a treasure trove for historians all over the world researching the Nazi dictatorship. As in other proceedings, the sooner the judgments were handed down, and the closer the defendants were to the crime, the more severe were the sentences. In the doctors’ trial, for example, which began in 1946, 7 of the 23 defendants were sentenced to death. The proceedings against the Foreign Office, in which 21 defendants were tried, ended in 1949 with 19 prison sentences and two acquittals. During the early post-war period, the Germans mostly criticized the trials and condemned them wholesale as ‘victor’s justice’. However, more attention is now paid to their lasting merits: the exemplary records and the fair conduct of the trials under Anglo-American law. It is equally apparent that the Americans gave clemency precedence over justice when sentencing many of the perpetrators who had committed the worst crimes.

Overview of the subsequent trials:
Case I: Doctors’ trial, December 9, 1946-August 20, 1947;
Case II: Milch trial (General Field Marshal Erhard Milch), January 2, 1947-April 17, 1947;
Case III: Justice trial, February 17-December 14, 1947;
Case IV: Trial of SS Main Economic and Administrative Office, January 13-November 3, 1947;
Case V: Flick trial, April 18-December 22, 1947;
Case VI: IG Farben trial, August 14, 1947-July 30, 1948;
Case VII: Trial of generals deployed in southeastern Europe, July 15, 1947-February 19, 1948;
Case VIII: Trial of the SS Race and Settlement Office,  July 1, 1947-March 10, 1948;
Case IX: Mobile killing unittrial, September 15, 1947-April 10, 1948;
Case X Krupp trial, December 8, 1947-July 31, 1948:
Case XI: Wilhelmstrasse trial (Foreign Office), 4.11.1947-13.4.1949;
Case XII: Trial of Wehrmacht High Command,
December 30, 1947-April 14, 1949 .