This week we observe the national Days of Remembrance, a time for remembering the victims of the Holocaust. In the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, the world was faced with the challenge of how to seek justice for criminal behavior on such an unimaginable scale. In 1945, the allied powers established an International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Germany, to indict and try surviving Nazis for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The first of a series of trials was the trial of 22 prominent Nazis, or major war criminals, who were charged with, among other things, the systematic murder of millions of people. Subsequent trials involved approximately 200 additional defendants, including concentration camp commandants, Nazi physicians who performed experiments on human subjects, and judges who upheld Nazi practices.
For more, check out the following web sites:
- Famous World Trials - Nuremberg Trials
- Harvard Law School Library Nuremberg Trials Project - Digital Documents Collection
- The Avalon Project - The Nuremberg Trials Collection
- Truman Presidential Museum & Library - The War Crimes Trials at Nuremberg
the following books from the library’s collection:
- Letters from Nuremberg: My Father’s Narrative of a Quest for Justice Christopher Dodd (2007)
- The Nuremberg Legacy: How the Nazi War Crimes Trials Changed the Course of History Norbert Ehrenfreund (2007)
- Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials: From Medical War Crimes to Informed Consent Paul Weindling (2004)
- Hitler’s Generals on Trial: The Last War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg Valerie Hebert (2010)
- The Nuremberg Interviews Leon Goldensohn (2004)
or these related films from the library’s collection:
- Music Box (description, trailer)
- The Man in the Glass Booth (description, trailer)
- Judgment at Nuremberg (description, trailer)
