atkinsonms04

                     The Nuremberg Trials are a series of trials most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, from 1945 to 1949, at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice. The first and best known of these trials was the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT), which tried 24 of the most important captured leaders of Nazi Germany. It was held from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946.   The Soviet Union had wanted the trials to take place in Berlin, but Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the trials for specific reasons:  ·        It was located in the American/French zone (at this time, Germany was divided into four zones).  ·        The Palace of Justice was spacious and largely undamaged (one of the few that had remained largely intact through extensive Allied bombing of Germany). A large prison was also part of the complex.  ·        Because Nuremberg had been appointed "City of the party rallies", there was symbolic value in making it the place of the Nazi party's demise.   

  Did you ever why only 24 men would be tried for Crimes? Well thats not complety true. Although most Americans are familiar with the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, at which 22 top-level German war criminals were prosecuted after World War II ended, few people today are aware that there were many other Military Tribunal proceedings going on simultaneously in a building inside the former Dachau concentration camp complex. The "Dachau trials" were conducted by the American military specifically to punish the administrators and guards at the concentration camps that were liberated by American soldiers and to educate the public about the unbelievable crimes committed in these horror camps. Between November 1945 and August 1948, there were 489 cases brought before the American Military Tribunal at Dachau. There was a total of 1,672 persons who were tried; 1,416 of them were convicted and then sent to War Criminals Prison  at Landsberg am Lech for execution or incarceration. There were 297 death sentences, and 279 sentences to life in prison.