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The Nuremberg Trials and Denazification
The Allies agreed that Germany should never again have the opportunity
to destroy European peace as it had in the two world wars. A principal
aim of the Allies was to prevent the resurgence of a powerful and aggressive
Germany. As a first step toward demilitarizing, denazifying, and democratizing
Germany, the Allies established an international military tribunal in
August 1945 to jointly try individuals considered responsible for the
outbreak of the war and for crimes committed by the Hitler regime. Nuremberg,
the city where the most elaborate political rallies of the Hitler regime
had been staged, was chosen as the location for the trials, which began
in November 1945.
On trial were twenty-two men seen as principally responsible for the
National Socialist regime, its administration, and the direction of the
German armed forces, the Wehrmacht. Among the defendants accused of conspiracy,
crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes were Hermann
Goering, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Rudolf Hess, and Albert
Speer. Although many Germans considered the accusation of conspiracy to
be on questionable legal grounds, the accusers were successful in unveiling
the background of developments that had led to the outbreak of World War
II, as well as the extent of the atrocities committed in the name of the
Hitler regime. Twelve of the accused were sentenced to death, seven received
prison sentences, and three were acquitted.
The trials received wide publicity in Germany and throughout the world.
Although many Germans maintained that it would have been better if the
defendants had faced a German tribunal rather than one imposed by the
war's foreign victors, they agreed that the trials made public much information
about the mass murders and other crimes that otherwise might not have
come to light. The German people and the rest of the world reacted with
horror and dismay to the revelations. The trials of these more prominent
figures of the Hitler regime were followed by the trials of thousands
of lesser offenders.
The Allies did not seek merely to punish the leadership of the National
Socialist regime, but to purge all elements of national socialism from
public life. One phase of the denazification process dealt with lower-level
personnel connected with the Nazi regime. Their pasts were reviewed to
determine if the parts they had played in the regime were sufficiently
grievous to warrant their exclusion from roles in a new Germany's politics
or government. Germans with experience in government and not involved
in the Nazi regime were needed to cooperate with occupation authorities
in the administration of the zones.
The process of denazification was carried out diversely in the various
zones. The most elaborate procedures were instituted in the United States
zone, where investigated individuals were required to complete highly
detailed questionnaires concerning their personal histories and to appear
at hearings before panels of German adjudicators. In the British and French
zones, denazification was pursued with less vigor because the authorities
thought it more important to reestablish a functioning bureaucracy in
their sectors.
Denazification was most rigorous in the Soviet sector. Civil servants,
teachers, and legal officials with significant Nazi pasts were thoroughly
purged. Denazification was also used as an instrument for seizing the
resources of the so-called "class enemy": former Nazis who owned factories
or estates were denounced and their property confiscated. After participating
in the social transformation, some former Nazis were pardoned and even
gained high positions within the new communist ruling class.
The denazification process mandated that simpler cases involving lesser
offenders be tried before more complicated cases involving officials higher
up in the Nazi regime. With time, however, prosecution became less severe,
and the United States came to be more concerned with the Cold War. When
denazification ended in March 1948, the more serious cases had not yet
been tried. As a result, numerous former Nazi functionaries escaped justice,
much to the regret of many Germans.
- Postwar Occupation and Division
- The Establishment
of Occupation Zones
- The Nuremberg
Trials and Denazification
- Political Parties
and Democratization
- The Creation of the Bizone
- The Birth of the Federal Republic
of Germany
- The Birth of the German Democratic
Republic
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