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| Nuremberg trials expose old wounds
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The judges at the Nuremberg trial
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Sixty years on, the legacy of the Nuremberg Trials is the subject of a heated debate between World War II's vanquished Germans and the US victors.
Germany today marks the anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials with a series of events, culminating in a speech by Philippe Kirsch, the president of the UN's new International Criminal Court (ICC).
The German organisers have chosen to highlight the ICC as the rightful
successor to the Nuremberg tribunal, and advance its cause in the face of US
resistance.
Nuremberg Mayor Ulrich Maly told AFP the 60th anniversary commemoration
events had been organised as a reminder, also to the Americans, of the era's
call for international mechanisms of justice.
"We should not lose sight of the role of the United States in the Nuremberg
Trials. We know we were liberated by the Americans," he said.
"But we want to emphasise the significance of the Nuremberg Trials for a
global form of justice and draw the link to today, which includes the problem
that the United States does not recognise the International Criminal Court in
the way one would hope.
"I think a discussion on that issue must take place."
Key milestone
The trailblazing role of Nuremberg is at the forefront of the effort.
"The Nuremberg Trials were a key milestone in the history of humanity,"
said local Jewish community leader Arno Hamburger, who served as an
interpreter at the trials.
"For the first time in history, state leaders could not hide behind their
immunity."
After the suicide of Hitler and his propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels in
April 1945, the number two and three appointed successors – Hermann Goering
and Rudolf Hess – and a host of other Nazi leaders were left to face the
world's judgment.
All the defendants pleaded "not guilty" but the prosecution presented an
overwhelming body of evidence, including films featuring heaps of corpses at
extermination camps.
Justice or politics?
"This was seen by many Germans as justice at the hands of the victors,"
Nuremberg-based historian Reinhard Doerries said.
"But if you've walked through Dachau or Bergen-Belsen [concentration
camps], that issue seems 1,000 miles away."
In October 1946, three of the defendants were acquitted, four sentenced to
lengthy prison sentences, three jailed for life and 12 sentenced to death,
including Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann in absentia. Goering cheated the
gallows by swallowing a cyanide caplet the day of his execution.
The verdicts gave birth to the Nuremberg Principles defining what
constituted a war crime, and the wish to create a standing international
criminal court.
Six decades later, the Hague-based ICC is the first permanent court
mandated to try genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It began
operating in July 2002 and 100 countries have ratified its charter.
President George W. Bush withdrew US support for the tribunal, citing fears
the ICC could become a forum for politically motivated prosecutions of US
citizens, particularly its troops or diplomats serving abroad.
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