The release of the film “Nuremberg” on November 7, 2025 coincides with the 80th anniversary of this historic trial which took place from November 1945 to October 1946. Its goal: to judge the 24 main Nazi dignitaries for their crimes committed.
On the occasion of the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, many events and artistic projects take place. One of the events of the end of the year will be the film ” Nuremberg “, Directed by James Vanderbilt, adapted from the book” The Nazi and the Psychiatrist “by Jack El-Hai. He explores the role of the psychiatrist Douglas Kelley in the Nuremberg trials and his interviews with the Nazi prisoners in order to determine their aptitude or not to be judged at the Nuremberg trial.
Why the Nuremberg trial?
November 1945! Europe is in ruins, Germany, exsangue, has capitulated in the wake of Hitler’s suicide. This is the moment that the Allies choose to judge the Nazi regime during a historic trial which is held in Nuremberg. This trial is held from November 20, 1945 to 1er October 1946 in the Nuremberg courthouse and aims to judge 24 main Nazi dignitaries accused of various crimes: Crimes against peace (for having launched an illegal war), war crimes (violation of the laws and customs of war), crimes against humanity (genocide, extermination, deportation, etc.), a new term that appears for the first time here; And plot to commit these crimes. Why Nuremberg? This is where this trial was held, the city where Hitler organized the annual congress of the Nazi party, Nuremberg becoming the representative city of Nazi ideology.
This trial opened up under the leadership of the leaders of the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union who published a declaration taking note of the massacre of European Jews with the aim of judging the officials. This is how an international military court was created by the allies. For Cordell Hull, former Secretary of State of the United States: “ A condemnation after such a procedure will be in accordance with the judgment of the story so that the Germans will not be able to claim that an admission of guilt in the war was torn under the constraint. ». In this trial, the Americans in particular emphasized two counts: the “concerted plan or conspiracy” which commands “crimes against peace” and “war crimes”.
How did the trial go?
With the support of 800 documents and more than 30 witnesses including the poet Abraham Sutzkever, this trial returns in particular to the origins of the final solution. As early as 1933, policies to discriminate against Jews residing in Germany were implemented such as the promulgation, on February 28, 1933 of an emergency decree which abolished fundamental rights (freedom of expression, freedom of the press and meeting and authorized arbitrary arrests), but also by isolating them within the company by the establishment of ghettos in which the Jews were living in conditions, miserable.
However, during 1941, the main leaders of the Nazi regime, namely Goring (Marshal of the Reich and Minister of Air), Himmler (head of the SS and the police), Heydrich (director of the Central Security Office of the Reich) and Hitler organize what is called the “final solution”, aiming to exterminate all Jews in Europe. This “final solution” will be organized around the Wannssee conference which coordinates the deportation of European Jews and the role of SS in the process of extermination of Jews. Many evidence testifying to the atrocity of the abuse suffered in the camps have greatly marked this trial, such as The testimony of Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturiersurvivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau: ” By telling the sufferings of those who could no longer speak, I had the feeling that, by my mouth, those they had tortured, exterminated, accused their executioners.“”
What verdict for the Nuremberg trial?
All the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis more broadly designates the genocide they have set up, aimed at exterminating “” a nation, ethnicity or a religious group“. This resulted in the implementation of concentration camps and then extermination with in particular the installation of gas chambers, forced labor.
At the end of the trial, 19 of the Nazi criminals were found guilty of which 12 are sentenced to death, 3 to life imprisonment and 4 to prison sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years, 3 are acquitted. What frustrates in this trial is notably the absence of the furher, which committed suicide in Berlin.
The term “crime against humanity” therefore appears for the first time during the trial. He is part of article 6 of the Nuremberg court charter and designates ” The assassination, extermination, reduction in slavery, deportation, and any other inhuman act committed against all civilian populations, before or during the war, or the persecution for political, racial or religious reasons, when these acts or persecution, whether or not they have constituted a violation of the internal law in the country where they were perpetrated, were committed as a result of any connection with this crime. ».
The Nuremberg trial is symbolic to more than one point because it opens a new page in history where the world intends to judge those who flout international law.
