The International Military Tribunal opened the trial of 24 chief Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg on November 20, 1945, bringing leader Hermann Göring and senior officials of Nazi Germany to justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Soviet delegation, led by Prosecutor General Konstantin Gorshenin and First Deputy People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs Andrei Vyshinsky, arrived after facing severe travel obstacles. Low cloud cover over Eastern Europe prevented their aircraft from crossing the Tatras, forcing the team to fly to Prague and travel onward by car under armed guard through the Sudetenland.
Soviet prosecutors joined legal representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, and France at the Palace of Justice to present formal charges against the surviving leadership of the Third Reich.
Allied Evidence and Investigation
Discussions regarding an international criminal tribunal originated after World War I, when Allied negotiators debated prosecuting German Kaiser Wilhelm II, who subsequently fled to the Netherlands. Soviet legal official Mark Raginsky noted that Soviet prosecutors began gathering evidence of Wehrmacht atrocities during the defensive retreat of the Red Army in the summer of 1941.
The People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on January 6, 1942, confirming the systematic recording of war crimes. On November 2, 1942, the Soviet Union established the Extraordinary State Commission for Ascertaining and Investigating Crimes of the German-Fascist Invaders, which examined 54,000 official acts and over 250,000 witness testimonies establishing systemic atrocities against civilians and prisoners of war.
Soviet authorities conducted early domestic war crimes trials in cities including Kharkov, Krasnodar, and Smolensk prior to the international proceedings in Bavaria. Nuremberg was selected as the trial site because Nazi Germany had enacted its racial laws there, and architect Albert Speer had constructed a giant stadium for party rallies.
On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union, United States, United Kingdom, and France signed an intergovernmental agreement in London establishing the tribunal based on the 1907 Hague Conference and 1929 Geneva Conventions. Chief prosecutors Roman Rudenko of the Soviet Union, Hartley Shawcross of Britain, Robert Jackson of the United States, and François de Menthon of France signed the indictment in Berlin on October 6, 1945.
In Moscow, legal teams prepared extensive documentation under colonel of justice Yury Pokrovsky. Specific prosecution duties were divided among senior Soviet legal officials:
- Yury Pokrovsky presented charges regarding aggression against Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia, as well as crimes against prisoners of war.
- Nikolai Zorya managed sections covering aggression against the Soviet Union, forced labor, and forced deportations.
- Mark Raginsky directed prosecution on the destruction and plunder of cultural and scientific treasures, as well as the destruction of towns and villages.
- Lev Smirnov handled charges relating to crimes against civilian populations and humanity.
- Lev Sheinin presented evidence on the plunder of state, private, and public property.
The prosecution examined more than 100,000 captured German documents, selecting roughly 10,000 for detailed review, alongside captured film footage and 25,000 photographs from Hitler's personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann. Soviet writer Leonid Leonov recalled viewing photographs of human skulls in a Nazi laboratory, hunters shooting a fleeing naked woman, and young Jewish women disrobing before execution, noting that he stared directly at defendant Rudolf Hess in court.
Courtroom Logistics and Defense Arguments
The tribunal held preliminary meetings at the Control Council building in Berlin, adopting rules of procedure and selecting Lord Chief Justice of England Sir Geoffrey Lawrence as tribunal president. Soviet judges Major General of Justice Iona Nikitchenko and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Volchkov wore military uniforms, while Allied judges wore judicial robes.
The 24 indicted defendants included Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Robert Ley, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Walter Funk, Hjalmar Schacht, Gustav Krupp, Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Martin Bormann, Franz von Papen, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Albert Speer, Konstantin von Neurath, and Hans Fritzsche.
Erich Raeder and Hans Fritzsche were captured by Soviet forces, whereas Göring and Speer surrendered to United States military authorities. Before the trial opened, Robert Ley committed suicide in his cell, an act that Göring claimed avoided a public spectacle.
Allied leaders had previously debated how to handle Nazi figures, with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull advocating execution without trial, whereas the Soviet Union insisted on an open international tribunal. The indictment was published simultaneously in London, Moscow, Washington, and Paris on October 18, 1945.
Defendants were housed on the ground floor of Nuremberg Prison under strict security managed by United States forces, with shatterproof windows and utensils designed to prevent suicide. Secondary figures, including Heinz Guderian, Erich von Manstein, Albert Kesselring, Walter Schellenberg, and Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, were held on the second floor to serve as witnesses.
Security commander Major Jack Teich stated that hundreds of guards were deployed throughout the Palace of Justice. Proceedings spanned 403 open court sessions, reviewing 143 written testimonies, over 5,000 document exhibits, and 1,809 written statements submitted by defense witnesses for accused organizations.
During the proceedings, military commanders such as Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel attempted to shift responsibility onto Adolf Hitler and the Schutzstaffel, claiming Wehrmacht officers were innocent. Soviet prosecutor Nikolai Zorya argued that fascism and forced labor were inseparable, while Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus testified for the prosecution on February 11 and 12, 1946, dismantling defense claims regarding the invasion of the Soviet Union.
Evidence of Economic Plunder and Atrocities
Evidence presented against Göring highlighted his Green Folder directives detailing plans to seize grain from Kuban, coal from Donbas, nickel from the Kola Peninsula, and Caucasian oil. Göring had also issued explicit orders to subordinates to kill opponents without fear of personal liability.
Alfred Rosenberg, appointed Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories in July 1941, had drafted plans to divide Soviet territory into administrative regions and signed the Aktion Heu order on June 14, 1944, to abduct 40,000 to 50,000 Soviet children aged 10 to 14 for forced Germanization. His specialized unit, Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, seized 7,000 crates of artwork from France, Poland, and Czechoslovakia by April 1941 before plundering Soviet cultural institutions.
General Alfred Jodl signed orders for the destruction of Leningrad and Moscow, having stated during a December 1941 meeting with Hitler that Soviet defenders could be executed by hanging or quartering. Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg reported from the courtroom that the tribunal represented the conscience of humanity against fascist aggression.
Verdicts, Executions, and Subsequent Trials
Defendants delivered final statements on August 31, 1946, with Göring denying knowledge of atrocities and Hess feigning mental illness. The tribunal began reading verdicts on September 30, 1946, acquitting Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen, and Hans Fritzsche, a decision against which the Soviet member formally dissented.
On October 1, 1946, tribunal president Sir Geoffrey Lawrence announced individual sentences. Twelve defendants were sentenced to death by hanging, including Martin Bormann in absentia, while seven received prison terms, including three life sentences. The tribunal declared the leadership corps of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, the Schutzstaffel, Gestapo, and Sicherheitsdienst to be criminal organizations, while declining to declare the Reich Cabinet or General Staff criminal as collective entities.
United States Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson stated that civilization could not afford to compromise with social forces that posed a continuing threat to humanity.
Following the rejection of clemency appeals on October 15, 1946, Göring committed suicide in his cell using potassium cyanide. Bavarian Prime Minister Wilhelm Hoegner and Nuremberg Chief Prosecutor Friedrich Leissner witnessed the official inspection of the cells prior to the executions.
At 12:55 AM on October 16, 1946, ten condemned war criminals were led to three gallows constructed in the prison gymnasium. Joachim von Ribbentrop was hanged first by United States Army Sergeant John C. Woods. The bodies of the executed men and Göring were photographed, cremated, and their ashes scattered from an aircraft, while surviving prisoners served sentences at Spandau Prison in West Berlin.
Subsequent proceedings conducted by United States military tribunals indicted 185 additional Nazi figures across 12 trials, trying 177 individuals. These trials covered concentration camp physicians, Field Marshal Erhard Milch, SS officer Oswald Pohl, industrialist Friedrich Flick, IG Farben directors, and senior military commanders, resulting in 98 prison sentences before American authorities later initiated a campaign of pardons and sentence reviews.
