This is not the greatest shot from the day but the one that illustrates what occupied our thoughts for most of it. Had a very emotional and thought provoking visit with my parents to Nuremberg. All three of us had wanted to visit the law courts in for quite a while, seeing as we only live 10 miles down the road. We finally had the opportunity to visit this fairly new exhibition at the place where the Nuremberg Trials were held at the end of the Second World War. The exhibition was as expected chilling and often hard to bear. Both my parents were born shortly before the start of the war and we all have grown up trying to come to terms with and to understand our recent history.
These are the original benches for the accused - 24 of the most important leaders of Nazi Germany were tried at the initial trials held from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946. The architect designed these specifically to be spartan in appearance and not to distinguish between high ranking officers and others accused.
You can see Hermann Göring (standing) in the original footage on the back wall. Commander of the Luftwaffe 1935–1945 and original head of the Gestapo before turning it over to the SS in April 1934. He was found guilty on all 4 acocunts and sentenced to death by hanging. Göring poisoned himself 2 hours before the execution.
The Nuremberg Trials were an important first step in international law and set important precedents in European law and international law to convict war criminals.
Thank you all for taking the time to view and comment. I had a wonderful week in germany with my parents. Apologies I am only just catching up with posting and commenting!
Great shot - really interesting. I'm reading 'The Hare with the Amber Eyes' at the moment and it covers the fate of Jews in Vienna where many of the senior Nazis were excused rather than brought to trial.
A solemn reminder. It was great when I was in Berlin to see that Reichstag had been rebuilt as a peoples parliament which are the words inscribed on front
Gosh that's really hit me.... I've heard about it all, of course, but a shot of where they sat, being tried...reminds me they were real people. (If that doesn't sound bonkers). Well taken.
@peterdegraaff Thanks Peter! The rebuilt Reichstag is just wonderful and everything a people's parlament should be. Let's hope we can deal with the rising tide of ultra rightwing movements!!
@filsie65 Thanks Phil! We needed quite some time to digest the visit. I know they were all people but it was actually quite scary to see them so arrogant and reticent in the footage, each of them pleading not guilty with the utmost conviction. The most scary thing was to hear about a lot of the secret meetings Hitler held very early on, where all his plans were already crystal clear...
@judithg Thanks Judith! Sounds a very interesting book. There were further trials dealing with the doctors and other people heavily involved. Most of those trials either had very lenient sentences or found people to be not guilty at the beginning of the 50s...most of those trials will not have been held with an international court, so I guess it's not surprising but still chilling to think about
great shot and great commentry / history. whilst a difficult subject, i'm glad these sorts of places are kept alive in order for us to see and understand - thanks for sharing
