Nuremberg trials

After World War II, the trials of the 24 chief Nazi war criminals November 1945–October 1946 by an international military tribunal consisting of four judges and four prosecutors: one of each from the USA, UK, USSR, and France. An appendix accused the German cabinet, general staff, high command, Nazi leadership corps, SS, Sturmabteilung, and Gestapo of criminal behaviour.

The main charges in the indictment were: (1) conspiracy to wage wars of aggression; (2) crimes against peace; (3) war crimes: for example, murder and ill-treatment of civilians and prisoners of war, deportation of civilians for slave labour, and killing of hostages; (4) crimes against humanity: for example, mass murder of the Jews and other peoples, and murder and ill-treatment of political opponents. Of the accused, Krupp was too ill to be tried; Ley committed suicide during the trial; and Bormann, who was dead but was thought to have fled, was sentenced to death in his absence. Fritsche, Schacht, and Papen were acquitted. The other 18 were found guilty on one or more counts. Hess, Walther Funk, and Raeder were sentenced to life imprisonment; Shirach and Speer to 20 years; Neurath to 15 years; and Dönitz to 10 years. The remaining 11 men, sentenced to death by hanging, were Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Goering (who committed suicide before he could be executed), Alfred Jodl, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Alfred Rosenberg, Fritz Sauckel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, and Julius Streicher. The SS and Gestapo were declared criminal organizations.