Nuremberg Trials
I choose to research and write about the Nuremberg trials because of my interest and knowledge in World War 2, but also because I am a Conflict Analysis and Resolution major and therefore I was hoping to be able to get a better grasp on the mentality of the actions and their justification for their horrendous acts of the defendants.
I choose to start with some background information of the war in my timeline, also, I used somewhat graphic pictures that may be disturbing for a purpose. I believe that the crimes the Nazi regime and its allies committed were completely disgusting, hence, I did not hold back on my timeline to really try to show some of the gritty stuff. Looking through the pictures of corpses and people who were in general in the concentration camp took quite a toll on me. It was not easy to just pick a photo out of the hundreds of picture available for the public to use. It was extremely difficult to look at them. Therefore, I wanted to include those pictures in my timeline to really get a sense of how gruesome and disturbing their acts really were.
I did not really struggle much to find a lot of sources and photo’s. I found that the google images tool that allows you to filter pictures based on the licenses to be extremely useful, and it led me to very many great sources.
Another way I found some sources was through Wikipedia. When I would read a paragraph in Wikipedia that interested me, I looked at the source of that particular phrase or paragraph that interested me to read more about it.
TimeLineJS was pretty straight forward in my opinion, and it made it pretty easy to create a timeline. It did take some work around to make a couple of bullets points and work around, but overall, it was very manageable.
I went with a rather darker theme, black background, white text. I did so because most of the images used were shot in black and white, and also, I think the black and white theme fit well with the narrative of the Nazi’s being tried were accused as being “devilish” and “evil”. I think the black and white reflects that well.
There was a lot of information about the trial. I really wasn’t quite sure which direction I wanted to take this research project. There were several trials within the Nuremberg trial that I could have focused on, but I decided to focus on the main trial and then attach some relevant information regarding the so called, “subsequent trials” towards the end.
My reason for focusing on the “Major War Criminals” trial was because, 1) it was the most known, and 2) the defendants in this trial represented the worst of Germany and the leadership that coerced and helped plan the execution and termination of 6 million people of the Jewish decent, and additionally led to the deaths of 40 million more.
Reading about the defendant’s testimony’s, hearing their last words before their executions, it almost seemed like that some members of the senior Nazi party were hypnotized, in a state of trance where they did not realize that what they were doing was wrong. Many of the people who took on trial voiced their regret, but there were others that defended their actions until their last breath.
In either case, this research has opened my eyes to a entirely different aspect of World War 2. Sure, everyone knows that it was a nasty war, with gruesome results and horrific treatment of many civilians. But after having watched some video footage and examined pictures of the Nazi concentration camps, I will never be able to view World War 2 the same.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Ferencz, Benjamin. “The Last Nuremberg Prosecutor Has 3 Words Of Advice: ‘Law Not War'” Interview by Steve Inskeep. Transcript. NPR. October 18, 2016.
Nazi Concentration Camps. Produced by U.S. Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. The Counsel, 1945. Accessed October 21, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nazi_Concentration_Camps.webm.
The Nuremberg Trials. Produced by History.com. NUREMBERG TRIALS VIDEOS. Accessed October 19, 2016. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/nuremberg-trials/videos/the-executions-at-nuremburg.
Media
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2329283/posts
https://www.flickr.com/photos/psulibscollections/5758942721
http://hpc.vcea.net/Asset/Preview/dbImage_ID-17174_No-1.jpeg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/VE_Day_-_Germany_Surrenders.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Buchenwald_Corpses_07511.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Goering_on_trial_%28color%29.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Deadjoachimribbentrop.jpg
Secondary Sources
Department of State. “The Nuremberg Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Trials (1945–1948).” Office of Historian. Accessed October 21, 2016. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/nuremberg.
Gerlach, Christian. “The Wannsee Conference, the Fate of German Jews, and Hitler’s Decision in Principle to Exterminate All European Jews.” The Journal of Modern History 70, no. 4 (December 1998): 759-812. Accessed October 18, 2016. doi:10.1086/235167.
History. “Nuremberg Trials.” Nuremberg Trials. 2010. Accessed October 20, 2016. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/nuremberg-trials.
Kirchheimer, Otto, and John Herz. “THE “STATEMENT ON ATROCITIES” OF THE MOSCOW TRIPARTITE CONFERENCE: (December 10, 1943).” In Secret Reports on Nazi Germany: The Frankfurt School Contribution to the War Effort, edited by Laudani Raffaele, by NEUMANN FRANZ, MARCUSE HERBERT, KIRCHHEIMER OTTO, and Geuss Raymond, 451-56. Princeton University Press, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jc8f3.32.
Linder, Doug. “Nuremberg Trials.” Famous World Trials. 2000. Accessed October 21, 2016. http://law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm.
Linder, Doug. “The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials: An Overview.” Famous World Trials. 2000. Accessed October 21, 2016. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/subsequenttrials.html.
Linder, Doug. “The Nuremberg Trials: The Doctors Trial.” Famous World Trials. 2000. Accessed October 21, 2016. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/NurembergDoctorTrial.html.
Museen Der Stadt Nuernberg. Memorium Nuremberg Trials. Nuernberg: Stadt Nuernberg. Accessed October 15, 2016. http://www.memorium-nuremberg.de/download/Memorium_Broschuere_en.pdf.
“The Nuremberg Trials.” Alpha History. Accessed October 21, 2016. http://alphahistory.com/holocaust/nuremberg-trials/.
US Holocaust Memorial Museum. “European Jewish Population Distribution, Ca. 1933.” Map. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Accessed October 17, 2016. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_nm.php?ModuleId=10005143&MediaId=358.
Yale Law School. “Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 1.” The Avalon Project : Charter of the International Military Tribunal. Accessed October 21, 2016. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/imtconst.asp.
Media