Imagine being relentlessly tortured by ruthless and seemingly emotionless Nazi doctors and officers. Would you want these Nazi criminals to see justice? The sad truth is, most American allies actually did little to punish the Nazis for their mistreatment of the Jews during World War II. The biggest trials of these Nazi war criminals were the Nuremberg Medical Trials. Many Nazis also moved to the United States of America after the war was over and some still live here today. Sadly, some were never convicted because they either committed suicide, or were never found despite efforts by the United States and its WWII allies. The Nuremberg Medical Trials were the biggest and well-known trials of Nazi Criminals. A large portion of these trials took place after WWII in October 1946 and lasted until August of 1947.
The Americans conducted these trials against 23 German physicians and scientists accused of performing vile and potentially lethal medical experiments on concentration camp inmates and other living subjects between 1933 and 1945. In the Nuremberg Medical Trials, fifteen of the defendants were found guilty and eight were acquitted, or let go. Of the guilty fifteen, seven were sentenced to the death penalty and eight were imprisoned. Karl Brandt was one of the most infamous of the fifteen defendants who were found guilty at the medical trial. He was executed on June 2nd, 1948. Many of the Nazi leaders such as Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels were not present at ther Nuremberg Medical Trials because they had committed suicide at the end of the war.
The Essay on The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal
In early October 1945, the four powers victorious after the Second World War issued an indictment against 24 men and six organizations. Fifty years ago the Prosecution?s opening statement was read by Associate United States Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson. Just eight months prior to that reading, the very building in which the historical trial took place was "an enemy fortress in the hands ...
Obviously, the Nuremberg Medical Trials were very important in the prosecution of the Nazi criminals. Many Nazis who had committed criminal acts against the Jews moved to the United States after World War II had settled down. The U.S. began an organization called the Criminals Division Office of Special Investigations (OSI) to catch these Nazis. Since the OSI was established in 1979, 73 Nazi persecutors have been stripped of their U.S. citizenship. Sixty of these perpetrators had to be deported.
In a most recent case dealing with the OSI, an 82-year-old man was deported. He had moved to the U.S. in 1950 and in 1997, his citizenship was revoked because of his involvement in the Nazi persecution of Jews. His crimes included the wartime arrest of Jews attempting to flee Germany. Later, in 2002, a judge ordered him to be deported. Thanks to programs like the OSI, many Nazis have been caught and are still being caught today. Although the U.S.
and its World War II allies have tried somewhat to punish Nazis for their crimes, not many of the criminals were caught or prosecuted. About a dozen top Nazi officials were hanged through various trials, but even more got away of committed suicide. Joseph Mengele, perhaps the most notorious criminal Nazi doctor was never caught as he fled the country and was never proved to have been found. What the Nazis did was unforgivable and inhuman. They deserve to see justice; unfortunately this is not always the case. Luckily, many Nazis were punished like in the Nuremberg Medical Trials.
The OSI and other countries are also working hard to find and punish possible Nazi criminals.
Bibliography:
Mathis, Andrew. Punishment of Nazi criminals. THHP Questions. 11 May 2005. http://www.holocaust-history.org/questions/punishm ent.shtml. Linder, Doug.
The Nuremberg Medical Trials. – 2005. Famous Trials. 12 May 2005. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/f trials.htm Schmidt, Ulf. Justice at Nuremberg. : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004..
