The idea of ​​responsibility for war crimes has been an important issue in the twentieth century. Numerous trials took place on the personal responsibility of war criminals. The Tokyo Military Tribunal after World War II, the trials to persecute war criminals in the former Yugoslavia, and the trials in Rwanda are all examples of such trials. After the 1945 Nuremberg trials, which dealt with the responsibility of Nazi war criminals, the denial of personal responsibility for war crimes was not accepted. Although the Nuremberg trials introduced new laws and policies, it was a poorly managed trial with uncertain prosecutors. At the end of the Nuremberg trials, the new laws and policies used to this day were the final result of the trials. The trials forever changed warfare and accountability for war crimes. Eleven of those tried received death sentences. Compared to the 6 million Jews killed, justice was certainly not one of the final results of the Nuremberg trials. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To understand the Nuremberg Trials and the concept of it bringing justice, you need to have an understanding of the events that led to the trial. In July 1941, Adolf Hitler began implementing what he called the Final Solution. The final solution to the Jewish question was the code name assigned by the German bureaucracy to the annihilation of the Jews. Concentration and extermination camps were built for the sole purpose of quickly and easily eliminating human life. The Nazi executioners used every method imaginable until the most efficient and effective means of exterminating the Jews was found. In most camps the use of gas chambers was common, while in other camps prisoners were lined up and shot, hundreds at a time. When Jews were taken to the death camps of Auschwitz, Belzec, and Birkenau, most were taken directly to the gas chambers after a physical examination by a doctor to deem them fit for forced labor. Those who were not, as well as small children and infants, were taken to the gas chambers. The Nazi executioners told the prisoners that they were going to take the required lint-removing shower. Almost all the inmates would have noticed what was happening when no more water came out of the showers and when they realized that there were no drains in the floor. For those who were not sent to the gas chambers, life was even worse. The prisoners had to work from dawn to dusk, with very little food and terrible weather conditions. If anyone tried to escape they were shot instantly and the other prisoners had to stay out all night as punishment for disobedience. Another special group of Jews was assigned to be part of the Sonderkommando. These were the male Jewish inmates who were promised life and adequate food in exchange for doing the most horrible job of all. First they had to remove the blood and then pull the dead out of the chamber with nooses and hooks. Then they had to look for gold teeth or fillings, which would be removed from the mouths of the dead. Then they had to load the bodies onto a railway carriage that took them to the furnaces. Hitler's ideas about the extermination of the Jews began in a German prison. Hitler was condemned for harboring Nazi revolutionary ideas. During his one-year sentence, he wrote his famous autobiography, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). In it, he openly revealed his sinister political intentions. He wanted to rebuild the National Socialist Party and gain powerlegally. We will have to hold our noses and enter the Reichstag, he said, ultimately showing his disgust with the current German political situation. In addition to his diverse political views, Hitler also discussed many racial issues. His description of the Jews is as follows: The Jewish people, despite all their apparent intellectual qualities, have no true culture of their own. Because all the fictitious culture that the Jew possesses today is the property of other peoples, and for the most part it is ruined in his hands. He is and remains the typical parasite, a parasite which, like a harmful bacillus, continues to spread as soon as a favorable environment invites it. And the effect of its existence is also similar to that of freeloaders: wherever it appears, the host population dies after a more or less long period of time. Hitler considered the Jews to be the source of all evil, misfortune and tragedy. He also preached it to his followers, who in turn put Hitler's suggestion of racial cleansing and purification into practice. His followers possessed many of the same qualities as Hitler. The dream of a perfect state, in which all men were of pure German origin, was constantly pursued. Each of these followers was equally responsible for some aspect of the Holocaust. Whether running death camps, performing experiments on humans, or manufacturing the weapons used to kill six million Jews, these men were all personally responsible in some way. This idea of ​​personal responsibility was rigorously enforced during the Nuremberg Trials of 1945, which was an attempt to bring some kind of justice to the families, as well as victims, of the Holocaust. The Nuremberg Trials began on November 22, 1945 in Nuremberg. , Germany. An international military tribunal convened in Nuremberg to try former Nazi leaders. Of the millions responsible, twenty-two men were put on trial over the course of ten months. To begin the trial, representatives of the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union had to define the crimes over which the court had jurisdiction. Three main categories were established in which to classify the numerous crimes committed by Nazi leaders. They are as follows:1. Crimes against peace which included the planning, preparation, initiation or conduct of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or guarantees.2. War crimes that included violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but shall not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation for forced labor or for any other purpose of the civilian population of or in the occupied territories, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons at sea, killing of hostages, looting of public or private property, unjustified destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.3. Crimes against humanity which include murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts committed against any civilian population, before or during war, or persecution on political, racial or religious grounds. After these types of crimes were settled, it took the prosecution teams nearly four months to present their case, but once completed, the defendants and their lawyers realized that they were faced with a very large body of evidence. bigger than they had imagined or ever thought possible. The defense lawyers' argument was based entirely on the dispute that the laws that would decide the fate of their defendants had been created at the beginning of the trial. They argued that the laws were not credible unless they were declared criminal by an already existing law. Thisargument was rejected, but defense lawyers replaced it with a new one. The new argument was that the Nazis were not alone in their criminal activity, as many other countries had participated in World War II. Once again the defense's arguments were rejected by the court. The trial itself was very poorly handled. During the proceedings, the credibility of the prosecution was called into question due to the creation of the three war crimes classifications. The defense argued that because these classifications were not in effect at the time the crimes actually occurred, they should not be taken into account while the defendants were on trial. The court rejected the motion, but among the defenders the court's ruling had aroused more criticism and resentment than consensus. The defense's argument regarding the execution of superior orders by the Nazis was also rejected, as the court stated that the true test, found in varying degrees in the criminal law of most nations, is not the existence of order, but if moral choice was in fact possible They decided that moral choice was certainly possible and that these men should be personally responsible for their actions. Over the course of the trial, the defense made many more arguments like these that were consistently rejected or ignored. Some defendants were also disruptive during the trial. Hermann Goring, on many occasions, attempted to stand and read a prepared statement in the midst of the proceedings. Each time he was asked to sit down without further punishment. He enchanted the guards and members of the court. He tried to create a united front among the defendants, only to find that his accomplices were ashamed of their actions and did not want to be associated with the horrors of concentration camps, mass murder and forced labor. He was methodical, diabolical and extremely remorseless. During cross-examination he showed no emotion and gave smooth and calm responses. This was because the court translators were very slow. As they translated the question into German for the German-speaking members of the court, Goring formulated an answer and gave it perfectly. For example, Jackson tried to persuade Goring to confess that the Nazi plan to occupy the Rhineland without warning in 1936 was a Nazi secret, hidden from other countries. Goring calmly replied, "I don't think I remember reading the publication of preparations for the mobilization of the United States in advance." Responses like these were common. The prosecution also had many other faults in its actions in court. After Robert H. Jackson, a United States attorney, based a series of questions on a poorly translated document, Goring corrected him. When it looked like he was on Goring's doorstep, Jackson suddenly changed the subject. The minutes of the Nuremberg trials were very poorly recorded. Written reports were often incomplete, due to confusion in the classroom. The translators' constant dialogue confused the stenographers, so they missed many important parts of the proceedings. The visual recordings were also of mediocre quality. The camera angles were awkward and many times the videotape ended without the operators knowing. The horrors of the Holocaust were shown, uncensored, in the courtroom. Film evidence was shown of Nazi generals beating, killing and burning Jews, with no remorse on the part of any of the accused. There had certainly been a desensitization among the defendants and some, like Hermann Goring, were proud of what they had done. Albert Speer occupied a prominent place among Hitler's few confidants and was the head of all production.