In the early hours of October 16, 1946, the death sentences of 10 of the highest-ranking representatives of the Nazi regime were carried out in the sports hall of Nuremberg prison. They were convicted by the International Military Tribunal for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The former Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command Wilhelm Keitel, the head of the Reich Security Main Directorate Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the ideologist of the Nazi Party Alfred Rosenberg, the Governor-General of occupied Poland Hans Frank, the Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, the publisher of the anti-Semitic newspaper “Sturmer“ Julius Streicher, the head of the forced labor program Fritz Sauckel, General Alfred Jodl, and Austrian politician Arthur Seyss-Inquart.
Twelve death sentences, but ten executions
The sentences were announced on September 30 and October 1, 1946. Twelve defendants were sentenced to death by hanging. Among them were Hermann Göring and Martin Bormann, but neither was executed at Nuremberg.
Göring, the highest-ranking surviving representative of the Nazi regime among the defendants, committed suicide with cyanide in his cell a few hours before his scheduled hanging. Bormann was tried in absentia because the Allies had failed to locate him. It was later determined that he had died in Berlin at the end of the war.
The trial opened on November 20, 1945. The prosecutors presented thousands of German documents, testimonies, and film footage of the crimes of the Nazi regime. Of the 24 initially accused, 21 actually stood trial: industrialist Gustav Krupp was removed due to his poor health, Robert Lai committed suicide before the trial began, and Bormann was tried in absentia.
“Civilization cannot ignore them“
At the beginning of the trial, the American Attorney General Robert Jackson stated:
The tribunal convicted 19 defendants, acquitted three, and the rest received life or long-term sentences. The court declared the leadership of the Nazi Party, the SS, the SD, and the Gestapo to be criminal organizations. Thus, the Nuremberg Trials introduced into international practice the principle that state leaders and high-ranking officials can be held personally responsible for crimes committed in the name of the state.
After the executions, the bodies were cremated, and the ashes were scattered in a tributary of the Isar River. There is a discrepancy between sources regarding the location of the cremation: The Nuremberg Trials Memorial indicates the crematorium at Munich's Ostfriedhof cemetery, while the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum indicates Dachau.
Sources: history.com, amp.dw.com