Seventy-five years ago this fall, historic trials began in Nuremberg, Germany, to bring German Nazis to justice for committing atrocities during World War II (1939-1945). The United States and its allies established the trials after winning the war. It was the first international effort to hold people responsible for war crimes.
The Nazis faced charges including crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. They had launched the most devastating war in history and had tried to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe.
In the 1930s, Germany’s leader, Adolf Hitler, and his Nazi Party rose to power by tapping into prejudice against Jewish people. The Nazis stripped Jewish citizens of Germany of their rights. During the war, Nazi forces seized control of nations across Europe and sent millions of Jewish people to concentration camps, where many were killed with poison gas. Others died of starvation or illness. By the war’s end, the Nazis and their collaborators had murdered more than 6 million Jewish people—as well as millions of others.
Hitler and other Nazi leaders killed themselves before the Nuremberg trials began. But some others who worked with them were tried and found guilty. Some were put to death; others went to prison.
The trials set a standard for prosecuting war criminals for heinous crimes such as genocide for decades to come.