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19.11.2020

Anniversary of the start of the Nuremburg Trials: “They marked the beginning, but they weren’t continued”

 
 
Auschwitz-Birkenau

 

 

 

During these days, Holocaust survivors around the world are commemorating the 75th anniversary of the start of the Nuremburg Trials on 20 November 1945.

In Warsaw, the Auschwitz survivor, Marian Turski, said: 



“During those months straight after the war and our liberation we were very happy, because the world agreed that the Nazi atrocities must be condemned, and the murderers of our families should be brought to justice in court. It was in this mutual spirit that the Nuremberg Trials were prepared and started. But shortly afterwards, the world fell apart, and Europe was divided. The Nuremberg Trials marked the beginning, but they weren’t continued in Germany. What happened to the vast majority of perpetrators? Eichmann’s fate was almost unique. Most of his accomplices lived successful lives after the war and prospered at the heart of German society. They had no Nuremburg Trials. I feel deep bitterness when I think about the 75th anniversary of the start of the Nuremburg Trials.”



And in New York the President of the International Auschwitz Committee and Auschwitz survivor, Roman Kent, added:



“We had really been hoping that after the Nuremberg Trials the world wouldn’t give up locating and putting those individuals on trial who had the blood of innocent people on their hands. But that happened in far too few cases, and far too late.”




In Berlin, Christoph Heubner, the Executive Vice President of the IAC said: 



“At that time many people in Germany denounced the Nuremburg Trials as ‘victor’s justice’ and so pushed away the reality of their co-responsibility for the crimes of the ‘Third Reich’. Today, we know that the Nuremburg Trials will endure as a decisive signal that the perpetrators of genocide must be brought to justice and be made accountable for their crimes. In addition to this, those trials also signalled that justice and law had returned to Germany.”