On April 3, 1946, Nazi Defendant and Field Marshal of the Reich, Wilhelm Keitel took the stand. The trial brief says of Keitel, “In Keitel, there was the perfect co-operator. A man who was apparently deaf to any calls of conscience, dead to any sense of honour, ignorant of any distinction between right and wrong.” […]
Author: Sweeney, Bridget
This Day in Nuremberg: Testimony of Top Nazi: Hermann Goring by Sara Harvel
On March 13, high ranking Nazi Herman Goring took the stand. Goring was maybe the most important Nazi remaining. Goring and Hitler were tight, Hitler was even the godfather of Goring’s only child. Goring’s trial was a big deal because of the magnitude of his position and because of the precedent it set for international […]
Crimes Against Children by Sara Harvel
On February 27, the International Military Tribunal heard witnesses share about crimes against humanity; specifically those against children. In a letter to his wife, Thomas Dodd, US prosecutor, shares his heart regarding a town called Lidice and the injustice suffered by children. A letter from US prosecutor Thomas Dodd to his wife, Grace. “Grace, it […]
Crimes Against Humanity by Sara Harvel
On February 25, the prosecutors of the International Military Tribunal shared evidence of Crimes against Humanity, hoping that by holding the Nazis accountable for their crimes against humanity, they would set a precedent for postwar justice. The variety and quantity of crimes against humanity were astounding. Concentration camps often had gas chambers and crematoriums to […]
3/8: International Women’s Day: Women in the International Military Tribunal by Sara Harvel
I had to look pretty hard to learn about women’s involvement in the International Military Tribunal. Though all of the judges and the vast majority of the prosecutors were male, in some of the subsequent trials, women were involved. Dorothea “Dottie” Grater Minskoff (1910-1986) a graduate of University of Pennsylvania was part of the prosecution […]
Petrol and Protests: Remembering Human Rights Violations and Taking Action by Sara Harvel
A sticky situation is emerging in Myanmar. Violence and oppression have bubbled over for decades, reminiscent to Nazi crimes against humanity played out in World War Two. Why do these atrocities continue? Why does social action come so slowly? By making observations about a Nazi ravaged village in Czechoslovakia and a Connecticut senator named Thomas […]