The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals held after World War 2. The allied forces, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States, presided over the trial under the International law and laws of war. Nuremberg trials were prosecutions of prominent political, judicial, military, and economic leaders of the Nazi leadership under Adolf Hitler, who planned and carried out crimes against peace, humanity, and war. The actual creators of the Nazislaws that enhanced the wars could not be judged as they had committed suicide. Thus, for accountability of the war crimes, judgment fell to the highest-ranking Nazi officials left. The Judgement at Nuremberg trial, which was presided by Judge Haywood, defendants were Ernst Janning, a former minister of Justice, judge Hoffstetter, and Lampe, and Hahn, a public prosecutor. The Nuremberg trial was long and historic though it eventually brought Nazi leaders to Justice.
The Nuremberg trial judgment brought various mixed reactions due to Judge Haywood's sentencing on the Nazi leaders. Ernst Janning and Hahn got life imprisonment while Judge Hoffstetter and Lampe were prosecuted for ten years. The complex issue is if the defendants deserved the prosecutions as they were doing their duty based on orders received from Adolf Hitler, SS chief Heinrich, and Reich propaganda leader. Or was the judgment fair based on the crimes they committed?
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Natural law
The Haywood judgment can partially be explained by understanding the perception of the natural law. Natural law exists even before the requirement of human understanding or legislation and political orders. Natural law assumes that human beings understand what is wrong and right inherently to initiate in making good and bad decisions ( McKinnon, 1948) . Natural law cannot be taught; hence it is discoverable through the exercise of reasoning.
Judge Haywood basing his verdict on the theory of natural law, the Minister of Justice and Judges would have objected to the orders issued to them and used reasoning to gauge what was right or wrong. This is despite Hitler being harsh, bringing fear, and believing there were devils among them. Janning presided over the Feldstein case, where Feldstein was sentenced to death due to racial pollution. Racial pollution was a law that stated it was illegal for non-Aryan to have sexual relationships with an Aryan (Hill, 1959) . As Feldstein had a sexual relation with Maria Wallner, who was an Aryan, they were both sentenced. Wallner was sentenced to two years for perjury. The judgment issued by Ernst Janning was right legally; however, giving a death sentence was against the natural law. Maria and Feldstein's relationship was loving and kind and brought no harm to the outside world. Therefore, through instincts and reasoning Janning would have made different sentencing to the couple.
Besides, the letter from Hoffstetter on making an example to Polish workers who refused to work was wrong inherently. First, Hitler had pushed the Germans to believe that the Jews and Polish were evil people in their land. Thus, the Jews and the Poles were discriminated against such that it was difficult for them to get jobs that would enable them to buy the highly-priced foodstuff. Thus, the Polish were suffering in poverty, depression, and hunger that working on the farms was hectic. The letter from Hoffstetter showed that he was irrational in his decision-making and was controlled by their Nazi's leader orders.
Human rights
In addition, even though the Germans on trial were acting based on orders from their seniors, their actions were against human rights. Human rights are the fundamental freedoms and rights that an individual has from birth till death. Human rights apply to everyone despite where they came from or what one believes in and can never be taken away. Special courts led by Hoffstetter and Lammpe oversaw the compulsory sterilizations for those deemed to be mentally deficient (Hill, 1959) . Compulsory sterilization was against the human right of universality. Besides, it was against the right for one not to be mistreated or wrongly punished by the state for a natural condition or for being an opponent of the government. Compulsory sterilization was a forceful and shameful procedure where those involved were not giving their consent. The Nazi leadership wouldn't stand the communist, Jews, and Poles, and they introduced compulsory sterilization to demean, oppress, or kill them.
Moreover, the creation of concentration camps showed that the Nazis were not observing the human rights of their diverse population. The concentration camps were created to detain the thousands of Nazi opponents where they engaged in forced labor, and mass murder took place. Incarcerating people in the concentration camps denied people their human rights and freedom of expressing their opinions and beliefs. In the concentration camps, hundreds of thousands of innocent Jews, Poles, and communists were oppressed, humiliated, brutally tortured, and killed. Therefore, the trial defendants may have ignored the damage that Nazi's leadership had on their people, but they slowly adapted Nazi's way of leadership.
Positive law
The judgment would have been different if the Judge considered that the defendants’ actions were purely on positive law. Positive laws are laws that are made by legislators that specify and oblige an action ( McKinnon, 1948) . Thus, Adolf Hitler, the leader, made the Nazis' law, and Janning, Hoffstetter, and Lampe's actions were based on their leader's laws. Besides, positive laws apply at a particular time, place, consisting of statutory laws. The trial is based on the actions that were committed when the Nazi leader had made the concentration camps, the compulsory sterilization the governing laws. Janning opposed the Nazi measures but was brutally attacked by Hitler, that he eventually resigned. If the Nuremberg trial judgment was based on positive law, Judge Haywood would have made a lighter sentence as judges don't make the laws; instead, they uphold the laws.
“ History is written by victors”
"History is written by victors" is a quote that explains that history is not based on facts rather, it's the winner interpretation of them that prevails. The winner interpretations are shared in powerful mediums and venues for establishing political ideologies and sharing personal assumptions about an issue ( Sacco, 2018) . The Nazis' measures were well documented and shared worldwide, such that so many countries started undertaking the same measures. Adolf had shared his perception worldwide that his actions and measures seemed to be morally right among some other countries and leaders. This is shown where Prosecutor Hahn is unapologetic and claims that Germans' measures were a bulwark against Bolshevism that the world may yet wish to retain.
The judgment at Nuremberg was done by an outsider Judge Haywood under Nuremberg Military Tribunal. Justice was served as the Judge was an outsider who had a different perspective from the Nazis. Millions of communists, Jews, and Poles were killed during the Third Reich, which was inhumane and immoral. The leaders responsible for creating the Nazi measures later committed suicide. They knew their actions were evil, leaving leaders whom they forced to execute the Nazi measure to face trial. Nuremberg trial brought Justice to those who acted without logic and rationality; even though their imprisonment didn't last for more than five years, it showed that the world saw the immorality and inhumane activities are done to the communist.
References
Hill, G. R. (1959). Playhouse 90: Judgment at Numerberg [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlDoGZQPDzg&ab_channel=FreeTheKinescopes%21
McKinnon, H. R. (1948). Natural law and positive law . NDLScholarship. https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol23/iss2/1
Sacco, N. (2018, May 3). Bad historical thinking: “History is written by the victors” . Exploring the Past. https://pastexplore.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/bad-historical-thinking-history-is-written-by-the-victors/
