Index/Topics/Nuremberg Trials

Nuremberg Trials

The Nuremberg trials rejected the superior-orders defense, making individual criminal responsibility for atrocities the default rule.

Fact-Checks

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Jan 13, 2026
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What is the documented history of the Lidice massacre and how have historians interpreted its causes and justification?

The Lidice massacre was the complete destruction of the Czech village of Lidice on 10 June 1942 carried out by German SS and police units as a reprisal for the assassination of Reichsprotektor Reinhar...

Jan 23, 2026
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did the holocaust actually happen

Yes: —the systematic, state-sponsored murder of approximately six million Jews by and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945—undeniably happened, a conclusion supported by an immense, multi-type body...

Jan 14, 2026
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How was the Lidice massacre used in Allied propaganda and at the Nuremberg Trials?

The annihilation of Lidice on 10 June 1942 was seized by the Allies as a vivid, almost indisputable exemplar of Nazi brutality and used repeatedly in wartime publicity and in postwar prosecutions; Naz...

Jan 14, 2026

Where can I download the official 1946 U.S. Government publication 'Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression' that contains PS‑446?

The official 1946 U.S. Government publication Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression — the multi‑volume “Red Series” of documentary evidence used at the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal that includes...

Jan 14, 2026

What were the exact texts of the Barbarossa Decree, Commissar Order, and Curtailment of Military Jurisdiction and where can full translations be found?

Three distinct German wartime instruments—the Military Justice/“Barbarossa” Decree (13 May 1941), the Commissar Order (Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars, 6 June 1941), and the relat...

Jan 14, 2026

Where can I download the Nuremberg Document 446‑PS (Case Barbarossa) full translation?

The full English translation of Nuremberg Document 446‑PS (Directive No. 21, “Case Barbarossa”) is available in multiple open‑access archival repositories: Cornell University’s Donovan Nuremberg Trial...

Jan 9, 2026

How did Germany denazify and rebuild after World War II (1945–1950s)?

Germany’s post‑1945 transformation combined legal purges, mass internment, political re‑education and intensive physical reconstruction under four Allied goals — demilitarization, denazification, dece...

Jan 7, 2026

How have courts‑martial historically treated claims of following superior orders (e.g., My Lai) under the MCM?

Courts‑martial have long rejected blanket immunity for "I was following orders," instead treating obedience to superior orders as a constrained defense: lawful orders must be followed, but manifestly ...

Jan 6, 2026

holocaust happened?

Yes: the Holocaust happened. A vast, multi‑type body of evidence—Nazi documents and orders, Allied and German photographs and films, survivor testimony, forensic archaeology, and postwar investigation...

Jan 6, 2026

How did Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes tribunals influence U.S. military law on unlawful orders?

The Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals established that "just following orders" is not an absolute defense for war crimes, a doctrinal shift that directly influenced U.S. military law by narrowing the perm...