Nazi Prosecution :: essays research papers fc

What has been achieved by prosecuting national socialists alleged to have committed crimes against the Jews?"While fighting for victory the German soldier will observe the rules for undaunted warfare. Cruelties and senseless destruction are below his standard" , or so the commandment printed in every German Soldiers paybook would have us believe. Yet during the due south World War thousands of Jews were victims of war crimes committed by Nazis, whose actions subverted the code of conduct they claimed to uphold and contravened legislation outlined in the Geneva Convention. It is this legislature that has paved the panache for the Jewish community and political leaders to attempt to redress the Nazis violation, by prosecuting individuals allegedly responsible. Convicting Nazi criminals is an implicit declaration by post-World War II order that the Nazi regimes extermination of over five million Jews wont go unnoticed. Many of the alleged Nazi war criminals that were captur ed had attempted to evade prosecution shortly onward the end of the war. Some opted for suicide, rather than risk capture while others used the Austrian and German Underground offers of fake passports and other means of forged assignment to assume a new identity . A choice opted for by many, that virtually guaranteed them a new life with remote chance of detection was to live on to the Anglo-American countries after immigration quotas were raised. Over 4000 Nazi criminals sought refuge in Australia . Many lied about their history to gain entry into their new understructure and proceeded to blend in, unnoticed by our government. They were no longer Nazi criminals but new citizens with a hidden past. Lists of suspected criminals were compiled and alleged perpetrators systematically captured and put to trial.In 1943, under Soviet leadership the firstly war crime trials were conducted, however the first trial to involve the Allied powers was the Nuremburg International Military Tri bunal in 1945 . The International Military Tribunal (IMT), set out to prosecute 22 defendants comprising largely of the administration arm of the Third Reich . The Americans initially wished to indict whole Nazi organisations for their crimes. This focus was soon altered to determine the accountability of particular individuals. The accused were tried under at least two of the following four headings devised for indictment. The first count was the "formulation of a common plan or conspiracy" two, "crimes against peace (planning and waging a war of aggression