Nuremberg Trials: 70 Years On

Nazi leader Hermann Goering (1893 - 1946) is pictured on March 16, 1946, in the witness box at the Nuremberg War Crime Trials, where he was later sentenced to death. (Keystone/Getty Images)

Tomorrow will mark 70 years since Nazi leaders went on trial in the German city of Nuremberg for war crimes committed during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was an unprecedented crime – millions of murders, wrongful imprisonment and torture, theft and destruction. The trials were also unprecedented. One Nuremberg prosecutor called them “the greatest history seminar ever held in the history of the world.”

What did we learn from Nurenberg and what do the trials tell us about prosecuting leaders for war crimes today? Here & Now’s Indira Lakshmanan discusses this with Princeton professor Gary Bass, who is author of “Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals.”

Guest

  • Gary Bass, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University and author of “Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals.” He tweets @Gary__Bass.
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