The Nuremberg Trials: why November 20 became a historic date

On November 20, 1945, the Nuremberg trials began — the first ever international trial of the leaders of a state accused of unleashing World War II and mass crimes against humanity. Historians point out that this is especially important for today, as neo-Nazi sentiments are reviving in the world. But then the date of November 20, 1945, became a turning point in world law, as for the first time the principle of personal responsibility of political and military leaders for the actions of the regime they represented was formulated at the state level. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

The importance of the Nuremberg Tribunal in our day

The Nuremberg Tribunal set a precedent according to which the execution of a criminal order does not absolve from responsibility, and state leaders cannot use sovereignty to justify crimes against humanity. Alexander Chubaryan, scientific director of the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia about this.

In addition, during the Nuremberg trials, the threat of Nazism in a global context was noted and collaboration was condemned as a phenomenon that violated legal norms.

— After that, trials against Nazi collaborators were organized in various countries, including, for example, France, Norway and the Soviet Union. From the point of view of the current era, this is extremely important, because today not only neo—Nazi sentiments are reviving, but there are also attempts to justify people who collaborated with Nazi Germany under various pretexts," Alexander Chubaryan told Izvestia.

How did the trial begin, and who ended up in the dock?

On November 20, 1945, the hearings of the International Military Tribunal opened for the first time in the hall of the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg. In the dock were the top leaders of the Third Reich: ministers, commanders, ideologists and organizers of the repressive machine.

The court was charged on four key counts: crimes against peace, planning and unleashing a war of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This became the basis for the formation of a new international legal order, which would later form the basis of the UN Conventions and the statutes of international courts.

The trial lasted almost a year and became one of the largest trials of the 20th century. Witness statements were heard at the meetings, documentaries were shown, correspondence, orders and protocols of the Nazi leaders were studied. For the first time, the court used a huge array of documentary evidence, recorded the structure of Nazi crimes and the systematic nature of the extermination of civilians.

Why did November 20th become a historical date?

The discovery of the Nuremberg Trials forever changed humanity's approach to the concept of war, responsibility and justice. On this day, the world officially declared for the first time: no leader or regime is above the law, and crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview for the documentary "Nuremberg. Don't complain about the executioner's life," he recalled that it was the Soviet Union that initiated the creation of the International Military Tribunal for Nazi Criminals in 1941.

"I would like to note that during all these efforts, the Soviet Union acted independently. He did not just rely on the fact that we would once create an international structure and it would "restore justice," the Russian Foreign Minister stressed.

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