The Nuremberg Tribunal

At the Nuremberg tribunal some 200 people from the German government, the army, doctors and businessmen were tried as criminals for what they did in the Second World War. The leaders of the Nazi party, such as Rudolf Hess and Hermann Göring, were tried for the crimes against humanity they committed during the Shoah. We know that most of the leaders hid or fled abroad from Germany. Some were caught later and tried, like Eichmann. This court sat in Nuremberg, a city of Germany under the control of the United States at the end of the Second World War. To hold this court the four states that agreed were the United States, England, the Soviet Union and the provisional government of France. Four charges were tried: conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes and, most important, crimes against humanity. The Nuremberg trial opened the way to certain international rights, such as the United Nations Convention on genocide (1948) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

For this trial the Allies chose the city of Nuremberg over the other three candidates, which were Leipzig, Munich and Luxembourg. The decision for Nuremberg was for two reasons: the activities of the Nazi party had begun in Nuremberg; and although the city was entirely in ruins, the building of the Palace of Justice, the Grand Hotel and the Town Hall remained almost intact. It was also in Nuremberg that the first antisemitic laws were proclaimed in 1935. The Americans brought in electricity, water, telephone and the tram. Among the journalists was Joseph Kessel (1898-1979), a very famous Jewish writer who lived and died in France and became a member of the Académie Française. Among his books, 'Belle de Jour' was made into a film by Luis Buñuel with Catherine Deneuve. When he was admitted to the Académie Française he had his sword decorated with a large Magen David, something never before seen at the Académie. Another Jewish journalist was Markus Wolf (1923-2006). Born in Germany, he emigrated with his family to Switzerland, France and finally Russia when Hitler came to power. He entered the diplomatic career and became the head of the secret police of East Germany.

A third Jewish journalist was Richard Llewellyn (1906-1983), the famous English writer known for his book 'How Green Was My Valley'. Richard lived for years in Eilat and died in Dublin. The journalist Gitta Sereny (1921-2012), born in Vienna and died in Cambridge, England, daughter of the German Jew Margit Herzfeld, wrote mainly about the Shoah. The journalist Tullia Zevi (1919-2011), née Calabi and married to Bruno Zevi, was president of the Union of Jewish Communities of Italy and correspondent of the Israeli newspaper Maariv. As prosecutor, Bernard B. Fall (1926-1967), a Jew born in Vienna and in 1938 a refugee in France, spent his life as a professor of law in the United States. He died in Vietnam. Another prosecutor was Adrian S. Fisher (1914-1983). A third lawyer was David Daniel Marcus (1901-1948), a colonel in the United States army who, at the invitation of Ben-Gurion, went to Jerusalem to organize the defence of the city and died in the battle of Abu Ghosh in 1948, a month after the declaration of the State of Israel. This name was given to the village because the owners of the land were called Abu Ghosh, but before it was called 'Karyat Anab' (Kiryat Anavim), 'village of grapes'.

Among the lawyers of the French group was the Jew Joe Nordmann (1905-2010), who worked together with Vincent Auriol, the first President of the Fourth French Republic. Another Jewish lawyer in the same French team was Léon Poliakov (1910-1997). Léon was born in St Petersburg, Russia. His family emigrated to Paris to flee the Russian revolution. He studied law and became the pioneer of the history of the Shoah. Being the secretary of the famous Rabbi Schneour Zalman Schneersohn, he founded with the rabbi's cousin the CDJC (Centre de Documentation Juive […]). The tribunal was the cause of a very important innovation, which was simultaneous translation, that is, translation at the same moment. The judges of the four countries — the United States, England, Russia and France — the prosecutors, the lawyers of these four countries and the German criminals could all hear, understand and speak in their own languages, wearing headphones to hear what was being discussed. It was Raphael Lemkin, one of the advisers, who invented the word 'genocide' for the extermination of the Jewish people. The word 'genos' in Greek means 'people' or 'race'. The word 'cide' in Latin means 'killing'. From there came the word 'genocide'. Never Again.