This War Ends in a Courtroom: Nuremberg (2025) and the Real Trials
The Nuremberg Trials exemplify the Allies' effort to conclude World War II through justice, applying law rather than revenge to shape the postwar world.
"The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason."
During his examination of 22 top Nazi officials held by the Allies, US Army psychiatrist Dr. Kelley observed Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring as "positively jovial over my daily coming." When Kelley later left Nuremberg to return to the United States, Göring, one of history’s worst war criminals, "wept unashamedly."
Kelley’s official role was to assess and maintain the mental fitness of the Nazi defendants to stand trial, but he also aimed to understand what had driven their evil actions.
Author’s summary: The Nuremberg Trials marked a historic commitment to justice over vengeance, revealing both the legal challenges and the human complexities behind prosecuting Nazi leaders.