Nuremberg trials

Cultural  

1. Trials of Nazi leaders conducted after World War II. A court set up by the victorious Allies tried twenty-two former officials, including Hermann Goering, in Nuremberg, Germany, for war crimes. Goering and eleven others were sentenced to death. Many of the highest officials of Nazi Germany, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and Heinrich Himmler, had committed suicide before they could be brought to trial, and Goering killed himself before he could be executed.

---

Discover More

Several of those accused at the Nuremberg trials offered the defense that they were merely carrying out the orders of their superiors. This defense was not accepted.

Example Sentences

Ophuls was also known for other documentaries, including 1976’s “The Memory of Justice,” about the legacy of the Nuremberg trials, and 1972’s “A Sense of Loss,” which dealt with the troubles of Northern Ireland.

From Los Angeles Times • May 29, 2025

The last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, who tried Nazis for genocidal war crimes and was among the first outside witnesses to document the atrocities of Nazi labor and concentration camps.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 3, 2023

He took part in Operation Manna dropping food to the starving in the Netherlands and later he was at the Nuremberg trials.

From BBC • Nov. 10, 2023

David Barsamian: American Justice Robert Jackson was the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.

From Salon • May 31, 2023

He also read an account of Nazi general Ernst Kaltenbrunner, a leader of the SS who ended up being found guilty at the Nuremberg trials and executed.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady