"What makes this inquest significant is that those prisoners represent sinister influence that will lurk in the world long after their bodies have returned to dust. they are living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence, and of the arrogance and cruelty of power."
Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, U.S. Chief Counsel, Nuremberg, 1945
On November 1, 1943, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin signed the Moscow Declaration warning the "Hitlerite Huns" that they will be held accountable for their crimes and pursued to "the uttermost ends of the earth." On August 8, 1945, after the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, the four Allied Powers signed the London Agreement creating the International Military Tribunal for the trial of the major Nazi war criminals and the leading Nazi organizations. This Nuremberg Trial served as the model for subsequent proceedings against thousands of less prominent Nazi war criminals.
Despite the efforts of Simon Wiesenthal and others, decades would pass before the world's attention would again focus on bringing Nazi criminals to justice.
The defendants at Nuremberg, 1946. CL.NARA
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German Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Wilhelm Keitel, under interrogation at Nuremberg, 1946. CL:SWC
Herman Goering in conversation with prison psychologist, Dr. G.M. Gilbert, 1946. CL:NARA
Tens of thousands of Nazi war criminals escaped any form of justice. Many found refuge in the West. Altogether the three Western Allies convicted more than 5,000 Nazis, sentencing over 800 to death, and executing almost 500. Although no accurate figures are available, the Soviets probably convicted even more Nazi criminals.
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