JF Ptak Science Books     Post 2510

In all of the reading that I have done about WWII, I haven’t done that much on the war crimes trials and tribunals afterwards, save for Goering, Schacht, and several of the companies/industries like I.G.Fraben–still, I think I’ve never seen a diagram of the seating arrangement at Nuremberg.  But here one is, in this small pamphlet introducing the International Military Tribunal printed by military order in 1946.  

We have all seen images from the newsreels shown in documentaries, which seems to give the physical auditorium a rather large feel–with this diagram, and seeing how closely the accused Nazis sat next to each other, the proceedings looked as though they took place in a rather not-large space.  

More to the point though is the detail which I’ve segregated above.  These are seat assignments along benches for  the Nazis being adjudicated for war crimes.  The diagrams make the seating arrangements look segmented, by they are not. (The key to the seating arrangements is reproduced below.)

There are 21 names associated with those space, 21 of the most infamous names in the Nazi regime; 11 would receive the death penalty; 3 would receive life, 4 would receive various sentences of 10-20 years, and 3 would be found not guilty. 

For the record, and in order as they appear on  the list below:  Goering, death; Hess, life; Ribbentrop, death; Keitel, death; Keltenbrunner, death; Rosenberg, death; Hess, death; Frick, death; Streicher, death; Funk, life; Schacht, noty guilty; Doeniotz, 10 years; Raider, life; von Schirach, 20 years; Saukel, death; Jodl, death; von Papen, not guilty; Seyss, death; Speer, 20 years; Neurath, 15 years; Fritsche, not guilty. 

Here’s a photo of the seated group from above, Goering (#13) is seated at bottom left center, head in hand.  He would soon be dead by his own hand.  

[Source:  https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/nurtrialtoc.html]

I’ve not had anything to say about the Nuremberg Trials ebcause I think that everyone coming here already knows enough about them to appreciate this “map”.