The sheer scale of the crimes committed by the Germans during the war made free world public opinion demand swift punishment of all the perpetrators. Already during the war, Allied governments announced that those responsible for crimes committed in German occupied Europe would be brought to justice. For instance, on 13 January 1942, alarmed by reports of the mass extermination of Jews, representatives of nine Allied states issued a written declaration, warning the German authorities of grave consequences if they did not abstain from their criminal policy.

At the same time special institutions were created to gather materials regarding Nazi crimes. By the end of the war, a legal basis was worked out for the future prosecution of the perpetrators. Thus, three main crimes were defined: 1. crimes against peace (planning and inflicting of war), 2. war crimes (violating international treaties and conventions ratified by Germany) and 3. crimes against humanity (murder, exploitation of slave labour, robbery of property and general persecution of civilians for racial and political reasons). It is not by chance that the main trial of Nazi criminals was held in Nuremberg, the city where in 1935 the Nazis announced their well-known racist laws. The trial prepared by the International Military Tribunal was held against twenty-two German political, military and economic leaders.

In subsequent years 12 more trials were held in Nuremberg including cases against the personnel of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office headed by Oswald Pohl, members of Einsatzgruppen, physicians who had carried out pseudo-medical experiments on prisoners, management of the IG Farben group (German chemical firms that on a massive scale exploited concentration camp prisoners and other slave labourers), and against members of the Nazi judicial system.

These trials ended in 1949 with the conviction of 177 Nazi criminals in total, including 25 death sentences, 20 life sentences, 97 long-term sentences and 35 acquittals. At this point it should be mentioned, that while Allied courts issued in total 806 death sentences, only slightly above half of these were carried out because many of those convicted were subsequently pardoned. Analysis of the witness testimonies and many documents gathered for the trials shows that although the so-called ‘Jewish question’ was crucial for the Nazi ideology and policies, this was not reflected in the court verdicts. Furthermore, there is no doubt that the Holocaust had a significant impact on the perception of genocide and on the attitude towards genocide today.

• Consider the issues of guilt and punishment for war crimes, especially with regard to the Holocaust.
  
• How do you understand the concept of responsibility in the context of the Holocaust?
  
• Should those held responsible be limited to persons holding the highest offices of state?
  

An enormous role in the spreading of knowledge about the Holocaust was played by the trial of Adolf Eichmann, held in Jerusalem in the years 1961‒1962. Eichmann was the main coordinator for the implementation of the ‘final solution to the Jewish question’—the plan to murder all the Jews in Europe. His trial provided an opportunity to summarise the persecution and murder of Jews. It should be mentioned that trials of Nazi war criminals and their collaborators were also held in other countries, including France, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and Poland. The most famous trials were those of: Joseph Darmond, the founder of a collaborationist French militia, responsible for the deportation of thousands of French Jews (1945); Philippe Pétain, accused, among other things, of collaboration with the Third Reich (1945); Pierre Laval, creator of the collaborationist Milice responsible for the deportation to concentration camps of over 35,000 Jews (1945); Amon Göth, commandant of Cracow-Plaszow concentration camp (1946); Fr. Josef Tiso, President of Slovakia, who agreed for the deportation of Slovak Jews (1947); Jürgen Stroop, responsible for the bloody suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1947).

The trials of the war criminals continued in the years that followed. To this day at least 5,000 war criminals have been executed, and some 10,000 have received prison sentences. It has been estimated that at least as many have escaped justice, but the ultimate number of functionaries convicted for their role in the Holocaust is not yet known. This is because genocide crimes are not time-barred and many trials are still ongoing.

• Read Hannah Arendt’s book Eichmann or watch the film Hannah Arendt and explain why she aroused such interest in public opinion around the world.