Well...I just spent maybe half an hour or so exploring pictures I could potentially post here from the Nuremberg Trials. In my searches, I stumbled upon this site which disputes the credibility of charges of inhumane medical experiments being carried out by Nazi doctors. In fact, it does much more than that. It says that the Jews completely fabricated the charges and that people hung because of these lies. Further exploration of the site led me to a page which depicts Auschwitz as a livable, humane place complete with an orchestra, dental facilities, a brothel, and a daycare center. This is really what makes my stomach turn. I honestly feel sick to my stomach, but I'll try to say something.
Today in class, we discussed the Nuremberg Trials: their legitimacy, rationale, and effects afterward. I tend to agree with Liz on this one when she says that, "Though we're uncomfortable with the "victors" deciding what is right and what is wrong, the horrible crimes involved were not just German crimes, but human ones, and thus the determination and trial of these crimes should involve the whole world." What still irks me is the fact that "the whole world" was really only the victorious countries. Briefly in class we debated the hypocrisy in trying Nazis for war crimes when the U.S. itself had firebombed civilians in Germany and dropped atomic bombs on Japan. Sadly, while ideologically it's completely outrageous that they/we shouldn't have been put on trial for this, it's not as if the tribunal was about to point the finger at its creating countries. So the tribunal at Nuremberg wasn't a "world tribunal," so the system was imperfect. Does that make it any less necessary?
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