Examining the Nuremberg trials for Nazi war criminals

NARRATOR: Nuremburg, November, 1945 - The ceremonial birthplace of the Nazi party is in ruins. Now it is the showplace of an international tribunal against the crimes of the Nazi regime. Twenty-four major war criminals are put on trial. Barely anyone admits his guilt, let alone claims to have known about the crimes. The Allied military tribunal and the American chief prosecutor want to showcase the injustice of the Nazis. The accusation: crimes against humanity.

ROBERT JACKSON: "The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored."

NARRATOR: Few symbolize the crimes of the regime like Hermann Göring – Hitler's second in command. He is responsible for waging wars of aggression and constructing the first concentration camp. But he shows no remorse.

HERMANN GORING: "In the sense of these charges, not guilty."

WHITNEY HARRIS: "Because here was the leader of the group of defendants and here was the man who was going to defend Hitler, Hitlerism, Nazism, the whole debacle."

GORING: "I have never expressed my agreement that one race should be designated as master over another."

NARRATOR: A harrowing moment in the trial - the Soviet counsel presents film footage of the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

RICHARD SONNENFELDT: "The effect of this film was terrible. It was terrible on everybody in the courtroom. Some openly wept, averted their faces, refused to see them. And when the lights came on, Göring said in a loud voice, 'Well, this is just a piece of propaganda like Goebbels could have made.'"

NARRATOR: Only one shows remorse: Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and Minister of Armaments. But he denies his own guilt. Not even his involvement in the use of concentration camp prisoners and forced laborers.

GITTA SERENY: "He sensed his worst and saddest guilt in his endorsement of the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews. But, of course, if he had said this in Nuremberg, he would have been hanged."

NARRATOR: After almost a year of proceedings, the judgments. For Hermann Göring, General Keitel and 10 other defendants: death by hanging. Hitler's Deputy Leader Rudolf Hess receives life imprisonment. The judges pronounce a milder sentence on Albert Speer: 20 years imprisonment. In 1966 he is free. Hermann Göring eludes conviction by committing suicide. Many collaborators and accomplices of the Nazi regime will never go to trial. But the Allied powers show the world that such crimes against humanity will not be condoned.