considered as the location for the trial.

[15] The Soviet Union had wanted the trials to take place in

Berlin, as the capital city of the 'fascist conspirators', [15] but Nuremberg was chosen as the site for two
reasons, with the first one having been the decisive factor: [16]

1. The Palace of Justice was spacious and largely undamaged (one of the few buildings that
had remained largely intact through extensive Allied bombing of Germany), and a large
prison was also part of the complex.
2. Nuremberg was considered the ceremonial birthplace of the Nazi Party. It had hosted the
Party's annual propaganda rallies[15] and the Reichstag session that passed the Nuremberg
Laws.[16] Thus it was considered a fitting place to mark the Party's symbolic demise.
As a compromise with the Soviets, it was agreed that while the location of the trial would be
Nuremberg, Berlin would be the official home of the Tribunal authorities. [17][18][19] It was also agreed that
France would become the permanent seat of the IMT[20] and that the first trial (several were planned)
would take place in Nuremberg.[17][19]
Most of the accused had previously been detained at Camp Ashcan, a processing station and
interrogation center in Luxembourg, and were moved to Nuremberg for the trial.

Participants[edit]
Each of the four countries provided one judge and an alternative, as well as a prosecutor.

Judges sitting in Nuremberg, from left to right: Volchkov, Nikitchenko, Birkett, Sir Geoffrey

Lawrence, Biddle, Parker, Donnedieu de Vabres and Falco
Judges[edit]

 Major General Iona Nikitchenko (Soviet main)

 Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Volchkov (Soviet alternate)
 Colonel Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, Lord Justice (British main), President of the Tribunal
 Sir Norman Birkett (British alternate)
 Francis Biddle (American main)
 John J. Parker (American alternate)
 Edward Francis Carter (American alternate)
 Professor Henri Donnedieu de Vabres (French main)
 Robert Falco (French alternate)
Chief prosecutors[edit]

 Attorney General Sir Hartley Shawcross (United Kingdom)

 Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson (United States)
 Lieutenant-General Roman Andreyevich Rudenko (Soviet Union)
 François de Menthon, later replaced by Auguste Champetier de Ribes (France)
Assisting Jackson were the lawyers Telford Taylor,[21] William S. Kaplan[22] and Thomas J. Dodd,
and Richard Sonnenfeldt, a US Army interpreter. Assisting Shawcross were Major Sir David
Maxwell-Fyfe and Sir John Wheeler-Bennett. Mervyn Griffith-Jones, who was later to become
famous as the chief prosecutor in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial, was also on
Shawcross's team. Shawcross also recruited a young barrister, Anthony Marreco, who was the son
of a friend of his, to help the British team with the heavy workload.
Defence counsel[edit]
The vast majority of the defense attorneys were German lawyers.[23] These included Georg
Fröschmann, Heinz Fritz (Hans Fritzsche), Otto Kranzbühler (Karl Dönitz), Otto Pannenbecker
(Wilhelm Frick), Alfred Thoma (Alfred Rosenberg), Kurt Kauffmann (Ernst Kaltenbrunner), Hans
Laternser (general staff and high command), Franz Exner (Alfred Jodl), Alfred Seidl (Hans Frank),
Otto Stahmer (Hermann Göring), Walter Ballas (Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach), Hans
Flächsner (Albert Speer), Günther von Rohrscheidt (Rudolf Hess), Egon Kubuschok (Franz von
Papen), Robert Servatius (Fritz Sauckel), Fritz Sauter (Joachim von Ribbentrop), Walther Funk
(Baldur von Schirach), Hanns Marx (Julius Streicher), Otto Nelte (Wilhelm Keitel), and Herbert
Kraus/Rudolph Dix (both working for Hjalmar Schacht). The main counsel were supported by a total
of 70 assistants, clerks and lawyers.[24] The defense witnesses included several men who took part in
war crimes themselves during World War II, such as Rudolf Höss. The men testifying for the defense
hoped to receive more lenient sentences.[clarification needed] All of the men testifying on behalf of the defense
were found guilty on several counts.[25][dubious  –  discuss]

The defendants in the dock, guarded by American Military Police

The trial[edit]
The International Military Tribunal was opened on 19 November 1945 in the Palace of Justice in
Nuremberg.[26][27] The first session was presided over by the Soviet judge, Nikitchenko. The
prosecution entered indictments against 24 major war criminals and seven organizations – the
leadership of the Nazi party, the Reich Cabinet, the Schutzstaffel (SS), Sicherheitsdienst (SD),
the Gestapo, the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the "General Staff and High Command", comprising
several categories of senior military officers.[avalon 1] These organizations were to be declared "criminal"
if found guilty.
The indictments were for:

1. Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against

peace
2. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace
3. Participating in War crimes
4. Crimes against humanity