Janner Recalls Nuremberg Trials

by Alex Sholem - Thursday 24th November 2005


As ceremonies were held this week to mark the 60th anniversary of the Nuremberg trails, a British peer who was present at the hearings said the world had still not learnt its lesson.

Recalling the experience, Lord Janner, who was an 18-year-old official with the War Crimes Group, told TJ: “I sat listening in the courtroom, wondering how human beings could commit such hideous offences.

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He added: “Why was there such a thirst to provide justice for those who so cruelly deprived it from others? Churchill favoured executing accused Nazis without trial, not wanting to give a platform to the Nazis to defend their actions and to spread their message of hate.

“But Roosevelt and later Truman argued passionately in favour of public trials, so that the world would hear of the crimes that these people committed. Stalin and De Gaulle agreed and Churchill eventually backed down. So Nuremberg became a crucial reality.”

The Nazis received honest and fair trials. Proof: that three of the defendants were aquitted. The rest were imprisoned or hanged.”

But he maintained the world had not learnt enough from its example, saying: “From the former Yugoslavia to Rwanda, from Sierra Leone to Darfur, mass murders have continued.

“We must remember the evil past, both to recognise it in the present and to strive to prevent it in the future.”

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