Those who have served their sentence: who of the defendants in the Nuremberg trials escaped execution

The Nuremberg trials ended on October 1, 1946, but not all of the defendants received death sentences or life sentences. Some of the former leaders of the Third Reich, found guilty of war crimes, spent years in prison and were subsequently released. Dmitry Surzhik, a specialist in the expert and analytical department of the National Center for Historical Memory under the President of the Russian Federation, clarified to Izvestia that it was the Soviet side that insisted on holding an open trial in order to expose the crimes of Nazism to the whole world. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

About denazification and almost repentance

After the verdict was announced, convicted Nazis ended up in Spandau prison. Dmitry Surzhik, Chief specialist of the expert and Analytical Department of the National Center for Historical Memory under the President of the Russian Federation, told how the Cold War affected this.

— The Nuremberg Tribunal was built on the basis of the statute adopted back in August 1945 at the London Conference, when representatives of the Soviet, French, British and American sides managed to agree on different approaches, — said Surzhik.

This is the continental approach, which was represented by the first two powers, and the Anglo-Saxon model of law.

— The testimony of the American judge Beagle, who later served as a judge on behalf of the American side in Nuremberg, has been preserved, who said that he was surprised that the Soviet side suddenly, as he decided, was acting on behalf of the accused. This is how he took the USSR's offer to provide the accused with the case materials in advance for review. And it was the Soviet side, as we remember, that insisted on holding an open public trial in order to reveal the crimes of Nazism to the whole world, to present them evidently, so that no one could later say that this was a trial of the victors over the vanquished," the historian explained.

The expert stressed that it was an adversarial, open, transparent trial, in which the defendants even launched a counterattack several times.

The question was how this legal system would be applied in the future for denazification. As the course of history and events related to the beginning of the Cold War have shown, denazification took place precisely under the pressure of representations from one side or another, which carried out the trials of the Nuremberg trials," said Surzhik.

Albert Speer

The case of Albert Speer, the former Minister of Armaments and Hitler's personal architect, was also widely discussed. He received twenty years in prison, although many prosecutors insisted on a heavier punishment. Speer was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including mistreatment of deported foreign workers and prisoners of war.

Speer positioned himself as a technocrat who did not participate in the ideological planning of crimes, and recognized moral responsibility. Among those convicted, he was the only one who did not apply for clemency. He left Spandau in 1966 and wrote several memoirs.

Rudolf Hess

SS and SA Oberngruppenfuhrer, as well as deputy Fuhrer for the NSDAP Rudolf Hess, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946 for crimes against peace and participation in the Nazi leadership. The Soviet judge I. Nikitchenko insisted on his death penalty. Hess served time in Berlin's Spandau prison as the only prisoner in recent years. In August 1987, Hess died in prison — according to the official version, he committed suicide, but the exact circumstances are unknown.

Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen

Franz von Papen was acquitted at the Nuremberg trials because the tribunal did not find sufficient grounds to convict him of war crimes. However, in 1947, the German denazification court recognized him as an "accomplice" of the Nazi regime and sentenced him to eight months in prison. In the following years, he tried unsuccessfully to enter politics, published books and memoirs.

Erich Johann Albert Raeder

Grand Admiral Erich Raeder was sentenced to life in prison at the Nuremberg trials and applied for a commutation of his prison sentence to death by firing squad. In 1955, he was released early for health reasons after almost nine years in prison. He spent the rest of his life in Germany, receiving an admiral's pension from the government.

Hans Fritsche

Hans Fritsche, a radio presenter and journalist who became head of the radio broadcasting department of the Ministry of Public Education and Propaganda, was acquitted at the Nuremberg trials because the court did not find sufficient evidence of his personal responsibility for the crimes of Nazi propaganda. After his release, he appeared before a denationalization court in 1947 and was sentenced to nine years. Three years later, he was released early. Fritsche died of cancer in 1953.

Yalmar Horace Greeley Schacht

The former Minister of Economy and president of the Reichsbank, Hjalmar Schacht, was acquitted despite the protest of a Soviet judge, but subsequently appeared before a German court on other charges, from which he was released. In 1947, as a result of denazification, he was sentenced to eight years in prison, but was released early a year later for health reasons. Later, Schacht worked in the banking sector of Germany.

Walter Emanuel Funk

The president of the Reichsbank, Walter Funk, was sentenced to life in prison by the Nuremberg Tribunal for participating in the economic policy of the Nazi regime, including for using forced labor and organizing the legalization of funds received from concentration camp prisoners. He served time in Spandau prison, but was released in 1957 for health reasons. Funk died in 1960 in Dusseldorf.

Baldur von Schirach

Baldur von Schirach, the head of the Hitler Youth organization and Gauleiter of Vienna, became another of those who were released. He served twenty years for crimes against humanity, including mistreatment of the population of the occupied territories and organizing the Holocaust. After being released from prison in 1966, he published his memoirs in 1967. Baldur's wife divorced him and was deprived of parental rights. The couple's children grew up and were brought up in boarding schools and orphanages.

Gustav Georg Friedrich Maria Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach

Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was not convicted by the Nuremberg Tribunal: despite being charged on all counts, he was declared unfit for trial due to a serious illness and senile dementia caused by a stroke in 1943. Krupp died in 1950.

Konstantin von Neurath and Karl Doenitz

Konstantin von Neurath and Karl Doenitz received shorter sentences. The first, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Reichsprotektor of Bohemia Moravia, was sentenced to fifteen years on all counts. It was found that the punitive organs were not under the control of Neurath. He was released early in 1954 on medical grounds.

Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, who commanded the naval forces and briefly served as head of state after Hitler's suicide, was sentenced to ten years in prison for committing war crimes, in particular, waging unrestricted submarine warfare. He was released in 1956 and lived in seclusion in the small village of Aumule, in Schleswig-Holstein in northern West Germany, having received a captain's pension from the German government.

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