Nuremberg 1996

Synopsis

On 20 November 1945, in what had once been the spiritual centre of the Nazi Empire, the first Nuremberg trial opened. Nuremberg examines the first trail in detail: the scale and speed of the US-led effort to place the Third Reich's leaders in the dock; the charges brought against them; the courtroom drama; the final judgements. Of the 21 defendants, three were acquitted, seven given jail sentences and the remaining eleven sentenced to death, among them Hitler's right-hand man, Hermann Goering. This programme also explores the twelve subsequent trials against the backdrop of the emerging Cold War and the shifting allegiances of allies and enemies in the immediate post-war period.