Subsequent Nuremberg trials
The subsequent Nuremberg trials were a series of twelve military tribunals for war crimes against members of the leadership of Nazi Germany, lasting from December 1946 to April 1949. They differed from the first trial in that they were conducted before U.S. military courts rather than the international courts that decided the future of the major Nazi leaders. These trials dealt with German industrialists accused of using slave labor and plundering occupied countries, and high-ranking army officers accused of atrocities against prisoners of war. The subsequent trials were held in the same location, at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg.
Background
Although it had been initially planned to hold more than just one international trial at the IMT, the growing differences between the victors of the second world war made this impossible. However, the Control Council Law No. 10, which the Allied Control Council had issued on 20 December 1945, empowered any of the occupying authorities to try suspected war criminals in their respective occupation zones. Based on this law, the U.S. authorities proceeded after the end of the initial Nuremberg Trial against the major war criminals to hold another twelve trials in Nuremberg. The judges in all these trials were American, and so were the prosecutors; the Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution was Brigadier General Telford Taylor. In the other occupation zones similar trials took place.Trials
The twelve U.S. trials before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals took place from 9 December 1946 to 13 April 1949. The trials were as follows:| # | Designations | Dates | Defendants |
| 1 | Doctors' Trial | 9 December 1946 – 20 August 1947 | 23 Nazi physicians of the Action T4 |
| 2 | Milch Trial | 2 January – 14 April 1947 | Field Marshal Erhard Milch of the Luftwaffe |
| 3 | Judges' Trial | 5 March – 4 December 1947 | 16 Nazi German "racial purity" jurists |
| 4 | Pohl Trial | 8 April – 3 November 1947 | Oswald Pohl and 17 SS officers |
| 5 | Flick Trial | 19 April – 22 December 1947 | Friedrich Flick and 5 directors of his companies |
| 6 | IG Farben Trial | 27 August 1947 – 30 July 1948 | 24 directors of IG Farben, maker of Zyklon B |
| 7 | Hostages Trial | 8 July 1947 – 19 February 1948 | 12 German generals of the Balkan Campaign |
| 8 | RuSHA Trial | 20 October 1947 – 10 March 1948 | 14 racial cleansing and resettlement officials |
| 9 | Einsatzgruppen Trial | 29 September 1947 – 10 April 1948 | 24 officers of Einsatzgruppen |
| 10 | Krupp Trial | 8 December 1947 – 31 July 1948 | 12 directors of the Krupp Group |
| 11 | Ministries Trial | 6 January 1948 – 13 April 1949 | 21 officials of Reich ministries |
| 12 | High Command Trial | 30 December 1947 – 28 October 1948 | 14 High Command generals |
Result
The Nuremberg process initiated 3,887 cases of which about 3,400 were dropped. 489 cases went to trial, involving 1,672 defendants. 1,416 of them were found guilty; less than 200 were executed, and another 279 defendants were sent to life in prison. By the 1950s almost all of them had been released.Many of the longer prison sentences were reduced substantially by decree of high commissioner John J. McCloy in 1951, and 10 outstanding death sentences from the Einsatzgruppen Trial were converted to prison terms. The same year, an amnesty released many of those who had received prison sentences.