A Collection of 15 Large Photographs from the Nuremberg Trials, Taken by U.S. Army Signal Corps Photographers for Internal Use. Nuremberg, 1946. Rare Photographs of the Unloading of Gold Plundered by the Nazis and Photos of Nazi War Criminals During the Reading of Their Sentences. Some of the Photos Are Stamped on the Back: “For Official Use Only, Not for Publication.” Some Are Described on the Back Typewritten.
These rare photographs from the courtroom at the Nuremberg Trials capture the Nazi war criminals who were brought to justice, including the prosecution and defense teams, judges, and others present. Among the images are rare photographs showing Allied soldiers unloading the gold stolen by the Nazis, which had been hidden in the Reichsbank vaults until August 6, 1946. Another photograph shows U.S. Army Signal Corps soldiers wearing gas masks as they unload crates of tear gas that the Germans had intended to destroy by sea or fire.
The photographs also feature key Nazi war criminals, including Hermann Göring, Commander of the Luftwaffe (considered the second most responsible after Hitler for the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews under the Nazi regime; he was sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials but committed suicide in his prison cell by swallowing a cyanide capsule before the sentence could be carried out); Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s personal secretary and later his deputy (considered one of the top figures in the Nazi hierarchy; he suffered from disorientation during the trial and claimed to have amnesia. In moments of clarity, he continued to support Hitler and his motives, showing no remorse for the Final Solution. Despite his mental state, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Spandau Prison in Berlin. The Soviet authorities prevented any possibility of early release. On August 17, 1987, at the age of 93, Hess was found dead in his cell, hanging from his neck); Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Armed Forces High Command (charged with conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, planning, initiating, and waging aggressive war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity; he defended himself by claiming he was “following orders, ” but this defense was rejected, and he was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to death by hanging. His request to be executed by firing squad was denied, and he was hanged in Nuremberg on October 16, 1946). Karl Dönitz, Commander of the German U-boat fleet and briefly President of Nazi Germany in the final week before its surrender, is pictured giving his final statement to the court before sentencing. Walther Emanuel Funk, one of the Nazi regime’s top officials, listens to the charges against him (he was charged with crimes against peace, planning, initiating, and waging aggressive war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity; he was found guilty on all charges except the first and sentenced to life imprisonment. Funk was held in Spandau Prison in Berlin until 1957 when he was released due to ill health. He died three years later); Albert Speer (a top member of the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler); Hans Fritzsche (Director of the Propaganda Ministry in Nazi Germany); Baldur von Schirach (Leader of the Hitler Youth) is shown delivering his statement to the judges (he was convicted as a war criminal on three counts at the Nuremberg Trials. During his trial, he expressed remorse and condemned Hitler and Nazism. Schirach attempted to demonstrate that he had protested to Martin Bormann about the extermination of the Jews, although he admitted that from a young age, he was a fanatical antisemite, influenced by reading Henry Ford’s The International Jew. He was found guilty of “conspiracy to commit aggressive war in violation of international agreements” and “crimes against humanity, ” and was sentenced to twenty years in Spandau Prison in Berlin); Ernst Kaltenbrunner (Chief of the Reich Main Security Office and head of the SD) and others. The photographs also show the packed courtroom, with a large audience present during the trials.
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals held in the city of Nuremberg, where Nazi war criminals were tried. The main trial was conducted before the International Military Tribunal against the leaders of the regime (the prosecuting countries v. Hermann Göring et al.), and a series of 12 subsequent trials were conducted before U.S. military tribunals, with 185 individuals brought to trial, of whom 142 were found guilty. Twenty-four were sentenced to death, twenty received life sentences, and the rest received various prison terms. The military trials addressed crimes committed by the Einsatzgruppen, the German High Command, physicians, industrialists, and other categories.
Photographs are of identical size: 21×25 cm. Very good condition.
