Issue of the English newspaper Daily Sketch from November 22, 1945 - "The Greatest Trial in History" - First coverage of the trial of the main war criminals which opened the day before, held before an international military tribunal representing the four Allied powers: the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union prosecuting 22 leading figures of the Nazi regime, including Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe and one of Hitler's top advisors, Martin Bormann, secretary of the Nazi Party, who was tried in absentia, Joachim von Ribbentrop, German foreign minister during the Nazi regime, and Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy.
The newspaper reports that Chief Prosecutor Jackson of the United States holds 39 volumes exposing the Nazi plan to plunder Europe, alongside photos of Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess in the courtroom. The center pages of the newspaper present large photos from the courtroom showing the Nazi war criminals consulting with their lawyers and the prosecution team and gallery, stating: "Here is the whole dramatic scene at the greatest trial in history. In the Nuremberg courtroom the German war leaders are arraigned before an Allied tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity", and a detailed description of those photographed in the courtroom.
This was the first trial of the major war criminals, and the term "Nuremberg Trials" usually refers specifically to this trial which opened officially on November 20, 1945. It was the first time a universal judicial authority convened to judge war criminals. Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death. Among them, Martin Bormann, who was not in Allied custody at the time, was tried in absentia, and his sentence was never carried out. Hermann Göring committed suicide in his cell by swallowing a cyanide capsule just hours before his scheduled execution. The remaining ten defendants sentenced to death were hanged by the American executioner John Woods in the gymnasium adjacent to Nuremberg prison at midnight on October 16, 1946, and their bodies were cremated at Dachau concentration camp. The remaining defendants sentenced to prison terms served them at Spandau Prison in Berlin. Defendant Rudolf Hess, who claimed to be insane and remembered nothing, was the last survivor, committing suicide by hanging in his cell in 1987.
8 pages. 38 cm. Complete issue. Very good condition.
