BERLIN – Seventy-five years ago, the dock of Courtroom 600 of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice was packed with some of the most nefarious figures of the 20th Century: Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop and 18 other high-ranking Nazis.They weren’t yet known as war criminals — it was a charge that didn’t exist until the Nuremberg trials began on Nov.
20, 1945, in what is now seen as the birthplace of a new era of international law. The proceedings broke new ground in holding government leaders individually responsible for their aggression and slaughter of millions of innocents.
In addition to establishing the offense of war crimes, it also produced the charges of crimes against peace, waging a war of aggression, and crimes.