Orion Griffin: Today in history: The Nuremberg indictment

Oct. 18—On October 18, 1945, 24 Nazi officials and organization leaders were indicted for their participation in crimes against humanity.

The indictment was delivered by four chief prosecutors from four countries; Robert H. Jackson of the United States, Sir Hartley Shawcross of Great Britain, Francois de Menthon of France and Roman A. Rudenko of the Soviet Union. The formal accusation of the crime was for what the Allies found as they moved through Nazi-occupied Europe, consisting of murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and persecuting those on racial, religious, or political backgrounds. They were on trial for the Holocaust.

The Holocaust, led by the Nazi Party, took millions of lives. Six million of those lives were Jewish, the rest (a debated number, but many say around five million) consisting of Roma Gypsies, Jehovah's Witness and LGBTQ+. political and religious resisters and black people. They killed Polish and Slavic people, Ukrainians and anyone they deemed a threat to the "German race." They committed horrors such as the T4 Program, a program that killed mentally and physically disabled children and adults. Others such as the "scientific" experiments that went on in the camps, such as those performed by the "Angel of Death," Josef Mengele.

They were on trial for slave labor used in the camps and ghettos, the outright murder of Poles and Jews across occupied Poland and the crematoriums and gas chambers of the concentration camps. Members of the Nazi Party, high-ranking German business owners and many everyday German people were aware of what was happening. Those responsible had to face the consequences of their inhumane actions.

Before the trial began on November 20, there were already several party members who committed suicide. These included Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels (the party's chief propagandist) and Heinrich Himmler (the architect of the Holocaust). A day before the trial, Robert Ley, head of the German Labor Front, committed suicide as well.

The trial found 19 guilty, acquitting three of the 21 people on trial. During the trial, evidence of the Nazis initiating a war was found, alongside footage of concertation camps, murder of prisoners of war and the plan to the Final Solution were brought to light.

On October 16, 1946, 12 of the 19 found guilty were sentenced to death. Three received life in prison and four received 10-20 years in prison for their crimes. Only 11 were executed, since Herman Göring (political and military leader) committed suicide before his execution scheduled for October 16, 1946. The rest were sent to Spandau Prison in Berlin, Germany.

Other trials followed as more than 150 Nazi officials and party members were found over the years, They received sentences from death to a few years in prison. Unfortunately, many of those who should have faced repercussions for their actions were able to escape, such as Josef Mengele. Thankfully, his remains were exhumed from São Paulo, Brazil, in 1985, but the same cannot be said for those such as Yaroslav Hunka, who was recently praised in Canada's parliament.

It is important to remember the horrors committed by the Nazi Party and those who were complicit with the party. There is no place for Nazi supporters and sympathizers in a civilized society.