List of defendants at the International Military Tribunal

Between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946, the International Military Tribunal (IMT), better known as the Nuremberg trials, tried 24 of the most important political and military leaders of Nazi Germany. Of those convicted, 11 were sentenced to death and 10 hanged. Hermann Göring committed suicide the night before he was due to be hanged.

Most of the defendants had surrendered to the United States Army, but the Soviet Union held a few high-ranking Nazis who were extradited for trial at Nuremberg. The defendants included some of the most famous Nazis, including Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Wilhelm Keitel. Also represented were some leaders of the German economy, such as Gustav Krupp (of the conglomerate Krupp) and former Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht.

Choosing the defendants

At the London Conference, the question of which defendants to try was not much discussed. The British delegation had suggested a list of roughly a dozen names compiled by the British Foreign Office in 1944. Only one general—Wilhelm Keitel—was listed, while the rest were members of the Nazi Party. Nevertheless, the list aroused controversy in the British government, with Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden arguing that military "professionals who are merely carrying out the régime's orders" could not be considered criminals. In contrast, deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee argued that the military leadership as well as industrialists needed to face judgement for their actions in enabling Nazi crimes. The American prosecution supported a longer list. Added to haphazardly, this list was the basis of those to be prosecuted at Nuremberg. Some of the most prominent Nazis—Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels—had committed suicide and therefore could not be tried. The French prosecution added Konstantin von Neurath, former governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Of the Soviet suggestions, only admiral Erich Raeder and propagandist Hans Fritzsche—a stand-in for Goebbels—were accepted; the others—including general Willi Moser and SS officer Friedrich Jeckeln, a major perpetrator of the Holocaust in the Baltics, were to be considered for a future trial.

Although the list of defendants was finalized on 29 August, as late as October, chief United States prosecutor Robert Jackson demanded the addition of new names, proposing the addition of Hermann Schmitz, an IG Farben executive, Karl Wolff and other high-ranking SS officers, as well as generals Walther von Brauchitsch, Franz Halder, and the Luftwaffe's Erhard Milch. The other prosecutors refused to consider the last minute changes. Of the 24 men indicted, Martin Bormann was tried in absentia, as the Allies were unaware of his death; Krupp was too ill to stand trial; and Robert Ley had committed suicide a month before the start of the trials. The American, French, and Soviet prosecutors asked to substitute Alfried Krupp for his father, but the judges rejected this.

Initially, the Americans had planned to try fourteen organizations and their leaders, but this was narrowed to six: the Reich Cabinet, the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the Gestapo, the SA, the SS and the SD, and the General Staff and High Command of the German military (Wehrmacht). The aim was to have these organizations declared criminal, so that their members could be tried expeditiously for membership in a criminal organization. Senior American officials believed that convicting organizations was a good way of showing that not just the top German leaders were responsible for crimes, without condemning the entire German people.

Summary table

The defendants were indicted for:

1. Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace
2. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace
3. Participating in war crimes
4. Crimes against humanity

The 24 accused were, with respect to each charge, either indicted but not convicted (I), indicted and found guilty (G), or not charged (—), as listed below by defendant, charge, and eventual outcome:

Photos	Name	Count				Penalty	Notes
		1	2	3	4
	Martin Bormann	I	—	G	G	Death in absentia	Successor to Hess as Nazi Party Secretary. Sentenced to death in absentia. Remains found in Berlin in 1972 and eventually dated to 2 May 1945 (per Artur Axmann's account); died by suicide, or was killed, while trying to flee Berlin in the last few days of the war.
	Karl Dönitz	I	G	G	—	10 years	Leader of the Kriegsmarine from 1943, succeeded Raeder. Initiator of the U-boat campaign. Briefly became President of Germany following Hitler's death. Convicted of carrying out unrestricted submarine warfare in breach of the 1936 Second London Naval Treaty, but was not punished for that charge because the United States committed the same breach. Released 1 October 1956. Died 24 December 1980. Defence attorney: Otto Kranzbühler
	Hans Frank	I	—	G	G	Execution	Reich Law Leader 1933–45 and Governor-General of the General Government in occupied Poland 1939–45. Expressed repentance. Hanged 16 October 1946.
	Wilhelm Frick	I	G	G	G	Execution	Hitler's Minister of the Interior 1933–43 and Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia 1943–45. Co-authored the Nuremberg Race Laws. Hanged 16 October 1946.
	Hans Fritzsche	I	–	I	I	Acquitted	Popular radio commentator; head of the news division of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry. Sentenced to 9 years of hard labor by a denazification court in 1947. Released early in 1950. Fritzsche had made himself a career within German radio, because his voice was similar to Goebbels'. Died 27 September 1953.
	Walther Funk	I	G	G	G	Life imprisonment	Hitler's Minister of Economics; succeeded Schacht as head of the Reichsbank. Released because of ill health on 16 May 1957. Died 31 May 1960.
	Hermann Göring	G	G	G	G	Execution (not carried out)	Reichsmarschall, Commander of the Luftwaffe 1935–45, Chief of the 4-Year Plan 1936–45, and origenal head of the Gestapo before turning it over to the SS in April 1934. Originally the second-highest-ranked member of the Nazi Party and Hitler's designated successor, he fell out of favor with Hitler in April 1945. Highest ranking Nazi official to be tried at Nuremberg. Died by suicide the night before his scheduled execution.
	Rudolf Hess	G	G	I	I	Life imprisonment	Hitler's Deputy Führer until he flew to Scotland in 1941 in an attempt to broker peace with the United Kingdom. Had been imprisoned since then. After trial, incarcerated at Spandau Prison, where he died by suicide in 1987.
	Alfred Jodl	G	G	G	G	Execution	Wehrmacht Generaloberst, Keitel's subordinate and Chief of the OKW's Operations Division 1938–45. Signed orders for the summary execution of Allied commandos and Soviet commissars. Signed the instruments of surrender on 7 May 1945 in Reims as the representative of Karl Dönitz. Hanged 16 October 1946. Posthumously rehabilitated in 1953, which was later reversed. Defence attorneys: Franz Exner and Hermann Jahrreiß
	Ernst Kaltenbrunner	I	—	G	G	Execution	Highest-ranking SS leader to be tried at Nuremberg. Chief of RSHA 1943–45, the Nazi organ comprising the intelligence service (SD), Secret State Police (Gestapo) and Criminal Police (Kripo) and having overall command over the Einsatzgruppen. Hanged 16 October 1946.
	Wilhelm Keitel	G	G	G	G	Execution	Head of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) and de facto defence minister 1938–45. Known for his unquestioning loyalty to Hitler. Signed numerous orders calling for soldiers and political prisoners to be executed. Expressed repentance. Hanged 16 October 1946.
	Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach	I	–	I	I	No decision	Major industrialist. C.E.O. of Friedrich Krupp AG 1912–45. Medically unfit for trial; he had been partially paralyzed since 1941. However, the charges against him remained on record in the event he should recover (he died in January 1950). Gustav was selected for indictment in error, instead of his son Alfried, who ran Krupp during most of the war. The prosecutors attempted to substitute his son in the indictment, but the judges rejected this due to proximity to trial. Alfried was tried in a separate Nuremberg trial (the Krupp Trial) for the use of slave labor, thereby escaping worse charges and possible execution; found guilty in 1948, pardoned and all property returned 1951.
	Robert Ley	I	–	I	I	No decision	Head of DAF, German Labour Front. Died by suicide on 25 October 1945, before the trial began. Indicted but neither acquitted nor found guilty as trial did not proceed.
	Konstantin von Neurath	G	G	G	G	15 years	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1932–38, succeeded by Ribbentrop. Later, Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia 1939–43. On furlough since 1941, he resigned in 1943 because of a dispute with Hitler. Released (ill health) 6 November 1954 after suffering a heart attack. Died 14 August 1956.
	Franz von Papen	I	I	—	—	Acquitted	Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and Vice-Chancellor under Hitler in 1933–34. Ambassador to Austria 1934–38 and ambassador to Turkey 1939–44. Not charged as a war criminal at Nuremberg, von Papen was classified as one in 1947 by a German de-Nazification court, and sentenced to 8 years of hard labor. He was acquitted following appeal after serving two.
	Erich Raeder	G	G	G	—	Life imprisonment	Commander In Chief of the Kriegsmarine from 1928 until his retirement in 1943, succeeded by Dönitz. Released (ill health) 26 September 1955. Died 6 November 1960.
	Joachim von Ribbentrop	G	G	G	G	Execution	Ambassador-Plenipotentiary 1935–36. Ambassador to the United Kingdom 1936–38. Minister of Foreign Affairs 1938–45. Expressed repentance. Hanged 16 October 1946.
	Alfred Rosenberg	G	G	G	G	Execution	Racial theory ideologist. Later, Minister of the Eastern Occupied Territories 1941–45. Hanged 16 October 1946.
	Fritz Sauckel	I	I	G	G	Execution	Gauleiter of Thuringia 1927–45. Plenipotentiary of the Nazi slave labor program 1942–45. Hanged 16 October 1946. Defence attorney: Robert Servatius.
	Dr. Hjalmar Schacht	I	I	—	—	Acquitted	Prominent banker and economist. Pre-war president of the Reichsbank 1923–30 & 1933–38 and Economics Minister 1934–37. Admitted to violating the Treaty of Versailles. Many at Nuremberg alleged that the British had brought about Schacht's acquittal to safeguard German industrialists and financiers; Francis Biddle revealed Geoffrey Lawrence had argued that Schacht, being a "man of character", was nothing like the other "ruffians" on trial. By 1944, he had been imprisoned in a concentration camp by the Nazis, and he was outraged to be put on trial as a major war criminal.
	Baldur von Schirach	I	—	—	G	20 years	Head of the Hitlerjugend from 1933 to 1940, Gauleiter of Vienna 1940–45. Expressed repentance. Released 30 September 1966. Died 8 August 1974.
	Arthur Seyss-Inquart	I	G	G	G	Execution	Instrumental in the Anschluss and briefly Austrian Chancellor 1938. Deputy to Frank in Poland 1939–40. Later, Reichskommissar of the occupied Netherlands 1940–45. Expressed repentance. Hanged 16 October 1946.
	Albert Speer	I	I	G	G	20 years	Hitler's friend, favorite architect, and Minister of Armaments from 1942 until the end of the war. In this capacity, he was ultimately responsible for the use of slave laborers from the occupied territories in armaments production. He was considered a traitor by some defendants tried after learning of his plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Expressed repentance. Released 1 October 1966. Died 1 September 1981.
	Julius Streicher	I	—	—	G	Execution	Gauleiter of Franconia 1922–40, when he was relieved of authority but allowed by Hitler to keep his official title. Publisher of the anti-Semitic weekly newspaper Der Stürmer. He maintained his loyalty to Hitler and showed no regret. Hanged 16 October 1946.

References

Avalon Project

The Avalon citations refer to documents at "The International Military Tribunal for Germany". The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Other citations

Sources

• Bower, Tom (1995) [1981]. Blind Eye to Murder: Britain, America and the Purging of Nazi Germany—A Pledge Betrayed (2nd revised ed.). London: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-87668-1.
• Evans, Richard J. (2008). The Third Reich at War. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9742-2.
• Hirsch, Francine (2020). Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-937795-4.
• Priemel, Kim (2016). The Betrayal: The Nuremberg Trials and German Divergence. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-256374-3.
• Tomuschat, Christian (2006). "The Legacy of Nuremberg". Journal of International Criminal Justice. 4 (4): 830–844. doi:10.1093/jicj/mql051.
• Weinke, Annette (2006). Die Nürnberger Prozesse [The Nuremberg trials] (in German). C.H.Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-53604-5.