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War Crimes Before Ww2

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Introduction The Holocaust was the widespread persecution and extermination of groups, primarily Jewish people, considered inferior by the Nazis. This genocide lasted from the appointment of Adolf Hitler to become German Chancellor in 1933 until the end of World War II in 1945. During these times of war, many crimes against humanity were committed. One way to settle those scores was through the law. The Nuremburg Trials were an successful effort by the allied forces to punish the axis criminals for their wrongdoings during the time of war. War Crimes Before World War II The concept of the actions committed during times of war being considered crimes was relatively unheard of until World War II. The horrors of war dated back to ancient …show more content…

The first being conspiracy. This category included participating in plots to commit any of the following groups of crime. The second category: crimes against peace refers to the preparation, planning for, or waging of war. The third category is war crimes. This category includes many things, such as: intentionally causing the death of or causing harm to noncombatants independent of military need; killing or mistreatment of prisoners of war and hostages; mass demolition of cities and towns; unnecessary destruction, and the enslavement of civilians. The fourth and last category: crimes against humanity prohibits the slaying, enslavement, deportation, rape, or discrimination of any human based on political, ethnic, or spiritual, grounds. Genocide is also included in this category. It is the intentional effort to destroy an ethnic, religious, or national group by means of murdering or causing harm to members, attempting to prevent the reproduction of members within the group, and removing children of the group and forcing them to be a part of another group. The victims of genocide or chosen not by anything they have done, they are victimized simply because of their affiliation with said …show more content…

Before this case, there was a need to ascertain evidence “that a suspect had committed specific crimes against specific victims at a particular time and date”. Such specific evidence was hard to come by, nearly impossible this many years after the fact. As a result of this case, guards who worked at death camps, who were obviously knowing of the murder and crime within, even if they themselves did not participate in it firsthand, could be charged as being complicit in the crimes against humanity that took place

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