Editing Nuremberg trials (section)

==Origin==
[[File:Selection on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1944 (Auschwitz Album) 1b.jpg|thumb|Jews arriving at [[Auschwitz concentration camp]], 1944. According to legal historian [[Kirsten Sellars]], the [[extermination camp]]s "formed the moral core of the Allies' case against the Nazi leaders".{{sfn|Sellars|2010|p=1092}}]]
Between 1939 and 1945, [[Nazi Germany]] [[European theatre of World War II|invaded many European countries]], including [[invasion of Poland|Poland]], [[German invasion of Denmark (1940)|Denmark]], [[Norwegian campaign|Norway]], [[German invasion of the Netherlands|the Netherlands]], [[German invasion of Belgium (1940)|Belgium]],  [[German invasion of Luxembourg|Luxembourg]], [[Battle of France|France]], [[invasion of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], [[German invasion of Greece|Greece]], and the [[Operation Barbarossa|Soviet Union]].{{sfn|Sayapin|2014|pp=151–159}} German [[war of aggression|aggression]] was accompanied by immense brutality in occupied areas;{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=27–28}} war losses in the Soviet Union alone [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|included 27 million dead]], mostly civilians, which was one seventh of the prewar population.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=56}} The legal reckoning was premised on the extraordinary nature of Nazi criminality, particularly the [[Holocaust uniqueness debate|perceived singularity]] of  [[The Holocaust|the systematic murder of millions of Jews]].{{sfn|Sellars|2010|p=1092}}

The first step towards the trials of Nazi war criminals were initiatives taken by the governments-in-exile of countries occupied by Germany, especially [[Polish government-in-exile|Poland]], which as early as December 1939 established agencies aimed at recording crimes committed by Germany in Poland for their later prosecution.{{sfn|Machcewicz|Paczkowski|2021|p=43}} These efforts resulted in a Polish-French-British declaration on April 18, 1940, holding Germany responsible for the crimes, without an explicit promise of their prosecution.{{sfn|Machcewicz|Paczkowski|2021|p=44}} Such a promise was included in a declaration by the occupied countries in November 1941, gathered at a conference organized on Poland's initiative.{{sfn|Machcewicz|Paczkowski|2021|p=43–44}} Another conference, held in January 1942, saw the participation of observers from the USSR, US, China, and the United Kingdom. It adopted [[Punishment for War Crimes|a declaration]] promising to punish both direct perpetrators and their superiors, which later became the basis of the Nuremberg system. The Inter-Allied Commission on the Punishment of War Crimes was also established at that time.{{sfn|Machcewicz|Paczkowski|2021|p=44}} The United States and United Kingdom refused to endorse this proposal, citing the failure of [[War crimes trials after World War I|war crimes prosecutions]] after [[World War I]].{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=22}}{{sfn|Priemel|2016|pp=32, 64}} 

Pressures, primarily from Poland and Czechoslovakia, led the British to take concrete steps in the area of prosecuting German crimes. The London-based [[United Nations War Crimes Commission]]—without Soviet participation—first met in October 1943 and became bogged down in the scope of its mandate, with Belgian jurist [[Marcel de Baer]] and Czech legal scholar [[Bohuslav Ečer]] arguing for a broader definition of [[war crime]]s that would include "the crime of war".{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=64}}{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=30–31}} On 1 November 1943, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and United States issued the [[Moscow Declaration]], warning the Nazi leadership of the signatories' intent to "pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth...in order that justice may be done".{{sfn|Heller|2011|p=9}} The declaration stated that those high-ranking Nazis who had committed crimes in several countries would be dealt with jointly, while others would be tried where they had committed their crimes.{{sfn|Heller|2011|p=9}}{{sfn|Gemählich|2019|loc=paragraph 4}}{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=64}}

Soviet jurist [[Aron Trainin]] developed the concept of [[crimes against peace]] (waging [[aggressive war]]) which would later be central to the proceedings at Nuremberg.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=8}}{{sfn|Sellars|2013|pp=49–50}} Trainin's ideas were reprinted in the West and widely adopted.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=31, 36, 54}}{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=63}} Of all the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]], the Soviet Union lobbied most intensely for trying the defeated German leaders for aggression in addition to war crimes.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=8}} The Soviet Union wanted to hold a [[show trial|trial with a predetermined outcome]] similar to the 1930s [[Moscow trials]], in order to demonstrate the Nazi leaders' guilt and build a case for [[war reparations]] to rebuild the [[Soviet economy]], which had been devastated by the war.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=4, 107}} The United States insisted on a trial that would be seen as legitimate as a means of reforming Germany and demonstrating the superiority of the Western system.{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=3}} The [[United States Department of War]] was drawing up plans for an international tribunal in late 1944 and early 1945. The British government still preferred the [[summary execution]] of Nazi leaders, citing the failure of trials after World War I and qualms about [[ex post facto law|retroactive criminality]].{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=26–27, 31}}{{sfn|Sellars|2013|pp=67, 74–75}}{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=70}} The form that retribution would take was left unresolved at the [[Yalta Conference]] in February 1945.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=40}} On 2 May, at the [[San Francisco Conference]], United States president [[Harry S. Truman]] announced the formation of an international military tribunal.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=45–46}} On 8 May, [[German Instrument of Surrender|Germany surrendered unconditionally]], bringing [[End of World War II in Europe|an end to the war in Europe]].{{sfn|Heller|2011|p=10}}