The Nuremberg trials were a series of twelve trials held between 1945 and 1949 involving over 100 defendants who were important officials in Adolph Hitler’s Nazi Germany. These officials included military and political leaders but also judges, doctors and business leaders. The trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany and were conducted by a judicial tribunal composed of judges from the Allied Powers, which included Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States. The most famous of the trials took place in 1945 and 1946. This first trial examined the criminal conduct of the highest-ranking officials. Of the 24 defendants, half would receive the death penalty for their crimes of war, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity.

Nuremberg Trials. (2002). In World of Criminal Justice, Gale.