Sunday, January 13, 2013

Nuremberg Day 2--Nuremberg Trials Courthouse

Today was a mostly lazy Sunday. But around 1pm I ventured out on my own to the Nuremberg Trials Courthouse. It was a very straight shot and easy to get there, but I did need to wait a little extra for the underground trains since it is a Sunday. Once arriving to the Courthouse I paid for the museum ticket and headed inside. 

 An additional wing of the large courthouse 

The courthouse where the Nuremberg Trials were held 

Information

 
What the courthouse looked like in the 1940's 

 Courtroom 600--what it looks like now 

 Seating area 

 Green marble--note the Medusa head in the middle 

This is still an active courtroom so there are times when it is closed, luckily I went on a Sunday and I was able to walk inside the room, look around, and take pictures. The headset that they provide in the cost of the museum was very detailed and explained a lot about the make-up of the courtroom. Once I was done there, I walked up the the 3rd floor where the main exhibit was. It's not a very big exhibit, but has very detailed information and records in various forms about the trials (before, during, and after). 

 Boxes like these were used to transport documents to the courtroom that led to the convictions of the Nazi leaders. In the museum, they had video of some of the court proceedings, as well as video that they discovered (smuggled out of the camps) that included the disposal of the dead bodies after the gas chambers. 

The men standing trial for conspiracy, crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and others. Most were sentenced to jail time, some others to hanging. Hermann Goring, Hitler's supposed second in line to take over, was sentenced to die via hanging (he originally requested firing squad, but that was denied). He then had someone sneak in poison to his jail cell and died via suicide. They included video from his testimony and he still sounded like an arrogant ass on trial. 


 These were two of the preserved benches that the Nazis sat on during trial

Replica of the courtroom from 1946

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