Nuremberg Tribunal and sports activities, including Wagnerian music festivals, athletic competitions, air shows, hiking, and other seemingly innocuous, but always Nazi-inspired and controlled events They gave full reign to the frustrated artistic longings of Adolf Hitler, and revealed that he did indeed have a certain genius for political design and stagecraft See also Nazism NUREMBERG TRIBUNAL The International Military Tribunal (IMT) sat at Nuremberg (Nürnberg) from November 14, 1945 to October 1, 1946, to try major war criminals and a number of Nazi organizations The legal basis for the IMT evolved during the war, with the United States always the prime mover of the idea The British were initially lukewarm about criminalizing acts traditionally regarded as political questions, while Joseph Stalin had every intention of just shooting people in large numbers after the war, based on political calculation and in accordance with his usual practice and that of the NKVD On August 21, 1942, the United States warned Axis leaders of an intent to punish them following the conflict President Franklin D Roosevelt announced on October that Axis war criminals would be tried by the United Nations alliance A War Crimes Commission was set up in London in 1943 to prepare for postwar trials In the “Moscow Declaration” of October 30, 1943, the Allies warned Axis leaders and soldiers that postwar retribution would be sought for atrocities committed inside German-occupied Europe or Japanese-occupied Asia After the war the Allies chose Nuremberg for the German trials because it was the setting of the Nuremberg Rallies and spiritual home of Nazism American, British, Soviet, and French judges—that is, representatives of the main victors in Europe, plus France—sat in judgment of Austrians and Germans accused of crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and war crimes, with the last category by far the clearest in black letter international law Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Josef Göbbels could not be tried because they were dead Martin Borman was tried in absentia; he was, in fact, already dead, but that was not known at the time Some others who were indicted killed themselves before trial, died in prison, or were deemed mentally unfit (e.g., Gustav Krupp) Out of 177 tried at Nuremberg, 142 were convicted and 35 were acquitted Among the convicted, 97 received sentences of varying length less than life, 20 were given life sentences, and 25 “major criminals” were condemned to death Hermann Göring cheated the hangman by committing suicide before he could be executed In addition to accused individuals, six “corporate accused” were cited as criminal organizations The German General Staff, the Reich cabinet, and the Sturmabteilung (SA) were tried but found not to be inherently criminal organizations, with the Soviet Union dissenting from that judgment The top leadership corps of the Nazi Party, the Schutzstaffel (SS), Sicherheitsdienst (SD), and Gestapo were all judged to be criminal enterprises That permitted arrest of any member on the basis of membership alone, on charges of participating in a criminal organization found guilty of crimes against humanity The trials and executions were narrowly criticized by some legal theorists as an example of victor’s justice and as not supported by the international public law of the time, especially counts of crimes against humanity, 802