Nuremberg Verdicts — International Military Tribunal Sentences Nazi Leaders

The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg delivered its verdicts on October 1, 1946, after nearly 10 months of proceedings against 22 major Nazi defendants. Twelve were sentenced to death by hanging (including Göring, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss-Inquart, and Bormann in absentia); three were acquitted; seven received prison sentences including Hess (life), Funk (life), and Speer (20 years). Hermann Göring escaped execution by swallowing a smuggled cyanide capsule hours before his scheduled hanging. The proceedings established that crimes against humanity and crimes against peace were internationally prosecutable — a precedent that would underpin all subsequent international criminal law.