On This Day in History: November 20

The Nuremberg Trials

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It amazes me how people can get all bent out of shape and proclaim, “yOu sHoUlDn’T pUnCh nAZiS!” because it somehow makes us as bad as them. Fuck that. Punch them in the head until your fucking hand breaks. After World War II we didn’t punch them, we put the fuckers on trial and hanged the bastards.

--On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down: November 20, 1945--

I’m torn about the whole death penalty thing. If someone killed a member of my family, I’d want the fucker to die. Hell, I might do it myself. But at the societal level, it just doesn’t work. Using the U.S. as an example, there are many problems with it. It’s unfairly applied to poor people and people of color. Because of the lengthy appeals process, it’s more expensive to execute someone than to put them in prison for life. It is proven to not be a deterrent to crime. It breaks the social contract of a society that respects life. Mistakes are made, and you can’t make someone undead. Etc.

But those Nazi fucks had it coming.

We know what they did. They murdered millions. The first and best known of the Nuremberg trials began six months after the war ended, on November 20, 1945. But they’d been planned for over three years. Representatives from countries occupied by Germany began meeting in 1942 to plan how they’d one day hopefully hold those Nazi cockwaffles accountable. Nuremberg was chosen for the trials because the Palace of Justice was still intact after the Allied bombing, and because the city was also the birthplace of the Nazi Party, so it was another fuck you to fascism.

The trial lasted over 10 months, exposing the crimes of 24 of the most notorious political and military leaders of the Third Reich. Twelve of them were sentenced to the eternal dirt nap. One of the dozen condemned was Hermann Goring. The “o” in his last name is supposed to have an umlaut over it, but fuck that guy. Anyway, Goring was one of the most powerful leaders in the Nazi Party. Someone smuggled cyanide into his cell for him and he killed himself the night before his scheduled execution. Asshole.

Another seven war criminals got sentences ranging from 10 years to life; three were acquitted; and two ended up not being charged. When it came to the executions being carried out, they didn’t go that smoothly. Accusations were made that the drop for the hanging was too short, and a number of them, rather than have their necks broken for a quick death, died slowly and painfully over several minutes from strangulation.

Desiring vengeance is not a healthy emotion, but considering their crimes I’m having a hard time feeling bad about that.

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