Telford Taylor

Most of the attention of the Nuremberg Trial was directed at the individual defendants, and for good reason: They were sitting in the dock, were individually responsible for many of the worst atrocities of the war and were, in most instances, interesting characters. The trial, however, was not just about those individuals. The prosecutors also decided to try the German organizations responsible for the conduct of the war and the associated crimes. These included the military high command that made most military decisions, the dreaded Gestapo and the notorious SS. The belief was that it would be impossible to have individual trials for all of the war criminals, but the responsible parties could still be held responsible if they were members of an organization declared to be criminal. The legal and philosophical basis for these charges was shaky and provoked much...