Discuss the policy of denazification and whether it was a success.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. The Nuremberg Trials, the most famous of the denazification war crime trials in Europe prosecuted former Nazis for "crimes against humanity," a new legal concept rooted in Enlightenment notions of human rights. Still, many of the worst war criminals, and most of the rank-and-file Nazis escaped trial, indeed cast themselves as victims or innocent bystanders. For example, Hermann Go?ring, rejected the notion of collective guilt. "It is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship."In eastern Europe, trials against the military and political leaders who had worked with the Nazis were universally found guilty and executed or sent to prison. In eastern Europe, the denazification trials became both a form of intimidation and an attempt to legitimize the communists; indeed they paved the way for future communist takeovers and created a myth that responsibility for war crimes rested solely with the Germans and other foreign fascists.As in the west, the denazification trials failed to find all Nazi collaborators and punish them. The prosecutors had neither the ability nor the political will for such a vast task, and many collaborators went into hiding or committed suicide. But the trials did enable survivors to achieve a degree of closure on the Nazi past and move on, to the extent that was possible.