History Daily - The Nuremberg Trial Verdicts

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

October 1, 1946. In the aftermath of World War Two, Nazi leaders are found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more. History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.

It's 5 a.m. on May 12, 1945 in the Austrian Alps. 31-year-old Robert Madison's breath mists in the freezing air as he trudges through the snow toward a remote cabin. Robert is a U.S. Army counterintelligence agent, and he and his small team has spent the night trekking through a dangerous mountain pass to get here. And now with dawn breaking, they're finally closing in on their target, senior SS officer Ernst Kaltuner.

Four days ago, Nazi Germany surrendered, ending the war in Europe. Adolf Hitler is already dead, but the Allies are determined that the surviving leaders of the Third Reich will not escape justice for their crimes, and Kaltuner is one of the highest-ranking members of the SS still at large. The mountain cabin glows in the dawn light. Roberts' team separates and surrounds the cabin while he steps onto the wooden porch, bawling his hand into a fist, he pounce on the door. At first, there's silence, no surprise given the early hour. So Robert bangs again.

This time, a window shutter opens a crack. Robert can see only the silhouette of a man inside, so he gets straight to the point and tells the shadowy figure that he's here for Ernst Kaltuner. The shutter abruptly slams closed and Robert sighs. It looks like they're going to have to do this the hard way. Robert steps away from the door and draws his pistol. The rest of the team moves forward, weapons raised. Robert calls for Kaltenbruner to surrender,

but there's no response, so it's a standoff. The seconds ticked by, and as Robert considers his options, the front door suddenly swings open. Robert's finger tightens on the trigger, then a man steps slowly onto the porch, his hands above his head. Another man follows, then two more.

It's not just Kaltrenbruner surrendering, but three other members of the SS as well. Ernst Kaltunbruner's companions are all lower-ranking members of the SS. They will be imprisoned and interrogated before eventually being released. But Kaltrenbruner himself faces a very different fate. Alongside other leading Nazis, he will stand trial in the city of Nurember on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. And finally, after months of devastating evidence, Carlton Brunner and his co-defendants will face justice on October 1, 1946.

Hello, History Daily listeners. The live show I've been telling you about for a few weeks has a new date, October 23rd at the Plaza Theater in Garland, Texas. This is my Days That Made America Tour, a thrilling evening of history, storytelling, and music with me and a band live on stage. So if you're in the North Texas area or anywhere close, be sure to come out and see me live.

More shows will be announced soon, too. So for information on tickets and upcoming dates, go to historydailylive.com. That's historydailylive.com. Come see my Days at Made America Tour, live on stage. Go to historydaily.com. From Noisor and Airship, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily. History is made every day. On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is October 1st, 1946, the Nuremberg trial verdicts. It's early August, 1945, at the Palace Hotel in Mondorf-Leban, Luxembourg, three months after the capture of Ernst Kaltuner. American psychologist Dr. Douglas Kelly stands back as a guard unlocks a door and pushes it open. Kelly steps inside what was once one of the hotel's luxurious bedrooms. Most of its fittings have been removed, and all that remains, is a simple cot and a chair. Sitting at the end of the bed is 52-year-old Herman Gurring.

For more than a decade, Guring was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. A former World War I fighter race, he was the head of the German Air Force, Adolf Hitler's designated successor, and even received a special rank created just for him, Marshal of the Greater German Reich. He was famed for his lavished uniforms and extravagant tastes,

but now a pale blue tuna. Hanks loosely off his body, his complexion is pasty, and beads of sweat glisten on his face. With Hitler dead, Guring is the most senior Nazi still alive, and it's Dr. Kelly's job to assess his mental state ahead of his upcoming trial. But Kelly's first impression of Guring is surprising. During their initial conversations, he's unsettled by how normal Gering seems. He had expected to meet a cold-blooded monster, but Guring is friendly, even to be charming. It's difficult to reconcile his relaxed manner with the brutal crimes he's accused of.

And Kelly soon notices something else. Throughout their meetings, Guring is constantly reaching for a bottle of pills beside his bed. He pops them into his mouth like candy, crunching them loudly between his teeth. Guring explains that they are painkillers, prescribed for an injury he suffered years ago. But as Kelly watches Guring swallow pill after pill, it's obvious that he's suffering from a severe drug addiction. Gering needs to be fit to stand trial, so Kelly decides to break Guring's drug habit, and he knows how to do it. He appeals to Guring's vanity.

During their conversations, Kelly claims that a strong person should be able to overcome a dependency through sheer force of will. And this challenge works. Driven by his pride, Guring agrees to give up the drugs, and he's gradually weaned off his addiction in only a few weeks. But Guring isn't the only prisoner that Dr. Kelly has been assigned to evaluate. Over the coming months, he assesses 21 other defendants, and each responds differently to Kelly's questions. Former Armaments Minister Albert Speer adopts a clinical approach,

carefully weighing every word he says. Robert Lye, the former head of the labor front, breaks down in tears and paces endlessly around his room. And former Deputy Furer Rudolf Hess appears in incredible. increasingly unstable, swinging between erratic behavior and long periods of complete withdrawal. But regardless of their mental state, shortly before the trials are due to begin, the prisoners are transported to Nuremberg Prison in southern Germany. There Dr. Kelly continues his work, assessing the prisoners and trying to understand what drew them to Nazi ideology. Over time, he identifies certain characteristics they appear to share.

All of the men are ambitious. Many show a striking lack of of empathy, and few seem capable of truly grasping the human consequences of the regime they served. But Kelly finds no single psychological disorder that can explain their actions. Eventually, Kelly wraps up his evaluations and submits his reports to the international team of investigators and prosecutors. Shortly afterward, indictments are served on the prisoners in their cells. They are jointly charged with four counts, conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Three days later, Robert Lye commits suicide in his cell, hanging himself with a towel tied to a pipe. His death sends shockwaves through the prison.

Security is immediately tightened with guards tasked with observing the other prisoners around the clock. Then in November, 1945, the remaining defendants are taken from their cells and escorted along a covered walkway to Nuremberg's Palace of Justice. There, in courtroom 600, they enter their pleas. Herman Guring goes first and launches into a rambling speech. But the presiding judge quickly cuts him off, demanding a simple answer. Guring relents and pleads not guilty.

One by one, the other defendants follow, all entering the same plea. But this is only the first step. Over the next year, the world will watch as an unprecedented international trial unfolds, one that will decide the fate of the men who directed some of the gravest atrocities in human history. It's the afternoon of November 29, 1945, at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg,

nine days after the Nazi defendants pleaded not guilty. Sitting behind a large oak desk, Lord Justice Jeffrey Lawrence glances along the bench at the seven other judges beside him. He sees that they're all ready, so he gives the signal and the lights of courtroom 600 begin to dim. A projector whirred to life, and black and white footage flickers on a screen across the room. Scenes of long, barbed wire fences come into view. They're followed by harrowing images of starving captives in concentration camps, their hollowed faces and haunted eyes seeming to stare directly out at Justice Lawrence. Next comes images of the dead, charred skeletons, piles of corpses, bodies bulldozed into mass graves. For almost an hour, the room is silent, apart from

the whir of the projector and the occasional gasp from a shocked observer. Lawrence glances toward the defendant's dock, which is still bathed in the harsh white glare of a spotlight. Hans Frang, the former Governor General of Occupied Poland, begins to weep quietly. Rudolph Hess turns away, refusing to look at the screen. Herman Guring coughs nervously, and then he leans over the railing and buries his face in his arm. When the footage finally ends, the courtroom remains silent. Reeling from the atrocities he's just seen, Justice Lawrence forgets to. formally adjourn the proceedings before rising from his seat. The guards lead the defendants from

the courtroom, leaving a somber atmosphere in their wake. Over the next three months, American, British, French, and Soviet prosecutors take turns presenting evidence. They introduced documents seized as Nazi armies retreated across Europe and call witnesses to corroborate them. Former SS officers testify about the mass murders they committed. Survivors of concentration camps described the brutal treatment they endured, and piece by piece, the prosecution builds its case against the men on trial. Then, in March, 1946, the defendants are given the opportunity to defend themselves. Despite the overwhelming evidence against them, Herman Guring is determined to go down fighting. He hopes to salvage his own reputation and protect the honor of his co-defendants.

So when Gering takes the stand, he turns it into a pulpit and attempts to justify the Nazi regime. He denounces the tribunal as a show trial, and his magnetic, charismatic presence rattles the prosecution. Guring anticipates questions. He points out translation errors. He corrects minor factual mistakes. And when he finds himself cornered, he launches into long speeches intended to rally his fellow defendants and provoke the court. He denies knowing about the full extent of the extermination program and dismisses reports of

mass killings as allied propaganda. But the longer Guring remains. on the stand, the more the prosecution finds its footing. Prosecutors stop engaging with his rants and instead steer him back to the evidence. When they present documents detailing specific atrocities and illegal executions, they do not give Guring the chance to respond with a lecture. Instead, they keep their questions short and pointed, simply asking him to identify the documents and confirm his own signature at the bottom. Then when Guring's time on the stand is over, He's followed by his co-defendants, and they all adopt wildly different strategies.

Hans Frank appears to break dramatically with his past beliefs. Unlike Guring, Frank openly acknowledges the regime's crimes, telling the court that he feels a deep sense of guilt. Albert Speer accepts a measure of responsibility for the Nazi regime, too, but insists that he had no knowledge of its worst actions. Appearing calm and controlled, Speer claims to have been blinded by Adolf Hitler's power in charisma. Other high-ranking military officers argue that they were professional soldiers and obligated to follow orders. Admirals in the Navy defend the use of unrestricted submarine warfare as a military necessity rather than a criminal conspiracy, while generals in the Army expressed shock

that atrocities were carried out by the men under their command. But no defendant is more difficult to judge than Rudolph Hess, who appears increasingly detached from reality. He claims to have lost his memory and behaved strangely. Behind the scenes, doctors and judges question whether Hess is genuinely unwell, were engaged in a clever ruse to avoid responsibility. Either way, sifting through the mountain of evidence against Hess and the others takes months. But eventually the court adjourns and the judges retire to deliberate. Four weeks later, they announced that they have reached their verdicts. The defendants prepare to return to the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, and soon the senior Nazis will learn whether they have been found guilty and what their fates would be.

It's 3 p.m. on October 1st, 1946, at the Palace of Justice, just over 10 months after the Nuremberg trials began. An American guard steps out of an elevator, gripping Herman Guring by the arm as he guides the former Reich Marshal back into courtroom 600. Guring takes his now familiar seat. He slips on a pair of black headphones and waits for Lord Justice Jeffrey Lawrence to begin. Justice Lawrence began announcing the court's judgment yesterday. Earlier today, the verdicts were announced, and three defendants were acquitted. But the other 19 have been found guilty, and Guring is among them. Now he's about to learn his punishment. The judge begins reading slowly. Through his headphones, Guring hears the translation, and as the words sink in, the color

drains from his face. He's been sentenced to death. When the proceedings are over, Guring slowly removes his headphones and shuffles out of the courtroom, returning to his cell for what he knows are the final weeks of his life. In total, 11 of the defendants are sentenced to death by hanging. Among them are SS officer Ernst Kaltenbrunner, captured in the Austrian Alps, and Hans Frank, who was directly involved in the mass murder of Jews. Others, though, are treated more leniently.

Rudolph Hess is told he'll spend the rest of his life in prison, while Albert Speer is sentenced to 20 years behind bars. But Herman Guring has no intention of dying on the gallows. Late on the evening of October 15th, just hours before the executions are scheduled to begin, a guard looks into Guring's cell and hears a strange, muffled gurgling sound. Sensing that something is wrong, the guard unlocks the door, and inside Guring lies on his bed,

foaming at the mouth and shaking uncontrollably. Within minutes, he's dead. Poisoned by a cyanide capsule he had somehow smuggled into his cell. He leaves behind a note outlining his refusal to be hanged like a common criminal. The next day, the ten remaining condemned prisoners are executed in the prison gymnasium. To prevent their graves from becoming Nazi shrines, the bodies are cremated and the ashes scattered in a river. And although Guring may have avoided this punishment, legal experts will still recognize the Nuremberg trials as an important turning point in international law.

Precedents have been set. Following orders is not a defense, and government office does not provide immunity for war crimes. There could never be true justice for all the victims of Nazism, but some of those responsible for the Holocaust and the other crimes of Adolf Hitler's regime were finally held accountable when they were sentenced at the Nuremberg trials on October 1, 1946. Next on History Daily, October 2nd, 1957. The Bridge on the River Kwai premieres in London, sparking criticism from former prisoners

of war about the movie's inaccuracies. From Noisor and Ayrship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham, audio editing by Moham Chazee, sound design by Molly Bach, music by Thrum. This episode is written and researched by Angus Gabb. McCarrn, edited by Scott Leaves, managing producer Emily Burke. Executive producers are William

Simpson for airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.