In Part 5 of The Trials of the Judges at Nuremberg, 1947, Host Judge Stephen Sfekas explains how the tribunal in United States v. Alstoetter defined and applied the new category of crimes against humanity. He walks through the court’s reasoning on ex post facto concerns, judicial immunity, obedience to German law, and the use of decrees such as Night and Fog and the Law Against Poles and Jews as instruments of persecution. Drawing on the Justice Trial opinions, he shows how that legal framework led to the convictions and sentences of Franz Schlegelberger, Oswald Rothaug, Rudolf Oeschey, Kurt Rothenberger and other judges, and how the verdicts helped establish a lasting standard for judging state sponsored injustice.

Judge Sfekas will talk about other attempts to achieve post-war justice including trials in the occupation zones and  ...