National Socialist Era  

The National Socialists made good use of the historical heritage of this "treasure chest of the German Empire", and from 1927 on, held their annual party rallies in Nuremberg. After the "seizure of power", Adolf Hitler decided that Nuremberg was to be the "City of the Party Rallies". In the People's Park Dutzendteich, in the south-east of the city, monumental buildings were erected after plans by Albert Speer. Up until today, the historic remains are testimony of the megalomania of the rulers of the "Third Reich". It was from Nuremberg that the "Franconian Führer", Julius Streicher, disseminated his fiercely anti-Semitic propaganda. In 1935, it was here that the Nazis' atrocious "racial laws" were proclaimed. During the pogrom night of 9/10 November, 1938, more people were killed here than elsewhere: Nazi Mayor Liebel boasted that 26 Jews had not survived the "Reichskristallnacht". Nuremberg also was a sad exception when it came to "Aryanisation of Jewish property": over 150 companies and about 570 plots of land changed hands in the course of this enforced sale of Jewish property. Nuremberg, too, was an intermediate stop in the industrialised genocide of Jews and other minorities. During World War II, for 2000 Jews from Franconia, the Märzfeld station was the starting point for their journey to the extermination camps. The two major deportations were on 29 November, 1941, to the Jungfernhof concentration camp near Riga, and on 24 March, 1942, to Izbica near Lublin, with about 1000 people each. 2373 Nuremberg citizens known by name were victims of the Holocaust.

In January 1945, the city was reduced to rubble. One building remained almost undamaged by the air raid: the Court Rooms with the adjacent prison. Thus Nuremberg was deemed the best place for a legal process dealing with the Nazi era. After the end of World war II, the "Nuremberg Trials" were held here: starting on 20 November, 1945, the main war criminals were tried by an International Military Tribunal, their indictment including crimes against humanity and crimes against peace. This process was based on the "Nuremberg Principles" which then became the foundation for a new international law and for the criminal prosecution of human rights violations. For the first time, those responsible for war and for the suffering of millions of people were held personally responsible. Further Nazi "greats" and their helpers, including doctors, legal professionals and leading entrepreneurs were tried during twelve follow-up trials between 1946 and 1949.

Reconstruction of the city was a careful synthesis of old and new, more or less keeping to the old street grid and ground plans. Important buildings such as the Imperial Castle, the churches of St. Lawrence's and St. Sebaldus', Our Lady's and the City Hall are to be seen in their former shape again today. Outside the Old Town, new residential districts were built. Today's modern metropolis still keeps a visible reminder of the history of the city in its cityscape.

 

Nuremberg Memorial Days in 2005

Information and eye witness reports on the air war and the end of the war in Nuremberg, as well as on the racial laws and the Nuremberg Trials

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