WI: Hitler at Nuremberg
- Thread starter Bookmark1995
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“Welcome to World Service through the BBC. This is the News. Once again the eyes of the world are on the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany. Today saw the summing up of Sir Hartley Shawcross in the trial of Adolf Hitler, the former Chancellor of Nazi Germany. The Attorney General made a forceful and well reasoned case, laying the blame for the aggression and crimes of the Berlin regime squarely at Herr Hitler’s feet. The defendant, who had refused to recognise the authority of the Court, once again attempted to interrupt proceedings and was told to hold his piece by the presiding Judge, Major General Nikitchenko, many times...”
Yeah, I've got the feeling that if Hitler was captured alive, it's more likely that he would face trial by a Soviet military tribunal instead of the Western Allies.
In which case, Stalin would exploit the opportunity to showcase the Soviet victory over the Nazis for all the political value that it's worth. I doubt he would really bother to put up a pretense of a fair and impartial court trial, and he sure as hell wouldn't allow Hitler to soapbox or make any final rant/speech about how much it sucks that Germany was defeated by the Communists.
Hitler's war crimes trial would probably be over in only a day or two at maximum; followed by, ironically enough, getting a bullet applied to his brain. If the execution is public, surely it would be done in the streets of Moscow.
Though if the Soviets agreed to transfer Hitler to American/British/French custody, then he would likely meet the same fate as many other Nuremberg defendants, which is being quietly hanged inside prison walls. Though I read somewhere (not sure about the veracity of this claim) that the Western Allies were considering, in case of a live capture of Hitler, to execute him with an American electric chair.
In which case, Stalin would exploit the opportunity to showcase the Soviet victory over the Nazis for all the political value that it's worth. I doubt he would really bother to put up a pretense of a fair and impartial court trial, and he sure as hell wouldn't allow Hitler to soapbox or make any final rant/speech about how much it sucks that Germany was defeated by the Communists.
Hitler's war crimes trial would probably be over in only a day or two at maximum; followed by, ironically enough, getting a bullet applied to his brain. If the execution is public, surely it would be done in the streets of Moscow.
Though if the Soviets agreed to transfer Hitler to American/British/French custody, then he would likely meet the same fate as many other Nuremberg defendants, which is being quietly hanged inside prison walls. Though I read somewhere (not sure about the veracity of this claim) that the Western Allies were considering, in case of a live capture of Hitler, to execute him with an American electric chair.
It's a matter of perspective. The british didn't have their country ocupied, nor had their population abused, robbed and forced into slave labour*... I wonder if they'd sing a diferent tune otherwise...
*far more the russians, ofc.
And we didn't ally with the Nazis or have their political class ally with them either. We also fought throughout the entire war in every theater too.
True, for this to work he would have had to actually went to the Redoubt and get captured there. In that case the West tries him at Nuremberg. Since they were held prior to the Cold War breaking out in earnest there is a good chance he would have then have been handed over to the Russians.
The planned underpinning of the entire case for the prosecution, and an important point for worldwide consumption, was that the Nazi regime was a criminal conspiracy. I see Hitler being right there in the dock with the rest of the co-conspirators. With Hitler alive the criminal conspiracy isn't complete unless he's right there on the indictment as a conspirator-participant.
So, I just wanted to throw out that it's not a certainty that if Hitler was captured it would be by the Soviets. As I recall there were several people in the bunker that managed to escape and surrender to the British or Americans. In fact I'm pretty sure several of the hanger-on's in the bunker urged Hitler to escape before the Soviets encircled Berlin. So you just need for him to decide to take one of the escape routes to the Eagle's Nest or some other bolt-hole.
Bonus Alt-History Channel/Neo-Nazi conspiracy theory: "They never captured Hitler, that was a body double or an actor made to look like him! Hitler escaped to Argentina and is still alive!"
Bonus Alt-History Channel/Neo-Nazi conspiracy theory: "They never captured Hitler, that was a body double or an actor made to look like him! Hitler escaped to Argentina and is still alive!"
If the Soviets capture Hitler, Stalin will either milk out any propaganda value he could get from having a separate trial for him organized by the USSR or he gives him to the Western Allies to be tried in an international tribunal in exchange to some sort of concession. A "concession" might sound dramatic but it might just mean some changes to the organization of tribunal or its location, say, to Soviet-occupied Eastern Germany. If you read about Allied diplomacy of this period, you quickly notice that they were were constantly bickering over things we now consider very minor but at the time were seen very important and it's quite possible that the USSR would use Hitler in one of these battles.
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Bookmark1995
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Would we see a fight between the West and the USSR over who gets to put Hitler on the stand?
My guess is that there would be two trials, one at Nuremberg and one in Moscow. The Wallies would go first in Nuremberg, second in Moscow, assuming that is allowed. My guess is that they would as it would be good propaganda that would cost Stalin nothing.
Stalin had 20 million dead to avenge, a massive propaganda machine to fuel and a personal grudge against Hitler for betraying in 1941. If he grabbed Hitler I'm pretty sure the trial would be on Moscow. He'd invite observers from every allied nation, but to see it done in Moscow.