If you were a judge at the Nuremberg Trial

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Would you change/modify certain sentences?

Generally I consider most of the sentenced passed to be fully justified, including death penalty (you know my stance on capital punishment, but I very much doubt I'd oppose it back then in case of major Nazi leaders). However those are examples where I feel judgement was either too harsh, or too lenient:



Albert Speer: There's no doubt the Court was pleased with him making things easier by "admitting common responsibility", and that he benefited from certain facts not being yet known. Still, in terms of guilt, he very well qualified for the gallows or, at the very least (if the Court wanted to show leniency due to his conduct at the trail) life in prison.

Hjalmar Schacht: I see Schacht as guilty on count one (conspiracy to wage aggressive war), because of his role in willingly helping to make rearming possible (as he himself hinted he participated in violating the Treaty of Versailles). I'd give him a small prison term.

Fritz Sauckel: If Speer were to escape with his neck intact, then in the name of consistency Sauckel, his subordinate, should've been spared as well. The only reason he hung while Speer just sent to jail was that Speer was clever and he was not. It doesn't of course dimihisn the weight of Sauckel's guilt.

Karl Dönitz: I'm split on this one, given his conduct was submarine/fleet chief was largely within the boundaries. I'd still give him some prison term for accepting the Commando Order when he succeeded Raeder.

Alfred Jodl: I'm split on this one too. Jold probably deserved prison term for passing on  Commando Order (among others), but I feel his guilt wasn't greater than fellow generals tried in subsequent trials, and neither of whom was sentenced to death. Some charges against Jodl were untrue, like the "conspiracy to wage aggressive war", since he didn't even came into Hitler's staff till after the war already started.

Walther Funk: The complicity of institutions ran by Funk in the Holocaust and other war crimes were clear, meriting death penalty.