page_title: Hostages Trial
hierarchical_section_title: Hostages Trial
caption_attribution_description: English: Defendants in the during the Hostages Trial in Nuremberg. From left to right: Wilhelm List, Walter Kuntze, Hermann Foertsch, Curt von Geitner, Maximilian von Weichs, Lothar Rendulic, Ernst Dehner, Ernst von Leyser, Hubert Lanz, Hellmuth Felmy, Wilhelm Speidel. (Accused Franz Böhme is not present in this picture as he committed suicide on May 29, 1947.) Compare with the official trial proceedings: Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, Vol. XI: United States of America vs. Wilhelm List, et. al. (Case 7: „Hostages Case“). US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia 1950, pg. 764. This photograph was taken by US Army photographers on behalf of the Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes (OCCWC) during the trial, which lasted from May 1947 until February 1948. The USHMM-Website wrongly claims copyright on this photograph, stating courtesy of John W. Mosenthal. Mosenthal was a research analyst working on the final compilation and editing of the proceedings manuscript (Vol. XI) in his official function for the War Crimes Division, Office of the Judge Advocate General, and as such this photograph is PD-USGov-Military-Army.
context_page_description: The Hostages Trial was held from
  8 July 1947 until 19 February 1948 and was the seventh of the twelve trials for war crimes that United States authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before US military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal, but took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice. The twelve US trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" or, more formally, as the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals".
  This case is also known as the "Southeast Case" because all of the defendants had once been German generals leading the troops in Southeastern Europe during the Balkans Campaign, i.e. in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia, and they were charged as those responsible for the hostage-taking of civilians and wanton shootings of these hostages and of "partisans" that the German troops committed there in the years in 1941 and later.
context_section_description: The Hostages Trial (or, officially, The United States of America v. Wilhelm List, et al.) was held from
  8 July 1947 until 19 February 1948 and was the seventh of the twelve trials for war crimes that United States authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before US military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal, but took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice. The twelve US trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" or, more formally, as the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT).
  This case is also known as the "Southeast Case" because all of the defendants had once been German generals leading the troops in Southeastern Europe during the Balkans Campaign, i.e. in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia, and they were charged as those responsible for the hostage-taking of civilians and wanton shootings of these hostages and of "partisans" that the German troops committed there in the years in 1941 and later. The defendant Lothar Rendulic was further charged in respect of the 'scorched earth' total destruction of all towns, settlements and civil infrastructure in the Norwegian county of Finnmark in the winter of 1944.
  The judges in this case, heard before Military Tribunal V, were Charles F. Wennerstrum (presiding judge) from Iowa, George J. Burke from Michigan, and Edward F. Carter from Nebraska. The Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution was Telford Taylor, the chief prosecutor for this case was Theodore Fenstermacher. The indictment was filed on May 10, 1947; the trial lasted from July 8, 1947 until February 19, 1948. Of the 12 defendants indicted, Franz Böhme committed suicide before the arraignment, and Maximilian von Weichs was severed from the trial for medical reasons. Of the remaining ten defendants, two were acquitted; the others received prison sentences ranging from seven years to lifetime imprisonment. 
  The judges were all from the American Midwest and represented a notably-different perspective on the Nuremberg trial proceedings from the East Coast judges who had presided over earlier trials in the series.  In particular, the judges were much more sympathetic to the arguments of defense counsel, and inclined to treat the prosecution case with considerable suspicion. Following the judgement, Charles Wennerstrum gave an interview in which he accused the prosecution of failing "to maintain objectivity aloof from vindictiveness, [and] aloof from personal ambitions for convictions" and dismissed the whole Nuremberg exercise as "victors justice". He proposed that many of the German Jewish emigrants employed in the prosecution office were of suspect loyalty to the United States; "The whole atmosphere here is unwholesome.... Lawyers, clerks, interpreters and researchers are employed who became Americans only in recent years; whose backgrounds were embedded in Europe's hatreds and prejudices."
caption: Defendants in the dock and their lawyers during the trial
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