Nearing the EndBy 1944 the end of the war was in sight, and German leaders knew it. In a last stitch effort to destroy the evidence of the Holocaust, Nazis began exterminating prisoners in concentration camps in high numbers. Warehouses were filled with people and then burned to the ground, anyone who attempted to flee was shot on sight. Others were forced on Death Marches to camps in Germany's interior. Hundreds of bodies were hastily dumped into ditches and left as the Nazis retreated.
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Destroying EvidenceWhen Soviet troops began liberating Nazi camps, they could not believe the horrors they saw. In some instances, they forced German soldiers and villagers to bury the dead from the concentration camps. Many Germans were shocked by atrocities of the death camps located so close to their homes. How could they not have known that thousands of people were dying only a few miles away?
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Nuremberg TrialsAfter the war, the Nuremberg Trials were held in order to bring Nazi leaders to justice for the war crimes they committed. Many of the Nazi leaders were sentenced to death or life in prison. Some, however, were acquitted, such as Hans Fritzsche. Some of those who received harsh convictions committed suicide. Was it to avoid serving their full sentence or was it because they came to recognize the horrors of their actions? It is impossible to know for sure.
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Benjamin Ferencz discusses collecting evidence against the Nazis be used in the Nuremberg Trials.