Nuremberg was more than a trial concerning the murder of 5-6 million Jews and 5-6 million others. Only the 4th count, crimes against humanity, applied to the murder of Jews and others. The other three counts were 1. Crime against peace 2. waging an aggressive war and 3. war crimes. None of these have anything to do with the mass murder of civilians.
I don’t appreciate you insinuating that I have sympathy for the National Socialists. If it was up to me, all of the leaders would have been summarily shot without trial. If a trial must take place, it really should have been limited to crimes against humanity. In this case, one could plausibly argue that the millions of Jews and others who were murdered would have obtained justice.
The problem as far as I’m concerned is with the first three counts. To say that only the Nazi’s committed war crimes during WWII is absurd. The allies bombed civilians in a manner Hitler could have only dreamed of. American soldiers shot POW’s on occasion. Russian soldiers routinely raped German women. After the war over 10 million Germans were forcibly removed from historic German lands in the east and Sudetenland and resettled elsewhere. Over 1 million died in the forced relocations, which were organized by the victorious powers.
Let’s not pretend that only the Germans were guilty of war crimes or that American involvement in WWII or any war has been pristine. If the United States can charge National Socialists with war crimes, it makes perfect sense to apply the same standards to our actions during the war and shortly thereafter. From my perspective, Nuremberg only opened a giant can of hypocritical worms. Count 4 is the only legitimate one, otherwise all of the Nazi leaders should have been interrogated and then shot.