Annihilation

Episode Synopsis

On 20 November 1945, the trial of the top brass of the Third Reich, including Göring, opened in Nuremberg, the city where the anti-Jewish laws were drawn up in 1935. One year later, the international military tribunal sentenced 12 of the accused to death, and a further seven to jail terms. Throughout the hearings, there was very little mention of the Holocaust; a handful of Jewish witness were called on to testify, and only Hans Frank, the Governor General of Poland, acknowledged the persecution which the Jews had suffered. But for post-war France, Britain and Germany, there was no wish to hold another trial. It was the American authorities who would bring to justice the senior figures, doctors and diplomats who were involved in the Holocaust. A young lawyer aged 27, Ben Ferencz, was entrusted with finding documents which could substantiate the accusations in 12 new trials, despite the fact that the Nazis had destroyed nearly all their archives at the end of the war.