(ANSA-AFP) - NUREMBERG, 20 NOV - On November 20, 1945, the first international trial in history opened in Nuremberg, Germany, forcing 21 senior Nazi officials to face justice for the first time. Adolf Hitler's designated successor Hermann Goering was one of the accused. The Allies had prepared to punish German war criminals since 1943 and agreed to hold an unprecedented public trial once the Nazis were defeated. Just six months after the fighting ended, prosecutors from four victorious nations had collected 300,000 witness statements and 6,600 pieces of evidence, laid out in a 42-volume archive.

Nuremberg, a former imperial German city now in ruins, served as backdrop for the trial, its main courthouse and adjacent prison were fortunately still intact. The city was also symbolic because it was there that Hitler staged massive rallies before the war and anti-Jewish laws were passed in 1935. (ANSA-AFP).