The Nuremberg Trials In German Memory Of World War ?

World War ? has had a profound impact on the development of human history and was a pivotal event in the first half of the 20 th century.It resulted in the death of tens of millions of people around the world,and caused enormous loss to the social and economic development of numerous countries.World War ? changed the global political landscape and broke the balance between the country and the region.The result of the war was victory of the anti-fascist alliance,while the axis of fascism,comprising the major powers of Germany,Italy and Japan as well as several minor power was destroyed and their attempts to divide the world among themselves thwarted.The national strength of the old capitalist countries such as Britain and France were greatly weakened during the war,and the United States emerged as the eminent world power.The Yalta system,centered on the United States and the Soviet Union,replaced the traditional international system with Europe at the center.A group of Asian and European countries,such as China,established socialist systems similar to that the Soviet Union,and formed a strong socialist block.After the war,national liberation movements were unprecedentedly strong,and many Asian,African and Latin American colonies realized their independence from European colonial powers.In order to avoid the tragedy of World War ? and to build a political and economic system of equal cooperation in the world,on October 24,1945,the five anti-fascist alliance members of China,France,the Soviet Union,the United Kingdom and the United States,established the United Nations,ushering in a new political and economic development order in the post-war world.Research on World War ? has been a mainstay in academic circles and beyond.Especially in the last two or three decades,the study of memory of World War ? has emerged as a prominent academic subject.Every five or ten years,the activities of commemorating the victory of the anti-fascist war in various forms around the world also inject the commemorative studies of World War ? with renewed enthusiasm.The importance of commemorative studies of World War ? goes without saying: on the one hand,World War ? itself has an indelible influence on the outlook of the world over the past 80 years;on the other hand,over time more archives relating to World War ? have been opened and disclosed,and the scope concerning memories of World War ? has become more comprehensive.These can be used as basis for resolving global disputes nowadays.The complexity of World War ? commemoration should be underestimated.Differences in educational background,living environment and memory inheritance of researchers lead to continuous ideological collisions in the process of studying the memory of World War ?.At the same time,the researchers' perspectives and ways of thinking will also lead to varied interpretations on the same event.The Nuremberg Trials played an important role in the memory of World War ?.This event is the beginning of the Germany facing its role in World War ?,and it is an important event that influenced the political outlook of post-war Germany as well as international politics.The change of German official and public views also represents the continuous revision of Germany's attitude towards and coming to terms with World War ?,which is very important for the development of Germany and its role in the wider world.On the one hand,they recognized that the Nuremberg Trials were the conclusion of National Socialist Germany as period in German historical development;on the other hand,they thought that the whole Nuremberg Trials themselves became the turning point of German national destiny in the middle of the 20 th century and the starting point of the rebirth of the German nation.Ever since that time,research on the Nuremberg Trials has been uninterrupted.In addition to relevant work in the United States and the United Kingdom,German scholars have paid an equal amount of attention to it.They have reconstructed this ‘trial of the century' from various angles through the way of general history references,research on the personalities of the Nuremberg Trials,interviews and the review of associated events,and the study of the legal significance of Nuremberg Trials.Compared with the scholarly enthusiasm for the Nuremberg Trials,there are few studies on them as an object of commemoration in China or abroad.In fact,with the deepening of commemorative studies on World War ? in recent years,more and more works have been released on the topic of the Nuremberg Trials through academic research,works of art,social media and other fields.Since the 2000 s,commemorative spaces about the Nuremberg Trials have been gradually established.People can dig into the memory of the trials in a deeper way while understanding the Nuremberg Trials.The memory of the Nuremberg Trials are thus the topic of this paper.The core of this paper is the place of the Nuremberg Trials in the German memory of World War ?.The case study is mainly used to analyze the sources by cross section and chronological division,in order to determine the specific cases as well.The first chapter gives the historical background of the Nuremberg Trials.From the second chapter,the author performs a multilayered analysis of the source material: in the first part,the author focuses on individual's memory of the Nuremberg Trials and then takes the example of Hermann Wilhelm G(?)ring,who was the prime and highest-ranking defendant during the Nuremberg Trials,and also discusses the experiences of the Weizs(?)cker family directly related to the subsequent trial in order to explore the presentation and inheritance of personal memory.Then,based on the academic research focus on the Nuremberg Trials in the "Bielefeld academic resources database" and the study of the trials by three generations of scholars,the paper summarizes and identifies the changes in the evaluation of the post-war commemoration and scholarly perspectives.Subsequently,taking the Spiegel weekly as an example,this paper lists the reports and comments since its inception,focusing on the analysis of the relevant figures in the Nuremberg Trials,the legal influence of the trial and the discussion on the crime and responsibility of Germany after the war.Centering on ‘Nuremberg Trials Memorial”(Memorium Nürnberger Prozesse)and the “Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds”(Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgel(?)nde),the author then discusses the planning and influence of relevant commemorative space by combining narration and investigation.The commemorative ceremony of the 75 th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials help ascertaining main characteristics of the memory construction of contemporary German citizens in World War ?.In the conclusion,the author summarizes the practical significance of commemorative studies on the Nuremberg Trials by observing the changes of the perspective and analyzing factors that shape the change of direction for the commemoration of the Nuremberg Trials.The author mainly uses classification research and chronological division to identify the research methods in the Nuremberg Trials memory,focusing on the presentation characteristics of four transverse planes,the particularity and universality value of the case,and comparing the results of contemporary memories of the United Kingdom and the United States about the relevant World War ?.The study of memories of the Nuremberg Trials in the German memory of World War ? is of great help in our overall study of German history.Germany is also constantly reflecting on its role in World War ? at the official and government levels.Its overall shift in memories reflected a feature different from other countries.That could be summarized into the following three aspects.First of all,the development nature of World War ? memories could be revealed from the shift in the memories of the Nuremberg Trial.The process of the shift included phases from avoidance to acceptance.Early on regarding the Trial,the attitude of Germany towards it was mainly resistance and silence,the focus was on the “humiliation” Germany experienced due to the Trial.In Germany's democracy progress later,fields of politics and academia both triggered discussions and new waves of thoughts.The topic of memories regarding Nuremberg Trial became sought after.The change of perspective can further explore the connotation of the Nuremberg Trial's memory.After the unification of East and West Germany,especially since the 2000 s,Germany has been increasing its regional influence.It has taken responsibility in the European region proactively.The actions of Germany in regional affairs have made the world aware of Germany's attitude towards its role in World War ? and the history.The perception of the Nuremberg Trials has changed from a single event itself to the overall situation of Germany in World War ?.The vantage point has similarly changed to a universal perspective.Secondly,the shift of perspectives in attitudes towards the memory of the Trial also reveals complexity of World War ? memory itself.During the research,the emotional aspects of each individual who witnessed the Trial are varied based on the same event.The memories of the Trials work in a similar pattern.For the witnesses,their memories would change based on the course of their life and the societal environment;stubborn Nazi members would produce new perspectives and understanding of the event during the course of self-reflection,some even become practitioners of anti-war point of views.Their memories of the Trial therefore change.Judges,prosecutors and witnesses,after a more profound learning of the international law principles and perspectives from different stand points,is willing to participate in discussion about the Trial.Objective eyewitnesses also grew a deeper level of understanding towards just after knowing about the violence and horrific actions conducted by Nazi Germany.Thirdly,the current memories is still affiliated to political taboos.That is in itself without a doubt,that such is the cognitive basis for modern political culture of Germany.In recent years,Germany has faced recession of European Unification process,Asylum crisis,the rise of extremist right wing etc.Some people start to uncover special memories from the Trial in order to hide their true intentions.However,Germany has never denied those memories from the political taboos.They honored them through memorial ceremonies,memorial spaces and other kinds of forms to objectively present the change in reflection of those memories and blended that reflection into its own modern political culture.The study of shift in memories of Nuremberg Trial is also of great practical significance to understanding the memory changes of Tokyo Trial.The process of Nuremberg Trial and Tokyo Trial see similar,but the results from post-war progress ended up on a different path in regards to the impacts on both countries.The Japanese government lacks objectivity regarding the fact of intrusion in China.Its introspective attitude is far beyond that of Germany.The Nuremberg Trial well recorded the responsibilities of the Nazi Germany in the collective memory of the modern German nation whereas Japan placed that responsibility solely on the emperor of its country which left its people with ignorance of the history.As an important part of World War ? memory,Tokyo Trial has always en an important subject for domestic scholars in the field of expertise for World War ? history.Out of political considerations,the United States did not disclose all the Tokyo Trial files to the public after the war and the contents of the Japanese crimes at the Trial remain confidential and uncategorized until1957.It was until 1977 when two Dutch jurists published them in full text for the first time that the only Tokyo Trial research institution in the world was set up in Shanghai.Therefore,there are quite some areas yet to be uncovered in the study of Tokyo Trial memory changes while the Japanese academics are less zealous about the topic.Since the new century,the commemoration of the victory of the world anti-fascist war has spread all over the world as people begin to pay more attention to the shift of memories for Tokyo Trial.Meanwhile,a comparison and analysis can inspire China to learn lessons from both Trials.Through this research,the author seeks to appeal possibility of a continuous promotion of memory research in history.Individual memory is the bearer of Nuremberg Trial's memory.The same memory in experience changes with the passing of time and change in space.Academic research provides a good platform for such a complex research.It also helps individuals apply scientific means to interpret changes in those historical memories.Through media narratives and special space presentation,we can enrich all kinds of research on the Nuremberg Trial memory from a more various perspective.It is highly likely that some perspectives and elements could be used as a channel to studying memory changes in novels,movies,games and scenes relating to Nuremberg Trial.The carriers of memory studies presented in this paper are rather limited and is expected for further discussion in the future in the form of literature,videos,game design and more.