Hitler’s “Scorched Earth” Decree (Nero Decree) (March 19, 1945) and Albert Speer’s Response (March 29, 1945) http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1590
I found this document easily using the introductions Helen gave in the video on how to easily search and access documents/articles of specific subjects with sub categories to refine the search. In this case I used ‘Nazi Germany’ and narrowed down the year from 1945 onwards as I wanted documents from the end of the war to get an insight on what the media was recording or what it wasn’t recording on German officials.
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The Editor-in-Chief of Die Zeit on the Nuremberg Trials (January 22, 1948) and the American Response (February 12, 1948) |
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I found this newspaper article in the same way as I found the above document, except this was under European History with the link of German History Documents which made my search easy and efficient as everything I was looking for was under categories in a timeline period. I selected ‘ 1945-1961’ which has the heading ‘Occupation and the Emergence of Two states’ then I proceeded to select the ‘Denazification and war crimes Trials under the Allies’ and this was a perfect selection of different documents for research for my dissertation to look at the Trails former Nazi soldiers or SS members faced after Germany lost the Second World War and they had to face punishment for their crimes. |
[Diary written during the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg].
Diary with newspaper clippings kept during the time of the Nuremberg Trials of major German war criminals, 1945-1946.
This source was also found similarly to the above documents, on the website Europeana which gave me access to millions of European documents including the British Library. I then refined my search by typing in “Germany 1945-50’ and further refined it by using ‘Nuremberg Trails’. This gave me the selected Diary document that was written at the time of the trials which gives me a great piece of primary evidence that could be used for my dissertation research.
R.J Overy, ‘Interrogations : the Nazi elite in Allied Hand, 1945’
Using the Library catalogue I was able to find this book by searching ‘German War criminals 1945’. After reading the summary I knew this would be perfect for my research as it gives me a real insight of the interrogations of the German high command after the war was over by America, Britain and Russia. This made me wonder whether to specifically base my research on the trials or continue my research on what happened to the German high command after the war, were they punished and caught or did they manage to escape and live a normal life free from conviction.
Thank you – excellent examples of how to use search terms in order to narrow down a field of focus. I think your issue needs a bit more focus though – do consider what the historians such as Overy have tended to overlook
You’ve rooted out some good sources here, but you will need a sharper focus to your dissertation: what angle do you want to pursue/question do you want to answer? I’m not sure you will be able to bring a Nazi decree and post-war newspaper fragments into dialogue with one another. One approach could be to look at the depiction of Nuremberg (or other trials) in British newspapers. Another would be to look at the trials themselves through the trial transcripts (which are available online). In terms of the historiography, have a look at our HISU9T6 bibliography. Istvan Deak, Martin Conway, etc., will be useful for situating the Nuremberg trials in a broader context.