The editorial team at the “Nuremberg: Casus Pacis” project and the Eksmo publishing house continue their series of excerpts from Swiss historian Philipp Gut’s book ‘Jahrhundertzeuge Ben Ferencz’ (Witness to the Century Ben Ferencz).

At the Nuremberg Trials, everything was a first - including the debut of international simultaneous interpretation. The new practice of interpretation was invented and introduced at the tribunal - "simultaneous interpretation" was necessary for the new world, which was going to live on without war. Countries and people managed to come to an agreement in every sense: a common space for dialogue was provided by interpreters, who bore perhaps the greatest responsibility and who had never done anything like this before or since. The Soviet interpreters had a particularly difficult time - and they passed the unprecedented test with flying colours.

The Nuremberg Trials were the first of their kind in history, turning into a judgment against a regime and an entire era - the Nazi period that gripped Germany for one and a half decades. It gave a powerful impetus to the development of international law. In particular, it introduced the concept of "crimes against humanity" that we use today. The forging of a new term, a key one for the advancement of human rights, took place amid heated legal debates and even intrigues around the two concepts – "genocide" and "human rights". Georgy Bovt discusses the key legal collision for the modern world.

Charles De Gaulle's handpicked prosecutors rehabilitated France that had surrendered to the Nazis

Soviet Chief Prosecutor’s Speech Angered Defendants