What Is a War Crime?

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A war crime is simply a violation of the rules a warfare, which have been agreed to in a number of treaties. For example, we've had war crimes beginning since war began - wars began with david hitting goliath in the head with a rock. When the germans began dropping poison gas into the trenches in world war one, and they were dying a horrible death, the first hague conventions said some things you cannot do in war. You cannot shoot your enemy in the back. You cannot you refuse to take prisoners. You cannot use poison gas a trying to make war more humane. That is absurd, absolutely absurd. Ah, i can assure any of your listeners that when a war

When Benjamin Ferencz was 27 years old, he prosecuted his very first trial. There were 22 defendants, each of them high-ranking members of Nazi Germany’s death squad. The entire world was watching.

Today, we take a look at the Nuremberg trials and their role in defining international law after World War II.

This episode originally aired in 2018—this version includes an update with Benjamin Ferencz, who celebrated his 101st birthday earlier this year.

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