Hotel Drei Raben

What do the Nuremberg war crimes trials have to do with the in The Hague?

Around 30 American students come to Nuremberg every year to explore exactly these questions – at the very place where history was made. For more than ten years, we have hosted the professors of this summer school at Hotel Drei Raben for several weeks each July. This year is no exception.

Michael Kelly () one of the world’s leading experts in international criminal law, and Michael Bryant, one of the world’s most renowned Holocaust scholars, have become friends over the years. Together with Christoph Safferling () representing FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and the Internationale Akadmie Nürnberger Prinzipien (.nuremberg) they make this unique program possible.

For Nuremberg, it is important to keep telling this part of history - especially at the . And Nuremberg truly is the cradle of modern international criminal law: since 1945, it has been possible to hold individuals accountable before an international tribunal for crimes against humanity beyond the scope of national law. The Nuremberg Trials laid an important foundation for the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Most recently, the film “Nuremberg” brought renewed attention to the trials, featuring Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring in one of the leading roles. Its central message: monsters rarely appear monstrous. More often, they seem profoundly human – a point Christoph Safferling also emphasized.

In some respects, these perpetrators also embody what Hannah Arendt famously described as the “banality of evil” – although this interpretation is often questioned in the specific case of Göring.

Hannah Arendt: worth reading.

Nuremberg – both the film and the city, which remains deeply conscious of its history and responsibility: worth seeing.