My final journey into Nürnberg was only 40km and relatively flat along the river Pegnitz. The journey takes you through some of the small and picturesque old towns of Germany, the ones not ravaged by the war, and retain their old charm.
Life carries on…
I arrive into Nürnberg before lunch and head for the hostel to start the admin I need to do. Taxes, laundry and bike maintenance. The glamorous life of a cycle tourist! The hostel is rather bland, more of the commercial types where they squeeze as many in as possible. This unfortunately means services and atmosphere suffer. Not easy to meet people and a kitchen which is practically unusable. Whilst it is possible to wash the clothes it is not possible to dry (machine broken). I head off to find a Laundromat; it works out cheaper as well! Lesson learned!
I’m starting to realise there is a need for weekly bike maintenance that I should’ve started with! This includes:
- Check nuts and bolts (vibrations shake them loose)
- Tyre pressure
- Grease cleats
- Grease chain (especially if it has rained)
- Check disc rotor bolts (yes they had worked themselves loose)
- Panniers nuts and bolts
This is tedious work and is starting to make it feel like a job again, didn’t I try to leave that behind?!?
Knowing I had to catch up with my journal and needing dinner I head towards the main centre. Whilst walking towards the centre I went through one of the old gates to the city. I discover an old style German restaurant. Expecting it to be a bit of a tourist trap but was surprised to find many Germans eating there. I enjoy the local cuisine, which essentially is a Lincolnshire sausage, combined with sauerkraut and freshly made bread.
It would naturally be rude not to have a couple of local beers whilst updating my journal. My journal has moved from bullet points to prose. My handwriting has not improved! Not sure if this is normal, but it allows me to explain what was going on in my head.
Nürnberg – The destruction
The next day I sign-up for another walking tour and discover the Nazis wanted to make the city their main base of the party. After the successful rallies held in the city they decided to develop the Luitpold area of the Nürnberg. This in turn would hold a large set of buildings, their congress hall, parade grounds, grand entrance street. The slabs for the road designed to match the marching pace of the soldiers. They also started construction of a German stadium to seat over 400,000 based on the stadium in Athens. This was to become the centre of not only athletic sports but blood sports.
The size of what the Nazis were proposing in this area was staggering and the cost did not seem to bother them. They managed to keep the costs down through the use of slave labour in the form of Jews and PoWs, mainly Soviets.
Some Nazi buildings are being restored as a reminder of the history; however others are being left to decay. A fitting reminder that a 1,000 year Reich would never have lasted.
The tour continued onto the castle where we learnt about the memorial held there for the German children forced to fight in the war for the Nazis. The Nazis through the Hitler Youth Programme had been training them in the use of weapons and decided. As the Allies forced the Nazis back the Nazis resorted to using the children of German families from Nürnberg and other cities in defence. This made taking Nürnberg difficult for the allies, naturally reluctant to kill children. Some of the children managed to escape to woods nearby. However, after realising their parents would be punished they returned. Not many survived being sent to war.
The Nürnberg trials.
After the war and with some of the leaders caught and in prison there was a search for what to do with them. Initially the US wanted them ‘liquidated’ in response to what they did; however after discussions with the British, French and Soviets it was decided a trial based on a military tribunal would take place. A military tribunal is without a jury and based on a set of judges with two provided from the 4 powers; the US, UK, France and the USSR. The defendants, 22 in the first trial, were prosecuted on a mixture of 4 crimes:
- Conspiracy to commit these crimes
- Crimes against peace
- War crimes
- Crimes against humanity
There was considerable argument regarding which crimes each defendant should face and in some cases the judges could not agree that a crime was even punishable. For example the French lead judge, Henri Donnedieu de Vabres, disagreed on the concept of Conspiracy to commit these crimes. The final sentences involved 12 death sentences with others either acquitted or given sentences of various lengths. This method went on to become the foundation for other subsequent trials for these crimes and in turn the International Criminal Court based in The Hague.