Who were the Nazi war criminals and how many were there? How many stood trial?
We do not know the exact number of Nazi war criminals, or the number of soldiers, policemen or auxiliaries who participated in the assassination and execution of hundreds of thousands of people. To avoid leaving evidence, the Nazis themselves destroyed many documents and many of those who were responsible or obeyed orders were never identified. Some war criminals are obvious, in particular those who took a direct part in the massacres: the SS of the Einsatzgruppen, the police forces of the Ordnungpolizei (forces for maintaining order), the SS guards in the killing centers, the military who were present or even participated in the massacres in Poland and the USSR. To which must be added the people who planned, ran or supervised these slaughter operations: the leaders of the Nazi party, the Nazi State and the Reich Security forces who initiated the “Final Solution” and the massacres. In fact, there were thousands of participants in the “Final Solution”, not forgetting the zealous Nazi co
