Conference on Nuremberg Trials - Instytut Pileckiego

"Unknown Legacies of the Nuremberg Trial: Regional Approaches and Perspectives in East Central Europe "

International Conference: Unknown Legacies of the Nuremberg Trial: Regional Approaches and Perspectives in East Central Europe 

3-4 December 2025 | Pariser Platz 4A, 10117 Berlin | Registration: https://forms.gle/3zbKCHTDrbwCwzot9 

Find the full conference agenda below or here

The conference will reflect the significance, legacy, and shortcomings of the IMT Trial through interdisciplinary discussions on the legal and political foundations of the Nuremberg Trial, as well as on the actors and approaches overlooked in the master narrative. A critical analysis of the provisions of the IMT Charter, the selectivity of the Nuremberg indictment, and the omission of Soviet crimes from the Allied designs for postwar justice, complemented by case studies of different war crimes trials, will bring new perspectives to the debate on the history and contemporary reception of the Nuremberg Trial. Eight decades later, the conference experts will also address a pressing question facing the international community: Are today’s international courts truly capable of adjudicating mass atrocities?

The conference is held under the honorary patronage of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Radosław Sikorski.

13:00 – 14:00 Registration

14:00 – 14:15 Conference opening by the Director of the Pilecki Institute, Karol Madaj

14.15 - 16.00 Panel 1: (Re-) discovering the history of the Nuremberg Trial: international networks and domestic efforts preceding  the London Conference 

Dominika Uczkiewicz, The Polish contribution to the UNWCC and to the works of the International Military Tribunal 

Elias Forneris, French and Belgian lawyers in London: Planning post-war justice (1941–44)

Ivo Cerman, Bohuslav Ečer and Antonín Hobza. The Czechoslovak approach to crimes against peace 

Kinga Czechowska, Wacław Kulski and Michał Putulicki – two lawyers in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs 

Chair: Piotr Długołęcki

16.00- 16.15 Coffee break

16.15-17.45 Panel 2: Victor’s justice or fair trial?  Establishing the Nuremberg principles on the brink of the Cold War

Pavel Šturma, The Nuremberg Principles: Continuity and changes

Bartłomiej Krzan, The Role of criminal organizations in addressing mass criminality: Then and now

Miguel Manero de Lemos, Four 21st century myths concerning the crime of aggression. Or, the four forgotten legacies of the Nuremberg Trial concerning  aggression and how East-Central European countries have long been standard bearers of such legacies

Mateusz Piątkowski, The grim side of Nuremberg – The case of air bombardments  of Central European towns and cities

Chair:  Ivana Hrdličková

17:45 - 18:00 Coffee break

18:00 – 19:30  Round Table Discussion: Conferences in London and Potsdam and the origins of the Nuremberg Trial 

Participants:  Annette Weinke, Jacek Tebinka, Pablo Gavira Díaz, Alexander Korb

Chair: Dominika Uczkiewicz

9:30-11:00 Panel 3: Judging major war criminals after Nuremberg

Tamás Hoffmann, History’s first domestic criminal trial against a former head of state for the crime of aggression – The Bárdossy case at the Hungarian People’s Tribunals

Boris Popivanov, Wartime justice, postwar power: The Sixth Chamber of Bulgaria’s People's Court in 1945

Oktawian Kuc, A Polish Nuremberg. The Supreme National Tribunal and its judicial dialogue with the IMT

Julia Klaus, Axis Rule in Occupied Asia? The Tokyo Tribunal, Its Uncomfortable Relationship with Nuremberg, and Rafał Lemkin

Chair: Karolina Wierczyńska

11:00- 11:15 Coffee break

11:15 – 13:00 Panel 4: Domestic approaches and prosecutions I

Gabriele Chlevickeite, The Lithuanian contribution to post-war justice: War crimes trials, legal practitioners, and the Cold War context

Irina Rebrova, Cold War trials of Nazi crimes: The Yeysk case between Soviet, East German, and West German courts in the 1960s–1970s

Andrea Rudroff, Polish postwar trials against members of the Auschwitz camp personnel

Kamil Frączkiewicz, West German Investigations (1949-1990) into crimes committed in KL Gross Rosen

Ewelina Czarnowska, Selbstschutz as the Case Study in Postwar Justice: The Central Office in Ludwigsburg and Crimes in the Lublin District

Chair: John Cornell

13:00- 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 -15:30 Panel 5: Domestic approaches and prosecutions II

Elisa Novic, Damien Scalia, War crimes and collaboration on trial in France after 1945

Jarosław Suchoples, War responsibility trials in Finland, 1945-1948

Alina Ivanenko, Judging under occupation: Ukrainian judges under German  rule and postwar Soviet trials

Filip Gańczak, Józef Skorzyński (1878-1959). Poland’s forgotten Nazi hunter

Chair: Krystian Wiciarz

15:30 – 15:45 Coffee break

15:45 –17:15 Round Table Discussion: Comprehensive or selective justice? Great Powers,  ‘small states’, their visions and receptions of the Nuremberg Trial

Participants:  Ivana Hrdličková, Tamás Hoffmann, Bartłomiej Krzan, Steve Crawshaw

Chair: Karolina Wierczyńska 

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