In 1947, a group of German judges stood before an American tribunal in Nuremberg, accused of war crimes committed under the Nazi regime. How did it come to this — judges, once entrusted with justice, now on trial for betraying it?

In Part 1 of The Trial of the Nazi Judges at Nuremberg 1947, host Judge Stephen J. Sfekas (Circuit Court for Baltimore City) sets the stage for one of the most consequential trials in legal history. Drawing on his own lifelong fascination with Nuremberg — first sparked as a 14-year-old boy and reignited decades later when he joined the bench — Judge Sfekas explores how the Nuremberg process began, the legal and moral questions it raised, and the extraordinary scene inside the courtroom: a U.S. Army tribunal, held on German soil, judging German judges for crimes against their own people.

This episode introduces the International Military Tribunal that set the pattern for all that followed, explains how the United States’ stance toward postwar justice evolved from vengeance to legality, and traces the emergence of figures like Justice Robert H. Jackson. It is the first step in a five-part journey through the arraignment, trial, and legacy of the Justice Case — United States v. Alstoetter — a reckoning not just with Nazi crimes, but with the rule of law itself.