It's 70 years since what became known as the Nuremberg trials started in Germany, where the World War Two victors tried the surviving Nazi leaders for war crimes.
The Allies chose to conduct the trials in Nuremberg partly because that was where the Nazi Party had staged its rallies, so having the tribunal in the Bavarian city would emphasise the party's demise.
Some of the last surviving eyewitnesses to the trials returned to the court room at a symposium held in Nuremberg.
Greg Dyett reports.
October 1st, 1946: judgement day for the main Nazi leaders put on trial at Nuremberg.
"Hermann Wilhelm Goering, on the count of the indictment on which you are being convicted, the tribunal sentences you to death by hanging. Joachim von Ribbentrop, death by hanging. Fritz Saukel, death by hanging."
70 years ago, George Sakheim spent many days in the Nuremberg court room working as a civilian interpreter.
Now 92 years old, Mr Sakheim was born in Germany to Jewish parents.
He moved to the United States in 1938 when he was 15 and eventually ended up serving in the United States Army.
Before beginning work as an interpreter, he had to take an oath declaring that he would maintain neutrality while interpreting the words of some of the men who'd committed heinous crimes during the Holocaust.
He says the mood back then was one of righteous anger.
"The feeling was very often anger, a kind of a righteous anger that that was what they deserved. They had no mercy on their victims and now we're going to put them before the bar of justice and however it turns out, it turns out."
Mr Sakheim believes those held accountable for their crimes were given fair trials.
"It was a time when the feelings ran very, very high and we thought they had a fair trial, everybody had their four or five days or a week in court where they could explain their actions, what they did and why they did it and usually what it boiled down to was that they were so used to in Germany following orders from higher up that they always put it on that. Well, Befehl ist Befehl , an order is an order, and you don't contradict them and you don't question them."
The Nuremberg trials are often described as the world's first war crimes tribunal.
George Sakheim says that was an important message to send to the whole world.
"This should be a warning to leaders of nations or large groups that they will be answerable, they will be held accountable before the international community for whatever deeds they commit; illegal, outrageous deeds like that."
70 years later, Mr Sakheim says one other key lesson from the trials is the need to crush dictatorships no matter where they are in the world, at the earliest opportunity.
He says the rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State serves as a perfect example.
"We should not wait until they're strong and powerful like Nazi Germany became but early on, once their intentions are clear, the international community should wipe them out, you know, try to do it peacefully, if possible, but if not then I don't agree with my Quaker friends here where I live they say war is not the answer, I've had many an arguments with Quaker friends and said really what do you think Hitler would have done to the Quakers if he had won the war but they're very naïve when it comes to real, horrible dictatorships because they're not those kinds of people so they can't put themselves in that position."
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