The Holocaust and the Making of International Law

The Holocaust, the Nazi regime's systematic murder of about six million Jews, along with the persecution and killing of Roma, disabled people and others, shaped the modern human rights system more than any other event. At the Nuremberg trials of 1945–46, leading Nazis were tried for crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression; the word 'genocide' appeared in the indictment but was not yet a separate legal crime.

The lessons drawn were that a government could commit mass murder under cover of its own laws, and that sovereignty could not shield such acts. These conclusions fed directly into the Genocide Convention and the Universal Declaration. Later trials, such as that of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961, made survivor testimony central to public understanding.

Historians stress that the Holocaust was carried out through ordinary institutions, laws, railways and bureaucracies, which is why its study focuses on how societies allowed persecution to escalate step by step.