The American Alsos Mission, a scientific intelligence-gathering task force, followed behind the advancing Allied armies in the west, looking for evidence of a German atomic bomb. Its scientific leader, the physicist Samuel Goudmit, quickly determined that the Germans were far removed from building nuclear weapons but also was misled by some documents and his own prejudices, convincing himself that the Germans, including his colleague Werner Heisenberg, had not understood how an atomic bomb would work. When Goudsmit returned to the United States, he began publishing books and articles using the German uranium work as an example of how the Nazis had ruined science through political and ideological control, mistakes that America must not repeat. Heisenberg responded by defending both his scientific work and conduct under Hitler. Goudsmit criticized both Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker for compromising with the Nazis. While Goudsmit eventually reconciled with Heisenberg, he never forgave Weizsäcker. Goudsmit had lost his parents in Auschwitz, and Weizsäcker’s father, a high-ranking official in the Foreign Ministry, had been convicted of war crimes.

The chapter presents an overview of the procedural arrangements adopted at the international criminal jurisdictions, namely the UN ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the International Criminal Court (ICC), covering the main milestones from the initiation of the investigation to trial phase to appeals against the judgment and sentence and review. Before delving into the trajectories of an criminal case before international criminal courts and tribunals, the chapter highlights the origins of international criminal procedure in the common law (Anglo-American, or ‘adversarial’) and civil law (Continental, or ‘inquisitorial’) approaches, resulting in its legal nature as a hybrid scheme where the balance between the domestic influences varies by tribunal and over time due to reforms pursued by judge-legislators (ICTY and ICTR) or by states and, to a lesser extent, judges (ICC). The chapter reviews the role and functions of the main actors in international criminal proceedings, including repeat or professional players (judges, prosecutors, and defence) and other participants such as victims and witnesses and states and international organisations. It also highlights the normative importance of human rights to international criminal process and the imperative of complying with the principles of public, fair and expeditious proceedings.

In 1938 nuclear fission was discovered in Germany. Like their counterparts in other countries, German scientists brought the military potential of fission to the attention of officials and began researching isotope separation and nuclear reactors, the two paths to atomic bombs. During the Blitzkrieg phase of the war, powerful new weapons were not needed, so that the research had low priority and made modest progress. When the war slowed down in the winter of 1942-1942, the uranium research was evaluated with the result that it became clear that atomic bombs could not be made in Germany in time to influence the outcome of the war. Because the Americans, who had much greater resources, were apparently working on this, the Germans continued to as well. The steadily deteriorating state of the war made research more difficult, then impossible, as the scientists were focussed on their survival. After the war, the revelations of the Holocaust, and the atomic bombing of Japan, these scientists were criticized for collaborating with the Nazis and had to justify their work. The result was the legend of Copenhagen, a claim that they had in fact been trying to forestall all nuclear weapons.

In order to determine what really happened when Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker met with Niels Bohr in occupied Copenhagen in September 1941, this visit has to be placed in several contexts. By this time the German uranium research had demonstrated that atomic bombs were probably feasible, even if not for Germany during the war. The summer 1942 German offensive against the Soviet Union had not yet begun to falter, although Heisenberg was nevertheless privately very anxious about the war. The Germans alienated Bohr and his colleagues by their participation in cultural propaganda and nationalistic and militaristic comments about the war. A comparison with Heisenberg’s other lecture trips abroad shows that he acted the same way in other places. Heisenberg’s subsequent efforts in 1942 to gain support from Nazi officials by both describing the power of atomic bombs and the threat that the Americans might get them first also do not fit with an attempt at Copenhagen to forestall all nuclear weapons. Instead the best explanation for the visit is Heisenberg and Weizsäcker’s fear of American atomic bombs falling on Germany.

When the war slowed down in the winter of 1942-1942, the uranium research was evaluated with the result that it became clear that atomic bombs could not be made in Germany in time to influence the outcome of the war. The project was transferred from Army Ordnance to the Reich Research Council, the institution responsible for mobilizing civilian research for the war effort. The scientists, who were now threatened with the loss of their exemptions from frontline service, began to “sell” their research. Although they did not promise to deliver atomic bombs, they did emphasize the tremendous power of such weapons and warned that the Americans, who had much greater resources, were apparently working on this. In the meantime a model nuclear reactor experiment had produced a neutron increase, which was interpreted as proof in principle that a nuclear reactor could be built. Several influential figures responsible for armament production now took a keen interest in uranium research and the powerful Minister of Armaments Albert Speer decided to generously support the project.

Several revues of different sorts opened in autumn, including the latest edition of Charlot’s Revue in London, and Earl Carroll’s Vanities (with Sophie Tucker), The Grab Bag (with Ed Wynn) and Dixie to Broadway (with Florence Mills) in New York. Productions of Countess Maritza opened in Europe, including in Budapest, and a new musical starring Dorothy Dickson, Patricia, debuted in London.