Guest Post: Trial of European War Criminals set for Geneva

 This article was collaboratively developed by Allen W. McDonnell, Robbie Taylor, Steve Payne, and Jeff Provine and first appeared on Today in Alternate History with revisiting "Guisan Insults Hitler."

4 Feb, 1945 - At the Yalta Conference, Geneva was chosen as the best possible location for the forthcoming trial of the Nazi leadership.

The proposal was made by the battling Swiss General Henri Guisan. He had been elected by the Federal Assembly to defend the country against Nazi invaders after he slipped an insult upon Hitler's character, saying the cowardly Fuhrer should never and would never test the Swiss.

The Bavarian city of Nuremberg had been considered first choice, but Morgenthau's Plan for the total denazification of Germany was out of favour. Instead, international cooperation had become far more pressingly important. Consequently, Roosevelt and Stalin readily agreed with the proposal. FDR died a few months later, and Henry Wallace was the new president when details of the trial were being finalised. Circumstances had dramatically changed since Yalta because the north of Switzerland was being occupied by the Red Army.

Nevertheless, there were many good reasons for choosing the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich). With Hitler in Allied custody, there was a very real possibility that the commando Otto Scorzeny would launch a daring rescue Operation Eiche-style mission. This ruled out Nuremberg for security reasons. Having defeated the Nazis with Allied assistance, the Swiss were fiercely proud of their neutrality, and they had lots of well-trained security in place to secure the Nazi leadership. Should Scorzeny make such an attempt, they might even catch him as he tried to suborn the security men, who would likely shoot him rather than accept whatever bribe he offered.

By fully recognizing the human suffering of the USSR during Hitler's trial, the active participation of Soviets relieved tensions in the Grand Alliance. President Wallace was even able to convince the Soviets to withdraw from Switzerland as well as neighboring Austria. Both Wallace and Stalin fully understood the military reality: North Switzerland was not a viable Soviet satellite. This was because the mountainous terrain would be as tough on the Soviets as it was on the German invaders. Most likely, they would never hold it and lose anything they tried to do so.

To mark this important forward step in progress, the leaders of the Grand Alliance agreed to locate the new United Nations Headquarters in Geneva next to the old League of Nation offices. The city that became synonymous with compassion in the midst of warfare, the general rules for civilized behavior from the Geneva Declarations, became the standard by which the world entered the next century together. Guisan was the guest of honour, and by the time that Hitler was executed, there was every reason to believe that Wallace's promise of the "century of the common man" had just begun.

Author's Note:

In reality, the trials were to commence on 20 November 1945, in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg.