The Allies deliberately staged the news coverage of the Nuremberg Trial of the major war criminals to ensure that it was perceived as a media event and widely covered in the press, on the radio, and in newsreels. As part of a policy of “re-education,” Germans were supposed to be given as much information as possible about the criminal character of the Third Reich and its leadership. Members of the public anxiously awaited the verdicts in the trial of the major war criminals, but their interest in the twelve later Nuremberg trials (of physicians, lawyers, military men, members of the SS and police, industrialists, and officials) dropped off significantly. Although many Germans recognized Nazi crimes as such, anti-Semitic prejudices and sympathy for National Socialism stubbornly persisted among some segments of the population, and this posed a problem for denazification and its counterpoint, “re-education.” The Allies soon moved from “re-education” to a policy of “re-orientation” or “reconstruction,” in which denazification no longer played a major role. Instead, exchange programs, the rebuilding of the German education system, and economic aid were supposed to help win Germans over to democracy.

In the picture, we see people clamoring for the special issue of the Nürnberger Nachrichten from October 1, 1946. It contained the verdicts for the major war criminals.