Alternate Title
Inge Viermetz, Woman Acquitted at Nuremberg
Keywords
international criminal law, International Criminal Court, Nuremberg Military Tribunals, RuSHA case, Nuremberg era, child-taking, criminal justice, criminal defense, race, gender, women defendants
Abstract
Conventional narratives tend to represent the post-World War II international criminal proceedings as a men’s project, thus obscuring the many women who participated, as lawyers, journalists, analysts, interpreters, witnesses, and defendants. Indeed, two women stood trial before Nuremberg Military Tribunals. This article examines the case of the only woman found not-guilty: Inge Viermetz, who had been an administrator at Lebensborn, the Nazi SS adoption and placement agency. The article outlines the prosecution’s child-taking case against Viermetz, as well as her successful gendered self-portrayal as a conventionally feminine caregiver. With references to Professor Megan A. Fairlie, at whose memorial symposium it was presented, the article concludes by considering contemporary implications of this acquittal at Nuremberg.
Recommended Citation
Diane Marie Amann, Inge Viermetz, Woman Acquitted at Nuremberg, 19 FIU L. Rev. 487 (2025), https://doi.org/10.25148/lawrev.19.2.6.
Included in
Criminal Law Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, International Law Commons, Legal History Commons
