The Six Day War
On October 6, 1973, Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise attack against Israel. The war was the fiercest Arab-Israeli war since the 1948 War of Independence. It came almost as a complete surprise. Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal, establishing beachheads on the Israeli-held east bank. On the Golan Heights, the Syrians pushed past the cease-fire lines and occupied a large area. They also seized the key Israeli intelligence-gathering position on Mt. Hermon.
Within two days, the IDF blocked the Egyptian and Syrian advances and took the offensive. Because of the huge quantitative superiority of the Syrian forces, a situation compounded by the proximity of Jewish settlements on the Syrians’ path of advance, it was decided to give priority to the northern front.
By October 10, the Syrians had been pushed back and the entire Golan was again in Israeli hands, except for the Hermon position, which was only recaptured toward the end of the war. Between October 11 and October 14, the IDF pushed the Syrian forces across the cease-fire lines and penetrated Syrian territory. An Iraqi expeditionary force dispatched to reinforce the Syrians was also successfully blocked.
On the southern front, an early Israeli counter-offensive failed, but Israeli units managed to overcome an attack by Egyptian tank forces, destroying 200 enemy tanks in the process. Shortly afterward, on October 15, the IDF renewed the counter-offensive. The main thrust of the fighting was to push across the Suez Canal and strike at Egyptian forces on the other side.
A gap between the Egyptian 2nd and 3rd Armies was chosen as the crossing point. It was a difficult operation, preceded by heavy fighting to clear the approach lines. The Engineering Corps constructed a bridge across the Canal in the face of concerted Egyptian resistance. By October 19, Israeli troops were well established on the west bank. Until the first scheduled cease-fire on October 22, the IDF enlarged the territory under its control. Although the Egyptians had agreed to the cease-fire, it did not take effect at the designated time. By the time an effective cease-fire was actually implemented, on October 24, the IDF had completely surrounded the Egyptian 3rd Army.
On the northern front, the IDF regained control of Mt. Hermon by October 22, removing the last Syrian forces from the area. The war ended on October 24 in a decisive victory for the Israeli Army. In the north, the Syrians failed to achieve any territorial gain, while the IDF had crossed the old cease-fire lines into Syrian territory, acquiring new vantage points on the Golan. The Syrian Army suffered major losses of manpower and equipment.
The Yom Kippur War was followed by a series of Separation-of-Forces Agreements with Egypt and Syria. Prisoners were returned immediately after the signing of the agreement and Israel withdrew from Mount Hermon and the enclave areas. Unlike what many had expected, the Agreement on disengagement between Israel and Syria lasted for more than 30 years.
The Nuremberg Trials
October 18, 1945, the opening session of the Nuremberg Trials (also known as the International Military Tribunal) began for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. They were a series of 13 trials in Nuremberg, Germany. The defendants were indicted on charges of crimes against peace and crimes against humanity.
Although considered controversial at the time, the Nuremberg Trials are now regarded as a milestone toward the establishment of a permanent international court, and an important precedent for dealing with later instances of genocide and other crimes against humanity.
Almost a year later, on October 1, 1946, the judgement was read: 12 of the defendants were sentenced to death, 3 sentenced to life imprisonment, 4 given prison sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years, and 3 were acquitted. Of the original 24 defendants, one, Robert Ley, committed suicide while in prison, and another, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, was deemed mentally and physically incompetent to stand trial.
October 16, the death sentences were carried out. The executions took place in the gymnasium of the court building. Ten of the architects of Nazi policy were hanged. They were Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Foreign Minister of the Interior; Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces; Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Chief of the Security Police; Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces; Joachim von Ribbentrop, Reich Foreign Minister; Alfred Rosenberg, Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Area, Fritz Sauckel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Minister of the Interior and Julius Streicher.
Hermann Goering, leader of the Gestapo and the Luftwaffe, was sentenced to death by hanging, but committed suicide on October 15, 1946 (three hours before he was to be executed).
