At the Nuremberg Trials (11/20/1945 - 10/01/1946) following the Second World War, 24 war criminals were put on trial. Three of them were acquitted, three were sentenced to life imprisonment, two to twenty years, one defendant to fifteen and ten years in prison, the rest to death by hanging. Robert Ley committed suicide in prison before the trial began. Gustav Krupp was declared terminally ill and his case was suspended. Martin Bormann was not found, his case was considered in absentia. The death penalty by hanging took place on October 16, 1946 in Nuremberg prison. Three hours before his execution, Hermann Goering took potassium cyanide in his cell. The International Military Tribunal declared the leadership of the SD, SS, National Socialist Party, and Gestapo criminal organizations. The play is based on a transcript of the Nuremberg Trials, memories of eyewitnesses, and documents from the military archives of the USSR, France, Great Britain, and Germany.