Our analysis clearly shows that Belgian newspapers agree with each other when saying that Nuremberg trial is something exceptional. All periodicals recall that it is an international Court. In the same way, all the newspapers speak about the character of the defendants, some of them even make a portrait of each defendant or of the leading ones (“Gazette de Liège”, 27/11/1945, p. 3 – “La Meuse”, 21/11/1945, on first page – “La Libre Belgique”, 20/11/1945, on first page). Each newspaper catch the reader’s attention on one of the defendants (so “La Libre Belgique” calls to mind Von Papen and Hermann Goering, “La Meuse” calls to mind Hermann Goering, Von Papen, Keitel and Hess, qualifying them each time by summarizing their character.
Unanimously, the character of Rudolf Hess in underlined. Each newspaper evokes this ambiguous character who gives as pretext that his mind goes to blank and that he doesn’t remember anything. Most of the Belgian newspapers are incredulous about that.
Each newspaper speaks more about the development of the trial, even quoting some “spicy” anecdotes. The destiny of the Jews during the war is not really debated yet, except to underline the sordid role played by some defendants.
The newspapers aren’t all illustrated. The ones illustrated mainly show pictures of the defendants (mostly with pictures of Hermann Goering and Rudolf Hess) as well as pictures of the courtroom. “Pourquoi Pas” and “Le Patriote Illustré” are illustrated with a lot of pictures, but it is their own business. These pictures are the ones that can be found most of the time in the international press.
The newspapers make the readers live the trial, repeating the protagonists’ words as they were telling a story. That way, the reader has the feeling to follow the debates and therefore to make up his own opinion.
Each newspaper has its own idea on the trial : “La Meuse”, for instance, is more vindictive and is delighted observing the weakness that some defendants show.
Belgian newspapers don’t express many claims about the sentences to be inflicted yet. “La Gazette de Liège”, in the edition of 27/11/1945, seems to be the clearest in its positions. When reading these lines and overall when reading what is said in the portrait of each of the defendants, we can understand that the redactors expect the judges not to be forgiving toward them.