Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is a very interesting piece of Nürnberg Trials history, a patch meant to be worn by a prisoner of the Nürnberg Trials who worked as a cook in the prison. The patch has the German spelling of the word and is hand-embroidered, with the individual stitching visible on the reverse. There is a good bit of wear to the patch, and it certainly appears period.

The patch measures 6 x 9½” and is constructed of yellow cotton with black lettering and a black border. The patch reads:

NÜRNBERG
PRISON
COOK

There is some staining to the reverse of the patch, and the stitching of the letters can be seen more clearly on this side. This would likely have been stitched to the back of a Prisoner’s uniform, and there were likely other patches with similar designs. We have been unable to find any exact matches to this example, making it a very scarce example. This patch comes ready for further research and display.

The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Germany for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries across Europe and atrocities against their citizens in World War II.

Between 1939 and 1945, Germany invaded many countries across Europe, inflicting 27 million deaths in the Soviet Union alone. Proposals for how to punish the defeated 
German leaders ranged from a show trial (the Soviet Union) to summary executions (the United Kingdom). In mid-1945, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed to convene a joint tribunal in Nuremberg, occupied Germany, with the Nuremberg Charter as its legal instrument. Between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) tried 22 of the most important surviving leaders of Germany in the political, military, and economic spheres, as well as six German organizations. The purpose of the trial was not just to convict the defendants but also to assemble irrefutable evidence of German crimes, offer a history lesson to the defeated Germans, and delegitimize the traditional German elite.