Was there some logic behind the seating plan in Nuremberg?

[GoeringsPetLion]

Hello!

I wondered if there was some logic behind the seating plan of the defendants in Nuremberg. Why, for example, was Heß seated next to Göring?

[Georges JEROME]

1 and 2 were n°2 of the state and n° 2 of the NSDAP
11 and 12 were the 2 chief of Kriegsmarine
16 and 17 were involved in Anschluss

[ChristopherPerrien]

Looks more like they were ranked in order of assumed guilt by some Allied "faction". And most of the first 10 were executed along with a couple others. Hess was unspokenly considered "crazy". Dönitz was leader of Germany at the end.

[Georges JEROME]

Kaltenbrunner missing on the list.
Hess was not considered as insane. He was sentenced to life jail.
14, 15 and 17 were sentenced to death.

[Wordsworth]

Kaltenbrunner should have been sitting next to Ribbentrop, iirc.

They certainly wanted the most familiar faces of the regime - Göring, Hess and von Ribbentrop - to be up front, along with some of the highest-ranking military officers. On the other hand, there is some belief that seating was an indicator of which cases were considered iffy as opposed to iron clad...hence the seating of Speer in the back near the end when he really should have been seated closer.

[GoeringsPetLion]

@Wordsworth

Yes, that seems likely.