November 20, 1945, the opening of the Nuremberg Trials, marks the birth of conference interpreting as we know it today. Before the start of the trial, the Allied nations agreed that any proceedings for war crimes had to be conducted in a fair and swift manner. To achieve this, the hearings had to be simultaneously accessible in English, French, and Russian for the judges, and in German for the defendants and their defense lawyers. Not an easy task.
In order for the trial to proceed as quickly as possible, simultaneous interpreting was required. As a result, teams of twelve interpreters were assigned for each day of the proceedings. Another team was kept on standby during the others’ rest days; in this way, interpreters worked two days on and one day off.
Meanwhile, the “IBM International Translation System,” which had been in operation since the 1920s in Geneva, was installed in the Nuremberg courthouse only three weeks before the trials began. More than 600 headsets were connected to a complex electronic system so that everyone, from judges to defendants to journalists, could follow the proceedings in one of four languages. The goals of fairness and speed at the Nuremberg Trials would not have been possible without this technology.
Even today, interpreters remain a key element of cross-linguistic communication, present in courtrooms and refugee camps alike to ensure that dialogue can flow among all participants.
