That is why the defense of "just following orders" does not work. They were the ones giving the orders.
I'm not sure what you mean by that but there were certainly people executed for carrying out orders they didn't originate themselves. Nuremberg is hardly the epitome of justice, hell the first man to die was convicted of relaying an execution order against a group of Allied commandos captured while conducting military operations in civilian clothing, which made them unlawful combatants still entitled to "humane" treatment under the Geneva conventions but not protected against execution like ordinary uniformed prisoners.
Obviously, should the first German officer tried in an allied war trial be exonerated and released, it would be an embarrassment for the Roosevelt administration.
For that reason, the prosecutor and my father sent a wire to Washington, informing the administration of the situation. Shortly thereafter, the prosecuting officer received the reply: "Lacking standard evidence, hearsay will be accepted as evidence in the trial."
http://www.nd.edu/~com_sens/issues/old/v17/v17_n5.html#dostler
Many of the others were convicted of "waging wars of aggression."
After the United States gobbled up California and half of Mexico, and we were stripped down to nothing, territorial expansion suddenly becomes a crime. It's been going on for centuries, and it will still go on.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring#Nuremberg_Diary_.281947.29
Yeah so "justice" at Nuremberg makes a neat bedtime story but reality is important if you're going to cite it as precedent.