World War II: United Nations War Crimes Commission Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals

World War II: United Nations War Crimes Commission Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals

2,201 pages, in 15 volumes, covering of 89 World War II era war crime cases.

The United Nations Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes, which later changed its name to the United Nations War Crimes Commission, was a commission of the United Nations that investigated allegations of war crimes committed by Nazi Germany and the other Axis powers in World War II. The Commission began its work at the behest of the British government and the other Allied nations in 1943, prior to the formal establishment of the United Nations itself, in October 1945.

The aim of the creation of this series of reports is to relate in summary form the course of the most important proceedings taken against persons accused of committing war crimes during the Second World War, apart from the major war criminals tried by the Nuremberg and Tokyo International Military Tribunals.

The cases were chosen for their significance when applying international law to war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity that often-set standards, where there was no precedent before.

Each report contains an outline of the proceedings in the trial under review, notes on the case, comments of an explanatory nature on the legal matters. These notes provide at suitable points, general summaries and analyses of the decisions of the courts on specific points of law derived primarily from a study of relevant trials. Each volume includes a foreword by Lord Wright of Durley, Chairman of the United Nations War Crimes Commission.

The cases were heard by the United States Military Commission, British Military Court for the Trial of War Criminals, Canadian Military Court, Supreme National Tribunal of Poland, Supreme Court of Norway, Australian Military Court and others.

Significant cases include:

THE ZYKLON B CASE - TRIAL OF BRUNO TESCH and TWO OTHERS HELD BY THE BRITISH MILITARY COURT, HAMBURG, 1st-8th MARCH 1946.

This case is important because it addressed complicity of German industrialists in the murder of interned allied civilians by means of poison gas.
 
Bruno Tesch was owner of a firm which arranged for the supply of poison gas created for the extermination of vermin, however among the customers of the firm were the S.S.  Karl Weinbacher was Tisch’s Procurist or second-in-command. Joachim Drosihn was the firm's first gassing technician. These three were accused of having supplied poison gas used for killing allied nationals interned in concentration camps, knowing how it was to be used. The Defense claimed that the accused did not know of the use to which the gas was to be put; for Drosihn it was also pleaded that the supply of gas was beyond his control. Tesch and Weinbacher were condemned to death. Drosihn was acquitted.

 
THE ESSEN LYNCHING CASE - TRIAL OF ERICH HEYER and SIX OTHERS BRITISH -  MILITARY COURT FOR THE TRIAL OF WAR CRIMINALS, ESSEN, 18TH-19TH and 21st-22nd DECEMBER 1945

This case addressed liability of civilians for the killing of unarmed prisoners of war. Liability of the military for incitement to kill prisoners of war, for inactivity while under a duty to protect them and collective responsibility.

Heyer, a Captain in the German Army, gave instructions that a party of three Allied prisoners of war were to be taken to a Luftwaffe unit for interrogation. He ordered the escort not to interfere if civilians should molest the prisoners, while also saying that the prisoners ought to be shot or would be shot. A German private was charged with having refrained from interfering with a crowd which murdered the prisoners, although entrusted with their custody. The remaining accused were German civilians who were alleged to have committed the killing.

 
THE BELSEN TRIAL - TRIAL OF JOSEF KRAMER and 44 OTHERS - BRITISH MILITARY COURT, LUNEBURG,17TH SEPTEMBER-17TH NOVEMBER 1945

Trial addressed the killing and ill-treatment of Allied military personnel and civilians in Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camps treated as a war crime punishable on the individual.

 
TRIAL OF FRANZ HOLSTEIN and TWENTY-THREE OTHERSPERMANENT MILITARY TRIBUNAL AT DlJON (COMPLETED 3RD FEBRUARY 1947)

This trial raised the issues of the killing of civilians as "reprisals," destruction of inhabited buildings. ill-treatment of civilians, pillaging, guilt of instigators and other accomplices.

The accused were members of various German units who took part in a series of crimes against the French population in the area of Dijon in 1944. Some belonged to the Army, and others to the Gestapo and SD (Security Police).

 
TRIAL OF ALOIS and ANNA BOMMERAND AND THEIR DAUGHTERS - PERMANENT MILITARY TRIBUNAL AT METZ JUDGMENT DELIVERED ON 19TH FEBRUARY 1947

This trial raised the issues of theft and receiving stolen goods as war crimes, civilians as war criminals and the responsibility of minors.

The accused were a German family of five members, Alois and Anna Bommer and their three unmarried daughters, Elfriede, Maria and Hilde. They were charged with theft of, and receiving stolen goods belonging to French citizens.

The accused pleaded not guilty. Alois and his wife declared that they had had an inventory made of the property and that they had purchased the furniture and the other objects concerned from the German custodian in charge of the deported Lorrainer's farm. They were, however, unable to prove the point by producing the inventory and the receipt. Alois and his wife were prosecuted and convicted for both theft and receiving stolen goods.

They were sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment each. Two daughters, Maria and Hilde, were prosecuted and convicted on the second Count only, and were sentenced to four months' imprisonment each. The third daughter, Elfriede, who was less than 16 years of age at the time of the offences, was acquitted of the charge of receiving stolen goods on the ground of having "acted without judgment" (sans discernement) on account of her age.

 
TRIAL OF OTTO SKORZENY and OTHERS - GENERAL MILITARY GOVERNMENT COURT OF THE U.S. ZONE OF GERMANY 18TH AUGUST TO 9TH SEPTEMBER 1947

The ten accused involved in this trial were all officers in the 150th Panzer Brigade commanded by the accused Skorzeny. They were charged with participating in the improper use of American uniforms by entering into combat disguised therewith and treacherously firing upon and killing members of the armed forces of the United States. They were also charged with participation in wrongfully obtaining from a prisoner-of-war camp United States uniforms and Red Cross parcels consigned to American prisoners of war.


The Krupp Trial (America vs. Alfried Krupp, et al.) was the tenth of twelve trials for war crimes that U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone at Nuremberg, Germany after the end of World War II.

These twelve trials were all held before U.S. military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal, but took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice. The twelve U.S. trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" or, more formally, as the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT). The Krupp Trial was the third of three trials of German industrialists; the other two were the Flick Trial and the IG Farben Trial.

In the Krupp Trial, twelve former directors of the Krupp Group were accused of having enabled the armament of the German military forces and thus having actively participated in the Nazis' preparations for an aggressive war, and for having used slave laborers in their companies. The main defendant was Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, CEO of the Krupp Holding since 1943 and son of Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach who had been a defendant in the main Trial of the Major War Criminals before the IMT (where he was considered medically unfit for trial).

THE FLICK TRIAL - TRIAL OF FRIEDRICH FLICK and FIVE OTHERS - UNITED STATES MILITARY TRIBUNAL, NUREMBERG 20TH APRIL-22ND DECEMBER, 1947

Issues covered in this trial include liability for War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Membership of Criminal Organizations of leading German
Industrialists.

Friedrich Flick was the principal proprietor, dominating influence and active head of a large group of industrial enterprises, including coal and iron ore mines and steel producing and manufacturing plants, commonly referred to as the " Flick concern". He was also a member of the supervisory board of numerous other large industrial and financial companies. The other five accused in this trial were leading officials of numerous Flick enterprises.

During the Second World War, Flick became an important leader of the military economy, member of the official bodies for regulation of the coal, iron and steel industries, and a member of a governmentally sponsored company for exploitation of the Russian mining and smelting industries.

All the defendants were accused of responsibility for enslavement and deportation to slave labor of a great number of civilians from populations of countries and territories under belligerent occupation and the use of prisoners of war in work having a direct relation to war operations, including the manufacture and transportation of armament and munitions. All the defendants except one were also accused of spoliation of public and private property in occupied territories. Flick and two others were further accused of crimes against humanity in compelling, by means of anti-Semitic economic pressure, the Jewish owners of certain industrial properties to part with title of their companies. Flick and Steinbrinck were accused of having, as members of the "Keppler Circle" or "Friends of Rimmler," contributed large sums to the finances of the S.S.


THE I.G. FARBEN TRIAL - TRIAL OF CARL KRAUCH and TWENTY-TWO OTHERS -  UNITED STATES MILITARY TRIBUNAL, NUREMBERG, 14TH AUGUST, 1947-29TH JULY, 1948

Issues covered in this trial include liability for crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity and membership of criminal organizations of leading German industrialists.

 
THE DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP TRIAL - TRIAL OF MARTIN GOTTFRIED WEISS and THIRTY-NINE OTHERS, GENERAL MILITARY GOVERNMENT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES ZONE, DACHAU, GERMANY, 15TH NOVEMBER-13TH DECEMBER 1945

Two charges alleged that the accused "acted in pursuance of a common design to commit acts hereinafter alleged and as members of the staff of the Dachau Concentration Camp, and camps subsidiary thereto, did at or in the vicinity of Dachau and Landsberg, Germany, between about 1st January, 1942, and 29th April, 1945, willfully, deliberately and wrongfully aid, abet and participate in the subjection of civilian nations" (charge 1) and of "captured members of the armed forces" (charge 2) "of nations then at war with the German Reich, to cruelties and mistreatments including killings, beatings and tortures, starvation, abuses and indignities, the exact names and numbers of such victims being unknown but aggregating many thousands..."

 
TRIAL OF MAX WIELEN and 17 OTHERS - THE STALAG LUFT III CASE BRITISH MILITARY COURT, HAMBURG, GERMANY, 1ST JULy-3RD SEPTEMBER 1947

The Stalag Luft III murders were war crimes perpetrated by members of the Gestapo following the "Great Escape" of Allied prisoners of war from the German Air Force prison camp known as Stalag Luft III on March 25, 1944. of the 76 successful escapees 73 were recaptured, mostly within several days of the breakout, 50 of whom were executed on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler. These summary executions were conducted within a short period of recapture.

 
TRIAL OF WASHIO AWOCHI - NETHERLANDS TEMPORARY COURT-MARTIAL AT BATAVIA (JUDGMENT DELIVERED ON 25TH OCTOBER 1946)

Trial covered the issue of enforced prostitution a war crime.

The accused, Washio Awochi, a Japanese hotelkeeper who ran a club/restaurant in Batavia from 1943 to 1945, was tried for having forced Dutch women to practice prostitution in the premises of the club.

 
TRIAL OF HEINZ HAGENDORF - UNITED STATES INTERMEDIATE MILITARY GOVERNMENT COURT AT DACHAU, GERMANY, 8TH-9TH AUGUST 1946

Issue improper use of Red Cross Insignia.

The accused, Heinz Hagendorf, a German soldier, was tried by a United States Intermediate Military Government Court at Dachau, Germany, being charged with having "wrongfully used the Red Cross emblem in a combat zone by firing a weapon at American soldiers from an enemy ambulance displaying such emblem."

Other trials include:

Peleus Trial

Dostler Case

Almelo Trial

Hadamar Trial

Scuttled U-Boats Case

Jaluit Atoll Case

Dreierwalde Case

Trial of Kriminalassistent Karl-Hans Hermann Klinge

Trial of Kriminalsekretar Richard Wilhelm Hermann Bruns and Two Others

Trial of Robert Wagner, Gauleiter And Head of The Civil Government of Alsace During the Occupation, And Six Others

Trial of Gunther Thiele and Georg Steinert

Trial of Peter Back

Trial of Albert Bury and Wilhelm Hafner

Trials of Anton Schosser, and of Josef Goldbrunner and Alfons Jacob Wilm

Trial of Erich Killinger and Four Others

Trial of Yamamoto Chusaburo

Trial of General Tomoyuki Yamashita

Abbaye Ardenne Case. Trial of S.S. Brigadefuhrer Kurt Meyer

Trial of Major Karl Rauer and Six Others

Trial of Kurt Student

Trial of Hauptsturmfuhrer Amon Leopold Goeth

Trial of Obersturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoess

Trial of Erhard Milch

Trial of Gustav Becker, Wilhelm Weber and 18 Others

Trial of Jean-Pierre Lex

Trial of Heinrich Gerike and Seven Others

Trial of General Von Mackensen and General Maelzer

The Trial of Albert Kesselring

Trial of Carl Bauer, Ernst Schrameck and Herbert Falten Trial of Franz Holstein and Twenty-Three Others

Trial of Wilhelm List and Others

Trial of Hans Szabados

Trial of Alois and Anna Bommer and Their Daughters

Trial of Karl Lingenfelder

Trial of Christian Baus

Trial of Philippe Rust

Trial of Karl-Heinz Moehle

Trial of Helmuth Von Ruchteschell

Trial of Otto Skorzeny and Others

Trial of Tanabe Koshiro

Trial of Martin Gottfried Weiss and Thirty-Nine Others

Trial of Generaloberst Nickolaus Von Falkenhorst

Trial of Max Wielen and 17 Others

Trial of Lieutenant General Kurt Maelzer

Trial of Lieutenant-General Baba Masao

Trial of Tanaka Chuichi and Two Others

Trial of Franz Schonfeld and Nine Others

Trial of Johannes Oenning and Emil Nix

Trial of Hans Renoth and Three Others

Trial of Arnoheering

Trial of Willi Mackensen

Trial of Eberhard Schoengrath and Six Others

The German High Command Trial - Trial of Wilhelm Von Leeb and Thirteen Others

Trial of Ulrich Greifelt and Others

Trial of Gauleiter Artur Greiser

Trial of Albert Wagner

Trial of Washio Awochi

Trial of Susuki Motosuke

Trial of Wilhelm Gerbsch

Trial of Shigeki Motomura and 15 Others

Trial of Heinz Hagendorf

Trial of Erich Weiss and Wilhelm Mundo

Trial of Max Schmid

Trial of Takashi Sakai

Trial of Lothar Eisentrager And Others

Trial of Dr. Joseph Buhler

Trial of Hans Paul Helmuth Latza And Two Others

Trial of Josef Hangobl

Trial of Hans Albin Rauter

Trial of Willy Zuehlke