Abstract
This chapter examines examples of how the Allies, especially the US and UK War Crimes Investigation Teams, took little or no notice of fundamental rules of evidence, and had little knowledge of the rules of law. This approach culminated and stretched the law far beyond its intention or ideals. The UK and US National Archives contain numerous examples of excess which would not be tolerated today. Without doubt the main perpetrators were correctly convicted, though lingering doubts remain as to the methods used to obtain confessions. There are many examples where violence, threat of violence or other unlawful methods were used. Some may say that any method used to convict some of the world’s worst criminals was justified, though there is evidence to disprove this theory. The question remains as to whether or not the ‘right’ people were prosecuted, or were certain individuals sacrificed due to political expediency.
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Notes
- 1.
Renamed the Royal Military Police on 28 November 1946 in recognition of their outstanding service in two world wars.
- 2.
United Nations: Complete History of the United Nations War Crimes Commission and the Development of the Laws of War V (London: His Majesties Stationery Office, 1948), 90. These Nations were, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Luxemburg, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland and Yugoslavia.
- 3.
USHMM. CD 3027. M5 N3 No.1019.
- 4.
Tom Boyer, Blind Eye to Murder (London: Warner Books, 1995), 130.
- 5.
Morgan had been a member of the ill-fated 1914 Bryce Committee, formed to investigate alleged irregularities by the German Army, primarily in Belgium. A report was published on 12 May 1915 which contained little evidence to support the allegations. This was used as a propaganda tool and was ultimately widely discredited.
- 6.
Schuster to Morgan, 27 November 1941. LCO 2. 2972.
- 7.
Charter of the International Military Tribunal—Annex to the Agreement for the prosecution and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis. Article 19.
- 8.
For fuller discussion on Ex-Post Facto Law, see Charles E. Wyzanski, “Nuremberg—A Fair Trial? A Dangerous Precedent,” The Atlantic Monthly Group, (2013). Devin O. Pendas, “Seeking Justice, Finding Law: Nazi Trials in Postwar Europe,” The Journal of Modern History 81, (June 2009).
- 9.
Julian Jackson, The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940 (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 331–379.
- 10.
“Charlie Daley”, Daily Telegraph, 26 September 2012.
- 11.
Hansard, House of Commons Debate, 23 June 1944, vol. 401, cc 481.
- 12.
IWM. 09/18/1, Folder 6, Sarah Helm’s papers on A Life in Secrets, biography of Vera Atkins.
- 13.
Peter Hore, Lindell’s List: Saving British and American Women at Ravensbrück (Stroud: The History Press, 2016). Anne Sebba, Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2016).
- 14.
Hore, Lindell’s List, 238.
- 15.
The George Cross recipients were, Odette Hallowes (née Brailly née Sansom, née Churchill), Noor Inayat Khan and Violette Szabo (née Bushell).
- 16.
See Damien Lewis, The Nazi Hunters (London: Quercus, 2015).
- 17.
16 21 Army Group comprised the second British Army and the First Canadian Army. After the German surrender on 8 May 1945 21AG was based at Bad Oeynhausen, near Hamburg and thus became the HQ for the British zone of a divided Germany. 21 AG became the British Army on the Rhine under the command of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery on 25 August 1945.
- 18.
Martin Gilbert, Israel: A History (London: Transworld, 1999), 121.
- 19.
Boyer, Blind Eye to Murder, 26, in conversation with Frank Roberts, Acting First Secretary to the Foreign Office, 1939–1945.
- 20.
Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 17 December 1942, vol. 385, cc 2082. House of Lords Debates, 17. December 1942, vol. 125, cc 607–612. Anthony Eden did answer a question in relation to cooperation with the Allies on 7 October 1942, vol. 383, 1187.
- 21.
The exceptions being the outstanding three participants in the Stalag Luft III (Great Escape) murders tried from 11 October to 5 November 1948 and the trial of Field Marshal Ernst von Manstein which took place from 23 August to 19 December 1949.
- 22.
TNA. WO 32/12197/77A.
- 23.
Bergen-Belsen Trial Transcript, accessed September 3, 2017, www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/TrialTranscript/Trial_Contents.html.
- 24.
Charter of the International Military Tribunal, 1945, Article 8.
- 25.
David Cesarani, Eichmann: His Life and Times (London: William Heinemann, 2004), 272.
- 26.
Control Council Law, No. 10. 20 December 1945.
- 27.
Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945 (London: Vintage Books, 2010), 54.
- 28.
This German expression became the standard German defence and became known as the ‘Nuremberg Defence.’
- 29.
Ben Shepherd, Hitler’s Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), 536.
- 30.
Bower, Blind Eye to Murder, 287.
- 31.
Richard Halse, Forty Years On (Private Circulation, 1983), 7–5. Copy kindly supplied to the author by the curator of the RMP museum, Fareham, Hampshire.
- 32.
These offences included complicity to murder, ill-treatment of civilians and soldiers in contravention to international laws and conventions.
- 33.
Bower, Blind Eye to Murder, 293.
- 34.
The trial of Reinhold Burchardt, Richard Hänsel and Erwin Wieczolek took place at Hamburg from 11 October to 6 November 1948. Burchardt was convicted, sentenced to hang but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, he was released eight years later. Hänsel was acquitted whilst Wieczolek was convicted, sentenced to hang but acquitted on appeal.
- 35.
Thomas Harding, Hanns and Rudolf (London: Windmill Books, 2014), 242.
- 36.
See Nick Van Der Bijl, Sharing The Secret: A History of the Intelligence Corps 1940–2010 (Croydon: Pen and Sword Military, 2013), Fred Warner, Don’t You Know There Is A War On (Hamburg: Private Publication, 1985), Sean Longden, To the Victor the Spoils: Soldiers’ Lives from D-Day to VE-Day (London: Constable and Robinson, 2004).
- 37.
Helen Fry, The London Cage (London: Yale University Press, 2017), 272.
- 38.
Gilbert King, “The Monocled World War II Interrogator,” Smithsonian Magazine, 23 November 2011.
- 39.
Oliver Hoare, intro. and ed., Camp 020: MI5 and the Nazi Spies (Richmond: Public Record Office, 2000), 19.
- 40.
Ian Cobain, Cruel Britannia: A Secret History of Torture (London: Portobello Books, 2012).
References
Primary Sources
Charter of the International Military Tribunal, 1945.
Control Council Law, No. 10. Dated 20 December 1945.
Hansard. House of Commons Debates, 17 December 1942, vol. 385, cc 2082. House of Lords Debates, 17. House of Commons Debates, 23 June 1944, vol. 401, cc 481.
Imperial War Museums, UK. IWM 09/18/1, Folder 6.
Schuster to Morgan, letter, 27 November 1941.
The Daily Telegraph, 26 September 2012.
The National Archives, UK. TNA WO 32/12197/77A.
United Nations. Complete History of the United Nations War Crimes Commission and the Development of the Laws of War V. His Majesties Stationery Office, 1948.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, USA. USHMM CD 3027. M5 N3 No.1019.
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Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report of the Banality of Evil. London: Viking Press, 1963.
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Cesarani, David. Eichmann: His Life and Times. London: William Heinemann, 2004.
Cobain, Ian. Cruel Britannia: A Secret History of Torture. London: Portobello Books, 2012.
Fry, Helen. The London Cage. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.
Gilbert, Martin. Israel. London: Transworld, 1999.
Halse, Richard. Forty Years On. Private Circulation, 1983.
Harding, Thomas. Hanns and Rudolf. London: Windmill Books, 2014.
Hoare, Oliver. Camp 020: MI5 and the Nazi Spies. Public Record Office, 2000.
Hore, Peter. Lindell’s List: Saving British and American Women at Ravensbrück. Stroud: The History Press, 2016.
Jackson, Julian. The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945. London: Vintage Books, 2010.
King, Gilbert. “The Monocled World War II Interrogator.” Smithsonian Magazine, November 23 2011.
Lewis, Damien. The Nazi Hunters. London: Quercus, 2015.
Sebba, Anne. Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2016.
Shepherd, Ben. Hitler’s Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
Bergen-Belsen Trial Transcript. Accessed September 3, 2017. www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/TrialTranscript/Trial_Contents.html.
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Sherwood, R. (2019). The United Kingdom War Crimes Investigation Teams after World War II. In: Allwork, L., Pistol, R. (eds) The Jews, the Holocaust, and the Public. The Holocaust and its Contexts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28675-0_10
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