War Crime Trials + Prosecutions

“I thought at the time and still think that the Nuremberg trials were unprincipled. Law was created ex post facto to suit the passion and clamor of the time. The concept of ex post facto law is not congenial to the Anglo-American viewpoint on law. Before criminal penalties can be imposed there must be fair warning that the conduct which one undertook was criminal.”—William O. Douglas, LL.D. (Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the U.S., 1939-1975)

We used to have these trials listed under postwar crimes, but since most visitors don't expect them there, hence had a hard time finding it, we moved it up one notch. If you wonder why we put it there in the first place: because the Allied tribunals and all the trials that followed in their wake were a crass violation of international law and thus a crime by definition. Here are papers bringing that message home.

Documentary Evidence

At the end of WWII, the Allies decided to try the German leadership for alleged war crimes. The background to this decision was spelled out in some detail in the "Moscow Declaration" of October 30, 1943. The Russians (I know that it is politically correct to call them "Soviets", but just like the "Nazis" were…

Preface to Heresy in Twenty-First Century France

Historical revisionism, the great intellectual adventure of the late twentieth century, continues at the dawn of the twenty-first, as perilous as ever. But what is known of the revisionists? What stuff are they made of, these unsubdued people who, in France or abroad, persist in braving the written and unwritten laws? They are hunted, caught…

Rudolf Hoess: The Legal Implications of his Forced Confession

Background: Rudolf Höss, Commandant of Auschwitz from 1940 – 1943 was captured by the British on March 13, 1946. Affadavits written and signed in English were forced from Höss on several occasions. Although in regard to the charges of “crimes against humanity” Höss was arguably the most important prisoner, his role at Nuremberg was not…

Hunting Demjanjuk

In 1993, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that John Demjanjuk was not guilty in regard to the allegations that he was the notorious guard of Treblinka known as “Ivan the Terrible.” His United States citizenship was restored shortly thereafter. The Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) has recently revived the 24-year old case by…

War Crimes Trials

Approximately 10,000 “War Crimes Trials” have been held since 1945. Trials of Japanese military personnel ended in 1949, yet “war crimes trials” of Germans and Eastern Europeans continue to date. Almost invariably, the charge is “violation of the laws and customs of war”, derived, in turn, from international conventions signed at the Hague in 1899…

Revenge at Dachau: Justice Looks Away

Click on small pictures to see larger versions, download sizes indicated. Large Images will open in a separate window and are best viewed at 1,024×768 pixels or higher resolution, but 800×600 is adequate. DACHAU LIBERATION88K GIF DACHAU LIBERATION71K GIF DACHAU LIBERATION53K GIF DACHAU LIBERATION60K GIF BELSEN CORPSES89K GIF BUCHENWALD CORPSES49K GIF DACHAU CORPSES55K GIF GUARDS…

Soviet War Crimes Report on Auschwitz

Introduction “The Nuremberg Trials.” The mere mention of these words conjures up stark images of atrocities of the Second World War. These were the trials of the top surviving members of the Nazi leadership. At the conclusion of the trials, a set of volumes would be produced documenting the evidence presented. These volumes would become…

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