WW2 War Crimes Trials: Recent Episodes
J L Gabbott
Were the war crimes trials held by the Allies in Europe and the Far East after the Second World War fair and just? We look at the trials: the law, the charges and the evidence. Be prepared to be surprised.
William Joyce – Lord Haw Haw – broadcast propaganda from Germany to Britain. Everyone thought he was British and wanted him to be hanged. He was in fact American, but that did not save him.
The trial of John Demjanjuk, suspected of being the guard known as ‘Ivan the Terrible’, ended in failure. But that was only the start …
Josef Kramer was known as the 'Beast of Belsen'. Did he deserve that name, or was he in fact a pleasant fellow?
General Masaharu Homma and the Bataan Death March: war criminal or outstanding soldier?
Oscar Schmitz was charged with committing war crimes while a guard at Belsen. But he was innocent.
Karl Egersdorf worked at the Belsen Concentration Camp. Why did the British put him on trial?
The Nuremberg Trials have acquired the reputation of being a great exercise of justice by the Allies. Is that reputation really deserved?
Was General Tomoyuki Yamashita guilty of the terrible war crimes he was charged with - or was he himself a victim?
Joachim Peiper was charged with murdering many Allied soldiers and civilians at Malmedy, during the Battle of the Bulge. He was tried after the War by the Americans, but the trial was a disaster. Let us see why.
Hilde Lisiewitz was a guard at Belsen and was found guilty of war crimes. But did her accuser commit perjury?
Irma Grese was a guard at Belsen. She was charged and convicted of war crimes, and then she was hanged. But did the court act properly?
Fritz Klein was a doctor at Auschwitz and Belsen and was singled out by the British for vicious treatment before being hanged. Was that fair?
The British liberated Belsen Concentration Camp on 15th April 1945 and were confronted by a human catastrophe on an unimaginable scale. They wanted to hold to account those responsible, and decided to hold a war crimes trial.
In this episode we examine the challenges which faced them: what law to apply, the charge to be preferred, the evidence. We shall see how they rose - or failed to rise - to meet those challenges.