Talk:United Nations War Crimes Commission

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Military history: World War II

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Untitled[edit]

I am the nephew of a KIA airman from WW2 Kenneth T. Herr. Our family has reason to believe he was a victim of a war crime. He was shot down on a mission to Hopsten Germany on March 24 1945. The following is a link to a description of a war crime tribunal in 1948. [1] The UN War Crimes Commission was dessolved in 1949 so what institution can I contact for a freedom of info act request? I would like to find information on the fate of my Uncle.

Mark Thomas — Preceding unsigned comment added by Markthomas92 (talk • contribs) 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Not really UN[edit]

In the US as early as 1942, just after the US entered the war, a group of European Jewish immigrants laid the foundations of two groups: 1) for the relief of Jewish refugees in Europe (subsequently called UNRRA and financed with billions of US dollars); and 2) for what they called 'war crimes' (subsequently called UNWCC), including that any crimes by the Nazi government against any Jews be classified as 'war crimes,' and although the Hague and Geneva Conventions were already established and were for the most part scrupulously adhered to by the German military. The US group promoted these agendas through Henry Morgenthau, Treasury Secretary in Roosevelt's cabinet. The 'war crimes' proponents eventually established a meeting in London, and in October 1942 obtained a number of signatories from other nations, hence the title of United Nations Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes, although these early special-interest groups had nothing to do with the international organization eventually called the United Nations. The term 'united nations' was a generic term from 1942 that referred to the Allies. Most of the investigators and prosecutors of the US part of the War Crimes Commission were German-speaking Jews, which the members promoted on the grounds of language familiarity and claims that the regular US Army criminal investigators, counter-intelligence, and Judge Advocate staffs were too busy on other matters and technically lacked jurisdiction. Thus the newly established UNWCC war crimes staff were in many cases hurriedly granted temporary US citizenship and US Army officer temporary commissions in order to establish and carry out in the US Zone in post-war Germany unprecedented and subsequently highly controversial proceedings called tribunals, in which the US rules of criminal process were ignored--the accused were considered guilty in advance and the tribunals conducted for sentencing (and publicity). The reader inquiring about a relative might investigate the National Archives records of the so-called Dachau tribunals (not 'trials' or courts martial), entirely a US activity. (France, Great Britain and other nations conducted similar for alleged crimes against their own nationals). Some 489 of these Dachau tribunals were conducted and some 1,672 accused German (and Axis nation) civilians and some military were sentenced and executed. Some of these cases alleged that German civilians (and a few military) had attacked, injured and even killed US crews having parachuted from damaged bombers following such atrocities (to the victims) as the huge incendiary and carpet-bombing raids on German towns, which killed millions of innocent women and children, elderly, refugees and even Allied POWs. The names of the accused, dates and locations, and charges of the so-called 'downed flyers' cases may be researched on line at http://www1.jur.uva.nl/junsv/JUNSVEng/DTRR/DTCasesfr.htm The names of the downed flyers aren't given in the summaries but it's a start. The legalities are complicated as well. Downed airmen were considered POWs and handled by the Luftwaffe in strict accordance with Geneva, but the German government very late in the war enacted legislation that held that those who engaged in terror bombing could be subject to furious and grief-stricken attacks by civilians--something about if they landed wearing weapons they weren't POWs yet; thus their actions were not criminal under German law. And civilians were prosecuted for war crimes as well as German military. Except for resistants/partisans who committed horrific crimes against local civilians who didn't subscribe to their cause and against the German military were never prosecuted for 'war crimes.' 96.245.139.73 (talk) 07:31, 15 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]