Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1947-1967 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
3 microfilm reels
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Papers relating to a number of separate war crimes trials deposited at different times from different sources. There follow the names of defendants in the said trials followed by short biographical histories, where known:
Erich Koch Trial, People's Court, Warsaw, 1958- Erich Koch, former Gauleiter of the Ukraine, and Reich Defence Commissioner in East Prussia was convicted of the murder of 72,000 Poles, and of sending 200,000 others to forced labour camps. He was accused by prosecutors of bearing directly responsibility for the deaths of several million Poles and Russians.
The Swiss Federal Supreme Court conducted 6 trials of 102 Swiss citizens between 1946 and 1948, of whom 99 would be given various sentences for political treason, political or military intelligence activities, violation of military secrets, and military service abroad. Notable names among them were P Benz, G Oltramare, P Bonny, R Fonjallaz, J Barwirsch, H Frei, F Riedweg, T Stadler, F Burri and M L Keller.
Horst Wagner Trial, Hamm, North Rhine Westphalia, District Court, 1959- This former legation counsellor in the Nazi foreign ministry was accused of being accessory to the murder of several hundred thousand Jews. He was head of Gruppe Inland II, which worked with Adolf Eichmann, on the deportation of Jews from a number of European countries. He managed to evade justice for 30 years. Born in Posen in 1906, trained as a journalist in Berlin where he joined the SA in 1933, in May 1938 he joined the foreign ministry. In January 1944 he became liaison officer between the foreign office and the SS, during which period he became involved in the deportation of Jews. He was in custody during the Nuremberg trials where he was a witness, and after which, in 1948, he was released.
Fischer-Schweder et al Higher District Court Stuttgart, 1959. The defendants Bernhard Fischer-Schweder; Werner Schmidt-Hammer; Hans-Joachim Böhme; Werner Hersmann; Edwin Sakuth; Werner Kreuzmann; Harm Willms Harms; Gerhard Carsten; Franz Behrendt; Pranas Lukys alias Jakys were accused of the mass murder of of Jews and Communists in and around the Tilsit region of Lithuania as part of the orders carried out by Einsatzgruppe A.
Heilmann, Kierspel and Mirbeth, Jury Court, Bremen, 1953- Helmrich Hermann Philipp Heilmann, Josef Kierspel and Johann Mirbeth were found guilty of murder, attempted murder and manslaughter in their respective capacities as concentration camp guards in Sachsenhausen, Flossenbürg, Auschwitz and others.
Udo von Woyrsch and Ernst Müller Trial, Jury Court Osnabrueck and Federal Appeal Court, 1957-1958- charged with accessory to manslaughter and manslaughter of a number of SA men on 30 June 1934.
Dr Emanuel Schaefer and others, Jury Court, Köln - charged, in his capacity as commander of the Sicherheitspolizei und SD in Serbia, for affording assistance to others in their perpetration of the murder of over 6000 Jewish women and children in a camp in Belgrade between end February and end May 1942 also Emanuel Schaefer, Franz Sprinz and Kurt Matschke charged for having knowingly afforded assistance to those who effected the deportation of Jews from Köln to the east. Schaefer, a career police officer with a law degree, held a number of senior positions in various forces including leader of the Stapo in Oppel; a short stint as head of an Einsatzgruppe of the Sicherheitspolizei und SD in Poland; head of the Stapo at Kattowitz; head of the Stapo at Köln until 6 January 1942 when he was made commander of the Sicherheitspolizei und SD in Serbia.
Franz Rademacher and Dr Klingfuss, District Court Nuremberg-Fürth, 1952- Franz Rademacher was the head of D III the so-called Jewish desk of the Nazi Foreign Office from May 1940 to April 1943. He became involved in the plan to re-settle Jews in Madagascar and after it was decided that this plan could no longer be realized, he was sent to Serbia to help the authorities to find a 'local solution' to their 'Jewish problem' (firing squads). In Autumn 1941 he was directly involved in the mass murder of Jews. In the Spring of 1943 he was released for military service in the navy. After the war he was tried and convicted at Nuremberg-Fürth (see below), but jumped bail while the case was being appealed and fled to Syria in 1953. Penniless and in ill health he returned to Germany in 1966 and faced a further trial, conviction, and appeal before his death in 1973. Dr Klingenfuss had spent many years in the foreign office and from July to December 1942 he worked with the co-defendant in department D III of the Foreign Office.
Friedrich Georg Hermann Hildebrand, District Court, Bremen, 1953- Hildebrand was was part of the staff of the Lemberg office of the Galicia district of the SS und Polizeiführer, from July 1942, as commandant of the slave labour camp of Drohobycz and Boryslaw until his deployment as inspector of the Jewish slave camps throughout Galicia in summer 1943.
Johann Paul Kremer, Highest People's Court, Krakau, Poland, 1947- Kremer, a former doctor at Auschwitz was condemned to death by the Polish Supreme National Tribunal on 22 December 1947 for his involvement in the murder of Auschwitz prisoners. He received a presidential reprieve and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. On 11 January 1958 he was let out on probation and handed over to West Germany where he was tried at the Landgericht, Münster, Westphalia, and sentenced to a total of 10 years for 2 counts of accessory to murder, on 29 November 1960. Since he had spent more than 10 years in a Polish prison he was allowed to go free.
Philipp Mensinger, District Court, Bremen, 1967- Mensinger was accused of 8 counts of murder at the site of the business Karpathen Öl AG, Galicia which employed slave labour.
Dr Carl Clauberg Trial, District Court, Kiel, 1956- Carl Clauberg, an eminent professor of medicine at Kiel University, is indicted here on numerous counts of grievous bodily harm; intent to injure; manslaughter as a result, principally, of his experiments on sterilisation of women patients at Auschwitz and Ravensbrück.
Indictment 1964- Karl Wolff, one of Himmler's most trusted colleagues. In 1931 Wolff joined the Nazi party and the SS, and in July 1933 he was appointed Himmler's adjutant. In 1936 he was elected to the Reichstag as a member from Hesse. Wolff advanced rapidly up the SS ladder, being appointed Standartenführer in January 1934, Gruppenführer in the Waffen- SS in May 1940, and SS- Obergruppenführer and Generaloberst (senior general) in 1942. He was awarded the Nazi party gold medal on January 30 1939. It was Wolff, who, with Himmler's help, obtained the necessary deportation trains from the German railways administration for transporting innumerable thousands of Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp. In September 1943 Wolff became military governor of northern Italy and plenipotentiary of the Reich to Mussolini's Fascist government. In February 1945 Wolff contacted US intelligence agent Allen Dulles in Zurich and arranged for the surrender of the German forces in northern Italy.
Repository
Archival history
GB 1556 WL 1185 1947-1967 Collection level 3 microfilm reels Various regional courts and the appeal courts, Germany, Switzerland and Poland
Papers relating to a number of separate war crimes trials deposited at different times from different sources. There follow the names of defendants in the said trials followed by short biographical histories, where known:
Erich Koch Trial, People's Court, Warsaw, 1958- Erich Koch, former Gauleiter of the Ukraine, and Reich Defence Commissioner in East Prussia was convicted of the murder of 72,000 Poles, and of sending 200,000 others to forced labour camps. He was accused by prosecutors of bearing directly responsibility for the deaths of several million Poles and Russians.
The Swiss Federal Supreme Court conducted 6 trials of 102 Swiss citizens between 1946 and 1948, of whom 99 would be given various sentences for political treason, political or military intelligence activities, violation of military secrets, and military service abroad. Notable names among them were P Benz, G Oltramare, P Bonny, R Fonjallaz, J Barwirsch, H Frei, F Riedweg, T Stadler, F Burri and M L Keller.
Horst Wagner Trial, Hamm, North Rhine Westphalia, District Court, 1959- This former legation counsellor in the Nazi foreign ministry was accused of being accessory to the murder of several hundred thousand Jews. He was head of Gruppe Inland II, which worked with Adolf Eichmann, on the deportation of Jews from a number of European countries. He managed to evade justice for 30 years. Born in Posen in 1906, trained as a journalist in Berlin where he joined the SA in 1933, in May 1938 he joined the foreign ministry. In January 1944 he became liaison officer between the foreign office and the SS, during which period he became involved in the deportation of Jews. He was in custody during the Nuremberg trials where he was a witness, and after which, in 1948, he was released.
Fischer-Schweder et al Higher District Court Stuttgart, 1959. The defendants Bernhard Fischer-Schweder; Werner Schmidt-Hammer; Hans-Joachim Böhme; Werner Hersmann; Edwin Sakuth; Werner Kreuzmann; Harm Willms Harms; Gerhard Carsten; Franz Behrendt; Pranas Lukys alias Jakys were accused of the mass murder of of Jews and Communists in and around the Tilsit region of Lithuania as part of the orders carried out by Einsatzgruppe A.
Heilmann, Kierspel and Mirbeth, Jury Court, Bremen, 1953- Helmrich Hermann Philipp Heilmann, Josef Kierspel and Johann Mirbeth were found guilty of murder, attempted murder and manslaughter in their respective capacities as concentration camp guards in Sachsenhausen, Flossenbürg, Auschwitz and others.
Udo von Woyrsch and Ernst Müller Trial, Jury Court Osnabrueck and Federal Appeal Court, 1957-1958- charged with accessory to manslaughter and manslaughter of a number of SA men on 30 June 1934.
Dr Emanuel Schaefer and others, Jury Court, Köln - charged, in his capacity as commander of the Sicherheitspolizei und SD in Serbia, for affording assistance to others in their perpetration of the murder of over 6000 Jewish women and children in a camp in Belgrade between end February and end May 1942 also Emanuel Schaefer, Franz Sprinz and Kurt Matschke charged for having knowingly afforded assistance to those who effected the deportation of Jews from Köln to the east. Schaefer, a career police officer with a law degree, held a number of senior positions in various forces including leader of the Stapo in Oppel; a short stint as head of an Einsatzgruppe of the Sicherheitspolizei und SD in Poland; head of the Stapo at Kattowitz; head of the Stapo at Köln until 6 January 1942 when he was made commander of the Sicherheitspolizei und SD in Serbia.
Franz Rademacher and Dr Klingfuss, District Court Nuremberg-Fürth, 1952- Franz Rademacher was the head of D III the so-called Jewish desk of the Nazi Foreign Office from May 1940 to April 1943. He became involved in the plan to re-settle Jews in Madagascar and after it was decided that this plan could no longer be realized, he was sent to Serbia to help the authorities to find a 'local solution' to their 'Jewish problem' (firing squads). In Autumn 1941 he was directly involved in the mass murder of Jews. In the Spring of 1943 he was released for military service in the navy. After the war he was tried and convicted at Nuremberg-Fürth (see below), but jumped bail while the case was being appealed and fled to Syria in 1953. Penniless and in ill health he returned to Germany in 1966 and faced a further trial, conviction, and appeal before his death in 1973. Dr Klingenfuss had spent many years in the foreign office and from July to December 1942 he worked with the co-defendant in department D III of the Foreign Office.
Friedrich Georg Hermann Hildebrand, District Court, Bremen, 1953- Hildebrand was was part of the staff of the Lemberg office of the Galicia district of the SS und Polizeiführer, from July 1942, as commandant of the slave labour camp of Drohobycz and Boryslaw until his deployment as inspector of the Jewish slave camps throughout Galicia in summer 1943.
Johann Paul Kremer, Highest People's Court, Krakau, Poland, 1947- Kremer, a former doctor at Auschwitz was condemned to death by the Polish Supreme National Tribunal on 22 December 1947 for his involvement in the murder of Auschwitz prisoners. He received a presidential reprieve and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. On 11 January 1958 he was let out on probation and handed over to West Germany where he was tried at the Landgericht, Münster, Westphalia, and sentenced to a total of 10 years for 2 counts of accessory to murder, on 29 November 1960. Since he had spent more than 10 years in a Polish prison he was allowed to go free.
Philipp Mensinger, District Court, Bremen, 1967- Mensinger was accused of 8 counts of murder at the site of the business Karpathen Öl AG, Galicia which employed slave labour.
Dr Carl Clauberg Trial, District Court, Kiel, 1956- Carl Clauberg, an eminent professor of medicine at Kiel University, is indicted here on numerous counts of grievous bodily harm; intent to injure; manslaughter as a result, principally, of his experiments on sterilisation of women patients at Auschwitz and Ravensbrück.
Indictment 1964- Karl Wolff, one of Himmler's most trusted colleagues. In 1931 Wolff joined the Nazi party and the SS, and in July 1933 he was appointed Himmler's adjutant. In 1936 he was elected to the Reichstag as a member from Hesse. Wolff advanced rapidly up the SS ladder, being appointed Standartenführer in January 1934, Gruppenführer in the Waffen- SS in May 1940, and SS- Obergruppenführer and Generaloberst (senior general) in 1942. He was awarded the Nazi party gold medal on January 30 1939. It was Wolff, who, with Himmler's help, obtained the necessary deportation trains from the German railways administration for transporting innumerable thousands of Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp. In September 1943 Wolff became military governor of northern Italy and plenipotentiary of the Reich to Mussolini's Fascist government. In February 1945 Wolff contacted US intelligence agent Allen Dulles in Zurich and arranged for the surrender of the German forces in northern Italy.
Bronislaw Tronski et al
War crimes trials: trial papers including detailed indictments and verdicts of various post-World War Two war crimes trials; reports on trials by observers; copy statements and other papers, 1947-1967.
Chronological
Open
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
German and Polish
Microfilm
Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk
Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn.
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.
January 2008 Wars (events) Administration of justice Auschwitz concentration camp Clauberg , Carl , 1898-1957 , Nazi camp doctor and war criminal Concentration camps Fischer-Schweder , Bernhard , fl 1904-1958 , policeman Forced labour Genocide Heilmann , Helmrich H P , fl 1907-1953 , criminal Hildebrand , Friedrich , fl 1902-1967 , tradesman and SS leader Holocaust Humanitarian law International conflicts Jews Kirspel , Joseph , fl 1896-1953 , criminal, Auschwitz foreman and tradesman Koch , Eric , 1896-1986 , war criminal Kremer , Johann Paul , 1883-1965 , Nazi camp doctor and war criminal Labour Legal procedure Mensinger , Philipp , fl 1921-1968 , member of SS Mirbeth , Johann , fl 1905-1953 , carpenter and member of SS Mueller , Ernst , fl 1934-1957 , member of SS Nazism Political doctrines Rademacher , Franz , 1906-1973 , war criminal Religious groups Schaefer , Emanual , fl 1900-1953 , policeman and SS Oberfuehrer Third Reich Totalitarianism Treblinka concentration camp Wagner , Horst , b 1906 , war criminal War War crimes Wolff , Karl , 1900-1984 , war criminal World wars (events) World War Two (1939-1945) Woyrsch , Udo von , 1895-1983 , SS and police leader
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Bronislaw Tronski et al
Content and structure area
Scope and content
War crimes trials: trial papers including detailed indictments and verdicts of various post-World War Two war crimes trials; reports on trials by observers; copy statements and other papers, 1947-1967.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Chronological
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
- Latin
Language and script notes
German and Polish
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
- Administration of justice
- Humanitarian law » War crimes » Concentration camps
- Labour » Forced labour
- Humanitarian law » War crimes » Genocide
- Humanitarian law
- International conflicts
- Religious groups » Jews
- Labour
- Administration of justice » Legal procedure
- Political doctrines » Totalitarianism » Nazism
- Political doctrines
- Religious groups
- Political doctrines » Totalitarianism
- International conflicts » War
- Humanitarian law » War crimes
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
- English