War crimes trials between occupation and integration : the prosecution of Nazi war criminals in the British zone of Germany

Abstract

This research examines the trials of ‘minor criminals’ conducted by the British under the Royal Warrant procedures between 1942 and 1952. Firstly, it is concerned with the mechanics of the trials, i.e., issues of who was to prosecuted, the structure of the trials, the appeals process. Secondly, it sets the prosecution of war criminals in its wider context, examining the ways in which the Cold War contributed to the desire to ‘wind up’ the trials and how this influenced British perceptions of Nazism. By looking at the responses of key groups (Jewish communities in Britain, for example) it also considers the external pressures placed on the trials and the impact they had on British policy. This work argues that although Jewish groups were one of the few sections of society to remain interested in the British war crimes trial programme, the trials in Germany were little influenced by Anglo-Jewry. Rather, the decision to continue the trials process into the late 1940s was based largely on the desire to bring to justice those accused of crimes against British citizens.

This project also acts as a prism through which several key historiographical areas are addressed: the development of Anglo-German relations within the contest of the emerging Cold War; the contribution of war crimes trials to the nascent cultures of memory in Britain and West Germany; the changing nature of West German public opinion. It argues that the breakdown of the British relationship with the USSR was one of the defining events in war crimes policy. Thereafter war crimes trials were sacrificed as part of a more pragmatic policy of integration with West Germany.

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