The ‘Minor’ War Crimes Trials: A Socio-Legal Investigation of Victims’ Justice

This book reconstructs the legal and military history of the ‘minor’ war crimes trials held in Occupied Germany and elsewhere from 1945-8. Although the International Military Tribunal held at Nuremberg, from the end of 1945, is extremely well known, there were in fact hundreds of trials of ‘minor’ so-called war criminals in Occupied Germany, liberated Europe and the Far East. But little is known about these trials: even their number remains uncertain, and they are still shrouded in mystery. This book remedies that lack: addressing why those trials began; their legal framework; the trial processes; where they failed; who investigated them; the role of the military; and why they stopped. Challenging orthodox accounts that there was no Holocaust-awareness in Allied prosecutions, the book reveals the extent to which these ‘minor’ trials involved a substantial contribution by Holocaust victims. Jewish and other witnesses confronted their abusers; and were an integral part of successful prosecutions. Detailing the extent and value of their contribution, this study of the minor war crimes trials thus serves as a counterweight to the now orthodox and widespread perception of Holocaust survivors as helpless, feeble and emaciated Jews.