War Crime Trials

In November 1945, twenty-four prominent members of Nazi Germany, who had been captured by the Allies at the end of the war, were prosecuted by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) for the crimes they planned and committed throughout the Second World War, including the Holocaust.

Sources available at The Wiener Holocaust Library:

• The 42-volume series, also known as “The Blue Series”, is the official record of the first trial. The Wiener Holocaust Library houses the 42-volume series in both English and German.
  • To navigate the collection, please check the chronological and subject index and/or the document and name index
  • This series is on open access in the Reading Room – no need to request.
• Collection 1655: This collection, donated to the library by the Nuremberg War Crimes trial authorities, comprises authenticated copies and translations into English of Nuremberg War Crimes trial documents which specifically pertain to the fate of European Jewry. Each document has been given a Wiener Library reference number and the original Nuremberg reference number has been retained.
  • Readers need to consult the finding aids to access the collection.
• Collection 1209: The papers were deposited by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper, a former British civilian volunteer, who assisted in the preparation of trial materials. This collection consists of mostly original documents relating to the Nuremberg Trial of the major German war criminals. The papers in this collection are those which she had worked on and which had been in her desk when she left.
• Collection 2085: International Military Tribunal Nuremberg: Authenticated copy documents.

External Resources:

• Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal: The 42-volume series can also be found online via the Library of Congress
• The Nuremberg Trials Collection (Yale Law School): The Nuremberg Trials Collection is part of The Avalon Project of Yale Law School, a collection of documents in law, history and diplomacy. Users can browse the full trial transcripts which are sorted into sets.
• Nuremberg Trials Project (Harvard Law School): This open-access initiative aims to create and present digitized images or full-text versions of the Library’s Nuremberg documents alongside descriptions and general information about the trials. As an ongoing project only select material is available at present.

Between December 1946 and April 1949, twelve additional trials were conducted before U.S. military courts, in their occupied zones. These trials, known as the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, tried further members of the leadership of Nazi Germany for war crimes.

Sources available at The Wiener Holocaust Library:

• The 15-volume series, also known as “The Green Series”, entitled “Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10” is the official record of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials.
  • This series is on open access in the Reading Room – no need to request.
  • Digitised copies are also available in The Library of Congress’ Military Legal Resources and via the Internet Archive.

Documents on specific subsequent Nuremberg Trials:

The Medical Case

• Microfiche copy of the full proceedings and documentation of the trial. Note: A substantial amount of the microfiches are illegible (as are the originals).
  • Finding aid in English: Nuremberg Medical Trial 1946/47: transcripts, material of the prosecution and defense, related documents : guide to the microfiche-edition with an introduction to the trial’s history … and short biographies of the participants.
  • Finding aid in German: Der Nürnberger Ärzteprozess 1946/47: Wortprotokolle, Anklage- und Verteidigungsmaterial, Quellen zum Umfeld: Erschliessungsband zur Mikrofiche-Edition
  • Note: Readers are invited to check both English and German versions as occasionally names may be present in one volume but not in the other.
• Collection 1208/1: This case, officially entitled United States vs. Karl Brandt, became known as the ‘Medical Case’ because 20 of the 23 defendants were doctors, and the charges related principally to medical experimentation on human beings.
• The Holocaust: selected documents in eighteen volumes. 17, Punishing the perpetrators of the Holocaust: the Brandt, Pohl and Ohlendorf cases edited by John Mendelsohn.

The Milch Case

• Nuernberg war crimes trials: records of case II: United States of America v. Erhard Milch edited by John Mendelsohn.

Justice Case

The case was officially designated United States of America vs. Josef Altstoetter, et al. Of the 16 defendants indicted, nine were officials in the Reich Ministry of Justice. The others included the chief public prosecutor of the People’s Court and several prosecutors and judges of both the Special Courts and the People’s Courts.

• Collection 1208/2: These papers comprise a part of the official transcript of the judgement and sentencing which took place 3-4 December 1947.

Pohl Case

• The Holocaust: selected documents in eighteen volumes. 17, Punishing the perpetrators of the Holocaust: the Brandt, Pohl and Ohlendorf cases edited by John Mendelsohn.
• Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, volume 5
  • This series is on open access in the Reading Room – no need to request.

IG Farben Case

The trial of 23 officials of the I.G. Farben concern was commonly referred to as the ‘Farben Case’ and was officially designated United States of America vs. Carl Krauch et al. Krauch was a member of the company’s managing board from 1934 to 1940, and thereafter, until 1945, the chairman of its supervisory board.

• Collection 1208/3: The material in this collection consists of transcripts of parts of the proceedings and documents relating to the case.
• Military tribunals: case No. 6: the United States of America against Carl Krauch, Hermann Schmitz (…) officials of IG Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft.

Hostage Case

The ‘Hostage Case’ was officially designated United States of America vs Wilhelm List et al. The term ‘hostages’ was used by the Germans to designate those innocent civilians they executed in retaliation for German soldiers killed. The ratio was normally either 50 or 100 civilians for each German.

• Collection 1208/4: The material in this collection consists of transcripts of parts of the proceedings and documents relating to the case.

Krupp Case

The trial of the 12 officials of the Krupp concern was commonly referred to as the ‘Krupp Case’ and was officially designated United States of America vs. Alfred Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach et al. 

• Collection 1208/5: The material in this collection consists of transcripts of parts of the proceedings and documents relating to the case.

Ministries Case

The ‘Ministries Case’ was officially designated United States of America vs. Ernst von Weizsaecker et al. It became known as the ‘Ministries Case’ because most of the 21 defendants were charged with criminal conduct arising principally out of their functions as officials of the Reich government.

• Collection 1208/6: The material in this collection consists of part of the transcripts of the ‘Ministries Case’ proceedings, containing biographical accounts of the defendants, including Lutz Schwerin von Kresigk, Reich minister for finance, Otto Meissner, advisor to Hitler, Hans Heinrich Lammers, Reich minister and chief of the Reich Chancellery and Gottlob Berger, head of the SS main office.

High Command Case

The ‘High Command Case’ was officially designated United States of America vs. Wilhelm von Leeb et al. The defendants held various leading command or staff positions in the German armed forces. They were charged with having committed, together with other leaders of the Third Reich, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and with having participated in a common plan or conspiracy to commit crimes against peace.

• Collection 1208/7: The material in this collection consists of transcripts of parts of the proceedings and various documents relating to the case.
• Collection 2060: This collection comprises mostly copy and draft typescript documents pertaining to ‘The High Command’ case, No. 12 in the Nuremberg Trial Subsequent Proceedings.

Note: The Library doesn’t house any material on this Flick, RuSHA or Einsatzgruppen Cases.

External Resources:

• The Library houses the full proceedings exclusively for The Medical Trial. If you would like to access full proceedings of any Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, please see the University of Southampton’s Special Collections. 

The trial of Adolf Eichmann began on 11 April 1961 and was held before a special tribunal of the Jerusalem District Court. Eichmann was charged on 15 counts, including crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against non-Jewish people, and crimes against humanity.

Sources available at The Wiener Holocaust Library:

• The 9-volume series “The trial of Adolf Eichmann: record of proceedings in the District Court of Jerusalem, [9 vol.]” contains the full proceedings as well as whole documentation of the trial.
  • To locate material on the 9-volumes series, we suggest users to consult the Index.
  • This series is on open access in the Reading Room – no need to request.
• Collection 621: The Eichmann trial papers include verbatim transcripts of the trial proceedings and of the Eichmann appeal proceedings. They are copies of simultaneous translations and as such may not be completely accurate. Full transcripts of the trial and appeal proceedings are at 621/1-2.
  • Note: these are partial documentations.

External Resources:

• Digital files of the complete transcripts of volumes I-V can be found free of charge via the Nizkor Project website.
  • Note: the volumes including the documents are not available online.

Sources available at The Wiener Holocaust Library:

Collection of post-war trial judgments conducted by German courts in both former East and West Germany since 1945 and concerning National Socialist crimes. Published in two separate multi-volume documentation series, the volumes are entitled:

• Justiz und NS-Verbrechen (the West German judgments) – 49 volumes-set.
  • Index for Vol. I-XII: Justiz und NS-Verbrechen : Sammlung deutscher Strafurteile wegen nationalsozialistischer Tötungsverbrechen 1945-1966 : Register zu den Bänden I – XXII
  • Index for Vol. XIII onwards Justiz und NS-Verbrechen : Sammlung deutscher Strafurteile wegen nationalsozialistischer Tötungsverbrechen 1945-1999 : vorläufiges Verfahrensregister zu den Bänden XXIII ff.
• DDR-Justiz und NS-Verbrechen (the East German judgments) – 14 volumes-set.
  • Index and documents: DDR-Justiz und NS-Verbrechen : Sammlung ostdeutscher Strafurteile wegen nationalsozialistischer Tötungsverbrechen : Register und Dokumente

Both series are on open access in the Reading Room – no need to request.

External Resources:

• Original papers of the German Trials concerning National Socialist crimes are held in the archives of Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen zur Aufklärung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen. Visit their online catalogue for further information.

During the Bergen-Blesen Trial that took place in Luneburg, from 17 August to 17 November 1945, Josef Kramer, the commandant of Bergen-Belsen, and forty-four others men, women and kapos from the Bergen-Belsen and and Auschwitz concentration camps were tried by a British war crimes court.

Sources available at The Wiener Holocaust Library:

• Trial of Josef Kramer and fourty-four others (the Belsen trial) edited by Raymond Phillips
  • On open access in the Reading Room – no need to request.

External Resources

Transcripts of the trial can be found via bergenbelsen.co.uk.

The trial of Erich Koch, former Gauleiter of East Prussia, was held in a people’s court in Warsaw, from October 1958 to March 1959. In October 1958 the Wiener Library commissioned Bronislaw Tronski through Agencja Robotricza to write a report of the trial.

Sources available at The Wiener Holocaust Library:

• Collection 1185/1: whilst the majority of the text is in Polish, there are parts written in German – transcripts of documents and testimony used in the trial. In addition, there are separate reports and statements.
  • Readers should request MF Doc 54/41/162 onward

The Frankfurt Auschwitz (Auschwitz-Prozess) Trial, known as the “Second Auschwitz Trial” was a series of trials that, from 20 December 1963 to 19 August 1965, took place in Frankfurt and tried 22 mid- to lower-level officials of Auschwitz-Birkenau for their roles in the Holocaust.

Sources available at The Wiener Holocaust Library:

• Das Urteil im Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozess: 1963-1965: erste selbständige Veröffentlichung by Friedrich-Martin Balzer and Werner Renz
• Der Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozess (1963-1965): kommentierte Quellenedition. [1-2]  by Raphael Gross and Werner Renz
  • On open access in the Reading Room – no need to request
• The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963-1965: genocide, history, and the limits of the law by Devin O. Pendas
  • On open access in the Reading Room – no need to request
• Auschwitz-Prozess 4 Ks 2/63: Frankfurt am Main
  • On open access in the Reading Room – no need to request

External Resources:

Tape recordings as well as text and material on the Second Auschwitz Trial are available via the Fritz Bauer Institute.

Sources available at The Wiener Holocaust Library:

• Collection 1185: This collection consists of papers relating to a number of separate war crimes trials, including the Swiss Trials (6 trials of 102 Swiss citizens conducted by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court between 1946 and 1948), and the Horst Wagner Trial (former legation counsellor in the Nazi foreign ministry was accused of being accessory to the murder of several hundred thousand Jews). 

This large archive contains a wide variety of documentation relating to the handling of war crimes by the Allied powers between 1943 and 1949, including: lists of alleged war criminals, files of charges brought against them, minutes of meetings, reports, correspondence, trial transcripts and other related materials. Further information about the full contents of the archive can be found in our Online Catalogue.

We advise users to consult the Finding Aid [opens PDF] of the UNWCC Archive via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum before visiting the Reading Room.

Note: Please contact us in advance of your visit to make an appointment to view these files and to find out more about conditions for access.