Language:
English
Year of publication:
1994
Titel der Quelle:
Diplomacy & Statecraft
Angaben zur Quelle:
5,2 (1994) 334-357
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
War crimes investigation
;
War crime trials
Abstract:
Examines the views of U.S. and British government departments and their debates between 1943-45 on whether atrocities committed by Nazi Germany against its own nationals should be recognized as war crimes. In October 1943, the British Foreign Office and the U.S. State Department established the United Nations War Crimes Commission, which discussed which crimes were to be tried and how "war crime" was to be defined. Britain and the U.S. wished to limit the authority of the UNWCC to investigating and recording evidence of war crimes perpetrated against Allied nationals alone. They believed that Axis crimes against their own nationals should be tried by their own courts after the war. They also did not wish to engage in a large number of war crimes trials. Their representatives on the UNWCC, Sir Cecil Hurst and Herbert C. Pell, clashed with their governments on this issue, advocating broadening the scope of punishment to include offenses committed from 1933 on, including against a country's own nationals. At the beginning of 1945, Hurst resigned and Pell's appointment was cancelled. The debate received wide coverage in the press which, along with public opinion, called for punishment of Germany for crimes committed from 1933. One outcome was the designation of "crimes against humanity" as an offense separate from war crimes, but it too was limited to the war period.
DOI:
10.1080/09592299408405921
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink