LAW REPORTS OF TRIALS OF WAR CRIMINALS Selected and prepared by THE UNITED NATIONS WAR CRIMES COMMISSION - Volume II - The Belsen Trial - the first report relating to horrific findings from a concentration camp in the framework of the Nuremberg trials. Published by LONDON PUBLISHED FOR THE UNITED NATIONS WAR CRIMES COMMISSION BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. London, 1947.
The full report on the trial of "Josef Kramer and 44 others" who commanded the Bergen-Belsen camp (and some in Auschwitz) who all knowingly participated in a joint plan to operate a system of abuse and murder in these camps, and were responsible for all the atrocities that took place there and that were also carried out by them directly. One of the defendants was Josef Kramer who was the camp commander at Auschwitz and later at Bergen-Belsen. Out of the rest of the defendants, 12 served as Kapos in the camp, 16 female SS members and 16 male SS members. The report includes extensive details on how gas chambers were used for mass killing, the daily conditions in the camp - filth, starvation, lack of sanitation or proper medical equipment, forced labor intended to break and murder, all kinds of abuse, beatings, hanging, shooting and every form of inhumanity. On most pages of the report are brought hundreds of testimonies of survivors - former prisoners, who were in Bergen-Belsen and whose detailed testimonies were presented to the prosecution. Apart from their terrible story of what they went through in the camp, the victims were able to point out the defendants by name and describe in detail the atrocities they committed against them in the camp. The harsh testimonies are brought in the report in full.
The trial lasted 54 days. All the defendants pleaded not guilty. On November 17 the court sentenced 11 of the defendants to death by hanging, 18 defendants to 15 years in prison, and 14 were granted clemency following pleas and appeals. Many prison sentences were considerably shortened, and by 1955 all those sentenced to imprisonment had been released.
XII, 156 p. Very good condition.
