Selected files from the UK National Archives

Selected files from the UK National Archives relating to the British investigation and prosecution of war crimes immediately after World War II (WO 309: War Office: Judge Advocate General's Office, British Army of the Rhine War Crimes Group (North West Europe) and predecessors: Registered Files (BAOR and other series) & WO 311: Judge Advocate General's Office, Military Deputy's Department, and War Office, Directorates of Army Legal Services and Personal Services: War Crimes Files (MO/JAG/FS and other series) and WO 310: War Office: Judge Advocate General's Office, War Crimes Group (South East Europe) and predecessors. WO 309 files include individual cases and general procedural policy on the investigation of alleged war crimes in NW Europe. WO 311 files include records relating to the investigations and prosecutions of war criminals in WWII. These records provide extensive evidence and information on crimes committed against Jews and other victims, including forced laborers in these camps, as well as in other camps and locations where the Holocaust took place. They contain important and specific insights on perpetrators, including camp personnel, victims, and collaborators; medical experiments; and the use of poison gas (Zyklon B). In addition, these files contain signed witness and perpetrator statements, interrogations and affidavits, arrest reports, charge sheets, lists of victims, lists of guards, depositions of survivors, photographs and reports of investigative teams, correspondence, and minutes of meetings. Other administrative documents relate to the detainment of war criminals, proceedings at Nuremberg, and efforts to locate perpetrators and witnesses. The British war crimes trials prosecuted crimes committed in the British zone of occupation. Generally, the British war crimes cases concerned substantive crimes and dealt mainly with lower ranking officials and more localized offenses. Most of these include cases against: staff of the Belsen concentration camp, several of whom had served at Auschwitz; staff of the Neuengamme concentration camps and subcamps, and personnel of Ravensbrück women's camp; personnel of several Gestapo prisons and Arbeitserziehungslager (work education camps for slave laborers-mostly Polish and Russian workers) in the British zone. WO 310: War Office: Judge Advocate General's Office, War Crimes Group (South East Europe) and predecessors include Case Files (SEE and other series): The files mainly originated from the Judge Advocate General's Office in Austria, but the series also contains some files which originated in the office of the Deputy Judge Advocate General Central Mediterranean Force (DJAG CMF) in Naples, Italy After the Second World War, the investigation of war crimes in Europe was initially the responsibility of Judge Advocate General's Investigation Units or Branches attached to Allied HQs. Three war crimes groups were established to undertake detailed investigation in the field of alleged war crimes in North West Europe and were later merged into one unit known as the War Crimes Investigation Unit. In January 1947 the various units and headquarters branches responsible for investigation and processing war crimes trials were amalgamated into one unit, designated the War Crimes Group (North West Europe), British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Following this amalgamation unfinished cases were handed over to BAOR for completion. A War Crimes Liaison Office was also set up in Berlin and Baden-Baden. Copyright Holder: National Archives (Great Britain)