| Abstract |
This document is a lengthy, detailed, closely-argued memo for the Theater Judge Advocate, describing the scope of the latter's responsibility for identifying, apprehending, and prosecuting suspected Nazi war criminals, and the implied challenges associated with these efforts. The memo analyzes the respective agreements and directives that have established the International Military Tribunal and authorized its announced intention to punish Nazi war criminals, and examines the expanded conception of the classes and types of acts now held to constitute war crimes. In general, the memo is most concerned with the extension of the Theater Commander's responsibility, which now includes "the punishment of other crimes committed in Germany since 1933, in addition to violations of international law in the course of the present war" (p.2). Along the same lines, the "membership problem" by itself places an overwhelming responsibility on prosecutors, for the principle of criminal organizations or groups suggests that the number of potential defendants, who are indictable on the basis of membership in such organizations or groups, is practically countless (pp.4, 6). Others matters of particular concern include the timing and duration of war crimes trials; the necessity of involving the German people and a reconstituted German judicial system, "free from Nazi taint" (p.5), in the prosecution of Nazi criminals; the establishment of a Coordinating Officer for war crimes, to ensure that the Chief of Counsel receives, in a planned and timely fashion, "all those services which the military authorities must render [him]" (p.7); and the absolute necessity of completing the process of identification, apprehension, indictment, trial and (where appropriate) punishment of alleged war criminals in a thorough and timely manner. Two items of particular note are the observation that, the effort to "bring the four signatory governments into effective cooperation" having proven so difficult, "further trials on a quadripartite basis are not feasible and should not enter into planning for the future" (p.3); and that all war crimes trials in military government courts should be concluded by the end of the summer of 1946, to avoid the incongruous predicament of prosecuting war criminals "when in other respects the administration of government will have been handed over to the Germans" (p.8). This time constraint makes it advisable to initiate prosecution of other war criminals before the "big case" is concluded, and to present these cases "to the public in such a way as to support, rather than to detract from, the universal interest in the major trial" (p.8). As these remarks indicate, Fairman's memo is prospective and proactive; it attempts to anticipate the problems and challenges attendant upon a strenuous prosecution of war criminals, as well as those associated with the defined responsibilities of the Theater Judge Advocate. This document is a typewritten carbon copy on thin, slightly browning paper. The quality of the print varies from very good to fair. Each page is stamped CONFIDENTIAL in red ink, in its top and bottom margins. |