Author: The United Nations War Crimes Commission

Publisher:

Published: 2013-07-26

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 9781491082065

This Volume contains a number of important cases which illustrate the application of'the law of war crimes to different circumstances and acts. It also illustrates very usefully how the international law of war and war crimes is dealt with 'by military courts on the one hand, and by the national courts on the other. The results in either case ought to be substantially the same because the ultimate decision must depend. on rules of international law. In the national court the national criminal law primarily applies, but it is necessary to modify it in order to give effect to the appropriate rules of international law. To a large extent this rule is in favour of the accused men. Generally speaking, what they were found guilty of doing would be an obvious and simple crime according to the national law of peace in practically every civilized state. But the accused are entitled to rely on whatever defences they can extract from the international law of war. Thus, what would be murder in time of peace may be justified as done in accordance with the laws of war. If, however, on a closer examination it appears that the laws of war do not afford justification for what is primarily murder under the national law of peace, then the charge of murder remains unqualified and the defence fails. Itis for the reason that this important rule is illustrated by the cases in this volume, that I think they require a close study and attention. Many of the offences were committed against non-combatants in occupied territories so that they were crimes within the scope of the IVth Hague Convention of 1907. Where, however, the offences were committed not in occupied territory but in Germany, the victims had been brought into Germany from their own countries which were at the time under German occupation, and in that way the principle of the Hague Convention is satisfied even apart from the general scope given by the famous clause in the Preamble which makes reference to the laws of humanity. The very significant case concerning the Velpke Children's Home has special peculiarities ofits own, because the children who were barbarously dealt with were actually born in Germany, their mothers having been deported contrary to international law from an Allied country, namely Poland, while that country was occupied by the Nazis. The main topics dealt with in the Reports in this , olume can be usefully classified under three heads: deportation and slave labour; medical experiments on Allied prisoners of war and unwilling non-combatants; and causing death by criminal negligence of the children in the Velpke Children's Home case.