Montreal Holocaust Museum

War Crimes Trials

    1943

    • November 1

      Following the Third Moscow Conference, the Allies issued the Moscow Declaration calling for Nazi leaders to be put on trial. During the conference, foreign ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union met to discuss important global matters such as what measures needed to be taken in order to shorten and end the war, as well as how to effectively collaborate and cooperate peacefully through this period marking the end of the war.

    • A series of 12 meetings of between the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, the United States, the Republic of China and the Soviet Union resulted in the Moscow Declaration and the creation of the European Advisory Commission.
    1944

    • The Central Jewish Historical Commission is founded in Lublin, Poland, to gather evidence for war crimes trials. In 1947, the Commission becomes the Jewish Historical Institute, a research centre which is still active today.

    • Offices of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland
    1945

    • November 20

      The International Military Tribunal convenes in Nuremberg, Germany. Twenty-two Nazi leaders are tried for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

    • The defendants listen as the prosecution begins introducing documents at the International Military Tribunal trial of war criminals at Nuremberg. November 22, 1945. Credit: US National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives
    • American army staffers organize stacks of German documents that were collected by war crimes investigators as evidence for the International Military Tribunal trial of war criminals at Nuremberg. Source: USHMM
    • Göring was the second-highest-ranking Nazi official tried at Nuremberg. The prosecution levelled an indictment of four charges, including a charge of conspiracy; waging a war of aggression; war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
    1946

    • June 12

      The Flossenbürg War Crimes Trial took place in Dachau, Germany, from June 12, 1946 until January 22, 1947. An American military tribunal tried 46 former staff from Flossenbürg concentration camp for crimes of murder, torturing, and starving the inmates in their custody. All but 5 of the defendants were found guilty, 15 of whom were condemned to death, 11 were given life sentences, and 14 were jailed for terms of 1 to 30 years.

    • Flossenburg trial

    • November

      The Jewish Historical Documentation Centre opens in Linz, Austria. Led by survivor Simon Wiesenthal, Centre gathers evidence for future trials of Nazi war criminals.

    • December 8 to April 11

      The American military court in Nuremberg tries 177 people, including industrialists who exploited slave labour and doctors who participated in Nazi euthanasia programs.

    • Karl Brandt headed the administration of the Nazi euthanasia program from 1939 onwards. He was selected as Adolf Hitler's personal physician since August 1934. In 1942, he became Reich Commissioner for Health and Sanitation.
    1961

    • April 10

      Israeli agents capture Adolf Eichmann in Argentina, where he had been smuggled by Vatican officials. The high-ranking Nazi was responsible for mass deportations to death camps. Trial in Jerusalem televised internationally; marks turning point in Holocaust awareness. Eichmann convicted and sentenced to death.

    • Adolf Eichmann takes notes during his trial
    • Defendant Adolf Eichmann (inside glass booth) is sentenced to death by the court on December 15, 1961. Source: USHMM
    1979

  • September 4

    The United States opens the Office of Special Investigations to prosecute Nazis accused of hiding their pasts to enter the country. Other nations follow with their own investigations.

    1985

  • February

    The Canadian government establishes the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, headed by Quebec Superior Court Justice Jules Deschênes. The "Deschênes Commission" is charged with determining if there are Nazi war criminals living in Canada, examining the circumstances under which they entered the country, and recommending legal means to hold them accountable for their crimes.

    1987

    • February 16

      John Demjanjuk, extradited from the U.S. goes on trial in Jerusalem as Treblinka death camp’s cruel “Ivan the Terrible.” Convicted, but freed on an appeal when new evidence raises questions, not about his role as a camp guard, but about his identity as Ivan.

    • John Demjanjuk

    • May 11 to June 4

      Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo chief in Lyon, France, is put on trial in France. He is accused and convicted of deporting Jews, including 44 Jewish children. Sentenced to life in prison.

    • Klaus Barbie
    1990

    • January 20

      Nazi-hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfield are forced out of Syria while pursuing convicted war criminal, Alois Brunner.

    • Alois Brunner
    2011

  • May 12

    Demjanjuk is convicted by an ordinary German criminal court as an accessory to the murder of 27,900 at Sobibor and sentenced to five years in prison. The interim conviction was later annulled, because Demjanjuk died before his appeal could be heard.

    2013

    • July 21

      Under the slogan "Late But Not Too Late," the Wiesenthal Center launches a publicity campaign in Germany for Operation Last Chance II, which offers rewards of up to 25,000 euros for information which will help facilitate the prosecution in Germany of heretofore unprosecuted war criminals.

    • Poster for the Operation Last Chance II

  • September 2

    Siert Bruins appears in court in Germany to face charges of murdering a Dutch resistance fighter at the end of the Second World War. Nicknamed the “Beast of Appingdam” in the Netherlands, the Dutch-born former Nazi SS officer was already sentenced to death in absentia in 1949 for killing resistance fighter Aldert Klaas Dijkema. Bruins admitted joining the Waffen SS as a volunteer in 1941.

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