Seventy years ago, the Nuremberg Trials were in full swing in Germany.
In the dock were the leaders of the Nazi regime and most eventually
received their just desserts. But what happened to the other war
criminals?
In June 1946, Lord Russell of Liverpool became Deputy Judge Advocate and
legal adviser to the Commander in Chief for the British Army of the
Rhine in respect of all trials held by British Military Courts of German
war criminals. He later wrote;
'At the outbreak of the Second World War, the treatment of prisoners was
governed by the Geneva Prisoner of War Convention of 1929, the Preamble
of which stated that the aim of the signatories was to alleviate the
conditions of prisoners of war.
'During the war, however, the provisions of the Convention were
repeatedly disregarded by Germany. Prisoners were subjected to brutality
and ill-treatment, employed on prohibited and dangerous work, handed
over to the SD for "special treatment" in pursuance of Hitler's Commando
Order, lynched in the streets by German civilians, sent to concentration
camps, shot on recapture after escaping, and even massacred after they
had laid down their arms and surrendered.'
Tens of thousands of Allied prisoners of war died at the hands of the
Nazis and their Italian allies. This book is for them - lest we forget.
