Creator’s ref. no.:

IP (Institute’s) ref. no.:

Fonds title: United Nations War Crimes Commission

Fonds title in Polish: Komisja ds. Zbrodni Wojennych Narodów Zjednoczonych

Inclusive dates: 1946–1948

Document language(s): English, French

Number of files:

Citations:

Archive location: Wiener Library, Russell Square, London

Terms of use:

Information on the fonds:

The United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) operated between 1943 and 1948 to identify, classify and assist national governments in prosecuting war criminals from Europe and East Asia. Working in parallel with the Nuremberg Tribunal and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, it assisted in an unprecedented number of over 30,000 cases, despite resistance from Allied politicians who, for various reasons, preferred to forget the crimes committed by the Axis powers.

In the course of its work, the Commission collected well-documented, internationally verified cases not only against generals and heads of state, but also against individual soldiers and troops, and also for lower-level crimes. The UNWCC set new standards by prosecuting suspects of a wide range of crimes, including sexual violence, torture (including waterboarding), large-scale massacres, which are now classified as genocide and crimes against humanity.

The material is kept in microfilm rolls

Rolls 1–26 (our ref. no. IP/Arch/1/1/1 – IP/Arch/1/1/26) contain documents on:

- Belgium, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Great Britain, Yugoslavia, the USA versus Germany;

- Ethiopia, France, Greece, Great Britain, Yugoslavia versus Italy;

- Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia versus Hungary;

- Greece, Yugoslavia versus Albania;

- Greece, Yugoslavia versus Bulgaria;

- Great Britain versus Romania;

- Australia, France, Great Britain, the USA versus Japan.

Rolls 27–29 (IP/Arch/1/1/27 – IP/Arch/1/1/29):

- lists of suspected war criminals

Rolls 30–31 (IP/Arch/1/1/30 – IP/Arch/1/1/31):

- retracted accusations

Roll 32 (IP/Arch/1/1/32):

- Index – a list of accused war criminals and the UNWCC’s declaration of their status

UNWCC operational documents:

- Rolls 33–41 (IP/Arch/1/1/33 – IP/Arch/1/1/41) contain, among others, notes from meetings, legal opinions, Nazi documentation (e.g. German police handbook), courtroom instructions, publications on war crimes, report on Dachau, correspondence with delegations in states with which the UNWCC was concerned.

- Rolls 37–40 (IP/Arch/1/1/37 – IP/Arch/1/1/40) contain, among others, lists of concentration camp staff in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald, Dachau, Flossenburg Mauthausen, Mauthausen-Gusen, Natzweiler, Oranienberg-Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Papenburg-Esterwegen, Gross-Rosen, Neungamme, Stutthof, an alphabetical list of war criminals.

- Rolls 41–48 (IP/Arch/1/1/41 – IP/Arch/1/1/48): documents from CROWCASS (Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects).

- Rolls 48–50 (IP/Arch/1/1/48 – IP/Arch/1/1/50): documents on South-East Asia, mainly Japanese war criminals and their trials.

- Rolls 50–115 (IP/Arch/1/1/50 – IP/Arch/1/1/115): reports from the trials of war criminals.

- Rolls 116–120 (IP/Arch/1/1/116 – IP/Arch/1/1/120): transcriptions from the Yamashita trial.

- Rolls 118–170 (IP/Arch/1/1/118 – IP/Arch/1/1/170): fragments of transcription from the trials before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

- Roll 171 (IP/Arch/1/1/171): various documents.

- Rolls NDX1-NDX9 (IP/Arch/1/1/NDX01 – IP/Arch/1/1/NDX09): card index of suspected war criminals.