Central Office for the Prosecution of National Socialist War Crimes

Now thats some department title !

I was reading today that the British (I assume the rest of the Allies too except the Russians) handed over responsibility to investigating German War Crimes to the Germans in 1950. The department had the title above as it's name.

I read today some letters that were sent to the above Dept. and their returns regarding a suspect that was implicated in the Wormhout Massacre of 1940. The correspondence took place in the late 70's and to say the Germans were unhelpful with the inquiries was a bit of a understatement to say the least.

So I was wondering a few things:

Why was this Central Office set up so soon after the war (5 years)?

Did the department investigate suspects thoroughly or did they undertake a bit of a dotting the i's and crossing the t's exercise?

Were any suspect taken to trial and successfully prosecuted?

Cheers for any pearls..
Andy

 

Hello Drew
found this
War Crime Trials - Your Archives

 

Cheers CL1,

There's only this though on the site:

From the beginning of 1950 the British and the American military courts ceased to institute new trials of war criminals. Today [1969 November 5], and for the past decade, the task of investigating Nazi crimes lies in the hands of the central office for the Prosecution of National Socialist War Crimes. This Central office is situated at Ludwigsburg under the supervision of Dr. Adalbert Ruckerl. Set up in 1958 at a meeting of ministers of justice in the respective Laender of the Federal Republic, this office does not prosecute war criminals; it merely investigates and assembles evidence, after which its findings are referred for committal procedure to the courts of the appropriate Laender in which the suspected persons now reside. In November 1964 the Federal Government, announcing its determination to continue seeking out and punishing Nazi criminals, appealed to foreign Governments and/or individuals to make available to the Central Office at Ludwigsburg either original documents or copies of material in their possession relating to offenses and their perpetrators still unknown to the Federal Public. It is believed that officials of this office were recently in Moscow and Warsaw for this purpose.


It doesn't mention any cases or success or failures though.

Regards
Andy

 

War Crimes Trials

As the Central Office itself was not a public prosecution office, it could not prefer charges, apply for arrest warrants, or examine property, but was obliged to pass its findings to the public prosecutors. The Central Office had no competence to investigate genuine war crimes. It also did not initially possess any jurisdiction to investigate killings in those concentration camps which were located in the area of the Federal Republic. Later on – at the end of 1964 – its jurisdiction was extended and it then investigated such crimes committed in German territory, with the exception of those committed by the Reich Central Security Office, which remained within the jurisdiction of the Chief State Prosecutor at the Supreme Court of Justice.

 

Like you say Adam it's weird there is very little. Being the 'ever suspicious' type I wonder if it's all a bit quietly quiet under the carpet and no one will know or ask.

From what I've read so far they don't seemed to have given a toss hence why I asked if they had any success or high profile cases.

I've just ordered a book about Crowcas and another called the 'London Cage' London Cage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia by Lt Col A P Scotland. A bit earlier than the above Dept. but thought it may shed some light on what was going on.

Cheers
Andy

 

"der Frage" is something that would be closely associated with this, I suspect.