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43-509: The trial of Peter von Hagenbach by an ad hoc tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire in 1474, was the first "international" war crimes trials and also of command responsibility . Hagenbach was put on trial for atrocities committed during the occupation of Breisach , found guilty, and beheaded. Since he was convicted for crimes, "he as a knight was deemed to have a duty to prevent", although Hagenbach defended himself by arguing that he

86-495: A rebellion by towns of the Upper Rhine against his tyranny, Hagenbach was put on trial for the atrocities committed during the occupation of Breisach . His trial, which was held by an ad hoc tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire in 1474, was the first "international" recognition of commanders' obligations to act lawfully. He was convicted of crimes, specifically murder, war rape , and perjury, among other crimes, that "he as

129-521: A costly venture, and exposed the need for a permanent tribunal, which was eventually known as the International Criminal Court . Peter von Hagenbach Peter von Hagenbach (c. 1420 – May 9, 1474), also Pierre de Hagenbach , Pietro di Hagenbach , Pierre d'Archambaud , or Pierre d'Aquenbacq , was a Burgundian knight from Alsace , German military and civil commander, and convicted war criminal. The trial of Hagenbach

172-400: A doctrine of command responsibility , it is seen as the first trial based on that principle. It also includes the earliest documented prosecution of sexually-based/targeted crimes before an international tribunal when he was convicted for rapes committed by his troops. More recently, the trial of Peter von Hagenbach has been cited to argue against ongoing efforts in modern Australia seeking

215-526: A knight was deemed to have a duty to prevent". He defended himself by arguing that he was only following orders from the Duke of Burgundy , to whom the Holy Roman Empire had given Breisach. The ad hoc tribunal, however, refused to accept this as a defense. Peter von Hagenbach was found guilty of murder , rape , and perjury , and was beheaded at Breisach. Although there was no explicit use of

258-766: A large scale and as a matter of official policy. Of the seven indicted organizations, the tribunal declared criminal the Leadership Corps of the party, the SS, the SD ( Sicherheitsdienst , 'Security Service'), and the Gestapo. In May 1993, during the Yugoslav Wars following the massive war crimes, and acts of "ethnic cleansing" in the former Yugoslavia by Bosnian-Serb forces, the United Nations established

301-468: A principle which Dostler had violated in enforcing the order for execution. The trial found General Dostler guilty of war crimes, rejecting the "superior orders" defense. He was sentenced to death, and executed in Aversa by a 12-man firing squad at 0800 hours on 1 December 1945. The execution was photographed on black and white still and movie cameras. Immediately after the execution Dostler's body

344-523: A supreme offence against international morality and the sanctity of treaties." The former Kaiser had escaped to the Netherlands, however, and despite demands for his extradition having been made, the Dutch refused to surrender him, and he was not brought to trial. Germany, as a signatory to the treaty, thus was placed on notice as to what might occur in the event of a subsequent war. After World War II ,

387-691: A systematic rule of violence , brutality, and terrorism by the German government in the territories occupied by its forces. Millions of persons were murdered in Nazi concentration camps , many of which were equipped with gas chambers for the extermination of Jews , Gypsies , and members of other ethnic or religious groups. Under the slave labor policy of the German government, at least 5 million persons had been forcibly deported from their homes to Germany. Many of them died because of inhumane treatment. The tribunal also found that atrocities had been committed on

430-747: The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia , to try war criminals of all nationalities. The crimes indicted included grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions , war crimes , crimes against humanity , and genocide ; it was the first tribunal in which sexual assault was prosecuted as a war crime. The ICTY was the first international war crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg Trials. Ultimately, nearly 161 individuals were indicted in

473-770: The Northern Transvaal (see Court-martial of Breaker Morant ). After World War I , a small number of German personnel were tried by a German court in the Leipzig War Crimes Trials for crimes allegedly committed during that war. Article 227 of the Treaty of Versailles , the peace treaty between Germany and the Allied Powers after the First World War , "publicly arraign[ed] Wilhelm von Hohenzollern , formerly German Emperor, for

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516-476: The Nuremberg Principles and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights ), that citing superior orders did not relieve soldiers or officers of responsibility for carrying out war crimes. After being found guilty, Dostler was sentenced to death and executed by a United States Army firing squad . Dostler joined the German army in 1910 and served as a junior officer during World War I . From

559-539: The evidence submitted by the prosecution consisted of original military, diplomatic , and other government documents that fell into the hands of the Allied forces after the collapse of the German government. The judgment of the International Military Tribunal was handed down on September 30 and October 1, 1946. Among notable features of the decision was the conclusion, in accordance with

602-566: The murder , mistreatment , and deportation of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of countries occupied by Germany during the war. Among the accused were the Nationalist Socialist leaders Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess , the diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop , the munitions maker Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach , Marshal Wilhelm Keitel , Grand Admiral Erich Raeder and 18 other military leaders and civilian officials . Seven organizations that formed part of

645-562: The retrial or posthumous pardon of convicted Boer War criminals Breaker Morant , Peter Handcock , George Witton , and Henry Picton. Anton Dostler Anton Dostler (10 May 1891 – 1 December 1945) was a German army officer who fought in both World Wars. During World War II , he commanded several units as a General of the Infantry , primarily in Italy. After the Axis defeat, Dostler

688-495: The summary shooting of prisoners of war legitimate, even as a reprisal." Under the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare , it was legal to execute spies and saboteurs disguised in civilian clothes or enemy uniforms, but not those captured in uniforms of their own army. Because the 15 U.S. soldiers were properly dressed in U.S. uniforms behind enemy lines, and not disguised in civilian clothes or enemy uniforms, they should not have been treated as spies but as prisoners of war,

731-475: The 15 Americans of the commando raid were executed on the morning of 26 March 1944, at Punta Bianca, south of La Spezia, in the municipality of Ameglia . Their bodies were buried in a mass grave that was camouflaged afterwards. Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten , a member of Dostler's staff who, unaware of the existence of Hitler's "Commando Order", had refused to sign the execution order for the American commandos,

774-496: The Dostler case, it also rejected the contention of a number of the defendants that they were not legally responsible for their acts because they performed the acts under the orders of superior authority, stating that "the true test . . . is not the existence of the order but whether moral choice (in executing it) was in fact possible." With respect to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the tribunal found overwhelming evidence of

817-526: The Führer's orders. The Military Commission also rejected his plea for clemency, declaring that the mass execution of the commando party was in violation of Article 2 of the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, which prohibited acts of reprisals against prisoners of war. In its judgment the Commission stated that "no soldier, and still less a Commanding General , can be heard to say that he considered

860-551: The ICTY: 68% of Serb ethnicity. Croatian-Serb, Bosnian-Serb, Serbian, and Bosnian-Croat officials were convicted of crimes against humanity, and Bosnian-Serb leaders of genocide. In 1994, the UN opened the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda following the April–June genocide in that country of Hutu nationals. The tribunals, while effective in prosecution of individuals, proved to be

903-801: The Japanese war criminals were established in Tokyo , Japan, to implement the Cairo Declaration , the Potsdam Declaration , the Instrument of Surrender , and the Moscow Conference . The Potsdam Declaration (July 1945) had stated, "stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners", though it did not specifically foreshadow trials. The terms of reference for

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946-469: The London Agreement, that to plan or instigate an aggressive war is a crime under the principles of international law. The tribunal rejected the contention of the defense that such acts had not previously been defined as crimes under international law and that therefore the condemnation of the defendants would violate the principle of justice prohibiting ex post facto punishments . As with

989-697: The Nuremberg trials of German generals, officials, and Nazi leaders, beginning in November 1945, that the use of Superior orders as a defense did not relieve officers from responsibility of carrying out illegal orders or the liability of being punished in court. This principle was codified in Principle IV of the Nuremberg Principles and similar principles were found in sections of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . The trials for

1032-760: The Tribunal were set out in the IMTFE Charter, issued on January 19, 1946. There was major disagreement, both among the Allies and within their administrations, about whom to try and how to try them. Despite the lack of consensus, General Douglas MacArthur , the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers , decided to initiate arrests. On September 11, a week after the surrender, he ordered the arrest of 39 suspects — most of them members of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo 's war cabinet. Tojo tried to commit suicide, but

1075-515: The United States, he was accused of carrying out an illegal order. In his defense he maintained that he had not issued the order but had only passed it to Colonel Almers from Field Marshal Kesselring, and that the execution of the OSS men was a lawful order. Dostler's plea of superior orders failed before the tribunal, which found that in ordering the mass execution he had acted on his own outside

1118-614: The basic structure of the Nazi government were also charged as criminal . These organizations included the SS ( Schutzstaffel , 'Defense Corps'), the Gestapo ( Geheime Staatspolizei , 'Secret State Police'), and the SA ( Sturmabteilung , 'Storm Troops'), as well as the General Staff and High Command of the German armed forces . The trial began on November 20, 1945. Much of

1161-534: The execution. Later that day Dostler sent a telegram to the 135th (Fortress) Brigade passing on the order that the captured commando party was to be executed, in line with the Commando Order of 1942 issued by Adolf Hitler , which ordered the immediate execution without trial of all enemy commandos and saboteurs taken prisoner by the Wehrmacht in the field. Colonel Almers at the 135th (Fortress) Brigade

1204-506: The important railway line between La Spezia and Genoa . Two days later the group was captured by a combined party of Italian Fascist soldiers and troops from the German Army . They were taken to La Spezia , where they were confined near the headquarters of the 135th (Fortress) Brigade, which was under the command of German Col. Almers. His immediate superior was the commander of the 75th Army Corps, Dostler. The captured American party

1247-713: The phrase referred usually to the trials of German and Japanese leaders in courts established by the victorious Allied nations. The former trials were held in Nuremberg , Germany, under the authority of two legal instruments. One, the London Charter was signed by representatives of the United States , United Kingdom , France , and the Soviet Union in London on August 8, 1945; the other, Law No. 10,

1290-480: The planning, initiating, and waging a war of aggression ); war crimes (violations of the laws and customs of war as embodied in the Hague Conventions and generally recognized by military forces of civilized nations); and crimes against humanity , such as the extermination of racial , ethnic , and religious groups and other such atrocities against civilians . On October 8, 1945, Anton Dostler

1333-487: The start of World War II to 1940, he served as chief of staff of the 7th Army . Subsequently he commanded the 57th Infantry Division (1941–42), the 163rd Infantry Division (1942) and, after some temporary stand-ins at corps, was appointed commander of 75th Army Corps (Jan-July 1944) in Italy and then commander of the Venetian Coast (Sept–Nov 1944), when its name was reassigned to 73rd Army Corps, where he finished

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1376-488: The term Landsknecht —from German , Land ("land, country") + Knecht ("servant"). It was originally intended to indicate soldiers of the lowlands of the Holy Roman Empire as opposed to the Swiss mercenaries . As early as 1500 the misleading spelling Lanzknecht became common because of the phonetic and visual similarity between Land(e)s ("of the land/territory") and Lanze (" lance "). Following

1419-464: The war. On 22 March 1944, 15 soldiers of the U.S. Army , including two officers, landed on the Italian coast about 15 kilometers north of La Spezia , 400 km (250 miles) behind the then-established front, as part of Operation Ginny II . They were all properly dressed in the field uniform of the U.S. Army and carried no civilian clothes. Their objective was to demolish a tunnel at Framura on

1462-777: Was only following orders from the Duke of Burgundy , Charles the Bold , to whom the Holy Roman Empire had given Breisach. In 1865, Henry Wirz , a Confederate officer, was held accountable and hanged for appalling conditions at Andersonville Prison where many Union soldiers died during the American Civil War . During the Second Boer War , the British Army court-martialed Breaker Morant , Peter Handcock , Alfred Taylor , and several other officers for multiple murders of POWs and many civilian noncombatants in

1505-436: Was an implementation of Hitler 's Commando Order of 1942 which required the immediate execution of all Allied commandos , whether in proper uniforms or not, without trial if apprehended by German forces. The tribunal rejected the defense of Superior Orders and found Dostler guilty of war crimes. He was sentenced to death and executed by a firing squad on December 1, 1945, in Aversa . The Dostler case became precedent for

1548-730: Was dismissed from the Wehrmacht for insubordination. Dostler was taken prisoner of war by the United States Army and, after it discovered the fate of the commando raiding team, was put on trial for war crimes on 8 May 1945. A military tribunal was held at the seat of the Supreme Allied Commander , the Royal Palace in Caserta , on 8 October 1945. In the first Allied war crimes trial carried out by

1591-760: Was executed for war crimes —specifically, ordering the execution of fifteen American prisoners of war in March 1944 during the Italian Campaign . Dostler was tried during the first Allied war crimes trials to be held after the end of the war in Europe ; at Nuremberg , he mounted a defense on the grounds that he had ordered the executions only because he himself was obeying superior orders , and that as such only his superiors could be held responsible. The Nuremberg judges rejected Dostler's defense, ruling, in an important precedent (later codified in Principle IV of

1634-461: Was interrogated by Wehrmacht intelligence officers, and an officer revealed the mission. The information, including that it was a commando raid, was then sent to Dostler at the 75th Army Corps H.Q. The following day he informed his superior, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring , commanding general of all German forces in Italy, about the captured U.S. commandos and asked what to do with them. According to Dostler's adjutant, Kesselring responded by ordering

1677-696: Was promulgated by the Allied Control Council in Berlin on December 20, 1945. The London Charter provided for the establishment of the International Military Tribunal , composed of one judge and one alternate judge from each of the signatory nations, to try war criminals . Under the London Charter, the crimes charged against defendants fell into three categories: crimes against peace (crimes involving

1720-412: Was resuscitated with the help of U.S. doctors. He was later found guilty among others, and hanged. On October 18, 1945, the chief prosecutors lodged an indictment with the tribunal charging 24 individuals with a variety of crimes and atrocities, including the deliberate instigation of aggressive wars, extermination of racial and religious groups, murder and mistreatment of prisoners of war , and

1763-575: Was the first German general to be tried for war crimes by a U.S. military tribunal at the Palace Of Justice in Rome . He was accused of ordering the killing of 15 captured U.S. soldiers of Operation Ginny II in Italy in March 1944. He admitted ordering the execution, but stated that he could not be held responsible, as he had just been following orders from his superiors. The execution of 15 U.S. prisoners of war in Italy ordered by Dostler

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1806-506: Was the first known trial of a war crime in history. He was born into an Alsatian-Burgundian family, originally from Hagenbach , where they owned a castle. He was instated as bailiff of Upper Alsace by Charles the Bold , Duke of Burgundy , to administer the territories and rights on the Upper Rhine which had been mortgaged by Duke Sigmund of Further Austria for 50,000 florins in the Treaty of St. Omer in 1469. There he coined

1849-469: Was uneasy with the execution order, and approached Dostler again to delay the execution command. In response Dostler dispatched another telegram ordering Almers to carry out the execution as previously ordered. Two last attempts were made by Colonel Almers to stop the execution, including some by telephone, as he knew that executing uniformed prisoners of war was in violation of the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War . His appeals were unsuccessful, and

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