311 / 536
297
CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ
THE UNITED NATIONS WAR CRIMES COMMISSION…
a half years of its existence, the Commission examined 8,178 charges, involving over
36,000 persons and issued 80 Lists of the alleged war criminals.
39
4. The Czechoslovak Charges Related to Auschwitz and Birkenau
Czechoslovakia focused in its charges filed to the Commission on the German war
criminals who committed their crimes on its territory, such as the above-mentioned
K. H. Frank. This was fully in line with the principle contained in the Moscow
Declaration and subsequently confirmed in the preamble of the London Agreement
(to which Czechoslovakia was a party) that – except the “major war criminals” –
“the German war criminals should be judged and punished in the countries in
which their crimes were committed.”
40
Nevertheless, Czechoslovakia paid the same
attention to the crimes against its nationals that happened partly outside its borders,
mainly in the German concentration camps. In fact, the biggest mass murders of
Czechoslovak nationals during the Second World War – and perhaps in the history
of the Czech nation ever – were committed in Birkenau just over three nights of
9 March (3,800 people) and 10 and 11 July 1944 (7,000 people), when the so-called
“family camp” was liquidated.
41
Dr. Ečer prepared the Auschwitz and Birkenau case as Charge No. Ž 3/45 called
“Czechoslovak charges against German war criminals. Oswieczim – Birkenau.”
and signed it on 21 June 1945. According to the copy that I acquired from the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the file was received by the Secretariat
of the Commission on the very same day.
42
In order to keep a uniform structure
of the reports on the charges, the Commission used a four-page standardized form
composed of the following key parts:
First, “Name of Accused, his Rank and Unit, or Official Position.” Here Czecho-
slovakia provided an extensive list of German war criminals amounting to 369 entries
in total (Enclosure 1). While some entries are complete, including the full name and
rank, some contain just the last name and some are even generally defined, such as
No. “101. All officials of the
Staatspolizeileitstelle
Prag.” The list starts with Adolf
Hitler as number one and continues with the “members of the Reich Government”,
who later appeared as “major war criminals” before the Nuremberg Tribunal, like
Joachim Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Goering, Albert Speer
etc.
(from
No. 1 to No. 32).
43
The reasons, why these individuals were listed, are briefly stated
in the “Notes on the Case” (Enclosure 7): “The criminal responsibility of Adolf
39
Ibid.
, p. 145-150.
40
Preamble of the London Agreement, see supra note 1.
41
BROD, T.
Čeští Židé a Osvětim
(The Czech Jews and Auschwitz) in the Czech edition of L. Rees:
Auschwitz: The Nazis and the ‘Final Solution’, Prague 2005. p. 314.
42
United Nations War Crimes Commission, Czechoslovak Charles against German War Criminals,
Charge No. Ž 3/45, Registered Number: 952/C3/G/17, 21 June 1945.
43
Ibid.
, Enclosure 1, p. 1-2.