Allied war crimes during World War II
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. |
At the end of World War II, several trials of Axis war criminals took place, most famously the Nuremberg Trials. However, these tribunals were expressly prohibited from considering any allegations of war crimes committed by the Allied powers or their military forces.
Allied personnel were involved in incidents which were war crimes that were investigated by the Allied powers at the time, and led to courts-martial. Other incidents are alleged by historians to have been crimes under the law of war in operation at the time, but that for a variety of reasons were not investigated by the Allied powers during the war, or they were investigated and a decision was taken that not to prosecute by convenience of victory. It should be noted that many things today classified as war crimes were not at the time.
Incidents
Incidents that occurred during the involvement of the relevant nation in World War II include:
- United States:
- Canicatti slaughter
- Biscari massacre
- Dachau massacre
- Battle of the Bismarck Sea-Not the battle itself, but actions with regard to Japanese survivors after the battle was over.
- Yugoslav Communist Partisan Forces:
- Soviet Union:
- Mass rape by Soviet troops during occupation of East Prussia and during the Battle of Berlin [1] and the Battle of Budapest[2]
- War crimes committed by Soviet troops during the occupation of East Prussia [3]
- the Soviet Union had not signed the Geneva Convention (1929). This may make it doubtful that the Soviet treatment of German and allied POWs, who "were [not] treated even remotely in accordance with the Geneva Convention"[1], causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands [2], was a war crime. However, The Nuremberg Tribunal rejected this as a general argument, and held that the 1929 Geneva Convention was binding because it articulated general principles of international law that are binding on all nations in a conflict, despite one party's non-ratification of the Convention.[3] Hence the principle was revisited and applied in the conviction of numerous Imperial Japanese subjects in the Tokyo trials under a judicial panel that included a Soviet colleague once again.
- A violation of the laws of war that came to trial in Nuremberg and ended in a guilty verdict for Admiral Karl Dönitz but without a sentence for this crime, because the court heard evidence that both sides engaged in it:
Incidents that occurred before the relevant nation became part of the allies:
- Soviet Union:
Post World War II incidents involving Prisoners of War include:
- United States:
Comparative deaths rates of POWs
The "democratic states generally provide good treatment of POWs".[4]
Death rates of POWs held by Germany and Japan
- Soviet soldiers held by Germany: around 60%
- U.S. and Commonwealth soldiers held by Japan: 27%
- U.S. and Commonwealth soldiers held by Germany: 4%
Death rates of POWs held by the U.S, the Commonwealth, and the Soviet Union
- German soldiers held by Soviet Union: 15-33%
- Japanese soldiers held by Soviet Union: 10%
- German soldiers held by U.S. and Commonwealth: less than 1%
- Japanese soldiers held by U.S.: relatively low, mainly suicides
Notes
- ^ Antony Beevor They raped every German female from eight to 80 in The Guardian May 1, 2002
- ^ Remembering Rape: Divided Social Memory and the Red Army in Hungary 1944–1945, James Mark, Past & Present 188 (2005) 133-161
- ^ Excerpt, Chapter one The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945-2002 - William I. Hitchcock - 2003 - ISBN 0385497989
A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans, 1944-1950 - Alfred-Maurice de Zayas - 1994 - ISBN 0312121598
Barefoot in the Rubble - Elizabeth B. Walter - 1997 - ISBN 0965779300 - ^ Judgement : Doenitz the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School
- ^ U.S. (and French) abuse of German PoWs, 1945-1948