The following is a list of people who were formally indicted for committing war crimes or crimes against humanity on behalf of the Axis powers during World War II, including those who were acquitted or never received judgment. It does not include people who may have committed war crimes but were never formally indicted, or who were indicted only for other types of crimes.
Martin Bormann – Guilty, sentenced in absentia to death by hanging. Later proven he committed suicide to avoid capture at the end of World War II in Europe, and remains discovered in 1972 were conclusively proven to be Bormann by forensic tests on the skull in 1998. Nonetheless, Simon Wiesenthal, Hugh Thomas and Reinhard Gehlen refused to accept this. Gehlen further argued Bormann was the secret Russian double agent 'Sasha'.
Karl Dönitz – Guilty, sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.
Hans Frank – Guilty, sentenced to death by hanging
Wilhelm Frick – Guilty, sentenced to death by hanging
Hans Fritzsche – Acquitted. Tried, convicted and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment by a separate West German denazification court. Released September 1950.
Walther Funk – Guilty, sentenced to life imprisonment, released in 1957 due to poor health.
Hermann Göring – Guilty, sentenced to death by hanging but committed suicide by ingesting cyanide two hours before the sentence was to be carried out.
Rudolf Hess – Guilty, sentenced to life imprisonment, committed suicide in prison in 1987.
Alfred Jodl – Guilty, sentenced to death by hanging. Henri Donnedieu de Vabres called the verdict a mistake in 1947. In 1953, the denazification courts reversed the decision and found Jodl not guilty. Within months, the decision of the denazification court was itself overturned. His property, confiscated in 1946, was returned to his widow.
Robert Ley – Committed suicide before his trial began.
Konstantin von Neurath – Guilty, sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment (released 1954 on grounds of ill health).
Franz von Papen – Acquitted. Tried, convicted and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment by a separate West German denazification court. Released on appeal in 1949.
Erich Raeder – Guilty, sentenced to life imprisonment (released 1955 on grounds of ill health).
Friedrich von Bülow – Guilty, sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment
Karl Adolf Ferdinand Eberhardt – Guilty, sentenced to nine years' imprisonment
Eduard Houdremont – Guilty, sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment
Max Otto Ihn – Guilty, sentenced to nine years' imprisonment
Friedrich Wilhelm Janssen – Guilty, sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment
Heinrich Leo Korschan – Guilty, sentenced to six years' imprisonment
Alfried Krupp – Guilty, sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment plus forfeiture of property. Was released by John J. McCloy 1951, and had his property returned to him
Yoshijirō Umezu – Guilty, sentenced to life imprisonment (released in 1955)
Other trials were held at various locations in the Far East by the United States in the Philippines, Australia, China, the United Kingdom, and other Allied countries. In all, a total of 920 Japanese military personnel and civilians were executed following World War II.[1]
Mitomo Kazuo – Guilty, sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment
Kawashima Kiyoshi – Guilty, sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment
Onoue Masao – Guilty, sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment
Kikuchi Norimitsu – Guilty, sentenced to two years' imprisonment
Otozō Yamada – Guilty, sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment
Kajitsuka Ryuji – Guilty, sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment
Sato Shunji – Guilty, sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment
Takahashi Takaatsu – Guilty, sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment
Karasawa Tomio – Guilty, sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment
Nishi Toshihide – Guilty, sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment
Kurushima Yuji – Guilty, sentenced to three years' imprisonment
Hirazakura Zensaku – Guilty, sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment
By Nationality
Austrian
Hermine Braunsteiner – A female camp guard at both Ravensbrück and Majdanek, she was sentenced in Graz to three years imprisonment on April 7, 1948, for her crimes in Ravensbruck and released in April 1950. She was later extradited from the United States to West Germany in 1973 for her crimes in Majdanek. Sentenced to life imprisonment on June 30, 1981, she was released in 1996 due to poor health.
Amon Göth – The commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, he was sentenced to death on September 5, 1946, and executed by hanging in Kraków on September 13, 1946.
August Meyszner – The Higher SS and Police Leader in German-occupied Serbia, he was sentenced to death on December 22, 1946, and executed by hanging in Belgrade on January 24, 1947.
Hanns Albin Rauter – The Higher SS and Police Leader in the Netherlands, he was sentenced to death on May 4, 1948, at The Hague and executed by firing squad on March 25, 1949.
Siegfried Seidl – The commandant of the Theresienstadt concentration camp, he was sentenced to death in Vienna on November 14, 1946, and executed by hanging on February 4, 1947.
Søren Kam – (1921–2015) Member of the Nazi Party of Denmark, who fled from Denmark to Germany after the war, and later became a German citizen. On September 21, 2006, Kam was detained in the German town of Kempten im Allgäu. He was wanted in Denmark for the assassination of Danish newspaper editor Carl Henrik Clemmensen in Copenhagen in August 1943.
Dutch
Pieter Menten, sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 100,000 guilders for war crimes in 1980, released in 1986, died 1987.
Important Dutch collaborators sentenced by the special tribunals in The Netherlands in connection with the Second World War.
There have been 14,562 convictions pronounced by the special tribunals, and 49,920 sentences by courts. The special tribunals sentenced in more than 10,000 cases to prison sentences of 3 years or more, and in 152 cases condemned the guilty persons to death, many of which were commuted to life sentences or less. The other courts decided in 30,784 cases on internment of 1 up to 10 years and in 38,984 cases on forfeit of certain civil rights.
Philippe Pétain - Sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison, died in 1951
Pierre Laval - Sentenced to death and executed in 1945
German
Otto Abetz – Sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment in 1949, appealed in 1952, released in 1954
Richard Baer – Sturmbannführer, commander of the Auschwitz I concentration camp. Lived under the pseudonym of Karl Neumann after the War. Then discovered in 1960 and arrested.
Klaus Barbie – Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987, died after serving four years' imprisonment
Friedrich Christiansen – Arrested, tried and convicted of war crimes and sentenced in 1948 to 12 years' imprisonment in Arnhem; Released prematurely in December 1951 on grounds of ill health; Died in Aukrug, Germany on December 3, 1972.
Kurt Christmann – SS-Obersturmbannführer and commander of Einsatzkommando 10a in Krasnodar, Russia; Arrested, tried and convicted under Article 6 of the IMT Statute (Crimes Against Humanity) and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment on December 19, 1980; Died on April 4, 1987.[2]
Adolf Eichmann – Lived for years in Argentina, captured by Israeli agents in 1960, convicted of high crimes against the Jewish nation and humanity, in Israel, and executed on June 1, 1962.
Arthur Greiser - Gauleiter of Wartheland, he was sentenced to death for genocide in Poland and hanged in Poznań on July 21, 1946.
Friedrich Hildebrandt - Gauleiter of Mecklenburg, he was sentenced to death by the U.S. military for issuing orders to shoot parachuting U.S. airmen, and was hanged in Landsberg prison on November 5, 1948.
Friedrich Jeckeln - The Higher SS and Police Leader in Southern Russia and then in the Baltics, he was sentenced to death in the Riga Trial on February 3, 1946, and executed by hanging the same day.
Herbert Kappler – Sentenced by Italy to life imprisonment in 1947. Escaped from prison in 1977, then died in 1978
Erich Koch - The Gauleiter of East Prussia and Reichskommissar in Ostland and in Ukraine. He was sentenced to death in March 1959 in Poland but this was commuted to life imprisonment, and he died November 12, 1986.
Reinhold Kulle - SS guard at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Poland.[3] Immigrated to the United States in 1957. Found guilty of lying on his immigration application by concealing his role in the SS, and deported to West Germany in 1987, where he was set free.[4][5]
Kurt Meyer – Sentenced to death by a Canadian military court, later reduced to life imprisonment, then to 14 years' imprisonment, served 10 years.
Willy Tensfeld – SS and Police Leader "Oberitalien-West," he was charged with war crimes against Italian partisans. Acquitted by a British military tribunal in April 1947.
László Bárdossy – Prime Minister of Hungary from April 1941 to March 1942. Sentenced to death.
László Deák - Hungarian Colonel involved in the Novi Sad massacre. Later a Waffen-SS Colonel. Sentenced to death.
Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner - Hungarian General commanded the Novi Sad massacre. Later a Waffen-SS General. Deputy Minister of Defense under Szálasi. Sentenced to death.
József Grassy - Hungarian General involved in the Novi Sad massacre. Later a Waffen-SS General. Sentenced to death.
Béla Imrédy – Prime Minister of Hungary 1938–1939. Sentenced to death.
Károly Beregfy - Hungarian General and Minister of Defense under Szálasi. Sentenced to death.
Ferenc Szombathelyi - Hungarian Chief of the General Staff September 1941 to April 1944. Sentenced to death.
Edgars Laipenieks - Former Olympic athlete (1936 Summer Games 5000m run).[6] Worked for the Latvian Political Police as an administrator of Riga Central Prison for political prisoners during Nazi occupation.[7] "Witnesses who testified in 1982 at a deportation hearing in San Diego said Laipenieks was responsible for ordering the execution there of at least 200 prisoners from 1941 to 1943."[6] Recruited by the CIA in 1960.[8] Moved to the US in 1960 and worked under the name Edgar Laipenieks as a sports coach.[9][10]
Konrāds Kalējs – Immigrated to Australia in 1950; moved to the United States in 1959; deported from the United States to Australia in 1994; fled from Australia to Canada in 1995; deported from Canada 1997; moved to England; and then to Australia. Died in Australia in 2001. A member of the Arajs Kommando.
Boļeslavs Makovskis – Fled from the United States to West Germany in 1987; put on trial in 1990; his trial was quashed.
Elmārs Sproģis – Sproģis was charged with concealing his role as assistant police chief in Nazi-occupied Latvia when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1950. A witness "said Sprogis ordered him to deliver valuables taken from Jews scheduled to be executed."[11] In 1984, a federal judge ruled the government had failed to prove Sproģis "had helped the Nazis kill Jews in Latvia during World War II."[12]
Lithuanian
Aleksandras Lileikis - Chief of Lithuania's secret police during Nazi occupation. Recruited by the CIA in Munich in 1952. Entered the United States in 1955 and settled in central Massachusetts. Deported to Lithuania in 1996.[13]: 213–226
Juozas Kisielaitis - Member of Lithuanian 12th Lithuanian Auxiliary PoliceSchutzmannschaft, responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews.[14][15][16] Fled the US, where he was residing under the name "Joseph" or "Joe" Kisielaitis, for Canada in 1984.[17][18]
Kazys Gimzauskas - Second-in-command to Aleksandras Lileikis in the Lithuanian secret police during Nazi occupation. In charge of "interrogating" Jews. Recruited by the CIA. Moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1955.[13]: 218
Vladas Zajanckauskas – In 2005 at the age 89, his U.S. citizenship was ordered revoked in 2007. He was ordered to be deported.
Polish
Dmytro Sawchuk - Guard at Trawniki and Poniatowa slave-labor camps, and at Belzec death camp.[19] Became a naturalized US citizen in 1957.[20] Sawchuk fled the United States in 1999 and renounced his citizenship.[21]
The Ravensbrück trials of the camp officials from the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
War-responsibility trials in Finland – a series of trials of the Finnish leadership, originally established for war crimes but held without war crime indictments
References
^Spackman, Chris; contributors (2002–2004). An Encyclopedia of Japanese History. ((cite book)): |author2= has generic name (help)